1834.] 



History of the RamoossieSo 



222 



It is to be observed, that, with the exception of the Malsirruss 

 Ramoossy Naikf and his followers, the descendants of the other 

 Naiks before mentioned, have continued to perform the duties as- 

 signed to them in the town of Poona to the present day. In the 

 year 1793, the Malsirruss Ramoossies having committed various 

 outrages, a large detachment from Poona unexpectedly surrounded 

 the village and seized twenty seven of them. They were immedi- 

 ately marched to the capital, where seven of them were beheaded, 

 and of the rest, some had their legs, and others their arms chopped 

 off. 



The disturbances caused by the Ramoossies,^ may have origina- 

 ted in their having been displaced from the service of the state ; their 

 employment no longer appeared necessary to the Government, and 

 they were consequently driven by necessity to try to support them- 

 selves by plunder^ for they had greatly increased in numbers at this 

 time ; or they may have wished to obtain the Rukwalldar-ship of 

 the different villages of the surrounding district, and there might 

 have been objections to this being granted to them. There is a tra- 

 dition^hat the Holgah Ramoossies now settled along the bank of the 

 Senna river, in the Ahmednuggur collectorate, were formerly the 

 watchmen of the villages in the Poorunder hills, from whence they 

 had been expelled. The Ramoossies may have judged the time a 

 favourable one to assert their claim to the demand they had made 

 about the Rukwalldary ; there might have been some disturbance in 

 the Poona territory, or the strength of the Mahratta army might have 

 been absent, plimdering or conquering some foreign state which led 

 them to hope they would succeed. 



It was taking advantage of such circumstances that enabled the 

 Bheels to quit their fastnesses in Kandeish, and cross the Godavery 

 river, till they advanced to the vicinity of Ahmednuggur; and the 

 Kolies in the western Ghauts seem to have been guided by similar 

 movements, each tribe trying to extend the limits of their own juris- 

 diction, by means of securing the Rukwalldar-ship of such villages, 

 or passes, as were in their vicinity, and unoccupied by the watchmen 

 of any other tribe. The Naiks of different tribes have had l ong and 



t A lineal descendant of Pillajee Jadot Row's a very respectable man, and 

 a person of very retired habits, lives nowat Jadoo Wary, three miles trom 

 Sassoor. The Peshwah Bajee Row, at the instigation of Tnmbukjee Dang, 

 lia, deprived him of his Jaeeers. Heat present enjoys a yearly pension of 

 five thousand rupees from the British Government. The appointment ot 

 Sir Naik of the Ramoossies became extinct between forty and fifty years ago. 

 % When PiUojee Jadoo Row, was nominated their Sir Naik. 



