Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/262

 additions by purchase to the estate, and loans from Bobbili saved half the estates in the district from confiscation and ruin. He also rendered assistance in arresting the fitúridars who disturbed the peace of the district in the thirties, and was thanked by Government. He finished the temple to Vénugópálasvámi at Bobbili — to which the present Mahárája is building a gópuram (the only one of its kind in the district) similar to those so common in the Tamil country — and made the Púl Bágh garden in 1851.

His adopted son Sítarámakrishna, who belonged to the family of the zamindars of Pithápuram in Gódávari, lived till 1868, when his wife Lakshmi Chellayamma (afterwards granted by Government the title of Ráni for her many charitable acts) took over the management of the estate. In 1871 she adopted the present Mahárája, Sir Venkata Svétáchalapati Ranga Rao, K.C.I.E., the third son of the Rája of Venkatagiri, and she died in 1887.

The present Mahárája took over charge in 1881, and has done a great deal for the property and the town. In 1882 he raised the local middle school to high school standard and built the existing poor-house in which about 70 people are fed daily; in 1886 he built the new wing of the palace; in 1887 the Victoria market; and in 1888 the Ráj Mahál, a most pleasantly situated house to the South-west of the town. In 1890 his title of Rája was formally recognized as hereditary by the Government of India. He went to Europe in 1893, was presented to the Queen-Empress, and on his return began the Victoria Town Hall, opposite to the main entrance of the palace, in commemoration of the event. In 1894 he started the gosha hospital, which he eventually handed over to the District Board with an endowment of Rs. 20,000. He was created a K.C.I.E. in 1895, a member of the Madras Legislative Council in 1896, and a Mahárája in 1900, and he went a second time to Europe as one of the two Madras representatives at the coronation of the King-Emperor. He also constructed the house and graceful mantapam in the Púl Bágh already mentioned, maintains a caste girls' school, is putting up a new building for the high school and has endowed several beds at the Victoria Caste and Gosha Hospital at Madras. He has also added largely to the estate, which has now been declared impartible and inalienable by Act II of 1904, has lent large sums to brother zamindars in difficulties, has offered such substantial inducements to the people of Bobbili to build tiled and terraced houses that the town, is now one of the smartest and neatest in the district, and has terminated the ancient feud between his family and the Rájas of Vizianagram. He has two sons, Venkata Kumára Krishna, born in 1880, and Ráma Krishna, born in 1892.