49-703: Jeypore Estate or Jeypore Zamindari was a Zamindari estate of the Madras Presidency and later of Orissa Province in British India . Historically it was a kingdom known as Jeypore Kingdom , located in the highlands of the western interiors of the Kalinga region that existed from the mid-15th century to 1777 CE. It was earlier a tributary state of the Gajapati Empire and following its decline in 1540, it gained sovereignty and later became
98-414: A considerable part of the economic resources of the empire but also military power. After the conquest of Hindustan, Babur informs us that one-sixth of its total revenues came from the territories of the chiefs. He writes: "The revenue of the countries now held by me (1528 A.D.) from Bhira to Bihar , is fifty-two crores as will be known in detail. Eight or nine crores of this are from the parganas of rais and
147-454: A king more local and approachable than the rulers at Jeypore. Schnepel notes of Bissam Cuttack , which was another area within the dynastic realm, that "powerful local rulers ... held a position which was nominally subordinate to the Jeypore kings but in fact was held independently of them". Jeypore covered an area of around 10,000 sq mi (26,000 km) and was assessed to pay
196-438: A lawfully wedded wife could inherit the zamindari if the ruling zamindar named her as an heir. In Odisha, the local kings of the princely states appointed or sometimes rewarded individuals as village heads or gountias . Such titles are closely related to the zamindar titles. Sometimes the king's own family members were created gountias such as Veer Surendra Sai whose ancestors were the kings of Sambalpur state and whose family
245-578: A mud fort. He also constructed many temples along Nagavali River including the Majhighariani Temple . During his reign Shri Chaitanya migrated southwards and the title of Nauna Gajapati or "no less than a Gajapati" was adopted by the royal dynasty of Nandapur, but after the accession of Govinda Vidyadhara he seems to have submitted to the sovereign authority of the Bhoi dynasty . Vishwanath Dev consolidated his kingdom but by 1550 lost
294-465: A reservoir called Bhairava Sagar in Bobbili. His successor Vishwanath Dev Gajapati shifted his capital to Rayagada for better economic prospects in trade and agriculture and built a mud fort. He also constructed many temples along Nagavali River including the Majhighariani Temple . During his reign Shri Chaitanya migrated southwards and the title of Nauna Gajapati or "no less than a Gajapati"
343-450: A ruler by a section of people who overthrew his rule and he was helped by an influential merchant named Lobinia who provided him with cavalry and infantry and also 10,000 cattle for transport, and with this help he reoccupied Nandapur and suppressed the turbulent enemies. Vijaya Chandra's successor Bhairava Dev was a feudatory of Prataprudra Deva who defended Kondapalli Fort against Krishna Deva Raya 's invasion in 1516 CE and constructed
392-568: A son named Vishweshwar Chandrachud Dev. However, after the untimely deaths of both princes in 1997 and 2006, respectively, the right to the throne was disputed. On 14 January 2013, Vishweshvar Dev was crowned as the Pretending Maharaja of Jeypore. The coronation took place on the auspicious day of Makar Sankranti and the royal rituals were performed by Bisweswar Nanda, a descendant of the early Raj Purohit lineage. On days of cultural importance and festivals, Vishweshvar appears as
441-712: A tributary state of the Qutb Shahis until 1671. The kingdom regained degrees of semi-independence until it became a vassal state of the British in 1777. It eventually formed a part of the linguistic Orissa Province in 1936 upon transfer from the Madras Province and became a part of the independent Union of India in 1947. The Earliest mention of the Silavamsa rulers are about a king named Ganga Raja who ruled from Nandapur. His son Viswanadha Raja or Bhairava Raja
490-403: A tribute of 16,000 rupees in the 1803 permanent settlement . Vikram Dev I ( r. 1758–1781 ) had joined other minor kings of the region in military opposition to the British colonial influence, leading to an attack by the British in 1775 which destroyed the fort at Jeypore. His son, Rama Chandra Dev II ( r. 1781–1825 ) reversed the strategy, preferring co-operation to resistance and
