Stamp paper issued by East India Company found in Tamil Nadu’s Palani

CHENNAI: A stamp paper issued by the East India Company in 1818 -- a bond executed by a female zamindar -- has been found in Palani in Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu.

Archaeologist V Narayanamoorthy said V Meena of Palani had told him about an old document in her possession and asked him to decipher it for her. The document, which was a stamp paper, had been signed by the Balasamudram zamindar Chinnobalamma.

The document measured 10.5 cm x 16.5 cm and was written in 31 lines. These lines mention the names of 23 managers who administered her property. The bond was executed on Feb 21, 1818.

Narayanamoorthy said the bond paper was thick and had stood the test of time and was valued at two annas.

The mention of two annas, in Tamil, English, Urdu and Telugu in Intaglio print (where the letter or design is engraved into the design) can be seen on the left-hand corner of the paper.

The circular treasury stamp of the East India Company is seen on the right-hand side, with the name Pokkisham’ in Tamil, treasury in English, gajana in Urdu and pokkishamu in Telugu written on it.

The names suggest that the managers mentioned in the bond belonged to different castes. Some of the names are: Kattaya Goundar, Saaibu, Samban, Kudumban, Devan, Rawuthan, Chetty, Nayakkan, Pillai, Ayyan and others.

Narayanamurthy said that the names had not been written in any caste hierarchy as is seen today.

He said that Chinnobalamma had become the head of the zameen, which had been a part of Palani after the death of her husband, Velayudha Chinnoba Nayakar. She was the head of the erstwhile zameen only for namesake and it was the East India Company which managed it.

Chinnobalamma was given 30 gold coins as administrative cost by the company during her reign. This may have been the reason why she had to give the names of her managers on an official document.

As she did not have children, the parcel of land was taken over by the East India Company under the doctrine of lapse policy.

There is a thread passing through the single sheet indicating that it was a part of a bunch of papers.

While bonds on stamp papers executed by the British govt are found in large numbers, that of the East India Company is rare, according to Narayanamoorthy.