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Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Ongole

Town on the Gundlakamma in the old Guntur district, now the headquarters of Prakasam district. H. Krishna Sastri suggested that it was the Omgodu given away in two Pallava copper-plate grants. The country round it was the Karmarashtra (later Kammanadu) of the Pallava and Eastern Chalukya charters. In the eighteenth century Ongole belonged to the Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot). The Company took over its management in 1790 and its government in 1801, when it was joined to the Nellore district.

Ongole was the headquarters of the Ongole taluk of the Guntur district when H. Krishna Sastri wrote about it in 1920.1 Two early copper-plate grants came from the old Ongole taluk.23 The Chendalur plates of the Pallava Kumaravishnu II were found at Chendalur.2 The village munsiff (headman) of Nelatur sent in the Pikira grant of Simhavarman.3

Omgodu

Two Pallava grants, of Skandavarman II and of Simhavarman, give a village called Omgodu in Karmarashtra.1 Krishna Sastri wrote that it “has to be looked for in the northern part of the Nellore district”.1 He added that “perhaps it has to be identified with the town of Ongole itself”.1 He identified Kodikim, one of the boundary villages in the second grant, with Kodiki, near Ongole.1

G. Jouveau-Dubreuil thought instead that Omgodu lay near Santaravuru in the Bapatla taluk.4 He believed that the plates had been found there.4

Karmarashtra

Krishna Sastri identified Karmarashtra with the Kamma-nadu of later Telugu inscriptions.51 It covered the north of the Nellore district and part of the Guntur district.51 Jouveau-Dubreuil concluded that “the environs of the present town of Ongole watered by the river Gundlakamma” formed Karmarashtra under the early Pallavas.4 P. B. Desai and the Nellore gazetteer of 1942 took Karmarashtra to cover roughly the Ongole and Bapatla taluks.67

The Nawabs of Arcot

In the eighteenth century Ongole lay in the northern districts of the Nawabs of the Carnatic. French and Hyderabad armies passed through it on the road south.89 In 1758 the French general Bussy “proceeded through Ongole to Nellore”.8 In 1759 the Nizam’s brother Basalat Jang, “passing through Ongole, attacked the fort of Pellur”.9

In 1780 the English gave the Guntur Circar back to the Nizam.10 The troops stationed there refused to go by sea, “and were obliged to be left at Ongole”.10 See the Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot).

The Company

The Company took over the Nawab’s revenues in 1790, and Erskine was made Collector of “Ongole and the Palnaud”.11 He reported that Ongole “was rated in the Nawab’s books at a lakh of pagodas, but he was informed that he never received more than 85,000 pagodas for it”.12 It had been let to “one head renter with two assistants under him”.12 He also reported that “the Nawab had never had any sibbandies in the district” (sibbandies were local armed police).12 In his settlement he set aside 3,000 pagodas “for the Rajah of Ongole’s allowance”.13

The Board of Revenue thought its rent of 1,08,852 pagodas “the full value of the district in its present state”.14 It noted that Nellore and Ongole “entirely escaped the effects of the two last wars”.14

Ongole was named with Nellore in the schedule of districts pledged by the treaty of 1792.15 The Nellore manual’s map shows “the District of Nellore and Ongole at the date of the assumption in 1801”.16 See Nellore.

Footnotes

  1. Krishna Sastri, “Two Pallava Copper-plate Grants” (1920), p. 254 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  2. E. Hultzsch, “Chendalur Plates of Kumaravishnu II”, Epigraphia Indica VIII (1905–06), p. 233 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  3. E. Hultzsch, “Pikira Grant of Simhavarman”, Epigraphia Indica VIII (1905–06), p. 160 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil, The Pallavas (1917), p. 16 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. H. Krishna Sastri, “Two Pallava Copper-plate Grants”, Epigraphia Indica XV (1919–20), p. 250 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  6. P. B. Desai, “Reyuru Grant of Pallava Narasimhavarman; Year 12”, Epigraphia Indica XXIX (1951–52), p. 94 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  7. Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (1942), p. 30 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  8. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 456 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  9. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 457 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  10. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 461 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 464 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  12. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 466, quoting Erskine’s report for fasli 1200 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  13. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 468 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  14. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 471, quoting the Board of Revenue’s report of 1791 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  15. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 472 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  16. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 474, and the map facing it (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Photos

People

Skandavarman II (Pallava)

c. 450–475 CE

Pallava king of the Nellore–Guntur country, known from the first Omgodu grant, issued from Tambrapa in the 33rd year of his reign. The grant gives his ancestors back to a Kumaravishnu, who performed the horse sacrifice. He was the father of the crown prince Vishnugopa and the grandfather of Simhavarman, whose grants come from the same region.

Purushottama (Gajapati)

c. 1470–1497 CE

Gajapati king of Orissa from 1469–70 to 1496–97, son of Kapilendra. Early in his reign the Bahmanis took Rajahmundry and Kondapalli or Kondavidu, after a disputed succession in which he may have bought their help. His attempt to recover the Godavari country in the 1470s ended with Muhammad Shah III's invasion of Orissa. But by 1489 his grants and inscriptions reach the Krishna and the Ongole country again. Orissan tradition credits him with an expedition to Kanchi and a romantic marriage.

Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah

1749–1795 CE

Nawab of the Carnatic (Arcot) from 1749 to 1795, the son of Anwar-ud-din Khan. His father was killed at Ambur in 1749. He held out at Trichinopoly and, with English help, won the Nawabship from Chanda Sahib and the French. The treaty of Paris of 1763 recognised him, and the Mughal emperor gave him the title Walajah. His Telugu districts were Nellore, held under his brother Najib-ullah, who rebelled in 1757, Ongole and the Palnad. He owed large debts to the Company and to private lenders. He handed the revenues of the Carnatic to the Company in 1781, saw it take over their management in 1790–92, and agreed by the treaty of 1792 to pay nine lakhs of pagodas a year for its troops. He died in October 1795.

Simhavarman II (Pallava)

Pallava king of the Nellore–Guntur country, son of the crown prince Vishnugopa. Four of his grants survive. All give villages in the Guntur and Nellore districts and were issued from camps, not from Kanchi: the second Omgodu grant (year 4), the Pikira grant from Menmatura (year 5), the Mangalur grant from Dasanapura (year 8) and the Vilavatti grant (year 10). Many scholars date his accession to 436 from a Jain work, the Lokavibhaga; others place him about 500.

References

Sources (6)
  1. F. W. Thomas (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XV (1919–20) (opens in a new tab), Government of India, Calcutta, 1925, pp. 250, 254. H. Krishna Sastri, Two Pallava Copper-plate Grants. [Public domain]
  2. Archaeological Survey of India, Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VIII (1905–06) (opens in a new tab), Archaeological Survey of India, 1906, pp. 160, 233. E. Hultzsch, Pikira Grant; Chendalur Plates. [Public domain]
  3. B. Ch. Chhabra (ed.), Epigraphia Indica, Vol. XXIX (1951–52) (opens in a new tab), Manager of Publications, Delhi, 1952, pp. 94. P. B. Desai, Reyuru Grant. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  4. G. Jouveau-Dubreuil (tr. V. S. Swaminadha Dikshitar), The Pallavas (opens in a new tab), The author, Pondicherry, 1917, pp. 16. [Public domain]
  5. W. E. Johns, Gazetteer of the Nellore District, brought up to 1938, Vol. A (opens in a new tab), Government Press, Madras, 1942, pp. 30. Paraphrased. [Public domain in India]
  6. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras, 1873, pp. 456–457, 461, 464, 466, 468, 471–472, 474. [Public domain]

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