GAZETTEER.
four parts, of which Chinna Mérangi went to the then minor zamindar Jagannátha, Lakhanapuram to Rámabhadra, Pedda Boddedi to Sómasékhara, and Pedda Mérangi to Vírabhadra Súryanáráyana and Jagannátha, the two minor sons of Jógirázu, who had died in 1890.1[1] The whole of it was taken under the Court of Wards. Meanwhile in 1893 the late Mahárája of Vizianagram had bought Chinna Mérangi, which still belongs to his family. Pedda Mérangi is now held by Súrya Náráyana, his brother Jagannátha having been shot dead by one of his own servants in 1904.
Párvatípur, the head-quarters of the taluk and division, and the residence of the Divisional Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police, deputy tahsildar, and district munsif, lies in low situation among wet land, only 395 feet. above the sea and surrounded by small hills which shut out the breeze and make the place very hot in the summer months. It consists of Párvatípur proper, the commercial quarter, an overcrowded and dirty spot containing little of interest except the ruined gateway of a former fort, and, about a mile to the south, the pleasanter suburb of Belgám, where the officials live and have their offices, which was much, improved in 1882-83 by convict labour. The two together make up a union of 17,308 inhabitants, and the place is the fifth largest town in the district and one the people of which, owing to the growing trade with the Agency, have increased at a faster rate (102 per cent.) in the last thirty years than those of any other in the district. In Belgám, besides the offices already mentioned, are the abandoned jail referred to on p. 207 (which occupies the site of the old fort), the lines of the police reserve alluded to on p. 206 and a station of the Schleswig-Holstein Lutheran Mission.
Belgám was once the head-quarters of the estate of the same name. The Circuit Committee's proceedings of 12th September 1784 show that this was originally a fief of Jeypore which was seized by Vizianagram.
Mr. Carmichael says that in 1796 fourteen villages (apparently part of the original estate) were granted by Lord Hobart for life to Sómasundara Náráyana Pátro, an Uriya, in acknowledg-ment of the services of his father to the State, This father, Jagannátha Pátro, was díwán to Rámachandra Deo II, Rája of Jeypore from 1781 to 1825, had been largely instrumental in preventing the Jeypore people from joining in the disturbances which (see p. 54) followed the death of the Rája of Vizianagram in 1794, and was afterwards confidentially employed by Mr. Webb,
297
- ↑ 1 G.O., No. 896, Revenue, dated 22nd December 1804.
