History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c41.143.1

v2.c41.143.1

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.