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COCHIN.

the Rajah of Cochin, for himself and successors; the Lieutenant Colonel aforesaid has delivered to the said Rajah one copy of the same in English No. LVIII. and Tamul, signed and sealed by him, and the said Rajah has delivered to the Lieutenant Colonel aforesaid another copy, also in Tamul and English, bearing his seal and signature; and the aforesaid Lieutenant Colonel has engaged to procure and deliver to the said Rajah, without delay, a copy of the same under the seal and signature of the Honourable the Governor in Council, on the receipt of which by the said Rajah the present Treaty shall be deemed complete and binding on the Honourable the English East India Company and on the Rajah of Cochin, and the copy of it now delivered to the said Rajah shall be returned.

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By the Honourable the Governor in Council.

(Signed) A. FALCONAR,

Chief Secretary to Government.

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By the Right Honourable the Governor General in Council.

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POODOO COTTAH.

From a Report by the Madras Government.

THE Poodoocottah State is surrounded by the British districts of Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Madura. Its gross revenue is about five lakhs of Rupees, of which three lakhs are enam and jaghire and two lakhs are payable to the Rajah. The British Government has no Treaty with Poodoocottah, the Rajah of which is exempt from tribute, and has courts of justice independent of all European superintendence. The Madras Government, however, receives petitions of complaint from his subjects and sends them for the report of the Political Agent, who is considered entitled to advise and remonstrate with the Rajah on all subjects, but more especially as regards his expenditure.

The first connection of the British Government with this Chieftain, then usually called Tondiman, appears to have been formed at the siege of Trichinopoly, in 1753, when the British army greatly depended on his fidelity and exertions for provisions. Subsequently he was very serviceable in the wars with Hyder Ali and in the operations against the rebellious usurpers of the large zemindary of Shevagungah in the Madura district after the cession of the Carnatic. Tondiman, in 1803, as a reward for his services, solicited favourable consideration to a claim preferred by him to the fort and district of Keelanelly, situated in the southern part of Tanjore, founded on a grant by Pertab Sing, Rajah of Tanjore, and engagements which were afterwards entered into by Colonel Braithwaite, General Coote, and Lord Macartney, on the faith of which he had re-taken the fort from Hyder Ali. After a very complimentary review of Tondiman's services, the Government of Madras ceded (No. LIX.) to him the fort and district of Keelanelly; a cession afterwards confirmed by the Honourable Court of Directors, with the condition that the district shall not be alienated, and that it shall revert

COTTAH.

to the British Government upon satisfactory proof being given that the POODOOinhabitants labor under any oppressive system of management. Keelanelly yields a revenue of about Rupees 30,000 a year. The grant was also made subject to the yearly tribute of an elephant. The tribute however was not insisted upon, and in 1836 was formally excused.

Rajah Vejiah Ragoonada Tondiman died on the 1st February 1807, leaving two sons, the elder of whom, aged eleven, succeeded. During the minority of the young Chief the Resident at Tanjore exercised a strict superintendence over the affairs of the State, and procured a reformation of system in the revenue, police, and judicial departments, besides interfering to prevent particular acts of injustice. As the Rajah increased in age, this interference was gradually lessened, till about 1817 the Rajah was placed in charge of the whole administration.

Rajah Vejiah Ragoonada Rie Tondiman Bahadoor died in 1825 and was succeeded by his younger brother Rajah Ragoonada Tondiman, who died on the 13th July 1839. During his incumbency a question of jurisdiction having arisen between the magistrate of Trichinopoly and Tondiman in 1834, it was decided by the Governor General in Council that the subjects of petty States, like Poodoocottah, should be always amenable to the British courts for crimes and heinous offences committed within the British territory, but that this practice should not be reciprocal -such a distinction being a proper prerogative of the paramount power. It was at the same time ruled, however, that the delivery of heinous criminals, subjects of other States, who may have fled into the British territories, is entirely unobjectionable; and that a native subject of the British Government charged with a crime committed in another State, and apprehended before he had effected his escape into British territory, can be tried in that State. In consideration of the good character of Tondiman's government the concession was made to him that on a special order of the Madras Government, for which application was to be made in each and every case, native British subjects charged with offences committed in Poodoocottah and apprehended in British territory, might be delivered over to be dealt with by the Rajah's courts. By Act I. of 1849, however, this concession was cancelled, and it is rendered imperative that British subjects charged with offences in Poodoocottah and apprehended within British limits should be tried by

VOL. V.