539-634: The British began using it as a native synonym for "estate". The term means landowner in Persian . They were typically hereditary and held the right to collect tax on behalf of imperial courts or for military purposes. During the period of British colonial rule in India many wealthy and influential zamindars were bestowed with princely and royal titles such as Maharaja , Raja / Rai , Babu , Malik , Chaudhary , Nawab , Khan and Sardar . During
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#1732775953387588-687: The Mughal Empire , as well as the British rule , zamindars were the land-owning nobility of the Indian subcontinent and formed the ruling class. Emperor Akbar granted them mansabs and their ancestral domains were treated as jagirs . Majority of the big Zamindars were from the Hindu high-caste, usually Brahmin , Bhumihar , Kayastha and Rajput . During the colonial era, the Permanent Settlement consolidated what became known as
637-624: The zamindari system . The British rewarded supportive zamindars by recognising them as princes. Many of the region's princely states were pre-colonial zamindar holdings elevated to a greater protocol. The British also reduced the land holdings of many pre-colonial princely states and chieftaincies, demoting their status to a zamindar from previously higher ranks of royalty. The system was abolished during land reforms in East Pakistan (Bangladesh) in 1950, India in 1951 and West Pakistan in 1959. The zamindars often played an important role in
686-484: The 24-Parganas and in 1765 got control of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Later in 1857 the British Crown was established as the sovereign. During Mughal Era the zamindars were not proprietors. They used to engage in wars and used to plunder neighbouring kings. So they never looked after the improvements in their land. The East India Company under Lord Cornwallis , realising this, made Permanent Settlement in 1793 with
735-485: The Imperial Gazetteer of India, there were around 2000 ruling chiefs holding the royal title of Raja and Maharaja which included the rulers of princely states and several large chiefdoms. This numbers increases tenfold if zamindar/ jagirdar chiefs with other non royal but noble title are taken into count. Unlike the autonomous or frontier chiefs, the hereditary status of the zamindar class was circumscribed by
784-470: The Maharaja and conducts the royal ceremonial duties at Dussehra and Ratha Yatra . The royal genealogical table of Jeypore mentions 25 kings. Notes Citations Bibliography Zamindari A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal ruler of a zamindari (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals , and later
833-588: The Mughals, and the heir depended to a certain extent on the pleasure of the sovereign. Heirs were set by descent or a times even adoption by religious laws. Under the British Empire, the zamindars were to be subordinate to the Crown and not act as hereditary lords, but at times family politics was at the heart of naming an heir. At times, a cousin could be named an heir with closer family relatives present;
882-685: The border between the two kingdoms. The Silavamsa and Matsya family were connected by matrimonial alliances and the Vaddadi kingdom of Matsya family was eventually destroyed by Krishna Deva Raya and absorbed into the Nandapur kingdom. Viswanadha Raja's son Pratap Ganga Raja gave lands in Bobbili to his generals in 1427 CE. Around 1434 CE, he led an expedition up to the Bay of Bengal. As a Srikurmam temple record dated to 1435 CE states, he "washed his sword in
931-508: The crown prince. He was the last king, as the kingdom merged into the newly formed Union of India . Ram Krishna Dev was the last king of the estate, as the titles were abolished in independent India soon after its creation with the first amendment to the constitution of India which amended the right to property as shown in Articles 19 and 31. Ram Krishna Dev (1951–2006) became the titular king of Jeypore at his coronation in 1951, following
980-455: The death of his grandfather. He married Rama Kumari Devi of Sitamau State , in Malwa , and had three children: a daughter, Maharajakumari Maya Vijay Lakshmi; and two sons, Yuvraj Shakti Vikram Dev and Rajkumar Vibhuti Bhusan Dev. The senior prince was married to Mayank Devi and had a daughter named Lalit Lavang Latika Devi; the junior prince was married to Sarika Devi of Nai Garhi royalty and had
