13. Gouri Lakshmi Bayi, Sree Padmanabha Swamy Temple, pp. 147–148.
14. Thus families like the Thottattil Asaris, who were carpenters, and the Ponnara Panickers, who were Nair bodyguards, all travelled south with the Ranis, where their descendants can still be traced.
15. There were powerful women behind the throne elsewhere in India too, but unlike the Attingal Ranis they did not directly or openly exercise power.
16. The original Attingal Ranis gave rise to a number of branches in the royal family. It was the older girl installed at Attingal while the younger was known as the Kunnumel Rani. Her descendants were the Rajahs of Kottarakara and Nedumangad, while those of Quilon and Kayamkulam emerged from the first Attingal Rani.
17. In recent years due to a variety of factors historians have been reluctant to ascribe to the Ranis the kind of power and consequence they actually enjoyed. T.K. Velu Pillai insists that their territory was only an ‘estate’ granted by the Travancore Rajah for their upkeep, and that he had all other reins over it. ‘The Rani of Attingal,’ he would write, ‘had no political duties to perform. She had neither territory nor subjects except in the sense that the people paid their respect to her as a member of the ruling family. What she possessed was nothing more than the control over the revenues of the district and an outward state and dignity. Such powers as she exercised were nothing more than delegated powers.’ Sreedhara Menon, similarly, concluded that ‘The Attingal Ranis did not exercise sovereign powers but in view of their close relations with the Venad [i.e. Travancore] royal family they enjoyed [only] a special status.’ These views, sadly, could not be more wrong.
18. Leena More, English East India Company and the Local Rulers in Kerala, pp. 12–13.
19. Nagam Aiya, Travancore State Manual, Vol I, p. 288. This is the queen of Quilon but Aiya treats her as an Attingal Rani. This is quite possible because all these families were related and there were adoptions among them every now and then. In the 1690s, for instance, when the Peraka Tavazhi branch of the family became extinct due to the want of heirs in that line, the territory was taken over by the Attingal Rani, who then resolved the succession through an adoption from another branch of the Kupaka family.
20. Leena More, op. cit., p. 13.
21. See Krishna Chaitanya’s A History of Malayalam Literature, p. 42, and Leela Devi’s History of Malayalam Literature, p. 13.
22. John Wallis, A Short Treatise by Way of Essay of Attinga (IOR/G/40/22).
23. Quoted in K.P. Padmanabha Menon, History of Kerala, Vol II, p. 27.
24. Louise Ouwerkerk and Dick Kooiman, No Elephants for the Maharaja, p. 41.
25. Leena More, op. cit., p. 44.
26. Translation of an Ola given by Her Highness the Queen of Attinga to the Rt Hon. English East India Company on 29/06/1694 (IOR/E/3/50 f223).
27. Translation of a paper given by John Brabourne of the English East India Company to Her Highness the Queen of Attinga (IOR/E/3/50 f224).
28. English Version of a letter from the Queen of Attinga to Sir John Gayer dated 15/04/1695 (IOR/E/3/51 f25).
29. K.P. Padmanabha Menon, op. cit., p. 347.
30. Leena More, op. cit., p. 60.
31. Selections from the Records of the Madras Government, Vol. 13, p. 53.
32. Leena More, op. cit., p. 69.
33. Ibid. p. 77.
34. Mark de Lannoy, The Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore, p. 29.
35. Leena More, op. cit., p. 75
36. Reference is to Peraka Tavazhi.
37. Leena More, op. cit., p. 82.
38. Their occasional bullying of the princes seems to have affected the masculine sensibilities of later Rajahs, however, and into the nineteenth century, the traditional influence of the Attingal Ranis was carefully played down in modern renditions of history, diminishing them into glorified dependents of their brothers as best, even as folklore continued to celebrate their triumphant past.
39. Quoted in K.P. Padmanabha Menon, op. cit., Vol II, p. 27
40. Quoted in Leena More, op. cit., p. 29
41. Ibid. p. 30
42. Ibid.
43. John Keay, The Honourable Company, p. 254.
44. Author’s interview with J. Devika.
45. Leena More, op. cit., p. 117.
46. The Rani, it is said, blamed her nobles for it later, but the Travancore Rajah and the Dutch who called her ‘that cunning woman’ held her complicit in the plot.
47. Mark de Lannoy, op. cit., p. 33.
48. The Quilon Rajah was part of these treaties, however, proving again his superiority to the Kupaka prince ruling Travancore.
