QUEEN PROPOSES,GOD DISPOSES

Queen Victoria wanted Duleep Singh to marry Gowramma

Serendipity gives you handsome returns.For the past few years,I had been weighing the options between Ooty and Kodagu for settling down,finally.My choice was Ooty.After the decision,I have always been running into Kodagu one way or other,in books,references or memories.I have not been to Kodagu still,though my wife Gita accompanied our daughter Aswathy  to Kodagu recently on a trip from her college.

It is in the Higgin Bothams in Ooty that I found the book,Nuggets from Coorg History by C P Belliappa,last September.He is the son of the last Chief Minister(1952-1956)of Coorg,C M Poonacha.His great-great-great grandfather was Dewan Chepudira Ponnappa,who served under the last three Rajas of Coorg.Reputed doctor and novelist, Kaveri Nambisan is Belliappa's sister;Kaveri is married to  reputed writer Vijay Nambisan,a Malayali,who has translated poets,Poonthanam and Melpathur.Belliappa had discovered the tombstone of Gowramma,daughter of the last King of Kodagu,Chikka Veera Rajendra,in South London.Both the king and daughter had become Christians.Belliappa has written a book on her:Victoria Gowramma;The Lost Princess of Coorg.

Belliappa

I was immediately struck by a chapter in Nuggets from Coorg History-Christianity in Coorg,and I read it first because it had the name,Herman Moegling.The name of J A Casamajor is not mentioned.I had encountered both the names while I was researching the life of Yakob Ramavarman,the only Christian convert from the Cochin Royal family(see my post,Prince Ramavarma becomes Jacob Ramavarma).
James Archibald Casamajor( 1787-1865) was Resident of Mysore and later Travancore and Cochin(1836-1838).Casamajor was born in Chennai,  son of James Henry Casamajor and Elizabeth Rebecca Campbell.He entered the Company's service,as Writer in 1803;became Secretary/Accountant to Sinking Fund,Deputy Secretary,Board of Revenue,before taking over as,Registrar,Srirangapattana,in 1809.He was Judge/Magistrate/Collector there.There had been an investigation into the accounts,when he was Military Paymaster,in 1811.He married Mary Christian Peterson(born in India in 1792)in 1815 and they had three daughters:Jane,Mary and Elizabeth.Jane was Countess of Enniskillen,married to William Cole,3rd Earl of Enniskillen.Casamajor had to fight a legal battle for property after Mary's death.He was Resident during the reign of Chikka Veera Rajendra and Swati Thirunal.

Jane

Of course before General Cullen in Travancore.Casamajor had advised Chikkaveera against his nefarious and inhuman activities, after the killing of his sister Devamma and her family.Chikkaveera also had killed Muddayya,his tutor.He had taken the envoy of Collector of Malabar,Kalpully Karunakara Menon,as hostage.The very same Menon who cheated Pazhassi Raja earlier.Chikkaveera enjoyed his drinks and women.He had a harem of 100 women,his father's youngest wife among them.He ignored Casamajor's advice and was deposed in 1834.The 1835 January-April issue of The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany(vol 16)states that Casamajor left Travancore for the Hills.Of course,Residents settled down in Nilgiris after retirement.Cullen had died en route.Casamajor was a very reputed Judge in Madras known for philanthropy.C V Ranganatha Sastri,member of Madras Legislative Council had pleaded before Casamajor when he was just a child of 12,to rescue his father from arrest for tax arrears.Casamajor arranged private tutor for Sastri and sent him to college.He became a polyglot and interpreter at Madras Supreme Court. Casamajors were merchants of Tacking with close ties with the English East India Company.
There is a Casamajor Road at Egmore.Chennai,probably named after Casamajor's father,James Henry(1745-1815),because the road existed in 1798;James entered Company's service as writer,in 1762,still serving in 1811;he was Chief of Vizag and Masulipattanam Settlements.From his family,John and George James too,were with the Company.

mogling

Christians first came to Coorg in 1792 at the invitation of Veera Rajendra.They were 700 survivors from Mangalore who were forcibly taken to Srirangapatanam by Tipu Sultan,after the second war of Mysore.He established Veerarajendrapet or Virajpet.He built the St Anne's Church.He did all this because the kingdom had been depleted after the war.The first British Chief Commisioner of Coorg,Lt Col J S Fraser found the time ideal to spread Christianity.
Moegling was preparing to leave for Germany when Alamanda Somayya came to meet him,in 1852. Herman Friedrich Moegling(1811-1881) was a German missionary with the Basel Mission,in Mangalore.He published the first Kannada newspaper,Mangalooru Samachara in 1843.He published the traditional Kannada literary texts in six volumes as Bibliotheca Carnataca.It was when Moegling faced a crisis to publish it,Casamajor  stepped in.With his adopted and converted son,Anandaraya Kaundinya,Moegling went to Kodagu in 1852 and worked there till 1858.
Alamanda Somayya looked like a Sanyasin in distress. 

