THE MURDER OF KOTTAYAM KERALA VARMA

A Malabar Prince becomes Travancore King

There had been few episodes of members of the royal families in Malabar, seeking asylum in the safety of Travancore,especially during the Mysore Wars, and the Kolathiri family members during the skirmishes with the Ali Raja. But, a Kottayam (Wynad) prince, Kerala Varma (1645-1696), becoming King in Travancore, and getting assassinated finally, was a rare historic moment. He, a predecessor of the famous Pazhassi Raja,was also an exemplary scholar and a poet. A genius, grappling with matters Military, is a rare breed.

There is only a legend to depend on as to the arrival of the Kottayam prince from Malabar by sea to Travancore. Arriving as a pilgrim, he was nurtured by Regent Umayamma Rani, and he stood by her in deep crises and died fighting casteism.

In history,there is a single instance of the Zamorin's forces marching towards Venad,in the 15th century,before the conquest of Kerala by Vijayanagara King DevarayaII(1424-1446). After the conquests in Central Kerala, the Zamorin's forces marched against the Venad King in Kollam, to 'protect' the Nambudiri brahmins there; it was the stated nominal reason.The forces advanced through Chettuva, Kanjoor river, Vypin backwaters, Chiranganad Karappuram,Payyatukad, Alapuzha, Thrikunnapuzha, Karthikapally and entered Odanad. The Kollam King agreed to bear the battle expenses,ceded the area known as,Munjiramukkattam,also agreed to pay annual tribute along with flag of fealty at  Thirunnavaya for Mamankam festival. Some historians are of the view that this was not an expedition,but just a case of Kollam King transferring some land and temple rights, during the official visit of the Zamorin. The land, Munjramukkattam was given to Sri Padmanabhaswamy temple or Mathappuram temple.

Dutch representative Nieuhaf with Umayamma Rani, 1703

At the time of the 'pilgrimage' of Kottayam Kerala Varma,Umayamma Rani(1678-1698) in Travancore was in the midst of a crisis. She was Regent on behalf of her nephew, Ravi Varma.Malabar,after the Dutch treaty with  Zamorin on November 11,1604,was under Dutch rule,the Zamorin had joined the Coalition Force led by the Dutch against the Portuguese and Cochin, in 1661.At the time of Kerala Varma's assassination,it was Dutch terror in Malabar, during the Mamankams of 1694 and 1695. Thus, the 'pilgrimage' was not so innocent. Maybe the political slavery of his area prompted the 'pilgrimage'.

The rivalry between the Dutch and English companies for commercial interests, stirred fights in Travancore,during the reign of Umayamma Rani.

Kottayam Kerala Varma

Desinganad,Kottarakkara,Nedumangad,Karunagappally,Karthikappally,Kayamkulam provinces were under the influence of the Dutch.Since Attingal had no male pro genies,princes had to be adopted.One male and two females were adopted from Kolathunad,in 1684,and subsequently, all adoptions were from Kolathiri family.In 1688,two males and two females were adopted,and Marthanda Varma was the son of one princess.Nanjinad was committed to give Madurai a large sum of tribute twice a year,and if it was pending, the Madurai forces(Vadukappada-they were people from Karnataka,since the Naickers were Carnatic) used to rampage during the harvest season.To the East of Sahya Mountains,in the old Kalakkad swaroopam,Travancore had 12 feudatories, and there was a revenue official in Valliyur,to collect taxes.Umayamma Rani had to close down the treasury,since the tax collection was made impossible there.When Kalkulam Prince Adithya Varma died in 1677, in Dharpankulangara palace,Ravi Varma,adopted from the Cochin royal family ,was made king there.The story that the Ettuveettil Pillai s poisoned Adithya Varma,has been proved baseless.Bringing Ravi Varma, was not to the liking of the Dutch and the powerful Travancore minister Elambayil Pandala and the barons of Ettuveettil Pillai s. They anointed Kerala Varma of the rival branch of Nedumangad,in place of Ravi Varma.Madurai too accepted him.The reason for the interference was the fear that Ravi Varma,being from Cochin,would support the Portuguese.Umayamma Rani, together with  Pillai s of Attingal and Ravi Varma, with the help of the forces from Madurai under Chidambaranatha Pillai,fought with the Dutch led force on the banks of Karamana river,and was, defeated.The Travancore force,which was loyal to the minister, followed the retreated Rani,forcing her to flee to Varkala from Attingal.After the death of Rani Ayilyam Thirunal in 1677,Kollam queen Makayiram Thirunal became the Senior Attingal queen and the Travancore ministers,Edathara Potti and Pandala and the Kottarakkara king, visited the new queen and reached an agreement by which, Nedumangad Kerala Varma was appointed  King of Travancore.But when the queen died next year,Umayamma Rani became Senior and she decided to anoint Ravi Varma again. This time,not only Attingal Pillais, but Kottarakkara Pillais too sided with Umayamma Rani.Madurai forces,for obvious reasons,didn't help the rivals.So Rani was able to seize the Kalkulam Fort and make Ravivarma,the King.Nedumangad Kerala Varma,staying in the Manalikkara palace near by,led blockade of the Fort. It was total anarchy.