49. John Wallis, op. cit.
50. Mark de Lannoy, op. cit., p. 42.
51. Later historians would claim this Silver Plate Treaty never existed because it could not be found. It did, however, exist till the early nineteenth century and the famous British Resident Col Munro has written about how it was destroyed during a succession dispute in 1810. He also notes how he met many old people at court who had seen and knew the contents of the treaty in detail and in his letter dated 12/06/1813 to the Chief Secretary at Fort St. George he writes: ‘I entertain no doubt either of its having been executed or of the terms upon which it was concluded.’ See IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1).
52. Mark de Lannoy, op. cit., p. 139. The honour was repeated again on the 9th of June 1782 when the Attingal Rani (mother to the famous Dharma Rajah who succeeded Martanda Varma) died and an 86-gun salute was fired in her honour, that number being her age at the time. See Selections from the Records of the Madras Government, Vol. 13, p. 160.
53. Leena More, op. cit., pp. 136–137.
54. Quoted in K.P. Padmanabha Menon, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 29. Nagam Aiya in his Travancore State Manual, Vol. 1, p. 356, similarly quotes the English Chief of Anjengo in 1757 who spoke of ‘our Priviledges which we obtained from the Queen of Attinga, in whose Territories the Fort is situated. Her country is now in the absolute power of the King of Travancore, and he holds the Heiress of the Family under restraint in the Palace of Attinga, but being of the same Family himself, does not otherwise treat her ill.’
55. Quoted in Ibrahim Kunju, Rise of Travancore, pp. 16–17.
56. Letter dated 28/11/1810 from the Resident to the Chief Sec., Fort St. George (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
57. Letter dated 21/03/1813 from the Resident to the Chief Sec., Fort St. George (IOR/R/1/1/1532 (1)).
58. T.K. Velu Pillai, Travancore State Manual, Vol. II, p. 299.
59. According to Dr R.P. Raja, Kupaka was always another name for Attingal and the Queen of Kupaka was the Attingal Rani. Author’s interview with R.P. Raja.
60. Samuel Mateer, Native Life in Travancore, p. 128. In the early seventeenth century Pietro Della Valle also noted: ‘I will not omit to mention the manner how those who entered saluted the King; for I saw more than one do it, and particularly a Youth who enter’d a good while after the King by one of those little Gates; to whom in particular the King spake much, and of whom he seemed to make great account. In his salutation he advanced his joyned Hands over his Head, then, parting them a little so extended and exalted, he smote them lightly together twice, or thrice, to wit the palm of one hand with the for longest Fingers of the other joyned together; which whole action he repeated twice, or thrice. Such as had weapons lifted them up their joyned Hands above their Heads, with their Swords, Ponyards, Bucklers, or other Arms, in them; and instead of striking with their fingers, as by reason of their Arms they could not, they bowed down their Hands so conjoyned and made the points of their Swords touch the ground.’ See Edward Grey, The Travels of Pietro Della Valle in India, p. 368.
61. Samuel Mateer, op. cit., p. 129.
62. Statement by Gouri Parvathi Bayi to the author. Gouri Parvathi Bayi is the granddaughter of Sethu Parvathi Bayi.
63. The Palace Manual even details the roles of attendants, including where they should be standing and so on.
64. Charles Allen and Sharada Dwivedi, Lives of the Indian Pri
nces, p. 34.
65. Letter dated 28/06/1929 from Louise Ouwerkerk to her mother (MSS EUR F232/60). Some decades before, Augusta Blandford recorded an incident as follows that showed how these ‘vexatious rules extend[ed]’ to the smallest matters: ‘For instance, I was sitting one day with the senior Rani, and in the midst of her reading she was seized with a violent fit of coughing. I said, “Do drink a little water, it will relieve you.” She looked up smiling and said, “You forget that I must not take any till I have bathed, because you have been near me,” and added “it is very troublesome to follow all these rules.” What a monstrous system! The mere presence of an English lady to be so polluting. I wonder the people do not rise en masse and throw off the hated yoke, but many, alas! hug their fetters, and would not cast them away if they could.’ See India’s Women: The Magazine of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, Vol. I, p. 294.
