H2 Some Account} Historical, Geographical [Jul* 



called " permanent system" they had carelessly confided the col- 

 lection of the revenue to numerous petty Poligar zemindars, 

 brought up in a lawless country, which, since the expulsion of 

 its Hindu sovereigns, had been shattered by repeated foreign invasions, 

 and torn by domestic broils: on one side tyranny and rapacity prevailed, 

 on the other a determined obstinacy in withholding the sircar dues, either 

 by fraud or corruption, or, when strong enough, by open resistance. 

 The authority of the Nizam was set at nought by all parties. His own 

 soldiery wrested their arrears of pay with interest from the villages on 

 which they were billeted; while upwards of eighty Poligars, with about 

 thirty thousand armed followers, occupying the forts and walled villages, 

 were engaged in endless and bloody feuds with each other. Bands of 

 robbers pillaged with impunity; and, in short, murder and rapine stalk- 

 ed triumphant throughout this war-stricken land. But the master-hand 

 was upon it. Under the vigorus measures of Munro, the disorderly soldi- 

 ery of the Nizam was expelled within three months; and before a year 

 had rolled on the most refractory of the contumacious Poligars, whom 

 neither the Delhi viceroys, the Mahrattas, the Nizam, nor Hyder and 

 Tippoo, conld keep in su'bjection, were either reduced to obedience or 

 compelled to quit the country. Order being at last restored, this excel- 

 lent public servant, after a laborious investigation into the land tenures, 

 and such of the revenue accounts as had escaped destruction, lost no time 

 in laying the foundation of that admirable system of revenue, known 

 under the term royetwar, which still exists under some modification. This 

 he found the more easy to do, inasmuch as the ancient Hindu sovereigns 

 of the CededDistricts, like the Malayan princes of the Indian Archipelago, 

 and the chiefs of other ultra gangetic nations, had always been considered 

 as lords of the soil: consequently all lands, with the exception of some that 

 had been given away in enaum, reverted to Government. 



It has been said that the race of Poligars first sprang up between 

 the fall of Bijanugger and the reign of Aurungzebe: but they 

 existed long previous to this period, and often proved rebellious 

 vassals to their liege lords, the Hindu princes of Bijanugger, to 

 whom they paid peshkush. Among the most powerful were rank- 

 ed the chiefs of Anautapur, Raidroog, Auk, Punganoor, Har- 

 ponhully, Gurrumcondah, Ghuttu and Bellary ; the three first are 

 said to have formerlj'" held the great offices of state under the 

 Hindu administration, and to have been presented with land in jaghire 

 in order to enable them to support their othcial diguilies. The descend- 

 ants of the Hindu sovereigns, who for many generations had been per- 

 mitted to retain Annagundi,and some other places, in jaghire from their 

 Mahomedan conquerors, remained in quiet obscurity, residing principal- 

 ly at Camlapur in the suburbs of the ruined capital of their ancestors, 

 and at Pennaconda, indulging the firm hope, founded upon an old Hindu 



