1844.] Political Events in the Car ntttic, from 1564 to 1687. 437 



levied by the Marhatta armies in the Carnatic within a few yea'rs at 

 terwards, when under the memorable denomination of choute,* (which 

 was only introduced at the end of Aurungzebe's reign,) they laid the 

 whole Deckan under contribution. 



37. Several grants and sunnudsf of .^hahjee and his successors 



Evidence existing down to 1686, still preserved in the districts of Ban- 

 in the Eastern dis- 

 tricts thereof. galore and Colar, place beyond a possibility of doubt 



the existence of this government, which till very recently, appeared to 

 have been unknown to Europeans. The forms of management by Ze- 

 mindars, Deishpondas, &c. existed till lately, and the descendants of 

 the original Dessayets are still spread over the country, and employed 

 in various branches of our own administration. 



38. The financial administration of the Beejapoor Mahomedan 

 government was thus early committed to the direction of that class of 

 Hindoo Brahmins, denominated in this country Dessayet, Nizam 

 Shahee, or Marhatta^ Brahmins, and to whose hands the custody of all 

 public records and accounts have been, with little variation, since con- 

 tinued ; particularly in Balla Ghaut, by the different Mahomedan 

 successions, till they were transferred with the exercise of sovereign 

 authority to the English government. In the lower country, where the 

 Golconda government preceded the Mogul, the management was chief- 

 ly committed to another class of Brahmins provincially distinguished ;§ 

 but as the mode of administration peculiar to the Southern provinces 

 demands a previous knowledge of the history || of the earlier period, 

 and more ample accounts of these districts, that subject may be passed 

 over now to resume the progress of the Mahomedan conquests. 



* See notice of the origin of the choute in the Bednore or Calladee Family History. 



f List of twenty-six sunnuds preserved in the Bangalore Colar &c districts, to the 

 grant of Eckojee in A. D. 1670, copies (and even facsimiles of some of them,) are taken 

 to authenticate the existence and nature of the government then established in the 

 Upper Carnatic. 



% Serah, Pennaconda, and Bangalore Memoirs. 



§ Neyogee or employed, or secular, in contradistinction to the Vidwamsas, or then- 

 logian Brahmins. 



|| A considerable collection of ancient Grants from all parts of the Tamul countries 

 is in progress, and translations of several of them seem to throw a very clear and de- 

 cided light on this subject 



3 r 



