Tanjore were worth when he left it? he said, He cannot say what was the
net amount, as he does not know the expense of the Rajah's collection;
but while he was at Tanjore, he understood from the Rajah himself, and
from his ministers, that the gross collection did not exceed nine lacs
of pagodas (360,000_l._).--Being asked, Whether he thinks the country
could pay the eight lacs of pagodas which had been demanded to be paid
in the course of one year? he said, Clearly not.--Being asked, Whether
there was not an attempt made to remove the Rajah's minister, upon some
delay in payment of the deposit? he said, The Governor of Madras wrote
to that effect, which he represented to the Rajah.--Being asked, Who was
mentioned to succeed to the minister that then was, in case he should be
removed? he said, When Sir Hector Munro came afterwards to Tanjore, the
old daubiere was mentioned, and recommended to the Rajah as successor to
his then dewan.--Being asked, Of what age was the daubiere at that time?
he said, Of a very great age: upwards of fourscore.--Being asked,
Whether a person called Kanonga Saba Pilla was not likewise named? he
said, Yes, he was: he was recommended by Sir Thomas Rumbold; and one
recommendation, as well as I can recollect, went through me.--Being
asked, What was the reason of his being recommended? he said, He
undertook to pay off the Rajah's debts, and to give security for the
regular payment of the Rajah's instalments to the Company.--Being asked,
Whether he offered to give any security for preserving the country from
oppression, and for supporting the dignity of the Rajah and his people?
he said, He does not know that he did, or that it was asked of
him.--Being asked, Whether he was a person agreeable to the Rajah? he
said, He was not.--Being asked, Whether he was not a person who had fled
out of the country to avoid the resentment of the Rajah? he said, He
was.--Being asked, Whether he was not charged by the Rajah with
malpractices, and breach of trust relative to his effects? he said, He
was; but he told the Governor that he would account for his conduct, and
explain everything to the satisfaction of the Rajah.--Being asked,
Whether the Rajah did not consider this man as in the interest of his
enemies, and particularly of the Nabob of Arcot and Mr. Benfield? he
said, He does not recollect that he did mention that to him: he
remembers to have heard him complain of a transaction between Kanonga
Saba Pilla and Mr. Benfield; but he told him he had been guilty of a
variety of malpractices in his administration, that he had oppressed the
people, and defrauded him.--Being asked, In what branch of business the
Rajah had formerly employed him? he said, He was at one time, he
believes, renter of the whole country, was supposed to have great
influence with the Rajah, and was in fact dewan some time.--Being asked,
Whether the nomination of that man was not particularly odious to the
Rajah? he said, He found the Rajah's mind so exceedingly averse to that
man, that he believes he would almost as soon have submitted to his
being deposed as to submit to the nomination of that man to be his
prime-minister.
* * * * *
13th May.
Mr. Petrie being asked, Whether he was informed by the Rajah, or by
others, at Tanjore or Madras, that Mr. Benfield, whilst he managed the
revenues at Tanjore, during the usurpation of the Nabob, did not treat
the inhabitants with great rigor? he said, He did hear from the Rajah
that Mr. Benfield did treat the inhabitants with rigor during the time
he had anything to do with the administration of the revenues of
Tanjore.--Being asked, If he recollects in what particulars? he said,
The Rajah particularly complained that grain had been delivered out to
the inhabitants, for the purposes of cultivation, at a higher price than
the market price of grain in the country; he cannot say the actual
difference of price, but it struck him at the time as something very
considerable.--Being asked, Whether that money was all recovered from
the inhabitants? he said, The Rajah of Tanjore told him that the money
was all recovered from the inhabitants.--Being asked, Whether he did not
hear that the Nabob exacted from the country of Tanjore, whilst he was
in possession of it? he said, From the accounts which he received at
Tanjore of the revenues for a number of years past, it appeared that the
Nabob collected from the country, while he was in possession, rather
more than sixteen lacs of pagodas annually; whereas, when he was at
Tanjore, it did not yield more than nine lacs.--Being asked, From whence
that difference arose? he said, When Tanjore was conquered for the
Nabob, he has been told that many thousand of the native inhabitants
fled from the country, some into the country of Mysore, and others into
the dominions of the Mahrattas; he understood from the same authority,
that, while the Nabob was in possession of the country, many inhabitants
from the Carnatic, allured by the superior fertility and opulence of
Tanjore, and encouraged by the Nabob, took up their residence there,
which enabled the Nabob to cultivate the whole country; and upon the
restoration of the Rajah, he has heard that the Carnatic inhabitants
were carried back to their own country, which left a considerable blank
in the population, which was not replaced while he was there,
principally owing to an opinion which prevailed through the country that
the Rajah's government was not to be permanent, but that another
revolution was fast approaching. During the Nabob's government, the
price of grain was considerably higher (owing to a very unusual scarcity
in the Carnatic) than when he was in Tanjore.--Being asked, Whether he
was ever in the Marawar country? he said, Yes; he was commissary to the
army in that expedition.--Being asked, Whether that country was much
wasted by the war? he said, Plunder was not permitted to the army, nor
did the country suffer from its operations, except in causing many
thousands of the inhabitants, who had been employed in the cultivation
of the country, to leave it.--Being asked, Whether he knows what is done
with the palace and inhabitants of Ramnaut? he said, The town was taken
by storm, but not plundered by the troops; it was immediately delivered
up to the Nabob's eldest son.--Being asked, Whether great riches were
not supposed to be in that palace and temple? he said, It was
universally believed so.--Being asked, What account was given of them?
