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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Eluru (Ellore)

Town in the West Godavari district, the seat of the Ellore sarkar (district), one of the five Northern Circars of the Qutb Shahi and Mughal coast. Its carpet weaving was famous in the seventeenth century. Under the Mughals it had a qazi's court, a kotwal (police chief) and a market officer. Its assessment of about 5.6 lakhs of rupees stood on the imperial records until the French took the Circars in 1753.

Eluru, the Ellore of the English records, was the headquarters of one of the five coastal districts (sarkars) of the Qutb Shahi and Mughal coast.12 The five were Guntur, Kondapalli, Eluru, Rajahmundry and Srikakulam (then Chicacole).12 The East India Company later called them the Northern Circars.12 See the Mughals in the Telugu country and the Qutb Shahis.

Carpets

Jadunath Sarkar described the wealth of the Golconda kingdom in the 1650s.3 He wrote that “the carpet industry of Ellore, conducted entirely by Muhammadans, was famous for centuries”.3

The Ellore sarkar

James Grant’s Political Survey of the Northern Circars was printed with the Fifth Report of 1812.4 It gives the standard assessment of each sarkar as it was entered on the Mughal records after the conquest of 1687 and kept until 1753.4 Eluru was rated at Rs 5,63,247.4 It was described as “comprehending the twelve pergunnahs, into which it is still divided, though in more early times, these were imperfectly ascertained or were less productive”.4 Of the total, Rs 1,41,034 came from the haveli, the crown land set apart for the establishment at the headquarters.4

Justice under the Mughals

The Godavari gazetteer (1907) quotes a report of December 1786 by the Company’s Committee of Circuit on the courts it found in the Circars.5 “During the Mogul Government there were courts of justice established at Rajahmundry and Ellore, where Kazis administered justice according to Muhammadan law.”5 The faujdars (military governors) kept capital cases and large property suits for themselves.5

Each town had a kotwal with peons to keep the police, and a “Nurkee” to regulate the price of provisions.5 By 1786, the Committee wrote, “of these nothing but the names remain”.5 See Rajahmundry.

Footnotes

  1. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (1907), p. 29 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (1907), p. 30 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vols. I–II (1912), p. 117 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. James Grant, “Political Survey of the Northern Circars”, in W. K. Firminger (ed.), The Fifth Report from the Select Committee … on the Affairs of the East India Company, Vol. III (1918), p. 47 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  5. Hemingway, Godavari (1907), p. 188 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

People

Salabat Jang

1751–1761 CE

Third son of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I, raised to the throne of the Deccan by the French commander Bussy in 1751. Under Bussy's protection he defeated the Marathas and his elder brother Ghazi-ud-din, and in 1753 assigned the Northern Circars to the French. After Colonel Forde drove the French from the coast, he ceded Masulipatam to the English (1759). His brother Nizam Ali took power as his minister, deposed him in 1761 or 1762 and had him killed in prison about 1763.

Nizam Ali Khan (Asaf Jah II)

1761–1803 CE

Fourth son of Nizam-ul-Mulk Asaf Jah I. He pushed aside his brother Salabat Jang in 1761–62 and ruled the Deccan until his death at Hyderabad in 1803. In his reign the Northern Circars passed to the East India Company (1766, Guntur in 1788). The Nizam joined the British against Tipu Sultan, was defeated by the Marathas at Kharda (1795) and accepted a permanent subsidiary force (1798). To pay for it he gave up his Mysore gains, the later Ceded Districts of Rayalaseema (1800). He is the first Nizam buried at the Mecca Masjid.

Anwar-ud-din Khan

before 1749 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic (Arcot) from 1744 until he was killed at the battle of Ambur in 1749, and the founder of the family of the later Nawabs, the Walajahs. He was an officer of Nizam-ul-Mulk. From 1725 to 1741 he governed the Ellore and Rajahmundry country in the Telugu north, and then the Nizam gave him Arcot. His sons Mahfuz Khan and Muhammad Ali fought beside him at Ambur against Chanda Sahib, Muzaffar Jang and the French. Muhammad Ali escaped to Trichinopoly and, with English support, won his claim to the Nawabship.

References

Sources (4)
  1. 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. 47. James Grant, Political Survey of the Northern Circars. [Public domain]
  2. Jadunath Sarkar, History of Aurangzib, Vols. I and II (opens in a new tab), M. C. Sarkar and Sons, Calcutta, 1912, pp. 117. [Public domain]
  3. F. R. Hemingway, Madras District Gazetteers: Godavari, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 29, 188. [Public domain]
  4. W. Francis, Madras District Gazetteers: Vizagapatam, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1907, pp. 30. [Public domain]

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