History of Orissa from the Earliest Times to the British Period v2.c44.90

v2.c44.90

It is evident from the clauses of the foregoing treaty that the British Company recognised in full the internal sovereignty of the Mayurbhañj State. Compared with the treaty entered into with Mahārājā Mahārāj Sāhī of Sambalpur and the petty States of Sonpur and Patna the treaty of 1829 places Mayurbhañj on a much higher position than the Oṛiyā chiefs of the Chhattisgaḍh Garhjāt, though Bhupāl Dev of Patna and Mahārāj Sāhī of Sambalpur were styled Mahārājās, in the treaties executed with them in February 1827, and Jadunāth Bhañja is called simply a Rājā in the treaty of 1829. It is absolutely certain that the status of Jadunāth Bhañja was much higher than that of all the pseudo-Chauhan Chiefs. Bhupāl Dev agreed to pay his annual rent at Sambalpur and therefore he was a Mahārājā of the type of Darbhanga in Bihar and Balrampur in Oudh. Bhupāl Dev’s suzerain Mahārāja Mahārāj Sāhī “was vested with authority from the Government to administer justice, and to conduct Police duties within the limits of his State,” which he engages to discharge to the best of his power. He also engages to report to the British authorities whatever happens in his territories, not to oppress any of his Ryots, not to oppress or levy cesses prohibited by the Government and not to appropriate unclaimed or intestate property. These terms prove conclusively that inspite of his title of Mahārāja, Mahārāja Mahārāj Sāhi of Sambalpur had no right to call himself a chief in 1827. He was simply a zamindar in British territory vested with police and judicial powers by the Government. This distinction was not observed by the British Government at Calcutta and while Mayurbhañj, on account of its proximity to the regulation province of Bengal and the metropolis of India at Calcutta, declined in the enjoyment of internal sovereign rights steadily, Sambalpur, Patna and Sonpur steadily gained and finally obtained recognition as Feudatory States on account of their inclusion in the most backward tracts of the most backward province of India, the Central Provinces. It is for this reason that the Chiefs of Sonpur and Patna were eager to retain their recent privileges obtained by their inclusion in a non-regulation province where the British officer is still an uncontrolled Hākim.