Ettuveettil Pillai

The Rani worked out a treaty in 1681, with the Attingal minister,Koduman Pillai and the Travancore minister Pandala, forcing Kerala Varma to accept  a pension,the lease amount from several properties in Nanjinad and Malanad,and he was packed off to Nedumangad.She was looking for an able person,to rescue Nanjinad from Madurai forces,when Kottayam Kerala Varma arrived.On the way to Rameswaram,he got down at the shore of Varkala.He was 36,proficient in martial arts,and a scholar poet.The priest of Varkala temple sent him to Umayamma Rani.The folksong of Malabar on Kottayam Kerala Varma,Puthuvatha Pattu,says,he went on a pilgrimage,heeding to the advise of his mother,after creating a rebellion.The other Kerala Varma was pensioned off,only after adopting Kottayam Kerala Varma,to the Venad royal family,and conferring  the title,Prince of Hiranyasimhanallur,or Eraniel.In Travancore records,he is Puravazhinadu Kerala Varma,whereas in British records,he is Kottayam Kerala Varma.Kottayam was the capital of Puravazhinad.

Within the Fort, new palaces,Valiya Koyikkal for Kerala Varma and Thevarathu Koyikkal,for Umayamma Rani were constructed,dismantling and using the materials of the Puthankotta palace of Ilayaraja and the Fort that enclosed it.Pullikkattu Valiya Koyikkal was to the North of the Thevarathu Koyikkal,close to the now existing Vettakkaruman(wrongly pronounced,Vettaykoru Makan)Temple.

Though scholarly,he enjoyed clinging to power,and the barons who had enjoyed freedom in Travancore didn't like the new developments.Ravi Varma,too hated him.Umayamma Rani,accepted him whole heartedly,and according to Dutch records,slept with him, following the system of polyandry.Though the feudal lords complained to the queen several times,she spurned them.She kicked off, Ravi Varma as King to Kollam in 1684,making Kerala Varma,the King of Travancore.Though this is in the Dynasty records,official historians seldom refer to it.

The rituals in the Padmanabhaswamy temple had come to a standstill, due to continuing quarrels.The fines enforced by the temple's trustees,Ettarayogam,were not remitted and the festival got stopped in 1632.It was customary for the eldest person in the Travancore royal family,Mootha Thiruvadikal of Thrippappur Swaroopam to lead the Arattu procession on the final day of the festival and the ongoing frictions, resulted in the absence of  the Thiruvadikal.From 1662 to 1677,there were not even daily pujas,after a theft came to light.After the death of Adithya Varma in 1677,Umayamma Rani interfered,pujas were restored,but the festival remained unobserved,because,of the removal of the Thantri Tharanalallur Namboodiripad,by the Rani,for colluding with Nedumamgad Kerala Varma.Umayamma Rani was not recognized as the Senior of the royal family by Ettarayogam,and the pujas were stopped again in 1682.Puja s were invalid in the absence of a Thantri,and the appointment of the Thantri had to be done by the Senior in the royal family.The Periya Nambi of the temple fled to Munchira after charges of theft were levelled against him.Though messengers of the Rani went to assuage him,they were blocked at Neyyattinkara by the public,who had assembled outside the Fort, against Kottayam Kerala Varma.

