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kingdom in southern India from 1729 to 1949
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The Kingdom of Travancore, also known as the Thiruvithamkoor Kingdom (Malayalam: [t̪iɾuʋid̪aːŋɡuːr]) and Travancore State, was a princely state in the Indian subcontinent that lasted from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore royal family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At its zenith, the kingdom covered most of the south of modern-day Kerala (Idukki, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, Kollam, and Thiruvananthapuram districts, major portions of Ernakulam district, Puthenchira village of Thrissur district) and the southernmost part of modern-day Tamil Nadu (Kanyakumari district and some parts of Tenkasi district) with the Thachudaya Kaimal's enclave of Irinjalakuda Koodalmanikyam temple in the neighbouring kingdom of Cochin. However, the Tangasseri area of Kollam City and Anchuthengu near Attingal in Thiruvananthapuram were parts of British India.
Geographically, Malabar District of Madras Presidency was to the north, the Madurai and Tirunelveli districts of Pandya Nadu region in Madras Presidency to the east, and the Indian Ocean to the south, and the Arabian Sea to the west.
Travancore was divided into five divisions: Padmanabhapuram, Thiruvananthapuram, Quilon, Kottayam, and Devikulam. Padmanabhapuram and Devikulam divisions were predominantly Tamil-speaking regions with small Malayalam-speaking minorities. Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, and Kottayam divisions were predominantly Malayalam-speaking regions with small Tamil-speaking minorities.
King Marthanda Varma inherited the small feudal state of Venad in 1723, and built it into Travancore. Marthanda Varma led the Travancorean forces during the Travancore–Dutch War of 1739–46, which culminated in the Battle of Colachel. The defeat of the Dutch by Travancore is considered the earliest example of an organised power from Asia overcoming European military technology and tactics. Marthanda Varma went on to conquer most of the smaller principalities of the native rulers.
The Travancore royal family signed a treaty with the British in 1788, thereby accepting British dominance. Later, in 1805, they revised the treaty, leading to a diminution of royal authority and the loss of political independence for Travancore. They had to give up their ruling rights over the common people in 1949 when Travancore was forced to merge with independent India.
The kingdom takes its name from Thiruvithamcode in the present-day Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu.
The region had many small independent kingdoms. Later, at the peak of the Chera–Chola–Pandya rule, this region became part of the Chera Kingdom (except for the Ay kingdom, which always remained independent). When the region was part of the Chera empire, it was still known as Thiruvazhumkode. It was contracted to Thiruvankode, and anglicised by the English to Travancore.
In the course of time, the Ay clan, part of the Chera empire, which ruled the Thiruvazhumkode area, became an independent kingdom, and the land was called Aayi Desam or Aayi Rajyam, meaning 'Aayi territory'. The Aayis controlled the land from the present-day Kollam district in the north, through Thiruvananthapuram district to Kanyakumari district in the south. There were two capitals, the major one at Kollam (Venad Swaroopam or Desinganadu) and a subsidiary one at Thrippapur (Thrippapur Swaroopam or Nanjinad). The kingdom was thus also called Venad. Kings of Venad had built residential palaces in Thiruvithamcode and Kalkulam. Thiruvithamcode became the capital of the Thrippapur Swaroopam, and the country was referred to as Thiruvithamcode by Europeans even after the capital had been moved in 1601 to Padmanabhapuram, near Kalkulam.
The Chera empire had dissolved by around 1100 and thereafter the territory comprised numerous small kingdoms until the time of Marthanda Varma who, as king of Venad from 1729, employed brutal methods to unify them. During his reign, Thiruvithamkoor (anglicised as Travancore) became the official name.
The kingdom of Travancore was located at the extreme southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. Geographically, Travancore was divided into three climatically distinct regions: the eastern highlands (rugged and cool mountainous terrain), the central midlands (rolling hills), and the western lowlands (coastal plains).
Due to the geographical isolation of the Malabar Coast from the rest of the Indian peninsula, attributed to the presence of the Western Ghats mountain ranges lying parallel to the coast, the population and language spoken in Kerala differed from those in neighboring states such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
According to the religious text "Keralolpathi" by the Nambudhiri Brahmins, the region from Gokarna to Kanyakumari district was created when Parashurama threw his axe and claimed this land, known as Parashuramakshetra.