1029-468: The development of Bengal. They played pivotal part during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 . The British continued the tradition of bestowing both royal and noble titles to zamindars who were loyal to the paramount. The title of Raja, Maharaja, Rai Saheb, Rai Bahadur, Rao, Nawab, Khan Bahadur were bestowed to princely state rulers and to many zamindars from time to time. According to an estimate in
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#17327759533871078-558: The discipline of global health to a feudal structure where individuals and institutions in high-income nations act as zamindars over health issues of low-and-middle income nations, thus sustaining the imperial nature of global health. Vishwanath Dev Gajapati Vishwanath Dev Gajapati was the king of Jeypore who established a kingdom in the region of southern Odisha and northern Andhra Pradesh. The Silavamsa king Pratap Ganga Raja died without any male heir, only leaving behind his wife and daughter Lilavati who married Vinayak Dev,
1127-463: The dynasty ruled by consent of their notional subjects. Although the dynasty could rely on support from tribal warriors at times, Schnepel notes, as an example of shaky authority, the unrest in the "quasi-royal estate ... or 'little little kingdom ' " of Kalyansingpur. There the Khond people at one point sought to take advantage of a dispute over succession to appeal to the zamindari to appoint
1176-419: The eighth king, founded the city of Jeypore and moved his capital there. This move is recorded as taking place because astrologers had determined that the reason each of the preceding six rulers had each fathered only one son was because Nandapur was cursed; however, Schnepel notes that the gradual movement of Muslim invaders from Coastal Andhra into Orissa probably influenced the decision. He died in 1669 and
1225-520: The end of a copper-plate chatter of Raghunath Krishna Dev, then ruler of Jeypore, the new dynasty was founded by one of the feudal vassals of the Gajapati of Cuttack and the crescent seal indicated that they originally claimed to be Somavanshi rulers. According to Gangavamsanu Charitam , a Sanskrit work composed in 1760-61 by Vasudev Ratha, Khajjala-Bhanu (possibly Bhanu Deva IV ) became the ruler of Gudari after Kapileshwara occupied his throne. Gudari
1274-548: The extant zamindari system of revenue collection in the north of the country. They recognised the zamindars as landowners and proprietors as opposed to Mughal government and in return required them to collect taxes. Although some zamindars were present in the south, they were not so in large numbers and the British administrators used the ryotwari (cultivator) method of collection, which involved selecting certain farmers as being land owners and requiring them to remit their taxes directly. The Zamindars of Bengal were influential in
1323-556: The importance of zamindars in medieval India. He defines zamindars as "vassal chiefs". He points out that there were areas under direct control of Mughals where there were no zamindars and then there were territories of the vassal chiefs who had autonomy over their state, but were subjugated by the Mughals and paid a tribute/ nazarana to the Mughal Emperor. However, Irfan Habib in his book Agrarian system of Mughal India, divided
1372-418: The north of India because Mughal influence in the south was less apparent. Historian S. Nurul Hasan divided the zamindars into three categories: (i) The Autonomous Rai/ Rajas or Chiefs, (ii) the intermediary zamindars and (iii) the primary zamindars. The East India Company established themselves in India by first becoming zamindars of three villages of Calcutta, Sultani and Govindpur. Later they acquired
1421-415: The ocean". He would not have done this for Bhanu Deva IV, the last ruler of Eastern Ganga dynasty . He was subdued by Kapilendra Deva . Both Jainism and Saktism are known to have flourished in the Nandapur kingdom during this period and ruins of Jaina and Sakta temples are still found in the neighbourhood of the village Nandapur. Pratap Ganga Raja only had one daughter, Lilavati. She married Vinayak Dev,