Chikkaveera with Gowramma in London

Somayya  belonged to a Koduva family which had a vast estate in the Armery village.In the 1837 Amara-Sullya rebellion they supported the British and got land in return.In 1842 Somayya went to Varanasi and met the exiled King Chikkaveera.He returned three years later.He married and did cardamom trade in which he incurred huge loss.As a debtor he was jailed in Kadanoor.He escaped from the jail on the third day and had come to Moegling for help.Moegling cleared his debts and baptized him in 1853.He became Stephanos Somayya.Moegling sheltered him when the village ostracized him.In the court battle which ensued,Somayya got back his share in lands;Moegling built a Church.130 labourers who built it were converted.Lt Col Mark Cubbon who succeeded Fraser gave him 97 acres in Siddapur and the jungle became a settlement.He built Anandapura in the area of Somayya and put Anandaraya Koundinya in Charge.Somayya developed 25 acres coffee estate in Anandpur.A friction with the missionaries resulted in the reconversion of Somayya.The mission was highly disappointing;Moegling could convert only 9 kodavas.
Moegling cherished a wonderful dream in his mind.It was to unite two converted Royal Christians,Gowramma and Duleep Singh of Punjab in holy matrimony.Queen Victoria joined in the grand design.

Gowramma:Painting by Franz Xavier Winterhalter

Gowramma was born in Varanasi in 1842 .The family moved to London and Chikkaveera and Gowramma were converted in 1852 in the St James Chapel,by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the presence of the Queen.The Queen became her God Mother and she was called Victoria Gowramma.Duleep Singh read about the conversion and got interested.Punjab was annexed by the British in 1849 and the Kohinoor was taken as a gift.The 12 year old deposed king Duleep was entrusted with the Company physician  Dr Login and Leena Login for studies.He was converted in 1853 and reached London the next year.
Victoria Gowramma was put in the care of Major Drummonds and his wife.They had known the king in Varanasi.Queen Victoria invited both Duleep and Gowramma for dinners in Buckingham,Windsor and Osborne Hall.Gowramma didn't impress Duleep.The Queen proposes;God disposes.Gowramma found relief in a stable boy and later in a butler.Chikkaveera died in 1859.By that time Gowramma had almost separated from him.He didn't knew the language.

Gowramma sculpture by Baron Carlo Marochetti

Chikkaveera had gone to London and got converted with another intention.His uncle Dodda Veera Rajendra had invested Rs 680,000 in East India Company 1807 in daughter Devamma's name who briefly sat on throne.Dodda Veera manipulated the Company to withdraw interest.Chikkaveera got it till 1833.He had eliminated Devamma in 1832.He wanted that money.He had gone to London for only a year;prolonged his stay only because the case on the money was pending.Finally he lost the case.

Duleep

To save Gowramma from scandals,Duleep stepped in and gave Col John Campbell as husband.He was fifty,30 years senior.He was Lady Login's brother and a known gambler.John had served in India in the 38th Madras Native Infantry.Gowramma was his second wife.The marriage was solemnised in 1860;They had a daughter,Edith.When Gowramma died of TB in 1864,the marriage was in shambles.She was interred in the Brompton Cemetry,in the same grave of Colin,Campbell's second son from first wife,who was born in Bellary.John Campbell and Gowramma's Kodagu jewels disappeared immediately.
The Queen quoted St John on Gowramma's grave:
......other sheep I have,which are not of this fold.

Bamba

Belliappa says he traced one of Gowramma's female descendants in South wales in Australia;she was not interested in the past.Duleep married Bamba,the illegitimate daughter of a German merchant Banker,whom he met in Cairo.His son was christened in Queen Victoria's private chapel.He was called Prince Victor.




See my blog,PRINCE RAMAVARMA BECOMES JACOB RAMAVARMA