Maharaja's College, Vizianagaram

The Maharaja’s College at Vizianagaram was founded and paid for by the Maharajas of Vizianagaram.¹² It grew from a school of 1857 into a college teaching up to the B.A. by 1883.¹³ In 1885 it was the only first-grade college of the Vizagapatam district.²

The school

The Andhra University’s register for 1939–40 says the school was founded in 1857 by “Sir Viziaramaraj”, Maharaja of Vizianagaram.¹ He made it a high school in 1868.¹ That same year the Maharaja also opened a school for girls at Vizianagaram.⁴ See Schools and learning.

In 1872–73 the Vizianagaram school stood at the head of the higher schools of the Vizagapatam district.⁵ It had no class below the third, says the Director’s report.⁵ The inspector, Mr. Kershaw, was not wholly satisfied with it, but the report judged that it had worked fairly well.⁵

The college

According to S. Satthianadhan (1894), the college opened its first college class in 1877.³ The Director’s report for 1878–79 lists it among the colleges of the Presidency, as an unaided college.⁶ In 1883 its standard was raised to the B.A. degree.³¹ The register says the Maharaja’s son, whom it calls “Sir Anand Raja”, made this change.¹ See Ananda Gajapati Raju.

C. Chandrasekhara Sastri was its first principal, and a scholarship kept his memory.¹ In 1885 C. D. Maclean wrote that the district’s one first-class college, at Vizianagaram, was “entirely maintained” by the Maharaja.² In 1912–17 the official review still listed it as a first-grade college financed by the Vizianagaram estate.⁷

In 1939–40

By 1939–40 the college was managed by the Court of Wards, the government office that ran estates whose owners could not manage them.¹ A council of its chief lecturers settled daily matters such as holidays and promotions.¹ It had no endowment of its own.¹ Students could take Sanskrit, Telugu or Oriya as their second language.¹ It was one of the six first-grade colleges of the Andhra University.⁸

Where the sources disagree

The sources give different years for the first college class:

Satthianadhan (1894) says the first college class opened in 1877.³
The Andhra University register says the school became a second-grade college in 1879.¹

The Director’s report for 1878–79 already lists the Maharaja’s College among the colleges.⁶

Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 361 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²
C. D. Maclean, Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol. II (1885), p. 142, Vizagapatam District (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Satthianadhan, History of Education (1894), p. 211 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
S. Satthianadhan, History of Education in the Madras Presidency (1894), p. 75 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency for 1872–73, p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³
Report on Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency for 1878–79 (1879), p. 15, table of colleges (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Progress of Education in India, 1912–17 (Seventh Quinquennial Review), Vol. II, p. 120, list of colleges of the Madras University (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩
Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40 (1939), p. 302, list of colleges (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