66. Author’s interview with Divakara Varma. Dr Lakshman was a Malabar Thiyya.
67. Gouri Parvathi Bayi’s statement to the author.
68. Charles Allen and Sharada Dwivedi, op. cit., pp. 199–200.
69. Henry Bruce, Letters from Malabar, p. 84.
70. The Lady dated 11/01/1912.
71. Kulathu Aiyar, Her Highness Sethu Lakshmi Bai, p. 3
72. Shreekumar Varma draft of ‘Those Were the Daze’ which was published in Anita Nair’s Where the Rain is Born.
73. Kulathu Aiyar op. cit., p. 3.
74. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
75. Ibid.
76. Kulathu Aiyar, op. cit., p. 5.
77. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma and also a profile of the Senior Rani in The Globe dated 05/09/1924 and in The Lady op. cit.
78. Kuppuswamy Aiyangar, The Ranis of Travancore, p. 7.
79. The Feudatory and Zemindari India, Vol. 6, No. 3, p. 115.
80. Kulathu Aiyar, op. cit., p. 3.
81. Kulathu Iyer, Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi Tirumanasu Kondu, p. 19.
82. The Lady op. cit.
83. O.M. Thomas, Under the Knife, p. 64. The Maharani’s grand piano was donated to the Women’s College in Trivandrum, where it still remains.
84. Henry Bruce, op. cit., p. 86.
85. Letter dated 22/02/1929 from the Resident to the Pol. Sec. GOI (IOR/R/1/1/1849).
86. Kuppuswamy Aiyangar, op. cit., pp. 7–8.
87. Ibid.
88. Charles Allen and Sharada Dwivedi, op. cit., p. 113.
89. Ibid.
90. Letter dated 11/08/1904 from the Senior Rani to Mahaprabha (Raghunandan p. 33).
91. The Junior Rani quoted in T.N. Gopinathan Nair, Avasanate Naduvazhiyude Amma, p. 17.
92. O.M. Thomas, op. cit., p. 64.
93. P.K. Narayana Pillai, Kerala Varma, p. 91.
94. 1875 letter (A) in IOR/R/2/891/256.
95. 1875 letter (B) in IOR/R/2/891/256.
96. 1875 Anonymous letter (A) in IOR/R/2/891/256.
97. Letter dated 07/07/1875 from the Valiya Koil Tampuran to the Resident (IOR/R/2/891/256).
98. P. Ramakrishna Pillai, Visakhavijaya, p. 94.
99. Letter dated 26/01/1877 from Kerala Varma to the Maharajah (IOR/R/2/891/260). The full text is as follows: To, His Highness the Maha Rajah of Travancore. Before the Royal feet of His Most Gracious and Extremely Kind hearted Highness the Maha Rajah of Travancore, the Most Benign and Sovereign Protector of this Slave and his family, this most guilty, most deeply penitent and most humble Slave prostrates himself and most respectfully begs to submit this humble supplication.
With the most sincere repentance and most contrite sorrow, Slave begs to state at Your Highness’ feet the great treasonous acts he committed against Your Highness who has been all along treating him with uniform kindness and favor (sic). He is at the same time unable to account for the almost sudden and temporary transition of his mind which enticed him with such a heinous offence and can attribute it to nothing but his ill fate. Your Highness’ Slave wrote one or two letters against Your Highness to the First Prince. He wrote that anonymous letter to the Dewan and when questioned about it by Your Highness first with great kindness privately and then officially through the Acting Resident, Slave basely and dishonestly denied any knowledge about it. Slave addressed to Your Highness’ Self, his own Sovereign Protector, an anonymous letter like the one to the Dewan. Slave also wrote a Malayalam anonymous letter to Your Highness’ address giving an utterly false and scandalous report. Slave wrote to some of the Europeans at Trivandrum going out an ungrounded suspicion which occurred to him without any reason at the time, of Your Highness and the First Prince having been the abettors of the supposed murder of his brother and uncle who died on their return from a tour to Benares. Slave is fully convinced and admits that all the above letters are highly treasonous, and even should Your Highness pass a sentence of life imprisonment with fetters and hard labor (sic), Slave should not think it too heavy a punishment for his offences. Slave most humbly and repentantly admits also that he did the following very wrong things: he was corresponding unnecessarily to some newspapers: He felt somehow an inclination to Christianity: He suspected without any ground somebody having poisoned him: He had got unto that most abominable and forbidden vice of drinking and became a regular drunkard: Wanting stronger narcotics he took to the intemperate use of Bhang and some other stuffs. Having insidiously wronged his Sovereign Protector and Benefactor who has these 20 years been treating him with exceeding kindness and done him every possible good; having proved basely ungrateful to the Royal Family whose salt he and his family are to this day eating; and having treacherously given serious annoyance to Your Highness’ Government by his depraved character, Your Highness’ humble Slave cannot possibly entertain the faintest hope of obtaining a kind pardon even from so condescending and tender hearted a Sovereign as Your Highness. But feeling the most sincere compunction of conscience and most heartfelt, contrite and (illegible) remorse for all his past misconduct, Your Highness’ most humble Slave begs to throw himself at Your Highness’ Royal feet and with tears in his eyes most piteously implores Your Highness’ kind forgiveness once for the serious offences he has committed. Whatever be Your Highness’ Slave’s future destiny by the nature of the arrangements Your Highness makes in disposing of him whether to quit his native country and all relations and his days as an exile and a beggar or to rove as a Fakir and perish in the snowy regions of the Himalayas, he will submit to it as his fate; but he will bear Your Highness’ Command with his head bowed down and shall never deviate even a hair breadth from it. Your Highness’ Slave begs to subscribe, (Signed) Kerala Varmah, State Prisoner.
