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BJNJ GANAPALLI. Banaganapalli. sidency.

Lat. r5°

— Estate

in

30" to 15°

2'

43

Karnul (Kurnool) District, Madras Pre28' 50" N., long. 78° i' 45" to 78° 25'

30" E. ; present area, 255 square miles, though formerly nearly 500 population (1881) 30,745, being 5952 Muhammadans (chiefly Sunni's) and 24,793 Hindus, of whom more than half belong to the cultivating

and shepherd

castes.

tikonda taluks

Bounded by

the Koilkantla, Nandial, and Pat-

the estate comprises the western half of the basin of the

Kunder, and is also watered by the Jareru river. It contains 64 towns and villages, of which Banaganapalli, the capital, has a population of Of the whole area, only 62 square 2822, and nine others over 1000. miles (39,413 acres) are waste, the rest of the estate being under cereals, cotton (of which the cultivation is annually increasing), and indigo.

There are no

forests,

The

and the waste lands supply pasturage.

trade

consists almost entirely of the interchange of local produce, but at the

markets, cotton and silk cloths, chintz, and lacquered wares of local industry

— are sometimes collected

for exportation.

— products

Eighty years

copper mines were worked, and near Banaganapalli there are pits, yielding annually stones to the value of a few pounds.

ago,

diamond

The

estate has no railway or first-class road the few schools are of the most primitive type, and endowed charities do not exist. The annual revenue amounts nominally to ^,((^22,464; but of this sum two-thirds are drawn by 18 minor jdgirdars, relatives of the Nawab, and the remainder, after deducting ;^534i for expenses of the palace and administration, does not suffice to meet the interest accruing on the Owing to the debts inherited from his father by the present chief.

leading jdg'irddrs, the Nawab is unable to More than half of the by increased taxation. whole estate has passed from his hands to other members of his family; but out of the 18 alienations thus existing, 9 might be resumed, if the Nawab exercised his privilege of refusing the right

unruly character

restore

his

of the

finances

of adoption to the females at present holding the estates.

Of

the

4 are held by courtiers of the Nizam, who consider themselves so far independent, that they refuse to pay the road cess, and resent others,

any interference villages

farmer sub-lets holds rent,

at

in

their affairs.

being assigned by auction will

the only,

The to

land revenue highest

the

lands to the cultivators.

and

is

liable

at

all

The

little interest.

It

was granted

farmed, the

and the

tenant therefore

times to enhancement of

without the option of relinquishing his holding.

estate has but

is

bidder,

in the

Historically, the

17th century by the

to Muhammad Beg Khan, eldest son of whose family it remained for three generations. The chief dying without male heirs, the estate was given by the Nizam (1764) to the ancestor of the present owner. In 1800, the suzerainty was transferred by the Nizam to the British Government; and, in consequence

Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb his Wazi'r, in