Jeypore Estate
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Jeypore Estate
Estate occupying the whole of the northern part of Vizagapatam District, Madras. It embraces practically all the Agency or hill tracts therein, and consists of the tahsil of Nowrangapur, Jeypore, Koraput, Malkangiri, Bissamcuttack, and Rayagada, and the major portion of Padwa, Pottangi, and Gunupur. The residence of the Raja is at Jeypore town.
The zamindari is divided into two portions, east and west, by the Kalathandi State of Bengal. The western portion forms the Govern- ment subdivision, of which the head-quarters are at Koraput, while the eastern is under the jurisdiction of the Special Assistant-Agent at Parvatipuram. Each portion has a separate river system, the western being drained by tributaries of the Godavari, and the eastern by the Nagavali (or Langulya) and Vamsadhara rivers and their affluents.
Various forms of under-tenure prevail within the estate- The pro- prietor of the subsidiary estate of Bissamcuttack holds his land on feudatory tenure ; whole villages are leased out for a nominal rent to mustajirs or muttahdars, who have in many cases the right to sell portions or the whole of their village without the sanction of the Raja ; while a large portion of the estate is leased out on jerdyati tenure direct to the cultivators.
Ethnologically we find that the aboriginal tribes have been overlaid by immigration. The Khonds and Savaras, who inhabit the wild tracts adjoining the Ganjam Maliahs (hills), retain their separate tribal char- acteristics and languages, but in other parts the customs and practices of the new-comers have, in many cases, been adopted. In Kotapad and Singapur, for instance, the earlier peoples have adopted the practice of burning their dead. On the other hand, the Meriah human sacrifice (see Maliahs), which is supposed to be a purely Khond rite, spread among the immigrants and obtained so firm a hold that it had to be suppressed by force, a special agency being employed for that purpose until as late as 1861.
The ancestors of the present house of Jeypore were at one time retainers of the Gajapati kings of Orissa. In the fifteenth century its founder, Vinayaka Deo, whom tradition asserts to be descended from the Lunar race of Rajputs, married a daughter of the Gajapati king, who bestowed upon him the Jeypore principality. About the year 1652, when the founder of the Vizi anagram family came to Chicacole in the train of the Golconda Faujdar, Sher Muhammad Khan, the present Jeypore family, descended from Vinayaka Deo, was in posses- sion not only of the country comprised within the present limits of the estate, but of all the hill zamlnddris at the base of the Ghats. Jeypore subsequently became tributary to Vizianagram ; but in 1794 the Madras Government granted the Jeypore ruler a separate sanad as a reward for his loyalty during their conflict with Vizianagram which ended with the battle of Padmanabham.
In 1803 the peshkash of the estate was fixed at Rs. 16,000. In addition, Rs. 13,666 is paid for the pargana of Kotapad, in lieu of the tax originally paid thereon to the State of Bastar in the Central Provinces.
In 1848, owing to the insubordination of members of the Raja's family, some of the tahsils of the estate were attached by Govern- ment. In 1855 troubles again broke out, and finally, in i860, the Government was compelled to introduce a system of civil and criminal administration. A Special Assistant- Agent was appointed, and sub- ordinate magistrates and a strong police force were posted in the zamindari. Since then the estate has been free from disturbances, save for two unimportant outbreaks among the Savaras in 1865-6.
The present Raja is Sri Vikrama Deo, on whom the title of Maha- raja was conferred as a special distinction in January, 1896. Under the existing system of administration continual progress is assured ; and the recently constituted Forest department is opening out the im- mense timber resources of the estate, which includes the finest forest in Vizagapatam District.
