Our NAINAMMA Ramalakshmidevamma’s Family History -- Ra Reddys of Bijjinapalli

Father -- Mr. Ramakrishna Reddy. Her Grand Father -- Rama Reddy.

Rama Reddy had four wives and only one of them had a daughter. There was no male heir. Rama Reddy was a Deshmukh (Feudal Lord) of 32 villages with TADOOR as his Headquarters, where he lived. He used to wear footwear covered in gold and send people to Poona, Maharashtra to buy him special tea.  He lived a very lavish life like a great King and entertained visitors, who came to visit him. He was a great lover of Music and Dance. All his visitors enjoyed his company. He builds a very big and most modern house, with Swimming Pools. This House was more like a fortress and lived with all the comforts with his four wives and a daughter.

At 60 years, a very unhappy man because there were no male heirs in spite of having four wives. He used to dress like an English hunter, with Khaki Pant and Shirt, with a typical English Hat and a twelve bore Gun.

He (Rama Reddy) used to go to Nagar Kunool for Official work like depositing the taxes, settling land disputes with the Nizam officials. There he encountered another man who dresses exactly like him and every one was greeting him. He did not know who the stranger was, but very soon came to know that he was Raja Rameshwer Rao-1 of Wanaparthy, a neighbouring Deshmukh. Raja Saheb was a very good horseman and was always at war with neighbouring Deshmukhs for money, so that he can maintain an African Cavalry for Nizam of Hyderabad.The Nizam of Hyderabad gave the title of Raja Saheb to Rameshwer Rao-1 of Wanaparthy, as he was maintaining a small army f or Nizam of Hyderabad.

Raja Saheb also enquired about this Gentleman (Rama Reddy), who was like him and came to know about him and more so, about Rama Reddy not having a male heir. Raja Saheb then proposed Rama Reddy to marry his sister, who was 24 years old and was not married, but beautiful. She used to dress like her brother, Raja Saheb and go for hunting along with him. This probably was the reason that she was not married. Ram Reddy initially rejected the offer due to his age and he having already four wives, but latter agreed when on a hunting expedition with Raja Saheb, who convinced him that his sister will definitely bore him sons. As expected they got married and the latest wife, Raja Saheb’s sister bore him two sons and a daughter. Rama Reddy died when the children were very young.

Taking advantage of the household run by five widows of Rama Reddy, his first son Ramkrishna Reddy, aged six was kidnapped from Tadoor by the Bijjinapally family, who had no male heirs and subsequently made this act of kidnapping look very legal.

About the Bijjinapally family, The person who inherited the whole of family Fortune of Karnam, a Telugu Reddy, who was a Tax Collector for Nizam’s Government in that area. This person (Name not known ) i.e Karnam had given shelter to this unnamed intelligent boy who came for a living. This boy was helping Karnam in all his work and stayed with him and learned to read and write from his master. Karnam had no children, was a big landowner and had lots of wealth. Karnam adopted this young boy.

This young boy is actually from Practoor in Kadapa district,who migrated to Mahabubnagar, because of continuous drought and mother’s death, along with his father and seven brothers. Each one of them settled in different villages for livelihood. Karnam died due to old age leaving the whole fortune to this young man, who was a Reddy like him.

This Young Man married and bore 21 children; all of them died leaving only two young boys. These two boys got married at a very young age that is about ten. These two young boys died along with their parents due to plague/cholera, leaving behind two young widows, who were running the Bijjinapalli household.

As these two widows of Bijjapalli were getting old, they wanted to adopt a son, who can inherit the family wealth. It is believed that there was a necessity and the only option was to adopt from Tadoor household of Rama Reddy because of some old official order, which could easily be accepted by the officials of Nizam. So they send a word to Tadoor Household to give one of their sons in adoption to Bijjinapalli. The Tadoor household rejected the offer.

These old widows of Bijjinapalli planned to kidnap one of the boys from Tadoor, by bribing the security guards at Tadoor fort. The older boy was kidnapped, when sleeping/druged from the Fort, which had no known doors. The boy Ramakrishna Reddy was smuggled out from the fort through a rainwater drain on a rainy day in the night. The boy Ramakrishna was bought to Bijjinapally, which was about fifty miles from Tadoor on a horseback. The boy was married that night and also the adoption ceremony took place before Sun rise. Subsequently there was a war between two families in which many died and no solution was found.

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