Page 42 - Demo

%u2018Chicacole Circars%u2019 between the mid-seventeenth and mideighteenth centuries is effectively a documentation of the rise of the Vizianagaram rulers. Despite being nominal feudatories to the Mughal Empire, they consolidated their position and established a seat of power at Vizianagaram where they laid the foundation of their Fort in the year 1713.The site of the Fort was recommended by the Sufi saint Hazrath Syed Dankesha Vali Baba. He is considered the first resident of Vizianagaram. He predicted that the location of the Fort would bring peace and prosperity to the region, as no conflict would take place within its vicinity. His tomb today lies just outside the Fort and is revered by all the residents of the town. They gradually emerged as the foremost power in the region by slowly extending their power to their neighbouring regions; either by annexing them or making them vassals. The zamindaries of Srungavarapukota (Kasipuram), Madugula, Kurupam, Salur, Sangamavalasa, Tada, and Chemudu were annexed. Others such as Palakonda, Gogonda, Jeypore (Odisha), and Andra became vassals to Vizianagaram. The bigger the kingdom the more perilous winds of change can be. Now they swept through peninsular India, shaking things up. On the 23rd of November 1735, the Subedar of the Deccan %u2013 the fourth Nizam, conceded the parganas (tahsils) of Chicacole, Ellore, Rajahmundry among others to the French. This brought the Maharaja of Vizianagaram directly into the ambit of the French and in close association with General De Bussy, the key architect of the French expansion across the Coromandel Coast. Around this time, due to reasons lost to the ravages of time, Vizianagaram was locked in an internecine conflict with its neighbour, Bobbili. The infamous Bobbili war of 1753 swung 32