1470-496: The rajas who have submitted in the past (to the Sultans of Delhi ), receive allowance and maintenance." According to Arif Qandhari, one of the contemporary historians of Akbar 's reign, there were around two to three hundred rajas or rais and zamindars who ruled their territory from strong forts under the emperor's suzerainty. Each of these rajas and zamindars commanded an army of their own generally consisting of their clansmen and
1519-577: The regional histories of the subcontinent. One of the most notable examples is the 16th-century confederation formed by twelve zamindars in the Bhati region ( Baro-Bhuyans ), which, according to the Jesuits and Ralph Fitch , earned a reputation for successively repelling Mughal invasions through naval battles. The zamindars were also patrons of the arts. The Tagore family produced India's first Nobel laureate in literature in 1913, Rabindranath Tagore , who
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1568-559: The right, from 1896, to use the title Maharajah , which was originally held by his ancestors. In 1893, he was married to the princess of Surguja State . He laid the foundation of the new palace known as Moti Mahal and was a liberal philanthropist, donating to many institutions that helped the public. He funded the construction of bridges over the Kolab and Indravati rivers. He died in 1920. Ramchandra Dev IV (1920–1931), also known as His Highness Lieutenant Maharajah Ramchandra Dev, ascended
1617-405: The ruler Gudari and Great Grandfather of Vishwanath Dev Gajapati. Vishwanath Dev was the son of Bhairav Dev of Nandapur, a feudatory of Prataprudra Deva who defended Kondapalli Fort against Krishna Deva Raya 's invasion in 1516 CE and constructed a reservoir called Bhairava Sagar in Bobbili. He shifted his capital to Rayagada for better economic prospects in trade and agriculture and built
1666-416: The ruler of Gudari and he became the ruler of Nandapur after Pratap Ganga Raja's death. According to myths in the Jeypore chronicles, Vinayak Dev claimed to be the 33rd descendant of Kanakasena of Suryavansha . He was a general and feudatory of the king of Kashmir, left Kashmir for Varanasi and after praying at Kashi Vishwanath migrated to the Nandapur kingdom. But according to the study of the sign-manual at
1715-673: The throne in 1920. He received the rank of a Lieutenant for his aid in the First World War by sending his navy's twelve ships and a small unit of his troops. The king died in Allahabad in 1931 without any issue and was succeeded by his uncle, who was also named Vikram Dev. Although he died unexpectedly and young, he is known for building the grand Hawa Mahal , or the Palace of Winds, on the beach of Visakhapatnam. Vikram Dev IV (1931–1951), known as Sahitya Samrat HH Maharajah Vikram Dev,
1764-480: The total numbers of their troops as Abul Fazl tells us, stood at forty-four lakhs comprising 384,558 cavalry, 4,277,057 infantry; 1863 elephants, 4260 guns and 4500 boats. During the Mughal Era, there was no clear difference between the princely states and zamindari estates. Even the ruling autonomous chiefs of princely states were called zamindars. Moreland was one of the first historians to draw our attention to
1813-408: The vice-chancellor of Andhra and Utkal universities. He married his daughter to an aristocratic family of Bihar and had his son-in-law Kumar Bidyadhar Singh Deo look after the affairs of his kingdom. His daughter gave birth to two sons and, as per traditional vedic rule, which suggests that the younger son belongs to the mother, eventually Ram Krishna Dev, being the younger prince, was appointed as
1862-405: The zamindars and made them proprietors of their land in return for a fixed annual rent and left them independent for the internal affairs of their estates. This Permanent Settlement created the new zamindari system as we know it today. After 1857 the army of the majority of zamindars were abolished with exception of a small number of force for policing/digwari/kotwali in their respective estates. If
1911-465: The zamindars into two categories: the autonomous chiefs who enjoyed "sovereign power" in their territories and the ordinary zamindars who exercised superior rights in land and collected land revenue and were mostly appointed by the Mughals. These people were known as the zamindars (intermediaries) and they collected revenue primarily from the Ryots ( peasants ). The zamindari system was more prevalent in
