191 6 -] The Geography of Orissa. 33 



In 1728 was prepared the corrected rent-roll of Nawab 

 Suja-ud-daulah. The southern half of the dismembered por- 

 tion with the port of Balasore was re-added to Orissa for ad- 

 ministrative purposes, but kept in Bengal for revenue purposes 

 (Nos. 20 and 23, G., p. 265). 



In 1751 a.d. the Bengal Sultan Alivardi Khan tired of 

 fighting with the Marathas ceded to them Orisa up to the 

 Subarnarekha river, with Pargana Pataspur beyond the river 

 In the ceded portion of Bengal 12 parganas besides Pataspur 

 were included. In the early British accounts the Cakla Midna- 

 pur did not include Hijli, Tamluk, Raipore, Bogri and Soohent. 

 It was divided into four sarkars and 54 mahals (G pp 53^-3 

 year 1777-78 a.d.). ' ** 



I. Sarkar Rajmahindra. 



This is Rajamahendri Dandapata of the Temple chronicles. 

 No details of its 126 mahals are given. Both inscriptions and 

 Musalman histories show that during the prosperous rule of 

 the Ganga and the Surya dynasties the kingdom of Orissa 

 extended south of the Godavari river up to at least Ellore on 

 Colair lake. Purusottamadeva of the Suryavamsa (1469-96 

 a.d.) ceded Kondapalli and Rajamahendri to the Bahmani 

 Sultan Muhammad Shah II for his help in securing the throne 

 of Orissa. But the loss was temporary and he had recovered 

 Rajamahendri before 1488-89 a.d. 



The headquarters of this division was Rajamahendri, a 

 town on the north bank of the Godavari. In 1510 a.d. it was 

 visited by Caitanya, the Vaisnava preacher of Bengal, in the 

 course of his pilgrimage to the south. The accounts of the 

 pilgrimage mention that Ramananda Raya was then the Oriya 

 governor of Rajamahendri on behalf of the king Pratdpa- 

 rudradeva. 



During the dissensions brought about by the death of the 

 last independent Hindu king of Orissa, Telinga Makunda 

 Haricandanadeva, in 1571 a.d., the army of Ibrahim Kutb 

 Shah overran the east coast up to Chicacole. But the Musal- 

 man occupation of the Rajamahendri division remained more 

 or less precarious until the time of Asaf Jah Xizam-ul Mulk, 

 the first Xizam of Hyderabad. 



His army in the first quarter of the eighteenth century 

 brought the whole of the east coast under fair subjection. His 

 Government had two headquarters therein, one at Raja- 

 mahendri and the other at Chicacole. In 1753 a.d. the nor- 

 thern sarkars passed into the hands of the French from whom 

 the j- were conquered in 1759 a.d. by the Bengal army of the 

 East India Company under Colonel Forde. 



The Dandapata corresponds to the present district of 



us 



D 