he said, He cannot tell; everything remained in the possession of the
Nabob.--Being asked, What became of the children and women of the family
of the prince of that country? he said, The Rajah was a minor; the
government was in the hands of the Ranny, his mother: from general
report he has heard they were carried to Trichinopoly, and placed in
confinement there.--Being asked, Whether he perceived any difference in
the face of the Carnatic when he first knew it and when he last knew it?
he said, He thinks he did, particularly in its population.--Being asked,
Whether it was better or worse? he said, It was not so populous.--Being
asked, What is the condition of the Nabob's eldest son? he said, He was
in the Black Town of Madras, when he left the country.--Being asked,
Whether he was entertained there in a manner suitable to his birth and
expectations? he said, No: he lived there without any of those exterior
marks of splendor which princes of his rank in India are particularly
fond of.--Being asked, Whether he has not heard that his appointments
were poor and mean? he said, He has heard that they were not equal to
his rank and expectations.--Being asked, Whether he had any share in the
government? he said, He believes none: for some years past the Nabob has
delegated most of the powers of government to his second son.--Being
asked, Whether the Rajah did not complain to him of the behavior of Mr.
Benfield to himself personally; and what were the particulars? he said,
He did so, and related to him the following particulars. About fifteen
days after Lord Pigot's confinement, Mr. Benfield came to Tanjore, and
delivered the Rajah two letters from the then Governor, Mr.
Stratton,--one public, and the other private. He demanded an immediate
account of the presents which had been made to Lord Pigot, payment of
the tunkahs which he (Mr. Benfield) had received from the Nabob upon the
country, and that the Rajah should only write such letters to the Madras
government as Mr. Benfield should approve and give to him. The Rajah
answered, that he did not acknowledge the validity of any demands made
by the Nabob upon the country; that those tunkahs related to accounts
which he (the Rajah) had no concern with; that he never had given Lord
Pigot any presents, but Lord Pigot had given him many; and that as to
his correspondence with the Madras government, he would not trouble Mr.
Benfield, because he would write his letters himself. That the Rajah
told the witness, that by reason of this answer he was much threatened,
in consequence of which he desired Colonel Harper, who then commanded at
Tanjore, to be present at his next interview with Mr. Benfield; when
Mr. Benfield denied many parts of the preceding conversation, and threw
the blame upon his interpreter, Comroo. When Mr. Benfield found (as the
Rajah informed him) that he could not carry these points which had
brought him to Tanjore, he prepared to set off for Madras; that the
Rajah sent him a letter which he had drawn out in answer to one which
Mr. Benfield had brought him; that Mr. Benfield disapproved of the
answer, and returned it by Comroo to the durbar, who did not deliver it
into the Rajah's hands, but threw it upon the ground, and expressed
himself improperly to him.
Being asked, Whether it was at the king of Tanjore's desire, that such
persons as Mr. Benfield and Comroo had been brought into his presence?
he said, The Rajah told him, that, when Lord Pigot came to Tanjore, to
restore him to his dominions, Comroo, without being sent for, or desired
to come to the palace, had found means to get access to his person: he
made an offer of introducing Mr. Benfield to the Rajah, which he
declined.--Being asked, Whether the military officer commanding there
protected the Rajah from the intrusion of such people? he said, The
Rajah did not tell him that he called upon the military officer to
prevent these intrusions, but that he desired Colonel Harper to be
present as a witness to what might pass between him and Mr.
