The Saga of the Padmanabhadasas II - Defenders of Hindu Dharma

If there is one kingdom that we can showcase as a model state that followed Hindu dharma in its truest most sincerest form it is the Travancore Kingdom. The followers were not only enlightened men and women of the arts but also looked after their state subjects with love and care. Feeding the poor, participating in traditions and festivities with the public, making donations where needed, making social changes as required, involving themselves in education of their citizenry, encouraging public health and distribution of public goods, all this came naturally to the Travancore Mahārājas. There can be no greater tribute to their having done a fine job than the satire directed at them by no less than Robert Caldwell. Who as we know was waiting in the wings to mainstream Dravidianism. The fact that the Travancore Mahārājas were dhārmika must have rankled and that they were devout enough to worship both their traditional Devi Bhagavathi as well as revere the Shankaracharyas must have been puzzling to a proselytizing Abrahamic. While in the previous part we witnessed the origin and creation of the Travancore Kingdom, here we are privy to some of their historic battles, their religious leanings, their rulings, their belief systems, and their interactions with the members of Ezhava community. They remained a bulwark against Christian conversions and also against further Islamization of Malabar. During the engineered famines by the British, they took it upon themselves to safeguard their kingdom from such disasters by resorting to importing grains or introducing alternative sources such as tapioca or bājra. In the famine of 1943 for example:

Where about 6% of Bengal population perished due to famine (with more than half of them due to direct starvation), corresponding figure for Travancore did not even touch 0.5%. Considering that Bengal produced enough rice to feed 90% of its population while Travancore was always a rice deficient kingdom (producing only half of its requirement), this achievement given the dire circumstances (especially with tapioca being not available for consumption) is laudable.

Going back in history to the most famous of them, the Dutch sources describe Marthanda Varma as a powerful military strategist and a ruthless ruler (1):

The king of Travancore is of the Chodilecur Faction, a Nair by caste, adopted from the house of Colastry, [Kolattiri of Cannanore] and styles himself Cuchi Tambaran or the little king. This state was formerly divided among- five houses, Travancore, Attinga, Eleda Surovan, Peritally and Signatty; and since the four first states have been united, they form the most powerful state in Malabar. The other states have, without harmony (which is seldom found in the ruling families), little power ; but this chief on the contrary has with the help of the English, had all the noblemen of the state, both Pulas and Gurips, put to death or banished the country except the Pula of Bariatto. Since that time he not only rules supreme but by confiscating their goods and lands he has so increased his treasures and revenues that, he excels the other rulers in the greatness of his expenditure and was able to keep up the war against the Hon’ble Company and the Signatty for four years, although in the meantime he had to pay considerable tributes at first to the Moguls and later on to the Mahrattas from the time the latter had taken possession of the Madura Coast.

He also defeated the Dutch forces in the battle of Colachel which made Travancore one of the first Indian kingdoms to defeat European forces. The Dutch captain Eustachius De Lannoy surrendered and became a prisoner of war and the supremacy of Dutch in India by establishing colonies ended completely as a result of this battle. British historian Robert Orme who lived in Travancore describes the army of Marthanda Varma as follows (2):

“The king (of Travancore) had disciplined, in the method of European infantry, a body > of 10000 Nairs. The people of this denomination are by birth the military tribe of the Malabar coast, and assert in their own country even prouder pre-eminences than the > Rajputs, who in other parts of India are likewise born with the same distinction.”

This Nair brigade remained as the personal troops of Travancore Maharajas even under the British. After the abolishment of monarchy, this brigade was joined with the Indian army as 9th battalion of Madras regiment, the oldest one in the Indian army, Captain Lannoy also later helped in modernizing the Nair brigade of Travancore. With the help of the Dutch and assistance from the Cochin kingdom, Travancore built the Nedumkotta fort which later saved Travancore from the jihad of Tipu sultan From the Dutch records, it is clear that Marthanda Varma had planned to conquer the whole of Kerala and re-establish the Chera kingdom or the holy land of Parashurama. The Dutch were very cautious about this grand ambition of Marthanda Varma. This can be seen from the Dutch sources which describe the great king as follows (3):

The present king [Marthanda Varma] is 37 years old, an able and untiring prince, but very cruel and so conceited and arrogant that he aims at nothing less than the supremacy over the whole of Malabar; and no doubt he would have gained his object had not the Hon’ble Company been in his way..”…“And although a peace should be concluded, one may very reasonably doubt whether it will be lasting; since he strongly insists upon a promise from the Hon’ble Company to remain neutral in case he goes to war with the Malabar chiefs, which sufficiently shows his ambitious intentions, and though it will be some time before his finances are established and besides most of his Cunjecutas [Kunjukuttakars] or picked Nairs have fallen, still I do not believe that he has altogether abandoned his high-flying design to make himself master of the whole of Malabar, and even if peace should be made, your Worship will have to watch.

English sources from the 18th century also suggest the same (4):

With the assistance of a Frenchman named Le Noye, this monarch had formed the best disciplined army that had ever been seen in these countries. With these forces, it is said, that he meditated on the conquest of all the Malabar; and perhaps his ambition might have been crowned with success, had it not been opposed by the European nations. Notwithstanding these impediments, he succeeded in enlarging his dominions; and, what was infinitely more difficult, in rendering his usurpations useful to his subjects.

