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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Dutch East India Company

The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) traded on the Telugu coast from the early seventeenth century until 1825. Its factories at Masulipatam, Palakollu (from 1652), Draksharama, Jagannathapuram (Cocanada), Narasapur and Bimlipatam bought and dyed cotton cloth for its trade in the Indonesian islands. It coined money at Bimlipatam and Jagannathapuram. The Dutch seized Masulipatam from the King of Golconda for a time in 1686. But their settlements were trading stations held under farmans (royal orders) and the grants of the Raja of Vizianagaram, not territories. The English took them in 1781 and 1795 and handed them back in 1785 and 1818. They passed finally to the English East India Company on 1 June 1825.

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15501600165017001750180018501900Vijayanagara & the Qutb Shahis (1336–1687 CE)Vijayanagara & the Qutb ShahisMughals, Asaf Jahis & the British (1687–1948 CE)Mughals, Asaf Jahis & the BritishReform, freedom & people's movements (1850–1956 CE)TelanganaAdil Shahis of BijapurAsaf Jahi Nizams of HyderabadQutb Shahis of GolcondaBritish Crown (Madras Presidency)Vijayanagara EmpireMughal EmpireCoastal AndhraVijayanagara EmpireMughal EmpireFrench East India CompanyGajapatis of OrissaNawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot)Qutb Shahis of GolcondaEast India CompanyAsaf Jahi Nizams of HyderabadRayalaseemaVijayanagara EmpireMarathasNawabs of KurnoolAdil Shahis of BijapurNawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot)Qutb Shahis of GolcondaNawabs of CuddapahEast India CompanyMughal EmpireMorari Rao Ghorpade of GootyBanganapalle StateAsaf Jahi Nizams of HyderabadMarathasMysore under Haidar Ali and Tipu SultanMovementsGodavari hill risings15501600165017001750180018501900
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Vijayanagara & the Qutb Shahis 1336–1687 CE

Telangana
Adil Shahis of Bijapur (c. 1489–1686 CE) · Qutb Shahis of Golconda (c. 1518–1687 CE) · Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1563–1565 CE)
Coastal Andhra
Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1350–1579 CE) · Gajapatis of Orissa (c. 1446–1571 CE) · Qutb Shahis of Golconda (c. 1524–1687 CE)
Rayalaseema
Vijayanagara Empire (c. 1336–1646 CE) · Marathas (c. 1677–1687 CE) · Adil Shahis of Bijapur (c. 1568–1686 CE) · Qutb Shahis of Golconda (c. 1579–1687 CE) · Mughal Empire (c. 1686–1724 CE)

Mughals, Asaf Jahis & the British 1687–1948 CE

Telangana
Asaf Jahi Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1948 CE) · British Crown (Madras Presidency) (1860–1947 CE) · Mughal Empire (1687–1724 CE)
Coastal Andhra
Mughal Empire (1687–1724 CE) · French East India Company (1750–1759 CE) · Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot) (c. 1710–1801 CE) · British Crown (Madras Presidency) (1858–1947 CE) · Asaf Jahi Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1753 CE) · East India Company (1759–1858 CE)
Rayalaseema
Nawabs of Kurnool (c. 1690–1839 CE) · British Crown (Madras Presidency) (1858–1947 CE) · Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot) (c. 1710–1801 CE) · Nawabs of Cuddapah (c. 1714–1779 CE) · East India Company (1792–1858 CE) · Mughal Empire (c. 1686–1724 CE) · Morari Rao Ghorpade of Gooty (c. 1741–1776 CE) · Banganapalle State (c. 1724–1948 CE) · Asaf Jahi Nizams of Hyderabad (c. 1724–1800 CE) · Marathas (c. 1743–1774 CE) · Mysore under Haidar Ali and Tipu Sultan (c. 1762–1799 CE)
Movements
Godavari hill risings (1858–1862 CE) · Vandemataram and Swadeshi (1905–1911 CE)

Reform, freedom & people's movements 1850–1956 CE

Telangana
Asaf Jahi Nizams of Hyderabad (1724–1948 CE) · British Crown (Madras Presidency) (1860–1947 CE)
Coastal Andhra
French East India Company (1817–1954 CE) · British Crown (Madras Presidency) (1858–1947 CE) · East India Company (1759–1858 CE)
Rayalaseema
British Crown (Madras Presidency) (1858–1947 CE) · East India Company (1792–1858 CE) · Banganapalle State (c. 1724–1948 CE)
Movements
Godavari hill risings (1858–1862 CE) · Vandemataram and Swadeshi (1905–1911 CE)
Kingdoms and empires Sultanates Colonial powers Movements Uncertain or debated dates Held another region first This page

