After the slaying of Pazhassi Raja,while the Sub Collector Thomas Harvey Baber retained the dagger of Pazhassi,his clerk Karunakara Menon carried the sword and the single barrel fowling gun of Pazhassi on his shoulder,which he wrested from the Raja. Raja,in turn had seized the gun from Captain Dickenson,whom Edachena Kunkan,the Raja's Commander had slain,at the Siege of Panamaram Fort.
The capture of Panamaram Fort from the British by Kunkan and his force had been a decisive battle in which the British were taken by surprise and defeated.Such a battle by a Malayali force shoud be etched in golden letters,in the history of Kerala.
The ruling British increased the taxes on farmers and more than half the rice produced was demanded as revenue, much to the dissatisfaction of the Wyanad people.One day, Edachena Kunkan happened to be in a house belonging to the Kurichiyar tribe when a belted British peon came and demanded a rice paddy. In response, Edachena Kunkan killed him, after which 150 members of the Kurichiyar tribe under the leadership of Thalakkal Chandu joined Kunkan.With these additions and the support of his two brothers, Kunkan attacked the fort at Panamaram. The fort was guarded by 70 soldiers of I battalion of the Fourth Bombay Infantry under Captain Dickenson and Lieutenant Maxwell. The entire garrison, along with the Captain and Lieutenant were killed on 11 October 1802.After massacring the whole detachment, Kunkan acquired 112 muskets, six boxes of ammunition and Rs. 6,000, and the buildings were razed.This led to widespread revolt in Wayanad against British rule.
The ruling British increased the taxes on farmers and more than half the rice produced was demanded as revenue, much to the dissatisfaction of the Wyanad people.One day, Edachena Kunkan happened to be in a house belonging to the Kurichiyar tribe when a belted British peon came and demanded a rice paddy. In response, Edachena Kunkan killed him, after which 150 members of the Kurichiyar tribe under the leadership of Thalakkal Chandu joined Kunkan.With these additions and the support of his two brothers, Kunkan attacked the fort at Panamaram. The fort was guarded by 70 soldiers of I battalion of the Fourth Bombay Infantry under Captain Dickenson and Lieutenant Maxwell. The entire garrison, along with the Captain and Lieutenant were killed on 11 October 1802.After massacring the whole detachment, Kunkan acquired 112 muskets, six boxes of ammunition and Rs. 6,000, and the buildings were razed.This led to widespread revolt in Wayanad against British rule.
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| Order Attaching Kunkan's property |
The Siege of Panamaram Fort
On 11 October 1802 followers of the Pazhassi Rajah attacked the East India Company garrison at Panamaram. Captain Dickenson and another European officer, together with about 50 Sepoys were killed and wounded during the fight.
Panamaram means Palmyra Fort; it appears that the garrison was stationed in a stockade built of palm tree trunks, to guard the point where the road from Sultan's Battery to Mananthavady and the Peria Pass passes over the Kabani River. The Sepoy's were most probably living in the village along the street that runs down towards the site of the modern bridge. it is probable that Captain Dickenson's house was situated on the high point near the modern beaten earth sports field at the western end of the modern town.
Logan in his Malabar Manual records:
"The first overt act occurred at Panamaram (otherwise called Panamarattakotta, or Panamurtha Cotta, or still shorter Panorta Cota, literally the “palmyra tree fort”) in Wynad. Some five days previous to 11th October 1802, one of the proscribed rebel leaders, Edachenna Kungan, chanced to be present at the house of a Kurchiyan, when a belted peon came up and demanded some paddy from the Kurchiyan. Edachenna Kungan replied by killing the peon, and the Kurchiyars (a jungle tribe) in that neighbourhood, considering themselves thus compromised with the authorities, joined Edachenna Kungan under the leadership of one Talakal Chandu. This band, numbering about 150, joined by Edachenna Kungan and his two brothers, then laid their plans for attacking the military post at Panamaram, held by a detachment of 70 men of the 1st battalion of the 4th Bombay Infantry under Captain Dickenson and Lieutenant Maxwell.They first seized the sentry’s musket the sentry’s musket and killed him with arrows. Captain Dickenson killed and wounded with his pistols, bayonet and sword, 15 of the Kurchiyars, 5 of whom are dead and 10 wounded.The whole detachment was massacred, and the rebels obtained 112 muskets, 6 boxes of ammunition and Rs. 6,000. All the buildings at the post were destroyed."
Captain Lewis,based at Cannanore, sent the following account of events to Governor of Mysore, Colonel Arthur Wellesley on 16 October, 1802 ( Supplementary Despatches and Memoranda of Field Marshall Arthur Wellington. Vol III, Dec. 14, 1801 – Feb.14, 1803. Page 325 & 326 ):
“Ere this reaches you, you doubtless are acquainted with the melancholy occurrence at Panacoorta Cottah. The perpetrators of this accursed act were supposed to amount to between four and five hundred, divided into three parties, one of which secured the barracks of arms, another surrounded the officers’ homes, and the third attacked the sepoys. The cantonments were srt fire to in several places at the same time, and the men cut down as they came out of their huts. Captain Dickenson and Lieutenant Maxwell were mangled in a dreadful manner, twenty sepoys were killed and thirty wounded, few of whom are expected to survive; only one servant of Captain Dickenson’s escaped; all his property (except his mare) was destroyed, and his horse keeper and his wife were found burnt to death. Major Macleod’s Brahmins (of the Cutcherry) are missing. It is said that the Rajah himself, with Coongan and Yemman Nair, were present; but this can be only mere conjecture, as every inhabitant in the vicinity of Pancoota Cottah had deserted their homes. The arms of the detachment were secured by the rebels, but the ammunition being in Captain Dickenson’s house, was fortunately blown up. After this business was over, they were seen on the same morning at the Cootioor Pass, where they robbed and severely mauled every traveller who was unfortunate enough to fall in with them. To what point they directed their course is not yet ascertained."