For this, he conducted a ritual called Hiraṇyagarbha to crown himself with the Cheramuḍi (the crown of Chera kings) and obtained the title “Kulasekhara Perumal” (the title of Chera kings). Had his plans succeeded, we would have seen a unified Kerala from Malabar to Kanyakumari, and it would have resisted the Islamic jihād waged on Kerala by Hyder and his son Tipu, thus averting the Islamization of Kerala like it happened in Malabar, which is a radical Islamist hub currently. The invasion of the Islamic Mysorean ruler Hyder Ali and his son Tipu ravaged Malabar. As part of their jihād, many Hindu temples, pāṭhaśālas and households were destroyed. They also killed many Hindus while the rest had to flee Malabar to take refuge in Travancore. Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma Maharaja who ruled Travancore then received them with open hands and gave them safe refuge in his kingdom. He came to be known as Dharmaraja due to his noble act of protecting the civilians from jihad. While invading Travancore, Tipu faced horrible defeat from the hands of Travancore Nair forces led by Keshava Pillai or Raja Keshavadas at Nedumkotta battle. The Nairs were able to retrieve many of Tipu’s belongings from the battlefield. The earliest record of Tipu’s defeat by the hands of Travancore forces are described by the British sources thus (5):

He commenced his operations by a general assault on the lines. Three guns were fired from a battery towards the hills as a signal for the rest to commence. The Raja’s troops at this place - appear to have been surprised; for Tippoo’s people got possession of the bastion without opposition; but as they were but few in number, they were soon repulsed by the Raja’s Nairs. The attack at this part, however , appears to have been a feint to take off the attention from a more serious one meditated on a weak part of the lines, called Peracoocota, and about ten miles to the westward of the rift opened battery. His guns soon breached the wall; he filled the ditch with cotton, stormed, and took possession of about three miles of the lines and twelve bastions. The Raja’s troops, on hearing this, flew from all quarters, and collected about 3000 men; they with great intrepidity attacked the assailants, and Tippoo’s troops were thrown into confusion, and fled to the breach — cotton that filled up the ditch had by some means taken fire, and they were obliged to stand to be cut down by the Nairs till the flames were extinguished. The party, it is said consisted of about 7000 men, 1300 of whom, it is believed, they left behind them; among the slain were two men of rank; one is ascertained to be Jemaul Beg, Commander of a Coossam; the other’s head was severed from his body, but is imagined to be Cummur ul deir Cawn Meer Sahib’s son - 40 sepoys, 5 horses, 2 colours, and a drum, were the trophies. From the prisoners we hear that Tippoo was there in person, on a white horse; the horse was wounded, and he was obliged to mount another and ride off —this likewise seen by our Nairs.

Following his defeat, Tipu had invaded Travancore again, but this time too he failed to conquer Travancore as he was forced to retreat back due to the floods which ravaged his forces. As per local tradition, these floods were caused by Nair troops who opened up the dams during the monsoon season to counter the advancing forces of Tipu (6).

After the defeat of Tipu by the hands of the British in the fourth Anglo-Mysore war, Travancore became involved in subsidiary alliance with the British Raj. This led to more British influence in Travancore during the coming years.However, even while being a princely state under the British, the Travancore Maharajas did everything to keep their kingdom under Dharmic rule.

It is to be noted that while Marthanda Varma and his successor Dharma Raja allied with the British for strategic reasons as his kingdom was surrounded by enemies on all sides, they suppressed the Christian conversions in the kingdom. Missionary sources themselves are clear on this fact. The Maharajas wanted Travancore to remain as a Hindu state, and conversions were strictly forbidden during early times. Evangelist Samuel Mateer who spent many years of his life in Travancore writes this by quoting another Italian missionary named Fra Bartolomeo (7):

The king of Travancore threatens with imprisonment and death every nobleman who shall quit his court to become a Christian, and who shall afterwards fall into his hands; and indeed Nilam Pillai, an officer of a noble family, was shot at Aramballin because he refused to renounce the religion of Jesus Christ In the year 1787. I saw four Nairs thrown into prison at Tiruvanda-puram because they would not apostatise from the Catholic Church. The Sampradi did everything in his power to make these four abjure Christianity—even paid them a visit himself, and to gain his point employed every art of persuasion. As they were not attended with success, his substitute proceeded to coercive means; and not only tortured the prisoners with hunger and thirst, but even caused them to be scourged twice a day. They were, at last, trans-ported beyond the boundaries of Tovala.

As per Mateer himself, the earliest converts to Christianity in Travancore were not Hindus, but the Syrian Christians. The Nasranis or Syrian Christians had picked up many Hindu practices over the years, now they had abandoned all these and converted back into European Christianity (8):

The Church Missionary Society experienced less difficulty in opening and conducting their mission in Northern Travancore, partly perhaps, because it was begun after the London Mission had been ten years at work in the South; but chiefly arising from the fact that their first proselytes were from Syrianism, not converts from heathenism, to which therefore the Hindu Government was perfectly indifferent.

The Travancore Kingdom stands as a remarkable testament to the ideals of Hindu Dharma and enlightened governance. Under the rule of the Travancore Maharajas, the kingdom not only prospered economically and militarily but also upheld the Dharmika values. Their commitment to feeding the poor, promoting education, protecting cultural heritage, and resisting external pressures to convert its populace attests to their deep-rooted adherence to Dharmic principles. We will explore the legacy of the Travancore Maharajas in the next article which continues to inspire reverence and admiration, serving as a beacon of hope for preserving Hindu traditions amidst changing times.

Authored by Akshay Shankar and Kavita Krishna Meegama. Published by Brhat.