The Dutch East India Company, the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, was the strongest European rival of the English on the Telugu coast in the seventeenth century. Its settlements there were trading stations.12 It bought cotton cloth, dyed and painted much of it, and shipped it to its markets in the Indonesian islands.12

Alexander Rea surveyed the Company’s monuments for the Archaeological Survey in 1897.345 He described its tombstones at Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam), Palakollu and Bheemunipatnam (then Bimlipatam).345 The Vizagapatam gazetteer calls one of those at Bheemunipatnam “the oldest tomb in the Northern Circars”.6 This page follows the Dutch in the Telugu country. See also the English and French companies.

The sources

Rea’s Monumental Remains of the Dutch East India Company in the Presidency of Madras (1897) gathers the Madras records about the Dutch settlements.789 These include W. Hodgson’s report on them.789 Rea copies and translates their epitaphs, but his plates show only the cemeteries of the Tamil country.789

Henry Morris’s Godavari manual (1878) prints Dutch tombstones and the diary of the English Agent Streynsham Master.102 It also prints the 1787 report of the Company’s Committee of Circuit on the Dutch trade.102 The Godavari, Visakhapatnam and Kistna gazetteers and manuals, and the Fifth Report’s table of the Madras acquisitions, give the dates of capture and restoration.111213

Settlements on the Telugu coast

The Dutch settled at Pulicat, north of Madras, in 1609.1415 Of the years that followed Rea writes that “there was much rivalry and bad feeling between the Dutch and English factories at Masulipatam”.1415 Peter Floris arrived at Machilipatnam in December 1613.16 He found “an English ship and two Hollanders” in the roads (the anchorage).16 In 1628, the Kistna manual says, the Dutch were strong enough to drive the English from Machilipatnam for some years.17

The oldest dated Dutch grave on the coast is that of Jacob Dedel.174 He was “Councillor in the service and chief by water and by land” of the Company “on the Coromandel Coast”.174 He died on 29 August 1624 and lies in the fort at Machilipatnam.174

The Dutch built a factory (trading post) at Palakollu, near Narasapur, in 1652.1819 The Imperial Gazetteer calls it “the first settlement” of the Europeans in the Godavari district.19 They next set up a station at Jagannathapuram, now part of Kakinada (then Cocanada).191020 Its factory, with two villages for bleaching cloth, was the Company’s own property, “defended by rude ramparts of earth”.191020

They had an iron works at Narasapur.2122 There Streynsham Master in 1679 saw forges for three hundred smiths.2122 The Fifth Report’s table lists “the factory at Drakshiramam” among the dependencies of Jagannathapuram.13 Rea describes the ruins of a Dutch factory at “Datchevaram”, eight or ten miles west of Injaram.23 A Dutch epitaph of 1687 at Machilipatnam names Adrien Blockeel as “chief of the factory at Daetcherom”.24

Bheemunipatnam, on the Visakhapatnam (then Vizagapatam) coast, “first came into notice as a settlement of the Dutch, who built a fort and factory here in the seventeenth century”.12 The English who settled at Visakhapatnam in 1682 met “bitter hostility” from them.25

Morris says that under the Company’s government of the Coromandel coast at Negapatam were “the other factories on the coast—Sadras, Palkole, Jagganaikpore, and Bimlipatam”.1 See Palakollu, Kakinada, Draksharama, Bheemunipatnam and Machilipatnam.

Hemingway and Rea quote Hodgson’s report on Bheemunipatnam, Jagannathapuram and Palakollu.118 It says these were “represented to be held under Fermans granted by the Nizam and confirmed by the Mogul or Emperor of Delhi, bearing various dates from A.D. 1628 to A.D. 1713”.118 They were also held under a written grant, “by a Cowle granted by Hajee Houssun in A.D. 1734 and A.D. 1752 by Jaffur Ally Khan”, deputies of the Nizam in the Circars.118 The Dutch “are stated to have first occupied these factories about the year A.D. 1628”.118 The same report says that Bheemunipatnam was granted “by the ancestors of the present Zemindar” of Vizianagaram.26

Cloth and trade

The Dutch factories dyed and painted cloth. Streynsham Master visited Palakollu in 1679.10 He found “a Factory of a large compounde, where they do dye much blew cloth, having above three hundred jars set in the ground for that work”.10 He wrote that “they make many their best paintings there”.10 The town was “first rented by them at 2000 old Pagodas, and is now given them free by the king”.10

Rea thought the factory at Machilipatnam was chiefly busy making the cloth woven at Palakollu into chintzes (printed cloth) for export.27 The Committee of Circuit reported in 1787 on this trade:2

  • Palakollu had sent each year 400 bales of white long-cloth to Europe, besides chintz and other dyed goods for the Indian Archipelago2
  • the Dutch brought in at Jagannathapuram about a lakh of Madras pagodas a year in gold, copper and spices2
  • they spent forty thousand pagodas on goods dyed with chay root (a red dye)2

They had also long collected duties of five per cent on imports and three on exports in the Kakinada river.28 The Committee could not trace their right to do so.28 See Crafts and textiles.

