History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c41.143

Language: English

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Motte describes Balasore, the English factory and the French factory. He states that at the time of his visit the port of Balasore was denuded of Maratha troops as the commandant Pilājī had gone to Mayurbhañja to collect tribute. According to his descriptions the State of Mayurbhañja extended as far as the Bay of Bengal. Mr. Wills wrongly describes Dāmodar Bhañja as a convert to Islam. There is no proof of any of the Mayurbhañja chiefs having embraced Islam.¹ Motte left Balasore on the 27th of April and entered Nilgiri, the Rājā of which paid the Marathas Rs. 30,000 annually as tribute, though his State was very small. He describes Soro as a considerable town and that there was a handsome stone bridge at that place. Soro was a Maratha outpost in the Nilgiri State where they kept 100 horse and 300 foot. Motte left Soro early on the 29th and crossed the Kānsābāsā river by a stone bridge 360 feet long built by Shuja'ud-dīn Muḥammad Khān, when Na'ib Nāẓim of Bengal. By this bridge he came into the Mughalbandī of Orissa in the jurisdiction of the parganah of Bhadrak. He crossed the river Sālandī on the 1st of May and before that he describes the lake of Rāṇī-kā-talāv said to have been excavated by a rāṇī of Burdwan. On the 2nd of May he reached Dāmnagar, where lived Farrukh Ḥusain, whose ancestors obtained this part of the country from the Afghan rulers of Orissa.

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He passed several rivers and crossed the Vaitaraṇī to reach Jājpur which was Persianized by all old writers into Jahāzpur. At Jājpur he describes the ruins of the palace and the musjid built by Muḥammad Taqī Khān, the Na'ib Nāẓim of Orissa, in the time of the son of Shuja'ud-dīn Muḥammad Khān. The musjid was built on the river. Motte goes on to state that Muḥammad Taqī preferred Jājpur to Katak. On the 3rd he crossed the Brāhmaṇī and entered the zamindari of Aurungābād in which was situated the celebrated Buddhist ruins of Udayagiri and Ratnagiri. He described the country between the Brāhmaṇī and the Gainṭī as the most fertile part of Orissa, inhabited by a large number of weavers. Jājpur was the seat of a Maratha *Faujdārī* which had become hereditary, as Jagu Pandit had succeeded in securing the post for his own son-in-law, Inkoji. The latter came to see Motte and told him what is very often quoted by modern writers about Raghuji I and Jānujī: "Śiva Bhaṭṭa supported the national troops with the plunder of foreign countries; Bhavānī Pandit with the plunder of his own." Motte passed through the fertile countries in the valley of Udayagiri and described the old fort of Aurangābād. He saw Katak from the left bank of the Mahānadī and describes the situation of that city. He describes the old Mughal fort of Bārabāṭī, which has now almost entirely disappeared. One Mr.

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Charles Alleyn¹ was the English postmaster at Katak at the time of his visit and Motte states that Alleyn regarded Mahārājah Jānujī's demands for *chauth* as just and honest. Motte carefully launched Clive's proposal to purchase Orissa for the English East India Company. The situation was favourable to the English, as the Peshwa Mādhav Rao I was determined to crush Jānujī, and Bhavānī Pandit agreed to support the proposal. Motte left Katak on the 10th and after crossing the Kāṭjuṛī entered the road to the Barmul pass along the old pilgrim road to Sambalpur. He entered the Banki State, the Oriyā chief of which—named Śrī Chandana—was at that time a prisoner at Katak. On the 13th he reached the State of Tigiria, the Rājā of which was Champat Singh. In his account of the 13th of May, Motte corroborates Śivarām Bhaṭṭa's letter to the Governor of the English East India Company at Fort William about his devastation of the States of Dhenkanal and Baramba. Motte had now entered into the hilly country and reached Khandapara on the 14th of May. He had to stop here for two days in order to purchase necessaries for his servants before entering the deeper jungle. He describes Kullu as a large village where the merchants of Central India bring cotton and other goods on bullocks and carry back salt from the Chilka. He says that very little money is used by traders and trade is carried on entirely by barter.

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Opposite Kullu is the State of Narsinghpur, which is bounded on the north by the States of Talcher and Hindol, and which is famous for bamboos used in making poles for palkis.