A History of the Mahrattas v2.c55.19

v2.c55.19

² [The ancestors of Sīdoji Rāo (Seedojee Rao) had performed military service for the Rājās of Kolhāpur, from whom they obtained the two inām villages of Nipāni and Nandi, including the deshmukhī and the office of sar-nāikī of the pargana of Hukēri. During the life of Sīdojī-Rāo the Rājā of Kolhāpur conferred two more villages upon him. Nipāni, Nandi and Hukēri are now included in Belgaum District, the largest of the three places being Nipāni, forty miles north of Belgaum, which with the estate of which it formed part lapsed to the British Government in 1839. Sīdoji was introduced by Sarjī Rāo Ghātge to the notice of the Pēshwā, who conferred the title of Sar-Lashkar upon him. He accompanied the British army under General Wellesley in 1803–4; and subsequently having wrested Chikodi and Manoli (see page 417) from the Rājā of Kolhāpur retained them until 1817, when he was forced to relinquish them. After the defeat of the Pēshwā and the conquest of his territory in 1818, Sīdoji Rāo was confirmed in the rest of his estates by the British Government, to whom they eventually lapsed in the absence of heirs.]