Ravi Varma was made the King of Desinganad(Kollam),as part of Rani's strategy to solve the temple issue,and he was appointed Mootha Thiruvadi in January,1685.But the Thantri appointed by him was not accepted by the priests.Rani, on being  informed that Karanakkanakkan and Pandarakkanakkan were behind the conspiracy,ordered  arrest of them.It created a furore,since the royal family had no right to punish brahmins.As a result the temple was set to fire in January,1686,destroying even the Sreekovil.The temple remained closed for next 47 years,and thus, the name of Ravi Varma disappeared from historical records.He died  a sanyasi in 1704.

Even as the Crown Prince at Eraniel,Kottayam Kerala Varma had seized power of the country and had started plotting against the barons.Though they organized a public assembly at Neyyattinkara ,the Rani didn't pay heed to it.Though he was made King of Travancore in 1684,no records  of the coronation  exist,but he is mentioned in later records as Vira Kerala Varma Chirava Moothavar, meaning,the King.He constituted a personal army to handle the attacks against him by the barons, and the ousted Nedumangad Kerala Varma. To finance it,he hiked commercial taxes and established own mint.

Umayamma Rani

When Umayamma Rani began to govern the Elayidathu Swaroopam of Kottarakkara,directly in 1694,Kerala Varma and his loyalists used to go there and render help.The King of Kayamkulam with his forces,marched against Karunagappally, when the King of Karunagappally died in April,1696.Kottayam Kerala Varma went and defeated them.

R Sathyanatha Iyer,in his book,The History of the Nayaks of Madura,has quoted a letter written by a missionary of Kottar,Peter Martin,which mentions,Kottayam Kerala Varma.

The famous story of Kerala Varma defeating the forces of Mukilan,which finds a place in A Sreedhara Menon's A Survey of Kerala History,has been proved a fiction by the letter of Martin.Menon says,a Muslim adventurer,Mughal Sirdar invaded the Southern Travancore during Umayamma Rani's reign, over ran Nanjinad and reached the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram.He encamped at Manacaud and extended his foray upto Edava.The Rani sought refuge at Nedumangad,and was fortunate in getting the service of Kottayam Kerala Varma,who was on a pilgrimage.He pursued Sirdar and defeated and killed him at the battle in Tiruvattar.Umayamma Rani was brought in triumph from Nedumangad to Thiruvananthapuram.

The real story is,different,and there is no one called Mukilan.Kottayam Kerala Varma plotted against the barons,seeking help from the Muslim Commander of the Madurai force.The plan was that,Kerala Varma would face the Madurai force in a fake battle,will retreat after feigning defeat,and the Commander should lay siege to the Kalkulam Fort,and then kill the 18 barons,calling them to the Fort.Kerala Varma guaranteed to pay the arrears of the tribute after  execution of this plan.During  execution of the plan,when two barons were killed,the other 16 agreed to pay the tribute and the Muslim Commander decided to stay put at Kalkulam,with the help of them.The revengeful Kerala Varma,marched to the Fort one night and massacred the entire force.The southern folksong,Iravikutty Pilla Poru mentions there were 72 Muslim soldiers in Madurai Force.Some historians mistook the term,Mughal/Mukilan,for an individual's name.There is no mention of this incident in the northern folk song on Kerala Varma,Puthuvatha Pattu.It was impossible for any Muslim force to rampage Travancore,without concurrence of the Madurai Naicker.After the massacre,Kerala Varma built the Ramaswamy temple at Padmanabhapuram.

Koyikkal Palace of Umayamma Rani/Nedumangad

Kerala Varma has been branded a bold social reformer,  who banned the archaic,abhorrent, custom of Pulappedi and Mannappedi,in 1696,by historians like Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai.It is claimed to have given relief to large sections of people from fear of molestation by Pulayas, Mannans and Parayas.Every year,it is said,in the Malayalam month of Karkadakam(July/August),Pulaya, Mannan and Paraya males were allowed to molest and appropriate the higher caste Nair women,who went out after dusk,strayed outside or lived unprotected.The defiled women were excommunicated and sent out with the molesters.If the defiler refused to accept her, he was killed;if she refused to go,she was killed.The molester need not physically touch her; he was free to do it by a twig, throwing a stone or just sighting her and hollering, "kande, kande"(I saw,I saw).This custom,it was claimed, was to guarantee the existence of the working class,and to punish the immoral women.The Portuguese traveler Barbosa wrote, on hearsay, that this custom was being misused by some, deliberately attacking even the sleeping females.Pillai wrote about this, in the Mathrubhumi weekly, January,1957. Even a Marxist historian like Dr K N Ganesh  believed in it, without verifying, seeing scope for a class struggle. No historical accounts exist on the custom. It is possible that the Nair chiefs used the scare to control their women,or to scare the working class,by ordering them to defile,women of rival families, and punishing them, in action or inaction. Both ways, the lower class or the women, were victims.

