In AD 1740 the Marathas invaded the Carnatic under
Raghoji Bhonsle and entered into the Chittoor district by the Kallur pass, and
defeated and killed Dost Ali and his son in the battle of Damalachemvu, then
Dost Ali's another son Safdar Ali, sued for peace from Vellore fortress and
Raghoji Bhonsle agreed to retire on payment of one crore of rupees. Raghoji
Bhonsle took the opportunity to visit Venkateswara Temple and paid his
obeisance to the Lord and present valuable Jewels to Lord Venkateswara. The
Maratha general, Raghoji Bhonsle, set up a permanent endowment for the conduct
of worship in the temple.
He also presented valuable jewels to the Lord, including
a large emerald which is still preserved in a box named after the General
called Raghojivari Petti. Items presented by him to the Temple were; one string
of pearls with a pendant of a flat ruby inlaid in a flat emerald etched, one string
of pearls with a pendent of etched flat emerald, one set of 17 pearl string
with 20 pearls in each string, one Kalikuturayi, a Jewel of precious stones interred
at the top to be attached to the crown and one pearl garland of 5 strings of 20
sets with a pendant of diamonds on the obverse and rubies on the reverse.
The food offerings to the deity were usually altered
appears some time. Formerly from the earliest days, the food offerings used to
be designated as Tiruponakam or Sandhi Tiruponakam (cooked rice only). The name
given in the inscription is Avasaram the word Avas in Sanskrit is food. This
term is noticed also in three previous inscriptions of the year 1554, 1579 and
1616. The inscriptions also make it clear that there was a similar food
offering instituted by one Maharaja Sri Shudaji Bhanuji Pantulu. There seems to
be some justification to inform from the inscription that Aliya Ramaraja's food
offerings ceased after the conquest of the country by the Golkonda Kings and
that the few who were continuing to do Service in the temple stood in need of
some wholesome food like suddhannam (cooked food).
Sadat-Ulla Khan was appointed in October 1713 as the
Nawab of Deccan country and Fauzdar of Karnataka, Golkonda countries. The
Jageer of Zulphikar Khan was made over to him. In a letter dated 18"' May
1740 written by Ravantula Audiappah, a servant of the English at Kodakanti near
Arcot, there is a piece of information that on that date Baji Rao's mother and
his wife had arrived at Tirupati (to worship the Lord) and that Krishnaji
Pantulu had gone from the Arcot to receive them.
The same Ravantula Audiappah wrote to the English a
letter on 27"' September AD 1740 received on 1-10-1740 from which it is
seen that the income from the Tirupati temple was being systematically
appropriated by the Nawab of Arcot and that a sum of rupees (50,000) thousand
was ordered to be handed over to the Vakils of Marathas as an urgent and
partial measures of satisfaction of demands, out of this amount the Vakils had
the sanction of Baji Rao to distribute Rs (20,000) on charities in the Tirumala
temple. The distribution might have been in compliance with the intention of
Bajirao's mother and wife when they worshiped the deity on 18th May.
The Vakils belonging to the Martha's had already made a
very strong demand of the Nawab for their money. Although he was much displaced
with them for their ill behavior yet he received them with respect and allowed
them some money for their expense and promised to pay them one hundred thousand
rupees has been already ordered to have paid them at Tirupati out of the money
and told them to distribute 20,0001- for charity there at the Pagoda and to
bring the remainder.
No comments:
Post a Comment