Page:Vizagapatam.djvu/288

 disturbances which followed, Lord Hobart gave the then Rája, Rámachandra Deo II, a permanent sanad of the usual kind granting the estate to him and his heirs in perpetuity on payment of a peshkash of Rs. 25,000. When the permanent settlement was introduced in 1803, this sum was reduced to Rs. 16,000. 1 In addition, Rs. 3,000 is paid for the pargana of Kótapád referred to below.

From 1803 to 1848 Jeypore remained an almost unknown country to the officers of the district. Once, when the Rája was behindhand with his peshkash and a military expedition seemed to be the only way of making him pay up, 'the Government proposed to transfer the zamindari to the Nagpur State, but the offer was declined.'2 In 1848 great complaints reached Vizagapatam of the feebleness of the Rája, Vikrama Deo II, and the tyranny and misrule of his managers. Large bodies of ryots found their way to the coast and represented the country to be the scene of plunder, murder and rapine. At last the Rája's officials were driven out of the Gunupur taluk and disturbances of some importance immediately arose. The faction opposed to Vikrama Deo (whose avowed object was to remove him) was headed by his eldest son (a youth of thirteen who was afterwards Rámachandra Deo III) and the latter's mother, the Patta Mahádévi; and their following comprised the most influential muttadars of the country.

Both parties agreed to abide by the decision of the Agent regarding the dispute, and in April 1849 Mr. Smollett accordingly set out for Párvatípur. He was met there by the son, who travelled with great pomp of elephants, palanquins and horses and a guard of 1,000 matchlock men,, while the Rája was represented by some of his officers. A compromise suggested by the Agent was accepted by neither party, and, to prevent further anarchy, Mr. Smollett attached the four tánas of Gunupur, Ráyagada, Náráyanapatnam and Alamanda.

Not long afterwards he arranged to meet both father and son together; and after wearisome and protracted negotiations a reconciliation was effected and the attachment withdrawn. A breach, however, soon ensued, and on the 16th September 1849 the son seized his father and the latter's chief servants and confined them all in the fort at Ráyagada. They were released by a company of sibbandis under Captain Haly, but the old man's authority was completely gone and the villagers would not even bring him any food. A second reconciliation was afterwards effected and it was