1838.] 



Description of the Valley of Sondur. 



135 



Mora or Morari Row Ghorpara. 



Siva Row do. 



Sidhoji Row do. 



Siva Row do. 

 The first of these is said to have been the chief alluded to in the 

 legend, and was an officer in the king of Bijapur^s army. Biroji, his 

 son, entered the service of the Maharaja of Satarah, and was the first 

 of the family who had the title of Hindu Row. According to the 

 Tazkirat al Bilad, a Persian MS. history, Biroji had the management 

 of the affairs of the Bala and Pain ghats, and held the pergunnah 

 of Gujanderf Ghur as a maintenance. To him succeeded Sidhoji 

 his son, the third on the list, who was invested by Sivaji\- suc- 

 cessor Sumbaji with the title of Sinapaii* or generalissimo of the 

 Mahratta army. Sidhoji among other exploits took Sondur from the 

 Beders and is the first Mahratta chief who settled there. Previous to 

 this recorded event it is supposed that Sondur had, from a remote 

 period, formed an integral part of the great Hindu empire of Bija- 

 nugger ; and that, after its overthrow by the four Mahomedan so- 

 vereigns of the Deccan, viz. those of Golconda, Bijapur, Jhmednug-' 

 ger and Kalberga, or Bider, in 1564, it lapsed into the grasp of the 

 Poligars of the Beder caste,t though nominally under the Mahomedan 

 sovereign of Bijapur. 



Sidhoji died about 1715 leaving a widow Sik Bai, and, according to 

 the Tazkirat al Bilad, four children. To Doulet Row, the eldest she 

 jaghire of his father viz. Gujanderghur-— to Gopal Row i\iQ 

 taluk of Sondur— ' Morari Row, or Mora Row, and Bhojung Row were 

 made Bakshis (commanders) in her army.;}; Morari and Siva Row 

 were both distinguished by their exploits in the Carnatic and their 

 struggles with Hyder. The former figures in history as one of the 

 most enterprising characters of the stirring age in which he lived 

 (Vide Orme vol. 1). It does not appear that Morari Row disturbed 

 his brother Gopal in the possession of Sondur, but established himself 

 at Gooty, one of the naturally stiongest hill fortresses in Southern India, 

 and added the present citadel to the old poligar fort. He was besieged 



* Sinapati is a compound Sanscrit word, Sina signifying an array and Pat or Pati, a 

 lord or master. 



+ A considerable portion of the population of Sondur at present is of this warlike caste. 



t In 1740 both Morari Row and his brother Gopal Row of Sondur were called upon 

 by their sovereign Shao to join his armies under Ragoji Bhouslah about to undertake the 

 successful campaign in which Trichinopoly fell and Chunder Sahib was taken prisoner to 

 Satarah. It does not appear that the latter obeyed this summons as we find the former 

 his younger brother, claiming the title of Sinapati or head of the Mahratta army. 