Benfield.--Being asked, If it is usual for persons of the conditions and
occupations of Mr. Benfield and Comroo to intrude themselves into the
presence of the princes of the country, and to treat them with such
freedom? he said, Certainly it is not: less there than in any other
country.--Being asked, Whether the king of Tanjore has no ministers to
whom application might be made to transact such business as Mr. Benfield
and Comroo had to do in the country? he said, Undoubtedly: his minister
is the person whose province it is to transact that business.--Being
asked, Before the invasion of the British troops into Tanjore, what
would have been the consequence, if Mr. Benfield had intruded himself
into the Rajah's presence, and behaved in that manner? he said, He could
not say what would have been the consequence; but the attempt would have
been madness, and could not have happened.--Being asked, Whether the
Rajah had not particular exceptions to Comroo, and thought he had
betrayed him in very essential points? he said, Yes, he had.--Being
asked, Whether the Rajah has not been apprised that the Company have
made stipulations that their servants should not interfere in the
concerns of his government? he said, He signified it to the Rajah, that
it was the Company's positive orders, and that any of their servants so
interfering would incur their highest displeasure.
* * * * *
No. 8.
Referred to from p. 87, &c.
_Commissioners' Amended Clauses for the Fort St. George Dispatch,
relative to the Indeterminate Mights and Pretensions of the Nabob of
Arcot and Rajah of Tanjore._
In our letter of the 28th January last we stated the reasonableness of
our expectation that certain contributions towards the expenses of the
war should be made by the Rajah of Tanjore. Since writing that letter,
we have received one from the Rajah, of the 15th of October last, which
contains at length his representations of his inability to make such
further payment. We think it unnecessary here to discuss whether these
representations are or are not exaggerated, because, from the
explanations we have given of our wishes for a new arrangement in
future, both with the Nabob of Arcot and the Rajah of Tanjore, and the
directions we have given you to carry that arrangement into execution,
we think it impolitic to insist upon any demands upon the Rajah for the
expenses of the late war, beyond the sum of four lacs of pagodas
annually: such a demand might tend to interrupt the harmony which should
prevail between the Company and the Rajah, and impede the great objects
of the general system we have already so fully explained to you.
But although it is not our opinion that any further claim should be made
on the Rajah for his share of the extraordinary expenses of the late
war, it is by no means our intention in any manner to affect the just
claim which the Nabob has on the Rajah for the arrears due to him on
account of peshcush, for the regular payment of which we became guaranty
by the treaty of 1762; but we have already expressed to you our hopes
that the Nabob may be induced to allow these arrears and the growing
payments, when due, to be received by the Company, and carried in
discharge of his debt to us. You are at the same time to use every means
to convince him, that, when this debt shall be discharged, it is our
intention, as we are bound by the above treaty, to exert ourselves to
the utmost of our power to insure the constant and regular payment of it
into his own hands.
We observe, by the plan sent to us by our Governor of Fort St. George,
on the 30th October, 1781, that an arrangement is there proposed for the
receipt of those arrears from the Rajah in three years.
We are unable to decide how far this proposal may be consistent with the
present state of the Rajah's resources; but we direct you to use all
proper means to bring these arrears to account as soon as possible,
consistently with a due attention to this consideration.
* * * * *
CLAUSES H.
You will observe, that, by the 38th section of the late act of
Parliament, it is enacted, that, for settling upon a permanent
foundation the present indeterminate rights of the Nabob of Arcot and
the Rajah of Tanjore with respect to each other, we should take into our
immediate consideration the said indeterminate rights and pretensions,
and take and pursue such measures as in our judgment and discretion
shall be best calculated to ascertain and settle the same, according to
the principles and the terms and stipulations contained in the treaty of
1762 between the said Nabob and the said Rajah.
On a retrospect of the proceedings transmitted to us from your
Presidency, on the subject of the disputes which have heretofore arisen
between the Nabob and the Rajah, we find the following points remain
unadjusted, viz.
1st, Whether the jaghire of Arnee shall be enjoyed by the Nabob, or
delivered up, either to the Rajah, or the descendants of Tremaul Row,
the late jaghiredar.
2d, Whether the fort and district of Hanamantagoody, which is admitted
by both parties to be within the Marawar, ought to be possessed by the
Nabob, or to be delivered up by him to the Rajah.
3rd, To whom the government share of the crop of the Tanjore country, of
the year 1775-6, properly belongs.
Lastly, Whether the Rajah has a right, by usage and custom, or ought,
from the necessity of the case, to be permitted to repair such part of
the Anicut, or dam and banks of the Cavery, as lie within the district
of Trichinopoly, and to take earth and sand in the Trichinopoly
territory for the repairs of the dam and banks within either or both of
those districts.
