History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c44.73

v2.c44.73

The Rājā of Sambalpur was replaced on the gadi and all other States over which he claims suzerainty were now regarded as separate states.⁴ Specimens of the engagements submitted by Mahārājā Bhupāl Dev of Patna, dated 17th February 1827 and Mahārājā Mahārāj Sāhī of Sambalpur dated 22nd February 1827 show that at the time of the British conquest they were not feudatory chiefs with a fixed Peshkash of tribute but Zamindars or Tāluqdārs whose *Jama'bandi* varied from year to year. The *Qabūliyat* executed by Mahārājā Bhupāl Dev of Patna on the 17th February 1827 shows that he agreed to pay a *Jama'* of Rs. 562-8 annually for five years from 1826-27 to 1830-31. He was therefore exactly on the same footing as the *Tāluqdars* of Oudh. The revenue was to be paid at Sambalpur. The *Qabūliyat* executed by Mahārājā Mahārāj Sahi of Sambalpur on the 22nd February was of a different nature. There is no mention of *Peshkash* and that chief simply binds himself to the right discharge of Police and Judicial duties.¹ Nārāyan Singh, the last Raja of Sambalpur, died without issue and his State lapsed to the British in 1850.² Patna and Sonpur remained to be recognised as feudatory states in April 1865.³ While Patna was formerly the chief of the *pseudo-Chauhan*⁴ chiefs, later on it had to cede its supremacy to Sambalpur. The small State of Sonpur was all along a feudatory of Patna or Sambalpur and never independent. It was a pure British creation and is subject to *Nazarana* rules.⁵ Yet these petty chiefs, all of whom were British creations, represented to the late Sir Andrew Fraser that "Their powers and status as Feudatory Chiefs were higher than those of the Feudatory States of Orissa and they feared that they might be reduced to the same level."1 The easy pliability of the late Sir Andrew Fraser, at one time Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces and Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, is now well known and it was natural for him to assure them that as to their first difficulty their powers and privileges and status would be clearly and fully defined and recorded and that no diminution in any of them would occur. The raising of the Patna and Sonpur Taluqdars to the status of Feudatory Chiefs and their claims to total independence are subjects too voluminous to be treated in full in a general narrative of the history of Orissa.²