1960-504: The zamindars were not able to pay the rent until sunset, parts of their estates were acquired and auctioned. This created a new class of zamindars in the society. As the rest of India came later under the control of the East India Company (EIC), different ways were implemented in different provinces to in regards to the ruling authorities in the region to get them to accede to Company authority. The British generally adopted
2009-449: Was adopted by the royal dynasty of Nandapur, but after the accession of Govinda Vidyadhara he seems to have submitted to the sovereign authority of the Bhoi dynasty . In 1571, the dynasty that had previously succeeded in forcing several "little kings" to be tributaries was itself forced into tributary status by the Shah of Golkunda . In the mid-17th century, Maharajah Veer Vikram Dev,
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2058-535: Was aged 14 when his father died, and he could not legally assume his responsibilities as ruler until he turned 28. His father had made arrangements for his education to be continued by a Dr. Marsh until that time. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (KCIE) and granted the title of His Highness for use by him and his successors. The British Raj granted him and his successors
2107-419: Was also the capital of Khemundi Ganga rulers for some time and according to family traditions they do claim to be Somavanshis. According to other interpretations he was a Somavanshi Rajput or the Nandapur kingdom was conferred to him by Kapilendra Deva, who also claimed to belong to Suryavansha, to one of the scions of Kapilendra's family as a mark of favor. It is said that at the beginning he was not recognised as
2156-427: Was crowned as the last king of the kingdom in 1931. He was a scholar, poet, playwright and leader. Being a prolific writer and proficient in five different languages— Telugu , Odia , Hindi , Sanskrit , and English —he earned the literary epithet of Sahitya Samrat , meaning the "Emperor of Literature", and a doctorate degree (D.Litt.) from Andhra University . He donated large amounts to Andhra University and served as
2205-448: Was favoured by the British for that reason. An additional factor in the vastly improved status of the dynasty was that the British fell out with Vizianagaram , another minor kingdom and long a rival of Jeypore. Flushed with confidence, Rama Chandra Dev arranged for a new capital and palace to be built at Jeypore, some distance away from the ruined fort. Vikram Dev III (1889–1920), also known as His Highness Maharajah Sir Sri Sri Vikram Dev,
2254-625: Was married to princess Singamma, the daughter of Jayanta Raju of Matsya dynasty of Odda-Adi in Madugula . The Matsya territory was called 'Vaddadi' (meaning beginning of the Odra kingdom ) and a small village named Vaddadi (170°50' N - 82°56' E) is found even today at the entrance of the hilly tract of Madugula which was under the possession of the Jeypore rulers.The Machkund or Matsyakund River (also called Sileru River in Andhra Pradesh) formed
2303-462: Was often based at his estate. The zamindars also promoted neoclassical and Indo-Saracenic architecture. When Babur conquered North India, there were many autonomous and semiautonomous rulers who were known locally as Rai, Raja, Rana, Rao, Rawat, etc. while in the various Persian chronicles, they were referred to as zamindars and marzabans . They were vassals who ruled, mostly hereditarily, over their respective territories. They commanded not only
2352-601: Was succeeded by his only son, Krishna Dev. Narayanapatna was the capital for several rulers, including Vishwambhara Dev II ( r. 1713–1752 ), whom the later panegyrist of the family (himself a member by marriage) said was an ardent follower of the Vaishnavite teachings of Chaitanya . That bhakti sect, which remains popular in Orissa to this day, formed a significant bond between the royal family and their Khond tribal subjects. The bond, however, could be tenuous and
2401-685: Was the gountia of Khinda village. The zamindari system was mostly abolished in independent India soon after its creation with the First Amendment of the Constitution of India which amended the right to property as shown in Articles 19 and 31. In East Pakistan, the East Bengal State Acquisition and Tenancy Act of 1950 had a similar effect of ending the system. Due to the zamindari system, small farmers could not become financially strong. Critics have likened
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