Zamindaris were established in the Madras Presidency by the government of the British East India Company starting from 1799 onwards.
These settlements were established in order to delineate authority to landlords and thereby relieve the ryot from the control of middlemen who often exploited them.
In the areas administered by the British, three systems of land proprietorship existed: zamindaris, inams and ryotwaris.
The largest of these were Jeypore Estate which was the largest amongst all zamindaris in the Presidency with an area of 12,000 square miles (31,000 km2), Vizianagaram with 2,970 square miles (7,700 km2), Ramnad, Ganapur and Sivaganga, Ramnad and Sivaganga being demoted princely states, were larger in size than the princely states of Cochin or Pudukkottai.
Ramnad, the larger of the two, covered an area of 2,351 square miles (6,090 km2), and was second only to Travancore amongst princely states in Madras Presidency.