I.
THE FOUNDER OF THE SAMASTHANAM.
Rajah Pedda Rayadu Bahadur Garu.
Nirvana Rayappa, generally called Pedda Rayadu, the fifteenth Rajah of the Venkatagiri Samasthanam, was one of two chiefs who arrived in the Northern Circars in the train of Sher Mahammad Khan, when that General came to conquer the country for the Mogul Government; and for his valuable services at that time was rewarded by the grant to him of the Rajam Samasthanam. The other chief was Madhava Varma, the founder of the Vizianagaram Samasthanam. With the Samasthanam Pedda Rayadu was granted the hereditary titles of Rajah and Bahadur, and the
