Sivaganga Estate
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Sivaganga Estate
A permanently settled zamindari estate in the Ramnad subdivision of Madura District, Madras, lying between 9° 30' and 10° 17' N. and 78° 5" and 78° 58' E., with an area of 1,680 square miles. Population (1901), 394,206. The peshkash payable by the zamindar to Government (including cesses) amounts to 3 lakhs. For- merly the estate was part of the neighbouring zamindari of Ramnad, the territory of the chief called Setupati, or ' lord of the causeway ' leading to the sacred temple of Rameswaram ; but about 1730 one of these Setupatis was forced to surrender two-fifths of his possessions to the poligdr of Nalkottai, who thenceforth became independent and was known as the Lesser Maravan, Maravan being the caste to which both he and the Setupati belonged. During the latter part of the eighteenth century the rulers of Sivaganga were involved in the strug- gles of greater powers. In 1773 the country was reduced by the British, the Raja was killed at Kaliyarkovil, and his widow was forced to flee to Dindigul, where she remained under the protection of Haidar All. Later, she was restored to the zamlndari, and in 1803 the perma- nent settlement was made with one Udaya Tevan of the family. The subsequent history of the estate has been a tale of mismanagement and litigation, one of the succession suits having lasted a very long time and cost a great deal of money. At present its resources are being developed by European lessees who, in consideration of having paid off the last zamlndar's debts and made him an allowance for life, obtained a lease of the entire estate for a term of thirty years. The present zamindar is a minor under the Court of Wards.
