Ceded Districts is the name of an area in the

Deccan The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

that was 'ceded' to the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

by the Nizam in 1800. The name was in use during the whole period of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

, even though the denomination had no official weight for legal or administrative purposes. The area largely corresponds to the modern region of

Rayalaseema Rayalaseema (IAST: ''Rāyalasīma'') is a geographic region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It comprises four southern districts of the State, from prior to the districts reorganisation in 2022, namely Kurnool, Anantapur, Kadapa, and ...

History

Following the Treaty of Seringapatam the Tippu Sultan accepted to give his northern territory to the

Nizam of Hyderabad Nizam of Hyderabad was the title of the ruler of Hyderabad State ( part of the Indian state of Telangana, and the Kalyana-Karnataka region of Karnataka). ''Nizam'' is a shortened form of (; ), and was the title bestowed upon Asaf Jah I wh ...

in 1792 AD. In 1796 AD, the then Nizam Asaf Jah II, harassed by the

Marathas The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern India, early modern polity in the Indian subcontinent. It comprised the realms of the Peshwa and four major independent List of Maratha dynasties and states, Ma ...

and

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (, , ''Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu''; 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799) commonly referred to as Sher-e-Mysore or "Tiger of Mysore", was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery ...

, opted to get British military protection under Lord Wellesley's doctrine of Subsidiary Alliance. Now, as a part of this agreement, the Nizam ceded a large portion of the acquired territory to the British, to be added to the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

. This area was also known as the ''Ceded Districts'', a term still used for the areas, and included the present day districts of Anantapuram, Kadapa (Cuddapah), much of Karnoolu (Kurnool),

Bellary Ballari (formerly Bellary) is a city in the Ballari district in state of Karnataka, India. Ballari houses many steel plants such as JSW Vijayanagar, one of the largest in Asia. Ballari district is also known as the ‘Steel city of South Ind ...

, and parts of

Tumkur Tumkur, officially Tumakuru, is a city and headquarters of Tumakuru district in the Karnataka state of India. Tumkur is known for Siddaganga Matha. Tumkur hosts India's first mega food park, a project of the ministry of food processing. The Ind ...

( Pavagada

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ...

). After the defeat and death of

in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at Battle of Srirangapattana, the Mysooru (Mysore) territories (Map) were divided up between the Wodeyars, the Nizam and the

References

Districts of British India Territorial evolution {{India-hist-stub