History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c41.352

v2.c41.352

We learn from a letter of the President and the Member of the Board of Revenue dated the 31st May, 1796, that immediately before his death Rājā Dāmodar Bhañja "Abdicated his Estate in consequence of measures taken by the late Acting Collector to bring him to trial for offences with which he stood charged of a Public and Criminal nature since which his Estate has been continued under the immediate charge of the officers of the Government." In this letter the Board asks for instructions about the restoration of the property of Dāmodar Bhañja to his heirs. In the meanwhile, J. A. Stonehouse, Collector of Medinipur, forwarded an application from the Rāṇī of Hariharpur. The application gives the date of the death of Dāmodar Bhañja as 22nd Chaitra 1203, Faslī. The Rāṇī, Sumitrā Deī, stated that her husband bequeathed his estate to her and the Maratha Faujdar assembled all Qila'dārs and zamindars and they placed her on the Masnad. She now applied for the release of the Parganah of Nayabasan held khāṣ by the Company. One Mohan Lāl Ghosh has been sent by her to Medinipur as her Wakīl. On the 21st December 1797, J. Imhoff, Collector of Medinipur, forwarded the petition from Sumitrā Deī recommending that Nayabasan should be given to Sumitrā Deī. The petition and the letter were forwarded to the Governor-General in Council by the Board of Revenue and the latter also recommended that Nayabasan should be given as an *Ijārā* only for the present to Sumitrā Deī and to confirm it as a zamindari if she conducted herself well (Letter, dated 1st November, 1799).