The Chera dynasty governed the Malabar Coast between Alappuzha in the south and Kasaragod in the north. The region around Coimbatore was ruled by the Cheras during the Sangam period roughly between the first and the fourth centuries CE and served as the eastern entrance to the Palakkad Gap, the principal trade route between the Malabar Coast and Tamil Nadu. However the southern region of the present-day Kerala state was under the Ay dynasty. During the Ay dynasty, they spoke a language known as Middle Tamil. When the Ay dynasty was conquered and succeeded by the Kulashekara Perumals, based in Kollam (later known as Venad), during the period of the Chera Kulashekara Perumal (Keralaputras) dynasty, the language evolved into Old Malayalam. The Quilon copper plates (849/850 CE) are considered the oldest available inscription written in Old Malayalam. Later, the northern districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alapuzha, and Pathanamthitta became proper Malayalam-speaking populations in Kerala, while the other districts showed influences from Arabic, Tamil and Kannada languages. During the period of Pattom Thanu Pillai, Travancore was referred to as Malayalam state or the land of proper Malayalis.
Located at the tip of the Indian subcontinent, the former state of Venad was traditionally ruled by rajas known as the Venattadis. Until the end of the 11th century AD, it was a small principality in the Ay Kingdom. The Ays were the earliest ruling dynasty in southern Kerala, who, at their zenith, ruled over a region from Nagercoil in the south to Thiruvananthapuram in the north. Their capital during the first Sangam age was in Aykudi and later, towards the end of the eighth century AD, at Quilon (Kollam). Though a series of attacks by the resurgent Pandyas between the seventh and eighth centuries caused the decline of the Ays, the dynasty was powerful until the beginning of the tenth century. Sulaiman al-Tajir, a Persian merchant who visited Kerala during the reign of Sthanu Ravi Varma (9th century CE), recorded the existence of extensive trade between Kerala and China, based at the port of Kollam.
When the Ay diminished, Venad became the southernmost principality of the Second Chera Kingdom. An invasion of the Cholas into Venad caused the destruction of Kollam in 1096. However, the Chera capital, Mahodayapuram, also fell in the subsequent Chola attack, which compelled the Chera king, Rama Varma Kulasekara, to shift his capital to Kollam. Thus, Rama Varma Kulasekara, the last emperor of the Chera dynasty, was probably the founder of the Venad royal house, and the title of the Chera kings, Kulasekara, was thenceforth kept by the rulers of Venad. Thus the end of the Second Chera dynasty in the 12th century marks the independence of Venad.
In the second half of the 12th century, two branches of the Ay dynasty, the Thrippappur and Chirava, merged in the Venad family, which set up the tradition of designating the ruler of Venad as Chirava Moopan and the heir-apparent as Thrippappur Moopan. While the Chrirava Moopan had his residence at Kollam, the Thrippappur Moopan resided at his palace in Thrippappur, nine miles north of Thiruvananthapuram, and was vested with authority over the temples of Venad kingdom, especially the Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple.
In the early 18th century CE, the Travancore royal family adopted some members from the royal family of Kolathunadu based at Kannur, and Parappanad in present-day Malappuram district. The history of Travancore began with Marthanda Varma, who inherited the kingdom of Venad (Thrippappur), and expanded it into Travancore during his reign (1729–1758). After defeating a union of feudal lords and establishing internal peace, he expanded the kingdom of Venad through a series of military campaigns from Kanyakumari in the south to the borders of Kochi in the north during his 29-year rule.
During his rule occurred the Travancore–Dutch War (1739–1753) between Travancore and the Dutch East India Company, which had been allied to some of these kingdoms. In 1741, Travancore won the Battle of Colachel against the Dutch, resulting in the complete eclipse of Dutch power in the region. In this battle Travancore forces captured the Dutch Captain, Eustachius De Lannoy; he later defected to Travancore. De Lannoy was appointed captain of His Highness' bodyguard and later Senior Admiral ("Valiya kappittan") and modernised the Travancore army by introducing firearms and artillery. From 1741 to 1758, De Lannoy remained in command of the Travancore forces and was involved in annexation of small principalities.
