Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/325

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the god Krishna, also died and all trouble ended at once and completely. Its odd mixture of religious enthusiasm, desire for loot and political aspiration differentiate this fitúri from most of its predecessors.

Páchipenta : Seven miles west by south of Salur, picturesquely situated on a slight eminence close under the hills; population 5,381. It is the chief village of the ancient zamindari of the same name which is scheduled in Act II of 1904 as inalienable and impartible and includes a considerable area on the hills which is often called 'Hill Páchipenta.'

Tradition says that Tamanna Dora, the first of the zamindar's family, was a naik of peons under Jeypore who held the fort of Téda (or Tyáda) on the plateau, and that he was appointed by Visvambara Deo I of Jeypore (1672-76) to guard the track which in days gone by led up from Páchipenta to the 3,000 feet plateau and the Jeypore country, and was given the title of Dakshina Kaváta Yuvarázu or 'lord of the southern portal.' Mr. Carmichael states that in 1754 when (see p. 31) Jafar Ali, Faujdar of Chicacole, called in the Maráthas to aid him against the Rája of Vizianagram and the French, the then Páchipenta zamindar Vírappa Rázu (who, according to Orme, had been dispossessed by Vizianagram) showed the Maráthas the way across the hills and down the Páchipenta track and was afterwards in consequence imprisoned for life in the Vizianagram fort. At his death in 1789 a small maintenance was allowed his son Mallappa Rázu, and this man was restored to the estate after the death of the Rája of Vizianagram (p. 53) in 1794.

He died in 1797 and the permanent settlement was made with his only son Annam Rázu, who was followed by a son Mallappa, who was succeeded in his turn by his son Annam Rázu in 1846. Owing largely to numerous alienations made by Mallappa Rázu, the estate was then heavily involved and it has ever since continued to be one of the most bankrupt and mismanaged properties in the district. In 1855, Mr. Smollett, the Agent, borrowed Rs. 11,500 from Vizianagram to clear off the estate's debts, and took the property under management for five years on his own authority until the money was repaid. It was then found that while the demand of the estate was only Rs. 6,000, land assessed at more than Rs. 10,000 had been granted away to relations and other mokhásadárs. For arrears of peshkash in 1866 and 1867 Karrivalasa and Tótavalasa (now separate estates) were sold and bought by the zamindar's brother-in-law Basava Manga Rázu. The former was sold by him, it may here be noted, in 1874 to Kákarlapudi Nílayamma, who afterwards