In order to obtain a complete knowledge of the facts and circumstances
relative to the several points in dispute, and how far they are
connected with the treaty of 1762, we have with great circumspection
examined into all the materials before us on these subjects, and will
proceed to state to you the result of our inquiries and deliberations.
The objects of the treaty of 1762 appear to be restricted to the arrears
of tribute to be paid to the Nabob for his past claims, and to the
quantum of the Rajah's future tribute or peshcush; the cancelling of a
certain bond given by the Rajah's father to the father of the Nabob; the
confirmation to the Rajah of the districts of Coveladdy and Elangaud,
and the restoration of Tremaul Row to his jaghire of Arnee, in
condescension to the Rajah's request, upon certain stipulations, viz.,
that the fort of Arnee and Doby Gudy should be retained by the Nabob;
that Tremaul Row should not erect any fortress, walled pagoda, or other
stronghold, nor any wall round his dwelling-house exceeding eight feet
high or two feet thick, and should in all things behave himself with
due obedience to the government; and that he should pay yearly, in the
month of July, unto the Nabob or his successors, the sum of ten thousand
rupees: the Rajah thereby becoming the security for Tremaul Row, that he
should in all things demean and behave himself accordingly, and pay
yearly the stipulated sum.
Upon a review of this treaty, the only point now in dispute, which
appears to us to be so immediately connected with it as to bring it
within the strict line of our duty to ascertain and settle according to
the terms and stipulations of the treaty, is that respecting Arnee. For,
although the other points enumerated may in some respects have a
relation to that treaty, yet, as they are foreign to the purposes
expressed in it, and could not be in the contemplation of the
contracting parties at the time of making it, those disputes cannot in
our comprehension fall within the line of description of rights and
pretensions to be now ascertained and settled by us, according to any of
the terms and stipulations of it.
In respect to the jaghire of Arnee, we do not find that our records
afford us any satisfactory information by what title the Rajah claims
it, or what degree of relationship or connection has subsisted between
the Rajah and the Killadar of Arnee, save only that by the treaty of
1762 the former became the surety for Tremaul Row's performance of his
engagements specified therein, as the conditions for his restoration to
that jaghire; on the death of Tremaul Row, we perceive that he was
succeeded by his widow, and after her death, by his grandson
Seneewasarow, both of whom were admitted to the jaghire by the Nabob.
From your Minutes of Consultation of the 31st October, 1770, and the
Nabob's letter to the President of the 21st March, 1771, and the two
letters from Rajah Beerbur Atchenur Punt (who we presume was then the
Nabob's manager at Arcot) of the 16th and 18th March, referred to in the
Nabob's letter, and transmitted therewith to the President, we observe,
that, previous to the treaty of 1762, Mr. Pigot concurred in the
expediency of the Nabob's taking possession of this jaghire, on account
of the troublesome and refractory behavior of the Arnee braminees, by
their affording protection to all disturbers, who, by reason of the
little distance between Arnee and Arcot, fled to the former, and were
there protected, and not given up, though demanded;--that, though the
jaghire was restored in 1762, it was done under such conditions and
restrictions as were thought best calculated to preserve the peace and
good order of the place and due obedience to government;--that,
nevertheless, the braminees (quarrelling among themselves) did
afterwards, in express violation of the treaty, enlist and assemble many
thousand sepoys, and other troops; that they erected gaddies and other
small forts, provided themselves with wall-pieces, small guns, and other
warlike stores, and raised troubles and disturbances in the neighborhood
of the city of Arcot and the forts of Arnee and Shaw Gaddy; and that,
finally, they imprisoned the hircarrahs of the Nabob, sent with his
letters and instructions, in pursuance of the advice of your board, to
require certain of the braminees to repair to the Nabob at Chepauk, and,
though peremptorily required to repair thither, paid no regard to those,
or to any other orders from the circar.
By the 13th article contained in the instructions given by the Nabob to
Mr. Dupré, as the basis for negotiating the treaty made with the Rajah
in 1771, the Nabob required that the Arnee district should be delivered
up to the circar, because the braminees had broken the conditions which
they were to have observed. In the answers given by the Rajah to these
propositions, he says, "I am to give up to the circar the jaghire
district of Arnee"; and on the 7th of November, 1771, the Rajah, by
letter to Seneewasarow, who appears by your Consultations and country
correspondence to have been the grandson of Tremaul Row, and to have
been put in possession of the jaghire at your recommendation, (on the
death of his grandmother,) writes, acquainting him that he had given the
Arnee country, then in his (Seneewasarow's) possession, to the Nabob, to
whose aumildars Seneewasarow was to deliver up the possession of the
country. And in your letter to us of the 28th February, 1772, you
certified the district of Arnee to be one of the countries acquired by
this treaty, and to be of the estimated value of two lacs of rupees per
annum.
