Venkatagiri Raja's College, Nellore

The Venkatagiri Raja’s College at Nellore grew from a high school founded in 1875.¹ It took its name from its patrons, the Maharajas of Venkatagiri.¹ Their estate paid for its college classes, which opened in 1920.¹

Earlier schools of the estate

The Venkatagiri family supported schools well before the college.² In 1868 the Raja of Venkatagiri opened an English and vernacular school at Naidupeta, with about 109 pupils.² He also paid for a school at Venkatagiri town, where Sanskrit was taught as well.² John Boswell recorded these schools in his manual of the Nellore district (1873).²

The high school

According to the Andhra University’s register for 1939–40, the school was founded in 1875.¹ Its founder was S. Narayanaswami Chetty, a graduate and the Dewan (chief officer) of the Venkatagiri estate.¹ The school later ran short of money.¹ In 1886 the Maharaja of Venkatagiri came to its rescue, and after that it grew steadily.¹

From 1895 the school carried the name of its patron.¹ The Maharaja endowed it with Rs. 50,000 while it was still a high school.³ The money was invested in the Nellore Urban Bank.³

The college

The Maharaja had promised to make the school a college.¹ His son kept the promise, in his father’s memory.¹ He raised the high school to a college and agreed to equip and run it from the estate’s funds.¹ He formally opened the college department in July 1920.¹

In 1939–40 a committee of twelve ran the college.¹ The Maharaja named two members, and the old students elected four, two Brahmins and two non-Brahmins.¹ The principal was a member by right.¹ The Maharaja gave three or four scholarships every year.³ Another scholarship came from an endowment of Rs. 1,000 by Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer.³

Students in 1939–40

The college was one of the five second-grade colleges of the Andhra University.⁴ It taught the two Intermediate years.⁵ In 1939–40 it had 188 students in the senior class and 149 in the junior class.⁵ In the senior class, 96 of the 188 took Telugu as their second language.⁵ Others took Sanskrit, Urdu, Hindi or Tamil.³⁵ The library had 3,617 books, and the college had no hostel.³

Where the sources disagree

No disagreement was found among the sources used for this page.

Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 373 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵
John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 703 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 374 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40 (1939), p. 302, list of colleges (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩
Andhra University: The Annual Register 1939–40, p. 375 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