Poosapati / Pusapati was the ruling clan of the Northern Andhra region, Vizianagaram.
The Pusapati clan claims descent from Madhavavarma, who led a Rajput colony into the Krishna Valley in the late 6th century. [1] The members of the colony subsequently held important positions at the court of Golcanda. [1]
The Pusapati chieftain Sitaram Chandra Raju received the villages of Kumili and Gundredu from Raghunath Krishna Dev of the Jeypore Estate. [2] Viziaram Raju was appointed as an administrative minister of the Jeypore Estate by Ram Chandra Dev I [3] and succeeded his father as the head of the clan in 1710. [1] Viziaram Raju occupied a portion of the coastal territories of the Jeypore Estate under Vishwambhar Dev II [4] and moved the capital of the estate from Potnuru to Vizianagaram in 1712; he named the capital town after himself. [1] Viziaram Raju prompted the neighboring landowners (zamindars) to secede and gain independence from the Jeypore Estate. [3] In 1757, Viziaram Raju formed an alliance with Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau, which allowed him to seize the capital of the rival landowner of Bobbili. [1]
Following Viziaram Raju, the Pusapati clan was led first by Ananda Raju and next by Viziaram Raju II, who was largely controlled by his half-brother Sitarama Raju. [5] In 1761, Sitarama Raju attacked Parlakhemundi defeating its force and their Maratha allies further adding territory to the Vizianagaram Estate. [5] In 1768, Viziaram Raju II claimed the right to hold and cultivate (patta) Kasipuram, Nandapur, Madgol, etc. with the support of and marking the increasing involvement of the British East India Company; this resulted in the dissatisfied landowners rising against Vizianagaram. [6] As Viziaram Raju II was unable to make the requisite revenue collection payments, he was ordered to leave the district. [7] He defied the orders, which resulted in the Battle of Padmanabham against the East India Company Madras Presidency forces led by Colonel Prendergast wherein Viziaram Raju II was defeated and slain. [8]
Following the Battle of Padmanabham, Narayana Babu Raju was unable to quell the increasing revolts from the hill landowners, which ultimately led to further reductions of the Vizianagaram Estate. [8] The successive chieftains Viziaram Gajapati Raju and Ananda Raju proved to be capable leaders and brought in a period of flourishing for the Vizianagaram Estate. [8]
The Pusapatis obtained the title of Gajapati after the battle of Nandapur. [9]
Jeypore is a city in Koraput district in the Indian state of Odisha. It was established by Vir Vikram Dev in the mid 17th century. The kingdom was defeated by the East India Company in 1777 who declared it a Zamindari or Feudatory of the British Crown and much later got acknowledged as a Princely state until its dissolution in the Dominion of India in 1947.
Padmanabham mandal is one of the 46 mandals in Visakhapatnam District in India. It is under the administration of Bhemunipatnam revenue division and the headquarters is located at Padmanabham. The Mandal is bounded by Bheemunipatnam, Anandapuram mandals in Visakhapatnam District and Bhogapuram mandal in Vizianagaram District. Great freedom fighter Alluri Sitarama Raju was born in Pandrangi village in this Mandal.Rajasagi Suryanarayana Raju, MLA Bheemili from 1972–78 is from this Mandal. Also Rajasagi Appalanarasimha Raju MLA Bheemili from 1985 to 2004 is also from this Mandal.
Maharaja Pusapati Vijayrama Gajapati Raju D.Litt. was an Indian parliamentarian and philanthropist. He was the eldest son of Maharaja Alak Narayanadev Gajapathi Raju and Vidyavathi Devi of Vizianagaram estate in Andhra Pradesh. He was born at Phool Bagh Palace in Vizianagaram.
Madugula is a village in Anakapalli district in the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. It was also known as Vaddadi or Vaddadimadugula and was founded by the rulers of the Matsya dynasty. Later, it merged into the kingdom of Nandapur–Jeypore and during the British Raj it remained an independent Zamindari for sometime. Later, in 1915 the zamindaris of Madugula and Pachipenta were purchased by Maharaja Vikram Dev III and they became a part of Jeypore Samasthanam and were governed by the Maharaja of Jeypore until 1947.
North Andhra or Uttara Andhra, also known as Kalinga Andhra, is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is between the Eastern Ghats and the coast of the Bay of Bengal. It comprises six northern districts of the state, Srikakulam, Parvathipuram Manyam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, half of the Alluri Sitharama Raju district and Anakapalli. Alluri Sitharama Raju district was carved out of Erstwhile Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts. So, half of the Alluri Sitharamaraju district belongs to North Andhra/ Uttara Andhra and the southern part of this district belongs to Coastal Andhra region/ Godavari region. As of 2011 census of India, the region with six districts has a population of 9,338,177.
