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The regency was not brought about without strong opposition. It was represented to the Government of India that, during the minority, the administration might be entrusted to a resident English Superintendent. The Madras Government, however, were strongly for Sashiah Sastri's regency, and the Supreme Government deferred to their opinion.

Sashiah Sastri, writing of this to an intimate friend, says :

"You will be glad to learn that the regency is no longer in suspense...... Well, it is a queer position. There is nothing but prickly pear all round in the direction of the palace. But I believe I have the people with me......It is after all the hand of Providence that invisibly, though none the less certainly, guides us and controls our own destinies and the destinies of Native States and of all kingdoms on earth......

I don't myself feel anything like my friends in the matter. It has, for one thing, rather increased the anxieties of my position. As to the high sounding title I am almost tempted to ask, what is in a name ?”

His friend Sir Madhava Rao wrote to Sashiah Sastri :

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.Let me congratulate you most warmly on your attainment of the high and honourable position you now оссиру.

When we used to meet in our early years and eat our tiffin together, little did we dream that we were destined to become such eminent men!! God be praised for the great

good fortune which has attended us. May you long, long enjoy good health plus your position.

No doubt you will still have difficulties, but these will not be too much for your uncommon tact and judgment."

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Suitable arrangements were made for the proper bringing up of the minor Rajah. Writing to Mr. William Digby in December 1889, Sashiah Sastri thus speaks of the progress of his ward :My old Rajah died in 1886 (April 15) leaving an adopted son (otherwise grandson by his daughter) for the succession and a clear field for me to finish off the various reforms and numerous improvements which had been started and were in various stages of progress. A week hence the young Rajah will be entering on his 15th year. His progress in his studies has been so far very remarkable. He rides and drives well. He is excellent at Tennis. He has taken very kindly to Drawing, Carpentry and Photography as his indoor recreations and has shown great taste and aptitude. He moves with dignity and is ever cool and collected. He is blessed with an engaging countenance and a kindly harmless disposition. If all goes well, there is every reason to hope that six years hence the Pudukota State will be able to congratulate itself on the possession of a Ruler in no way inferior to the best of Native Rulers in India, in training, ability or character. It is very doubtful whether I shall live to see that day, but that does not diminish my earnestness to do all in my power to mould the character of the young Rajah.”

Nobly and conscientiously indeed had Sashiah Sastri discharged his stewardship in the 16

years of his administration. The state, the fair state,

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in the words of Lord Clive, of the illustrious family of the Tondiman,' the Tondiman family of whom Captain John Fyffe, Resident, writes in 1828: "In prosperity or adversity, from the earliest period of our connection with them, they have never failed us; neither considerations of danger nor allurements of advantage have ever induced them to swerve from their allegiance; and their services, sometimes in very critical conjuctures when we were struggling for Empire, have been eloquently recorded in the pages of history"—this state was bankrupt and sinking from chronic mismanagement when Sashiah Sastri was called to rescue it. Not by any fluke or windfall or stroke of good luck but by dint of sheer hard work, vigilance and perseverance and often in spite of much opposition had the state been "saved from imminent annexation," its ruler rescued from disgrace and restored to dignity and honour, the revenues more than doubled and every branch of the administration placed on a firm and efficient footing.

In November 1894 the Rajah was installed on the throne of his ancestors by the then Governor of Madras, Lord Wenlock, who thus referred to the services of Sashiah Sastri in his address to the Rajah :

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......The inheritance upon which you are this day entering was twenty years ago financially and in every other respect in a most dilapidated condition. The aspect of affairs is now very different; you will have made over to you a state not only unencumbered with debt but possessing a balance of between two and three lakhs, while there is every prospect of its yielding an increasing revenue if administered with due care. On every side material improvements are visible. Every branch of the administration has been more or less reformed, the revenue has improved, the roads are excellent, and the capital is adorned with modern public buildings. All these are due to the untiring energy and devotion to his duties of Dewan-Regent Mr. Sashiah Sastri, one of that talented body, the proficients of the High School, so many members of which have taken a prominent and honourable share in public affairs. Mr. Sashiah Sastri became Dewan in 1878, and after serving your grandfather until his demise in 1886, has since then continued to work for the well-being of the state of Pudukota with great ability and remarkable fidelity and honesty of purpose. The result of his labours has been so successful that what was at the time of his accession to office almost a wreck is at the present moment a prosperous possession. He is now, after a long and trying period of devotion to public service, laying aside official harness in view to enjoying a well-earned repose. I consider that Your Highness owes him a deep debt of gratitude and I am pleased to learn that you have decided to manifest your appreciation of the service done by him on his retirement in an appropriate manner."

This chapter cannot better conclude than with the reply of Sashiah Sastri :

"Your Excellency and Rajah,—I was not prepared for

so handsome an allusion to my humble services rendered to the state-such as has appeared in Your Excellency's address. I had no idea that my services were to be referred to by Your Excellency in such flattering terms. I feel that I have only done my duty in having served the state as much as lay in my power. When I had retired almost from public business His Highness the late Rajah was good enough to invite me to take charge of the administration at a critical time, when matters connected with its affairs had come almost to a very low ebb. Under the blessings of God and the Madras Government, without whose support I would not have been able to do anything, things have prospered beyond all my expectation. I do fervently pray and join in fact with Your Excellency in praying, that the high education and excellent training which His Highness the Rajah has received under the directions of the Madras Government will bear good fruit in time, so that His Highness will far excel his predecessors in the excellent manner in which he holds his sway over his people. I am not much of a speaker, and the words that I now utter come not from my lips but from my heart, and those words must necessarily be few. I take this opportunity of thanking, through Your Excellency, the Madras Government, which has been so kind as to intrust me with the position which none of my fellows have attained-which position, I am happy to hear at this moment I have fulfilled in a manner satisfactory to Your Excellency's Government."

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