Travancore became the most dominant state in the Kerala region by defeating the powerful Zamorin of Kozhikode in the battle of Purakkad in 1755. Ramayyan Dalawa, the prime minister (1737–1756) of Marthanda Varma, also played an important role in this consolidation and expansion.
On 3 January 1750, (5 Makaram, 925 Kollavarsham), Marthanda Varma virtually "dedicated" Travancore to his tutelary deity Padmanabha, one of the aspects of the Hindu God Vishnu with a lotus issuing from his navel on which Brahma sits. From then on the rulers of Travancore ruled as the "servants of Padmanabha" (the Padmnabha-dasar).
At the Battle of Ambalapuzha, Marthanda Varma defeated the union of the deposed kings and the king of the Cochin kingdom.
Marthanda Varma's successor Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma (1758–1798), who was popularly known as Dharma Raja, shifted the capital in 1795 from Padmanabhapuram to Thiruvananthapuram. Dharma Raja's period is considered a golden age in the history of Travancore. He not only retained the territorial gains of his predecessor, but also improved and encouraged social development. He was greatly assisted by a very efficient administrator, Raja Kesavadas, the Diwan of Travancore.
Travancore often allied with the English East India Company in military conflicts. During Dharma Raja's reign, Tipu Sultan, the de facto ruler of Mysore and the son of Hyder Ali, attacked Travancore in 1789 as a part of the Mysore invasion of Kerala. Dharma Raja had earlier refused to hand over the Hindu political refugees from the Mysore occupation of Malabar who had been given asylum in Travancore. The Mysore army entered the Cochin kingdom from Coimbatore in November 1789 and reached Thrissur in December. On 28 December 1789 Tipu Sultan attacked the Nedunkotta (northern lines) from the north, causing the Battle of Nedumkotta and the defeat of the Mysore army.
On Dharma Raja's death in 1798, Balarama Varma (1798–1810), the weakest ruler of the dynasty, took over at the age of sixteen. A treaty brought Travancore under a subsidiary alliance with the English East India Company in 1795.
The prime ministers (dalawas or dewans) started to take control of the kingdom beginning with Velu Thampi Dalawa (Velayudhan Chempakaraman Thampi) (1799–1809), who was appointed as the dewan following the dismissal of Jayanthan Sankaran Nampoothiri (1798–1799). Initially, Velayudhan Chempakaraman Thampi and the East India Company got along very well. When a section of the Travancore army mutinied in 1805 against Velu Thampi, he sought refuge with the British Resident Colonel (later General) Colin Macaulay and later used company troops to crush the mutiny. Velu Thampi also played a key role in negotiating a new treaty between Travancore and the East India Company. However, the company's demands for compensating payment for their involvement in the Travancore–Mysore War (1791) on behalf of Travancore led to tension between the dewan and Colonel Macaulay. Velu Thampi and the dewan of Cochin kingdom, Paliath Achan Govindan Menon, who was unhappy with Macaulay for granting asylum to his enemy Kunhi Krishna Menon, declared "war" on the East India Company.
The East India Company army defeated Paliath Achan's army in Cochin on 27 February 1809. Paliath Achan surrendered to the East India Company and was exiled to Madras and later to Benaras. The company defeated forces under Velu Thampi at battles near Nagercoil and Kollam, and inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels, many of whom then deserted and returned home. The Maharajah of Travancore, who hitherto had not openly taken any part in the rebellion, now allied with the British and appointed one of Thampi's enemies as his prime minister. The allied East India Company army and the Travancore soldiers camped in Pappanamcode, just outside Thiruvananthapuram. Velu Thampi now organised a guerrilla struggle against the company, but committed suicide to avoid capture by the Travancore army. After the mutiny of 1805 against Velu Thampi, most of the Nair army battalions of Travancore were disbanded, and after Velu Thampi's uprising, almost all of the remaining Travancore forces were also disbanded, with the East India Company undertaking to serve the Rajah in cases of external and internal aggression.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Travancore”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.