Simhadri Narasimha Satakam is a compilation of Telugu poems by Gogulapati Kurmanatha Kavi in the 18th century. He wrote the Satakam extempore in praise of Lord Varaha Narasimha of Simhachalam.
Maharajah's College, or M. R. College, established in 1879, it is an autonomous institution located in Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh.
Maharajah's Government College of Music and Dance is an educational institution in Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the first music college in South India.
The name is derived from its founder Raja Vijayaram Raj who established a sovereign kingdom by claiming independence from the Kingdom of Jeypore in 1711. It formed alliances with the French and British East India Company to conquer the neighbouring principalities of Bobbili, Kurupam, Paralakhemundi and the Kingdom of Jeypore. However, they fell out with the British and as a result were attacked and defeated in the Battle of Padmanabham. They were annexed as a tributary estate like other principalities and remained so, until their accession to the Indian Union in 1949.
Uma Gajapathi Raju is an Indian politician and a former member of Indian Parliament. She was born at Palghat, Kerala on 17 November 1953. She was educated at Madras University. She married Pusapati Ananda Gajapathi Raju on 18 August 1971. They had 2 daughters. They divorced in 1989 and she married film maker Ramesh Sharma in 1991. Anand Ganapathi Raju died in 2016.
Tandra Paparayudu was an Army General of Bobbili who assassinated Pusapati Vijayarama Gajapati Raju I Raja of Vizianagaram, and committed his Royal suicide during the Battle of Bobbili in 1757, a significant historical event in the Princely state of Vizianagaram, the present day Vizianagaram district of Andhra Pradesh.
This is a list of political families in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju is an Indian politician and the former Union Minister for Civil Aviation in the Narendra Modi Government. A scion of royal family of Vizianagaram princely state, he is the younger son of the last Maharaja of Vizianagaram. He was a member of Andhra Pradesh State legislature for over twenty five years and was a Minister in the Govt. of A.P., for thirteen years holding the portfolios of Commercial Tax, Excise, Legislative affairs, Finance, Planning and Revenue.
Jeypore Estate or Jeypore Zamindari was a Zamindari estate of the Madras Presidency and later of Orissa Province in British India. Historically it was a kingdom known as Jeypore Kingdom, located in the highlands of the western interiors of the Kalinga region that existed from the mid-15th century to 1777 CE. It was earlier a tributary state of the Gajapati Empire and following its decline in 1540, it gained sovereignty and later became a tributary state of the Qutb Shahis until 1671. The kingdom regained degrees of semi-independence until it became a vassal state of the British in 1777. It eventually formed a part of the linguistic Orissa Province in 1936 upon transfer from the Madras Province and became a part of the independent Union of India in 1947.
Vishwanath Dev Gajapati was the king of Jeypore who established a kingdom in the region of southern Odisha and northern Andhra Pradesh. The Silavamsa king Pratap Ganga Raja died without any male heir, only leaving behind his wife and daughter Lilavati who married Vinayak Dev, the ruler Gudari and Great Grandfather of Vishwanath Dev Gajapati.
Vikram Dev I or Vikram Dev was the ruler of Jeypore from 1758 to 1781. He succeeded his brother Lal Krishna Dev. He retransferred the capital from Narayanapatna to Jeypore which had been deserted from the time of Balaram Dev in 1711. In the last years of his reign, the kingdom was demoted to a zamindari after they were defeated by the British.
Pusapati Ananda Gajapati Raju Vijayanagaram Pusapati royalist, former minister, Chairman of Mansa Trust.
Calamur Chandrasekhara Sastri (1854–1887), sometimes Sastry or Sastriyar, was the first Principal and Professor of English and Sanskrit of the Maharajah's College at Vizianagaram from his appointment in 1875, developing it from a secondary school with four teachers into a graduate institution before his death at the age of 32 in 1887, with the support of the contemporaneously reigning Maharajas of Vizianagaram, Pusapati Vijayarama Gajapathi Raju III and Pusapati Ananda Gajapati Raju. He was the first Indian principal of any South Indian college at the time.
Pusapati Aditi Vijayalakshmi Gajapathi Raju is an Indian politician from Andhra Pradesh. She is a first-time MLA from Vizianagaram Assembly Constituency in Vizianagaram District. She represents Telugu Desam Party. She won the 2024 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election.