In the proclamation, banning the custom,which was engraved on a rock on the wayside in Thiruvithamkode, Kanyakumari, Kerala Varma said, if a Nair woman was defiled by a lower caste male,the taboo will dissolve,if she takes a bath. Execution awaited the lower caste males,who dared to violate the ban. The King appointed a person called Valiyakesi to kill the pulayas who violated the ban.There is a southern folk song,Valiyakesi katha, describing the murder of Valiyakesi by pulayas with the help of the Nair nobles.

There was  Nair rebellion after the proclamation. Barons and the nobles attacked the execution clause in the order. Those who  attacked were severely punished.When the actions spread,the Travancore ministers,Elambayil Pandala,Edathara Potti and the remaining 16 of the barons conspired to kill Kerala Varma.The Rani,gave them her silent nod,going by the Puthuvatha Pattu account.The proclamation had said that the ban would be applicable in the area,from Kanyakumari to Kannetti,meaning,he went beyond his brief, and territory, trespassing into the territory and interests of Umayamma Rani.Kottayam Kerala Varma was returning to his palace,Pullikkottu Koyikkal, after a discussion with the Rani in Thiruvananthapuram, when he was assassinated by the conspirators, with knives and daggers.It was an August night,1696. The Rani had warned him not to go.His obsequies were done by Adithya Varma,Kolathiri prince, adopted in 1682.

T K Velu Pillai,in the first edition of the Travancore State Manual,wrote,Umayamma Rani killed,Kerala Varma.It was corrected in the next edition.I quote Velu Pillai:"Kerala Varma met with a tragic fate as the result of his high handed acts,to which the ministers and other leaders of the people would not submit". 

Valiya Koyikkal palace remained uninhabited for a long time,considering it a haunted house. A large number of propitiatory rites had to be performed to liberate it from the ghost of Kerala Varma. The Vettakkaruman(wrongly pronounced,Vettaykoru Makan) temple was built and an offering of thenga erichil was introduced as part of the rites.The last Raja of Kollam, who was taken prisoner, was interned in this palace,but soon escaped under the advice of the Raja of Kayamkulam.

There was an arsenal at Valiya Koyikkal,in 1746,and a thatched chavadi,attached to it, which was used as a kalari, by the princes.The palace was thoroughly rebuilt in 1780. It caught fire in 1857,and the temple was also reduced to ashes. The area of the palace,1.48 acres, became a poramboke, in revenue records, because of the temple, open to public. 

Kottayam Kerala Varma translated Valmiki Ramayana, as Valmiki Ramayanam Kilipattu, standing at the feet of the Padmanabha idol in the temple.He wrote Pathala Ramayanam,Padasthuthi,Vairagya Chndrodhayam,Hamsa pattu and Padmanabha Keerthanam, a raga malika.He introduced himself, Vanchi Kerala Varma Bhupala in his compositions, invited scholars from outside, and established Kathakali Yogas. He is believed to have composed, seven Bhasha ganangal,called, Dhyaye Manisham. Kalaye Gambodi, is a ragamalika of his, set in 30 ragas. Vidwan Kottayathu Thampuran,Ravi Varma,who wrote Attakkathas for Kathakali, lived in the same century.

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Reference:
1.A Survey of Kerala History/A Sreedhara Menon
2.Venadinte Parinamam/K Sivasankaran Nair
3.Sancharikal Kanda Keralam/Velayudhan Panikkasseri
4. Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore/Mark De Lannoy
5.The History of Nayaks of Madura/R Sathyanatha Iyer
6.Travancore Dynasty Records
7.Valiyakesi Katha/Ed.Dr G Thrivikraman Thampi 
8.Keralathinte Innalekal/Dr K N Ganesh
9.Pulappedi:Puthiya Oranweshanam/P P Sudhakaran/Kerala Padanangal 4 

9.Essays on Travancore/Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer 

© Ramachandran 

See my Post,MURDER OF KUNJU THAMPI BROTHERS