2 u

COTTAH.

POODOO British tribunals, inasmuch as the Poodoocottah territory contains no court established by the authority of the Governor General in Council. Rajah Ragoonada Tondiman left two sons, Rajah Ramchundra Tondiman Bahadoor, aged nine years, who succeeded to the Chieftainship, and Trimal Tondiman, aged eight years. Until 1841 the administration was conducted by the widow assisted by two Ministers, but in that year in consequence of representations of injustice by relations of the Rajah, the Resident at Tanjore was directed to reside at Poodoocottah as much as possible during the minority of the Tondiman, and to take the immediate superintendence and control of the business of the country which was to continue to be conducted by the Ministers of the Rajah.

The Resident on the receipt of these orders laid down rules for the guidance of the Ministers, which prohibited expenditure beyond certain limits, grants of land, assignments of produce, creation of offices, and increase or decrease of emoluments without his sanction, and prescribed the mode in which public business should be carried on.

In the same year the Residency at Tanjore was abolished, and the charge of Poodoocottah was entrusted to the Collector of Madura, one of the adjoining districts. The administration of the State was prosperously conducted under his superintendence during the remainder of the minority; all debts were paid off, and a surplus invested in the funds of the British Government.

Since the Rajah attained his majority, the Government of Madras has more than once interposed to insist on the Rajah regulating his expenditure, to remind him that the Honourable Court of Directors in 1805 made it a condition that the grant to Tondiman of the district of Keelanelly should be liable to resumption upon satisfactory proof being given that the inhabitants laboured under any oppressive system of government, and to warn him that, should he continue regardlessly in his ruinous course of living, the British Government would be compelled either to withdraw the Political Agent from all connection with him, or to take the Poodoocottah country under their own control and management, and to assign the Rajah a personal allowance not to be exceeded on any plea. The Rajah having, in despite of all warnings, continued in a course of reckless extravagance and contracted fresh debts as fast as with the aid of the Political Agent his old ones were cleared off, has recently, as

a mark of the displeasure of Government, been temporarily deprived of POODOOsome of his titles.

COTTAH.

The Rajah has received a Sunnud (No. LX.) granting him the Nos. LIX. right of adoption. The area of the State is 1,037 square miles, the population, 2,68,750, and the revenue Rupees 3,24,136. The Rajah maintains a force of 126 infantry, 21 troopers, 3,260 militia, besides armed servants and watchmen.

No. LIX.

GRANT of the fort and district of KEELANELLY to TONDIMAN.

Captain Blackburne, the Resident at Tanjore, having communicated to me an explanation of the nature of the claims which you stated by my desire to that officer, I have in consequence caused particular enquiry to be made respecting the grounds of your right to the district of Keelanelly, and the result of the information which I have received, combined with the testimonies which have been brought to my attention of the fidelity and attachment to the interests of the Honourable Company's Government which have marked the conduct of yourself and your ancestors, have determined me to cede to you the possession of that territory, for the purpose of recompensing the services of your family, and of affording a distinguished example of the disposition of the Company's Government to reward with liberality those persons who adhere with fidelity to its interests and confidence in its protection.

I shall in consequence direct measures to be taken for defining the limits of the district of Keelanelly according to its extent when formerly in your possession, in order that it may be separated from the territory of the province of Tanjore and transferred to you.

It is my intention that you and your descendants shall hold the district in perpetual lease, subject to the tribute of an elephant to be presented annually to the British Government. But as the orders which I am about to issue on this subject must be dependent on the confirmation of the Honourable Court of Directors, you will not consider the arrangement to be permanent until it shall have been ratified by the Honourable

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