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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Gopalakrishna Ranga Rao of Bobbili

Chief of Bobbili, a Velama house in the Vizagapatam country. He refused Bussy's demand that he give up his family's old fort in exchange for other lands. Bussy and the Raja of Vizianagaram stormed Bobbili on 24 January 1757. Ranga Rao had the women and children of the fort killed and died fighting on the walls with his men, but his infant son was saved. Three nights later two of his soldiers killed the Raja of Vizianagaram in his tent. The siege is remembered in the Telugu ballad of Bobbili.

The chief of Bobbili who died when Bussy stormed the fort in 1757 is called by Orme only “Rangarao of Bobilee”, using the family’s hereditary title.1234 The Maharaja of Bobbili wrote the family’s own account (1907).1234 That account and Francis’s Vizagapatam gazetteer name him Gopalakrishna.1234

The family history says that he was the eldest son of Ravu Gopala Rao.2 He was adopted by the previous chief, Rayadappa Ranga Rao, and his brother was Vengala Ranga Rao.2

Francis says that the founder of the house was Pedda Rayudu, a Velama descended from the Rajas of Venkatagiri.3 He came into the district in 1652 with Sher Muhammad Khan, Faujdar (military governor) of Srikakulam (then Chicacole).3 His son Lingappa built the fort at Bobbili and received the hereditary title of Ranga Rao.3 See Bobbili.

Bussy and Vizianagaram

The house of Bobbili had long quarrelled with its neighbour, the Raja of Vizianagaram.1 Orme calls Ranga Rao “the first in rank” of the old poligars (local chiefs).1 They claimed descent from the conquerors of the country.1 They held the Raja “in the utmost contempt, as of low extraction, and of new note”.1

Bussy came to the Circars at the end of 1756.15 The Raja persuaded him that Bobbili must be removed.15 Bussy offered Ranga Rao other, larger lands in exchange for his fort.15 Ranga Rao “treated the proposal as an insult”.15 Then a French force passing through the Bobbili woods was attacked.15 After that Bussy decided “to expel the Polygar and all his family”.15 See French East India Company.

The fall of Bobbili

Orme describes the fort as a square of tempered clay with round towers at the corners.56 It was hidden in a forest five miles deep, and a single winding path, guarded by redoubts (small forts), led to it.56

Bussy cut his way through with 750 Europeans, four field-guns and 11,000 of the Raja’s troops.67 He attacked at daybreak on 24 January 1757.67 “Rangarao was here, with all his parentage, 250 men bearing arms, and nearly twice this number of women and children.”67

After two attacks failed, Ranga Rao told his chief men that the fort could not be held.78 Their wives and children, he said, must be saved “from the violation of Europeans, and the more ignominious authority” of the Raja.78 They killed them, and went back “to die themselves on the walls”.78 Ranga Rao was killed by a musket-ball as the French broke in, and none of his men would accept quarter (mercy).78

An old man brought out Ranga Rao’s young son, whom he had saved “against his father’s will”.9 On the third night after, two of Ranga Rao’s soldiers crept into the Raja of Vizianagaram’s tent.9 They stabbed him to death.9 They cried, “Look here! We are satisfied.”9

James Grant, writing for the English in 1784, wished he could “forget such bloody scenes as occurred, in the acquisition of Bobilee”.10

Memory

Francis records that in 1891 the Maharaja of Bobbili put up a pillar with inscriptions on the site of the fort.11 There is also the Ranga Rao Charitram, “the popular ballad on the subject which is still sung all over the district”.11 In the inscriptions and in the ballad, the killing of the Raja is credited to a single man, Tandra Papayya, a sirdar (officer) of the fort at Razam.11 The family account names Tandra Papayya as one of the two killers.12

Two of the family escaped the massacre: the chief’s brother, Vengala Ranga Rao, and his infant son Venkata Ranga Rao, called Chinna Ranga Rao.1113 In 1794 the Company gave this son back his father’s lands.1113 See Folk traditions.

Where the sources disagree

  • The year. Orme dates the attack to 24 January in his story of 1757, and the gazetteer follows him.7142 The family account of 1907 says the attack was made “in 1758”.7142
  • The killers of the Raja. Orme says two soldiers did it.911 The pillar and the ballad name one man, Tandra Papayya.911

Footnotes

  1. Robert Orme, A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan, Vol. II (Madras reprint, 1861), p. 254 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13

  2. Venkata Swetachalapati Ranga Rao, Maharaja of Bobbili, A Revised and Enlarged Account of the Bobbili Zemindari (1907), p. 42 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 236 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  4. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (1907), p. 237 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. Orme, Military Transactions, Vol. II (1861), p. 255 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. Orme, Military Transactions, Vol. II (1861), p. 256 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  7. Orme, Military Transactions, Vol. II (1861), p. 257 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  8. Orme, Military Transactions, Vol. II (1861), p. 258 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. Orme, Military Transactions, Vol. II (1861), p. 259 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  10. James Grant, “Political Survey of the Northern Circars” (1784), in W. K. Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee … on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. III (1918), p. 13 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  11. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 241 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  12. Ranga Rao, Bobbili Zemindari (1907), p. 56 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  13. Ranga Rao, Bobbili Zemindari (1907), p. 25 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  14. Francis, Vizagapatam (1907), p. 239 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

References

Sources (4)
  1. Robert Orme, A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan, Vol. II (Madras reprint) (opens in a new tab), Pharoah and Co., Madras, 1861, pp. 253–259. [Public domain]
  2. Venkata Swetachalapati Ranga Rao, Maharaja of Bobbili, A Revised and Enlarged Account of the Bobbili Zemindari (opens in a new tab), Addison & Co., Madras, 1907, pp. 23–25, 42. [Public domain]
  3. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 236–241. [Public domain]
  4. 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, pp. 13. [Public domain]

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