Masulipatam, 1686

In 1686 the Dutch, “irritated by real or fancied affronts received from the King of Golconda, quietly took from him the town of Masulipatam”.2930 Their Governor at Pulicat told the English Council at Madras that the Company was master of the city from 26 July.2930 He said they would let the English ship goods from their factory, but not sell them in the country “so long as our Company hath not satisfaction from the King”.2930 The English answered that the house and ground of their factory were “our Right Honourable Company’s inheritance bought with their money”.30

The occupation did not last.3132 In 1687 the Mughal armies reached Kondapalli.3132 In October 1689 Aurangzeb’s troops seized the English factory at Machilipatnam.3132 Rea says that in 1687 the Dutch, French and English all left the town for a time.32

Coins

Rea says that the Dutch had mints at Bheemunipatnam and Jagannathapuram, as at Pulicat and Negapatam.33 Hodgson’s report found evidence “that the Dutch East India Company actually possessed a Mint at Pulicat—at Jagganautpooram, at Bimlipatam and at Tutacoryn”.34 It also found that “the silver coins issued by the Dutch at Bimlipatam were coined at Jagganautpooram”.34 Hemingway says the Jagannathapuram mint made the coins issued from Bheemunipatnam.11 The Vizagapatam gazetteer says that the zamindar (landholder) of Vizianagaram renewed the Dutch permission for a mint at Bheemunipatnam in 1754.12

Wars and restorations

The Marathas who invaded the Circars in 1754 burnt the Dutch factory at Bheemunipatnam.3512 War broke out between England and Holland in 1781, and the English seized the Dutch settlements.11238 Jagannathapuram’s factory house and public buildings were pulled down, and Palakollu’s factory house destroyed.11238

The Fifth Report’s table lists the settlements that changed hands:1336

  • Bheemunipatnam1336
  • Jagannathapuram, with Gollapalem, Gundavaram and the factory at Draksharama1336
  • Palakollu, with Kontera and a piece of ground at Narasapur1336

The same table gives the dates:1336

  • taken in 17811336
  • restored in July 17851336
  • surrendered again in 17951336
  • restored on 31 March 1818 under the convention of 18141336
  • ceded to Great Britain on 1 June 1825 under the treaty of March 18241336

After 1785 the Dutch held their Godavari factories on condition of paying a quit-rent (a fixed yearly rent) to the English Company.2837 In 1794 the Chief and Council at Machilipatnam asked for two years’ tribute, 286 pagodas from Palakollu and 434 from Jagannathapuram.2837 The Dutch at Jagannathapuram pleaded that their Company had given up all trade on the coast two years before.2837

Trading posts, not territory

The Dutch settlements in the Telugu country were not territories in the sense that the French Circars or the English districts were. Hodgson’s report says of Bheemunipatnam that “no territorial jurisdiction is attached to this factory”.32634 Its only additions were three washing-greens.32634 It “appears to have been merely a commercial factory or lodge with certain privileges”.32634

The report also argued against a Dutch claim to a mint there.32634 It said that the Company held Bheemunipatnam “under a grant from the Rajah of Vizianagarum only, himself a tributary”.32634 The same report allows Palakollu only “a small extent of territorial jurisdiction” and a piece of ground at Narasapur.8 The Collector who took over Bheemunipatnam in 1825 gave a receipt for “the ruins of the Fort and Factory, with three bleaching grounds of Bimlipatam”.6

Tombs

The Dutch graves are the oldest European monuments of the Telugu coast. At Machilipatnam Rea counted three tombs at Ramanapeta, one dated 1701.438 He also counted sixteen slabs in an enclosure in the cantonment, dated from 1662 to 1743 and carved in the manner of the Pulicat tombs.438 The Kistna manual prints among them the epitaph of Catharina van den Briel and Johannes Kruyf.38 They were a betrothed couple who died within three months of each other in 1678–79.38