In our orders dated the 12th of April, 1775, we declared our
determination to replace the Rajah upon the throne of his ancestors,
upon certain terms and conditions, to be agreed upon for the mutual
benefit of himself and the Company, without infringing the rights of the
Nabob. We declared that our faith stood pledged by the treaty of 1762 to
obtain payment of the Rajah's tribute to the Nabob, and that for the
insuring such payment the fort of Tanjore should be garrisoned by our
troops. We directed that you should pay no regard to the article of the
treaty of 1771 which respected the alienation of part of the Rajah's
dominions; and we declared, that, if the Nabob had not a just title to
those territories before the conclusion of the treaty, we denied that he
obtained any right thereby, except such temporary sovereignty, for
securing the payment of his expenses, as is therein mentioned.
These instructions appear to have been executed in the month of April,
1776; and by your letter of the 14th May following you certified to us
that the Rajah had been put into the possession of the whole country his
father held in 1762, when the treaty was concluded with the Nabob; but
we do not find that you came to any resolution, either antecedent or
subsequent to this advice, either for questioning or impeaching the
right of the Nabob to the sovereignty of Arnee, or expressive of any
doubt of his title to it. Nevertheless, we find, that, although the
Board passed no such resolution, yet your President, in his letter to
the Nabob of the 30th July and 24th August, called upon his Highness to
give up the possession of Arnee to the Rajah; and the Rajah himself, in
several letters to us, particularly in those of 21st October, 1776, and
the 7th of June, 1777, expressed his expectation of our orders for
delivering up that fort and district to him; and so recently as the 15th
of October, 1783, he reminds us of his former application, and states,
that the country of Arnee being guarantied to him by the Company, it of
course is his right, but that it has not been given up to him, and he
therefore earnestly entreats our orders for putting him into the
possession of it. We also observe by your letter of the 14th of October,
1779, that the Rajah had not then accounted for the Nabob's peshcush
since his restoration, but had assigned as a reason for his withdrawing
it, that the Nabob had retained from him the district of Arnee, with a
certain other district, (Hanamantagoody,) which is made the subject of
another part of our present dispatches.
We have thus stated to you the result of our inquiry into the grounds of
the dispute relative to Arnee; and as the research has offered no
evidence in support of the Rajah's claim, nor even any lights whereby we
can discover in what degree of relationship, by consanguinity, caste, or
other circumstances, the Rajah now stands, or formerly stood, with the
Killadar of Arnee, or the nature of his connection with or command over
that district, or the authority he exercised or assumed previous to the
treaty of 1771, we should think ourselves highly reprehensible in
complying with the Rajah's request,--and the more so, as it is expressly
stated, in the treaty of 1762, that this fort and district were then in
the possession of the Nabob, as well as the person of the jaghiredar, on
account of his disobedience, and were restored him by the Nabob, in
condescension to the Rajah's request, upon such terms and stipulations
as could not, in our judgment, have been imposed by the one or submitted
to by the other, if the sovereignty of the one or the dependency of the
other had been at that time a matter of doubt.
Although these materials have not furnished us with evidence in support
of the Rajah's claim, they are far from satisfactory to evince the
justice of or the political necessity for the Nabob's continuing to
withhold the jaghire from the descendants of Tremaul Row; his hereditary
right to that jaghire seems to us to have been fully recognized by the
stipulations of the treaty of 1762, and so little doubted, that, on his
death, his widow was admitted by the Nabob to hold it, on account, as
may be presumed, of the nonage of his grandson and heir, Seneewasarow,
who appears to have been confirmed in the jaghire, on her death, by the
Nabob, as the lineal heir and successor to his grandfather.
With respect to Seneewasarow, it does not appear, by any of the
Proceedings in our possession, that he was concerned in the misconduct
of the braminees, complained of by the Nabob in the year 1770, which
rendered it necessary for his Highness to take the jaghire into his own
hands, or that he was privy to or could have prevented those
disturbances.
We therefore direct, that, if the heir of Tremaul Row is not at present
in possession of the jaghire, and has not, by any violation of the
treaty, or act of disobedience, incurred a forfeiture thereof, he be
forthwith restored to the possession of it, according to the terms and
stipulations of the treaty of 1762. But if any powerful motive of regard
to the peace and tranquillity of the Carnatic shall in your judgment
render it expedient to suspend the execution of these orders, in that
case you are with all convenient speed to transmit to us your
proceedings thereupon, with the full state of the facts, and of the
reasons which have actuated your conduct.