Avadhanum Paupiah

Last updated October 30, 2023

Avadhanum (or Avadhanam) Paupiah was a dubash, or interpreter in the service of the British East India Company. He was of Telugu origin.

Avadhanum Paupiah joined the service of the British East India Company factory at Madras as a clerk and rose to become dubash to the Holland brothers, who served as Governors of Madras. Paupiah and the Hollands were guilty of trying to "dispose" David Haliburton, an important official and rival of the Hollands. While the Hollands managed to escape to the United Kingdom, Paupiah was convicted and fined. The trial was the subject of a book and the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, a relative of Haliburton, makes a reference to the episode in his book The Surgeon's Daughter (1827).

Early life

Avadhanam Paupiah was born into a Tummagunta Dravida Brahmin family^[1] in Nellore, which was then in the princely state of Carnatic.^[2] Paupiah had little formal education; however, he was well-versed in his native Telugu.^[2] Apart from this, he could also converse in Persian, which was the court language of the princely state and learnt English.^[2]

Service with the British East India Company and rise to power

Paupiah joined the service of the British East India Company at an early age. He worked as a "writer" (clerk who writes or copies documents and papers) in the Sea Customs Department of the British East India Company factory at Madras for sometime and was in charge of keeping the accounts of the Company.^[2]

Dubash to the Holland brothers

Soon, Paupiah became the chief dubash to the Holland brothers, John Holland and Edward J. Holland.^[2]^[3] The Holland brothers were powerful and influential officers in the Madras establishment.^[2] As dubash, Paupiah exerted as much influence over the Holland brothers.^[2]

The Holland brothers were extremely corrupt and when both of them were elected to the assembly, Paupiah assisted them in the unlawful ways by which they made money.^[2] John Holland reached the pinnacle of his career in 1789 when he was appointed Governor of Madras.^[2]

John served as governor from 7 February 1789 to 13 February 1790 and was succeeded by his brother Edward who served just one week. The two brothers amassed a lot of wealth during their terms as governor.^[2] During this time, Paupiah became the most influential Indian in the Presidency^{[ citation needed ]}; even the Nawab of Arcot had to pass through him to approach the governor.^[2]

The Haliburton affair

Edward and John Holland found their nemesis in David Haliburton, a member of the Board of Revenue who wished to expose their corrupt practices.^[2]^[3] Soon, the Hollands grew wary of him and his persistent campaign against them and desired to get rid of him through Paupiah.^[2]^[4] Paupiah forged evidence against Haliburton^[3] and thus brought an end to his period of service in India.^[2]^[4]

However, the scheme was exposed by Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General of India who unravelled the corrupt practices of the Hollands.^[2] The Hollands managed to escape and sail to England,^[2]^[3] but Paupiah was convicted along with three other Indians.^[2]^[3]

Paupiah was tried between 11 and 13 July 1792 for conspiracy against David Haliburton^[2] in the Court of Quarter Sessions presided over by Charles Medows.^[3] He was pronounced guilty and sentenced to three years imprisonment and to pay a fine of 2,000 pagodas^[2] or one thousand rupees.^[3] Avadhanum Paupiah's trial was one of the most famous criminal prosecutions of the time.^{[ citation needed ]}

Paupiah's trial was the subject of a 1793 book of the same name by David Haliburton, which was co-written by the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, who was a close relative of Haliburton.^[2] Scott also makes allusions to Avadhanum Paupiah in his novel The Surgeon's Daughter:

The artful Hindu, master counsellor of dark projects, an Oriental Machiavelli, whose premature wrinkles were the result of many intrigues, without scruples, to attain political or private advantage^[2]^[3]

Notes

↑ Proceedings of Meetings. Vol. 12. Indian Historical Records Commission. 1930. p. 28. Avadhanum Paupiah belonged to a poor but learned Brahmin family in Nellore District. His community is known as the Tummagunta Dravida Community.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Guy, Randor (15 June 2003). "Inspiration from Madras". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 16 November 2003.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ramaswami, N. S. (1984). Political History of Carnatic Under the Nawabs. Abhinav Publications. p. 413. ISBN 0836412621. ISBN 978-0-8364-1262-8.
1 2 Frykenberg, Robert Eric (2008). Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present. Oxford University Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-0198263777. ISBN 978-0-19-826377-7.

Related Research Articles

Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive,, also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East India Company (EIC) rule in Bengal. He began as a writer for the EIC in 1744 and established Company rule in Bengal by winning the Battle of Plassey in 1757. In return for supporting the Nawab Mir Jafar as ruler of Bengal, Clive was guaranteed a jagir of £30,000 per year which was the rent the EIC would otherwise pay to the Nawab for their tax-farming concession. When Clive left India in January 1767 he had a fortune of £180,000 which he remitted through the Dutch East India Company.

The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1935, was an administrative subdivision (province) of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including all of Andhra Pradesh, almost all of Tamil Nadu and some parts of Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana in the modern day. The city of Madras was the winter capital of the presidency and Ooty was the summer capital.

Thomas Parry was a Welsh merchant based in India. He was instrumental in establishing a trading company in Madras, India. Parry joined John William Dare to establish Parry & Dare in 1819 and this later became EID Parry company whose building gives the name of Parry's Corner, a well-known central business district of Chennai.

