304 ON ORISSA PROPER 



Raja Ram Pandit, who had for many years filled the office of Deputy to 

 the local governor, and had taken a leading part in all the arrangements 

 for the management of the interior, succeeded to the office of Subadar, 

 about 1185 or 1180. His personal qualities and abilities were respectable, 

 and, coupled with his extensive local knowledge, lent a character of digni- 

 ty and stability to his administration, with which no preceding one had 

 been invested. The chief measure ascribed to him, is that of setting aside 

 all the hereditary Chowdris and (Vilaity) Canungos, in other words the 

 Talukdars of the Mogulbandi, and collecting the revenues through officers 

 of his own appointing, either from the ryots direct, or through the agency 

 of the head men of villages, where such existed. He was also the first go- 

 vernor who imposed a tribute on the Maharajas of Khurda. Raja Bir 

 Kishore Deo, after a long reign of forty-one years, fell into a state of 

 furious insanity, and committed such frightful excesses, even to the extent of 

 murdering four of his own children, tint a general outcry was raped against 

 him throughout the country. The Marhattas did not neglect so favorable 

 an opportunity of interfering. They secured the Rajas person, threw him 

 into confinement in fort Barabatti, and refused to acknowledge his grand- 

 son Dirb Sinh Deo as successor, until they had obliged him to agree to the 

 payment of a yearly tribute of Sa. Rs. 10,OOQ. The expense of collecting 

 this, must have been far greater than its value, for the Raja would never 

 pay until compelled by the presence of a military force, and so low had the 

 character and efficiency of the Marhatta Infantry sunk, that the Paiks of 

 Khurda often presumed to measure their strength with them, even in these 

 last days of the power of the Rajas of Orissa, 



Chiinna Ji Bapu's visit to Cuttack, with a large army in 1781, A. D 9 

 is described as intended to enforce the claims of the Berar government 

 against Bengal for arrears of Chout. Having cantooned his force at K.ak-> 

 kar, opposite to Cuttack, he sent on Raja Ram Pundit with Bissembher. 

 Pundit Vakil to Calcutta, who is said to have negotiated a treaty with Mr. 

 fastings, by which the English government agreed to the payment of 

 ^7,00,000 Rs. on condition of all farther claims being relinquished. 