At Palakollu the two oldest stones are those of the infant son of the assistant Lambert Hemsinck (1662), and of Symon van Groenewegen of Delft.105 Van Groenewegen was “merchant and chief of the factory, Palicol”, and died on 3 June 1665.105

At Bheemunipatnam a cemetery hidden among plantain gardens holds thirteen tombstones with Dutch inscriptions and coats-of-arms.6 They range “in date from 1661 (the oldest tomb in the Northern Circars) to 1720”.6 In the Jagannathapuram cemetery at Kakinada the oldest monument is to a Dutch family buried between 1775 and 1778.39

Where the sources disagree

  • The first occupation of the factories. Hodgson’s report, as quoted by Hemingway and Rea, says “about the year A.D. 1628”.118 The Vizagapatam gazetteer’s copy of the same passage reads 1623.12
  • The oldest tomb at Bheemunipatnam. Rea says some tombstones there are dated 1623.3 The Vizagapatam gazetteer says the oldest of the thirteen is of 1661, “the oldest tomb in the Northern Circars”.6
  • Palakollu. Rea and the Imperial Gazetteer date the factory to 1652.1819 Morris says only that the Dutch settled there “before the middle of the seventeenth century”.1
  • The final cession. The Fifth Report and the Godavari and Vizagapatam gazetteers date it to 1 June 1825, under the treaty of 1824.36116 Morris says the Godavari factories “were not finally ceded to England till 1804”.28 The Fifth Report dates the restoration of 1818 to 31 March.36 The Vizagapatam gazetteer says Bheemunipatnam was handed back in 1819.6

Footnotes

  1. Henry Morris, A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Godavery District (1878), p. 196 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 203 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  3. Alexander Rea, Monumental Remains of the Dutch East India Company in the Presidency of Madras (1897), p. 45 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 48 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  5. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 53 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (1907), p. 227 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  7. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 47 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 52 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  9. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), list of plates (PDF pp. 4–5) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 197 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  11. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 209, s.v. Cocanada (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  12. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 226 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  13. “Acquisitions of Territory by the British in the Presidency of Fort St. George”, in W. K. Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee … on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. III (1918), p. xxv, No. XXXVI (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  14. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 5 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  15. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  16. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 178 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  17. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District (1883), p. 99 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  18. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 8 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  19. Imperial Gazetteer of India: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 272 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  20. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 198 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  21. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 188 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  22. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 52, s.v. Narsapur (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  23. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 47, s.v. Datchevaram and Jaganadhapuram (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  24. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 50 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  25. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  26. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 46 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  27. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 16 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  28. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 204 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  29. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 201 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  30. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 202 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  31. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 39 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  32. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 17 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  33. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 65 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  34. Rea, Monumental Remains (1897), p. 66 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  35. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 31 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  36. “Acquisitions of Territory”, in Firminger, Fifth Report, Vol. III (1918), p. xxvi, No. XXXVI (concluded) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  37. Morris, Godavery District (1878), p. 205 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  38. Mackenzie, Kistna District (1883), p. 100 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  39. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 210, s.v. Cocanada (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

Monuments

Dutch tombs, Machilipatnam

1624–1743 CE

Carved granite gravestones of officers and families of the Dutch East India Company at Machilipatnam (Masulipatam), the oldest European monuments of the Telugu coast. The earliest is the tomb of Jacob Dedel, chief of the Company on the Coromandel coast, who died in 1624. A walled burial ground behind the Collector's office, at the place still called Valandupalem, holds slabs dated from 1662 to 1743, with coats of arms and verse epitaphs in Dutch.

References

Sources (7)
  1. Alexander Rea, Monumental Remains of the Dutch East India Company in the Presidency of Madras (Archaeological Survey of India, New Imperial Series, Vol. XXV) (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1897, pp. 5, 7–8, 16, 45–53, 65–66. [Public domain]
  2. Henry Morris, A Descriptive and Historical Account of the Godavery District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Trübner & Co., London, 1878, pp. 178, 195–205, 215. [Public domain]
  3. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 29, 209–210. [Public domain]
  4. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 31, 36, 226–227. [Public domain]
  5. Gordon Mackenzie, A Manual of the Kistna District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras (Lawrence Asylum Press), 1883, pp. 39, 99–100. [Public domain]
  6. Walter Kelly Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. III: British Acquisitions in the Presidency of Fort St. George, Madras Appendices, Wilkins' Glossary and Index (opens in a new tab), R. Cambray and Co., Calcutta, 1918, x, xxv–xxvi. [Public domain]
  7. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 272. [Public domain]

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