Telugu Brahmins are Telugu-speaking Brahmin communities native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They fall under the Pancha Dravida Brahmin classification of the Brahmin community in India. Telugu Brahmins are further divided into sections like Vaidiki, Niyogi, Deshastha, Dravida and Golkonda Vyapari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnatic Wars</span> 18th century wars between the French and the British

The Carnatic Wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. Three Carnatic Wars were fought between 1744 and 1763.

Dravida Brahmins, or simply Dravidulu, is a sub-caste of the Telugu Brahmins of Andhra Pradesh in South India, who migrated from Tamil-speaking regions. They are further divided into sub-sects based on the places where they have settled such as Aaraama Dravidulu, Pudur Dravidulu, Konaseema Dravidulu, Peruru Dravidulu, Tummagunta Dravidulu and Dimili Dravidulu.

The Carnatic Sultanate was a kingdom in South India between about 1690 and 1855, and was under the legal purview of the Nizam of Hyderabad, until their demise. They initially had their capital at Arcot in the present-day Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Their rule is an important period in the history of the Carnatic and Coromandel Coast regions, in which the Mughal Empire gave way to the rising influence of the Maratha Empire, and later the emergence of the British Raj.

Sa'adatullah Khan I or Sa'adatullah Khan was Nawab of Carnatic (r.1710–1732) and founder of Nawayath dynasty. He was an adventurer from Konkan in Maharashtra.

Joseph Collett (1673–1725) was a British administrator in the service of the British East India Company. He served as the deputy-governor of Bencoolen from 1712 to 1717 and as governor of the Madras Presidency from 1717 to 1720. He re-built Hertford Castle in England and stood for election to the British Parliament.

The Thanjavur Maratha kingdom ruled by the Bhonsle dynasty was a principality of Tamil Nadu between the 17th and 19th centuries. Their native language was Thanjavur Marathi. Venkoji was the founder of the dynasty.

Edward Harrison was a naval officer and official of the East India Company and British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1717 to 1726. He served as the President of Madras from 11 July 1711 to 8 January 1717.

Francis Hastings was a British administrator and a factor of the British East India Company who functioned as the President of Madras from 18 January 1720 to 15 October 1721.

M. R. Ry. Ananda Ranga Pillai was a dubash in the service of the French East India Company.

Nathaniel Elwick was a British merchant who served as the President of Fort St. George from 15 October 1721 to 15 January 1725.

The Battle of Madras or Fall of Madras took place in September 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession when a French force attacked and captured the city of Madras from its British garrison.

Madras Presidency was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, Madras Presidency included much of southern India, including the present-day Indian State of Tamil Nadu, the Malabar region of North Kerala, Lakshadweep Islands, the Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, Brahmapur and Ganjam districts of Orissa and the Bellary, Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi districts of Karnataka. The presidency had its capital at Madras.

The First Carnatic War (1740–1748) was the Indian theatre of the War of the Austrian Succession and the first of a series of Carnatic Wars that established early British dominance on the east coast of the Indian subcontinent. In this conflict the British and French East India Companies vied with each other on land for control of their respective trading posts at Madras, Pondicherry, and Cuddalore, while naval forces of France and Britain engaged each other off the coast. The war set the stage for the rapid growth of French hegemony in southern India under the command of French Governor-General Joseph François Dupleix in the Second Carnatic War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Trichinopoly (1743)</span> 1743 siege and capture of Trichinopoly by Nizam of Hyderabad

The siege of Trichinopoly was part of an extended series of conflicts between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Empire for control of the Carnatic region. On 29 August 1743, after a six-month siege, Murari Rao surrendered, giving Nizam ul Mulk (Nizam) the suzerainty of Trichinopoly. By the end of 1743, the Nizam had regained full control of Deccan. This stopped the Maratha interference in the region and ended their hegemony over the Carnatic. The Nizam resolved the internal conflicts among the regional hereditary nobles (Nawabs) for the seat of governor (Subedar) of Arcot State, and monitored the activities of the British East India company and French East India Company by limiting their access to ports and trading.

The Bahram Jung Mosque is a mosque situated in the neighbourhood of Nandanam in Chennai, India. The mosque was constructed between 1789 and 1795 by Muhammad Abdullah Qadir Nawaz Khan Bahadur Bahram Jung, a poet in the court of Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, the Nawab of the Carnatic.

Tondaimandalam, also known as Tondai Nadu, is a historical region located in the northernmost part of Tamil Nadu and southernmost part of Andhra Pradesh. The region comprises the districts which formed a part of the legendary kingdom of Athondai Chakravarti. The boundaries of Tondaimandalam are ambiguous – between the river basins of Penna River and Ponnaiyar River. During the reign of Rajaraja I, this region was called as Jayankonda Cholamandalam.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Proceedings of Meetings. Vol. 12. Indian Historical Records Commission. 1930. p. 28. Avadhanum Paupiah belonged to a poor but learned Brahmin family in Nellore District. His community is known as the Tummagunta Dravida Community.

[inspiration_thehindu-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Guy, Randor (15 June 2003). "Inspiration from Madras". The Hindu . Archived from the original on 16 November 2003.

[carnatic_nawabs-3] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Ramaswami, N. S. (1984). Political History of Carnatic Under the Nawabs. Abhinav Publications. p. 413. ISBN 0836412621. ISBN 978-0-8364-1262-8.

[christianity_in_indiap199-4] 1 2 Frykenberg, Robert Eric (2008). Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present. Oxford University Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-0198263777. ISBN 978-0-19-826377-7.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]