100. P. Ramakrishna Pillai, op. cit., p. 12.
101. Letter dated 12/05/1885 from the Elayarajah to the Valiya Koil Tampuran (TRF).
102. P.K. Narayana Pillai, op. cit., p. 101.
103. Ibid. p. 49.
104. The Senior Rani quoted in Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., p. 62.
CHAPTER 3: THREE CONSORTS
1. This was the marriage of the late Junior Rani Bharani Tirunal Parvathi Bayi.
2. Undated letter from Kochukunji to Mahaprabha (Raghunandan p. 44).
3. Author’s interview with Dr R.P. Raja. The Parappanad family lost eleven male and nine female members during the invasions when they were taken away to Coimbatore by Tipu Sultan’s men and forcibly converted to Islam. After the Sultan’s defeat they remained outcaste and that branch of the family died out in subsequent years. This family were known as the Kuriyedathu Kovilakam.
4. This was Pooradam Tirunal Lakshmi Bayi, the mother of Maharajah Mulam Tirunal.
5. This was Ayilyam Tirunal Rukmini Bayi, the mother of Maharajah Ayilyam Tirunal and Maharajah Visakham Tirunal. Rukmini Bayi’s mother, Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, was also married to a Parappanad Rajah.
6. Undated letter from Kochukunji to Mahaprabha (Raghunandan p. 44).
7. Charles Allen and Sharada Dwivedi, Lives of the Indian Princes, p. 180.
8. Author’s interview with Rukmini Va
rma. Rajaraja Varma possibly met Ravi Varma at the wedding itself, following which he was asked to model for the latter.
9. Ibid.
10. Lakshmi Raghunandan, At the Turn of the Tide, p. 44.
11. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
12. The Valiya Koil Tampuran’s diary entry dated 27/02/1906 (Raghunandan, p. 45).
13. The head priest was always the senior Brahmin of the Kakkattu Pohtti family.
14. Author’s interviews with Rukmini Varma and Divakara Varma.
15. Among the ten Koil Tampuran families of Travancore, women were always married to Brahmins.
16. Rajaraja Varma married a Nair lady and enjoyed a happy marriage and had several children, including two beautiful daughters, and lived in a large bungalow in Trivandrum. The place is now known as Tampuran Mukku. Rajaraja Varma and Rama Varma had three sisters, Amba, Ambika and Ambalika, and were children of Thrikkettannal Ittiyengala Tampuratti and Kallampally Raman Nambutiri.
17. Rupika Chawla, Raja Ravi Varma, p. 123, and author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
18. The marriage had a number of elaborate rituals and ceremonies spread over many days, details of which are available in The Pallikkettu of H.H. Lalitamba Bayi by Kulathu Aiyar. See also Programme of Functions Connected with the Marriage of Her Highness the Senior Ranee (TRF).
19. Author’s interviews with Rukmini Varma and Uma Varma, both granddaughters of Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and Rama Varma.
20. I am grateful to Shobhana Varma, a granddaughter of Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and Rama Varma, for showing me many books from Rama Varma’s collection.
21. Author’s interview with Jay Varma, a great-grandson of Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and Rama Varma.
22. Author’s interview with Rukmini Varma.
23. O.M. Thomas, Under the Knife, p. 67.
24. Charles Allen and Sharada Dwivedi, op. cit., p. 185.
25. Lakshmi Raghunandan, op. cit., pp. 56–57.
26. Partha Mitter, Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, p. 180.
27. Ibid.
28. See Rupika Chawla, op. cit. for more on this, and Partha Mitter, op. cit., p. 179 for the review of Ravi Varma’s work by Tagore.
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