GAZETTEER.
collected in the fort of Atsapavalasa, near Pálkonda, and on the 9th March Lieutenant Curre, commanding at Pálkonda, resolved to forestall them by attacking them there. He was beaten off at the first assault and narrowly escaped being shot himself, but eventually the rebels evacuated the place and fled.1[1] Within the fort were found by chance a number of letters, some from Pedda Jagayya to the insurgents supplying them with information, money and ammunition, suggesting plans for 'taking care of' (murdering) the ámín and the Government manager of the estate and proposing methods of combating the troops; and others in like terms from the zamindar himself and several members of his family. On reaching Pálkonda, Mr. Russell in consequence marched a detachment of sepoys into the fort there, before resistance could be made, and captured ten of the zamindar's household, including Pedda Jagayya. The zamindar himself was arrested later. Six of these people were tried by court martial (Mr. Russell had already proclaimed martial law), and two were executed. Pedda Jagayya and the zamindar were condemned to death, but eventually they and all the latter's family were detained as State prisoners. The zamindari was forfeited (1833) and became Government property. The zamindar died in Gooty fort in 1834. Forty-five years later his younger brother, the Viziaráma Rázu mentioned above, who was confined at the time in the fort at Vellore, brought a suit against the Government for the possession of the estate with mesne profits, but this was dismissed by the High Court in 1882 and an appeal to the Privy Council was also rejected. One of the family is still resident in Madras, and that they are not forgotten in the district is shown by the fact that in 1900 one of the Korravanivalasa fitúridars (see p. 304) wrote and asked this man to join that luckless enterprise.
After its forfeiture in 1833, the estate was managed by the Collector until July 1846, when it was leased, with the zamindari of Honzarám, to Messrs. Arbuthnot & Co. for five years at an annual rental of Rs. 1,10,908. This lease was renewed on the same or enhanced terms for periods of five and ten years until 1892, when the taluk was again taken under the management of Government.
Honzarám was one of the estates formed in 1802 out of the havíli land. It was purchased by the Rája of Vizianagram in that year. He sold it in 1810, and in 1811 it was bought in by
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- ↑ 1 A detailed account of the affair appears in the Asiatic Journal xiii, 24.