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| Arthur Wellesley |
"An officer within nine miles of him suffers himself to be surprised, and with his whole detachment is cut off; and Major Drummond, instead of putting the battalion under his command into camp, and moving quickly upon the rebels, sits quietly in his cantonment and takes no one step to oppose or stop the insurrection, or for the security of the troops or district under his command. I declare that after such supine conduct, to say no worse of it, I should not be astonished if I were to hear that Major Drummond and the remainder of the battalion had been cut off likewise.
"This is not the mode in which the former rebellion in Wynaad and Cotiote was suppressed; it is not that in which this insurrection is to be stopped; but it is the certain mode of continuing it as long as a British Soldier remains in that part of India.
"Tell Major Drummond that the troops lately sent to his assistance are not to be kept in a fort or cantonment; they are to be in the field in one or more bodies, according to his information of the strength of the enemy; and let him know that whatever may be the enemy’s strength at present, I expect that when he will be joined by these reinforcements he will move out and attack him, and that by his future activity he will remove from my mind the impression which has been made upon it of the certain evil which the public interests will sustain from his late supineness."
"This is not the mode in which the former rebellion in Wynaad and Cotiote was suppressed; it is not that in which this insurrection is to be stopped; but it is the certain mode of continuing it as long as a British Soldier remains in that part of India.
"Tell Major Drummond that the troops lately sent to his assistance are not to be kept in a fort or cantonment; they are to be in the field in one or more bodies, according to his information of the strength of the enemy; and let him know that whatever may be the enemy’s strength at present, I expect that when he will be joined by these reinforcements he will move out and attack him, and that by his future activity he will remove from my mind the impression which has been made upon it of the certain evil which the public interests will sustain from his late supineness."
Colonel Wellesley was very critical of Drummond.On 3 November 1802, he wrote that the Major was a “kyde”, derived from,Kaithi,a Tamil word for prisoner.( Captain Robert Drummond had sailed to Bombay from Portsmouth on 17 March 1783 on EIC ship,George Elliot,which was launched the previous year.The ship reached Tellicherry on 24 September,Anjengo on 4 October.)
A relief column had to be sent up the Ghats from Calicut consisting of 300 sepoys and 200 men from Captain Watson’s police.
Edachenna Kungan following his victory went on to issue orders from Pulpalli Pagoda calling the inhabitants to arms. About 3,000 men assembled.
A relief column had to be sent up the Ghats from Calicut consisting of 300 sepoys and 200 men from Captain Watson’s police.
Edachenna Kungan following his victory went on to issue orders from Pulpalli Pagoda calling the inhabitants to arms. About 3,000 men assembled.
The minutes of the Commander in Chief J Stuart on 25 October,said that on the morning of the 11th a detachment of Panoratta, consisting of about 70 men of the Bombay Native Infantry was attacked by a body of Nairs. The post was carried, the Cantonment and Cutchery were burnt and the detachment was cutt off. The commanding Officer, Captn Dickerson, Lieutn Maxwell with 24 Sepoys were killed and about the same number of native troops were wounded... The body of Nairs whose numbers did not exceed three or four hundred men are reported to have dispersed after the affair but it appears that the stockade at the pass of Cotiote was attacked soon after, and the latest accounts contain information that the communication between Cotaparamba and Moutana had been intercepted.The officer commanding in Malabar took immediate steps to reinforce the Troops in Cotiote and Wynaad, and to collect a Detachment for the purpose of acting in these countries should the insurrection prove to be general. He detached 5 Company’s of the 5 Bombay Regiment with two Hundred men of the Police Corps from Calicut to Wynaad, and agreeably to instructions from the Honble Coll Wellesley drew his Majesties 77 Regiment into Malabar from the Province of Canara. The latter Officer has likewise adopted the most active measures for the reestablishment of Tranquillity – he has ordered the first battalion 8th Regiment to proceed from Seringapatam to Kancencottah to escort the Collector Major Macleod** and co-operate with the Troops serving in the Wynaad, and he is preparing to support these troops with further reinforcements should circumstances require them.There will be already fifteen hundred men in Wynaad, exclusively of the force in Cotiote***, his Majesties 77th Regiment two companies of the 81st – and the Bombay European Regiment which Corps has been directed to be detained while its presence may be necessary, will be in readiness to enter this District by the side of Malabar and the Commander in Chief has authorised the movement of two battalions of Native Infantry from the Southern Division of the Army to Mysore should the Hon’ble Colonel Wellesley require their services.
Edachena Kunkan , was a Wayanad Nayar noble of Tirunelli, who had joined the war efforts of Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja in the 1770s and soon rose to become the commander of Raja's army. His younger brothers, Edachena Komappan , Edachena Othenan and Edachena Ammu, joined him in war as junior generals. He became popular in Wayanad through his leadership, creating support among people of many classes for Pazhassi Raja's war against the British East India Company.
Kunkan proved to be an excellent commander and under his leadership, Pazhassi troops fought against Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan of Mysore as far as the outskirts of Mysore. This enlarged the sphere of influence of Pazhassi Raja, who laid claim to territories as far as Nanjangud, Mysore.
During Hyder's siege of Thalasseri with the help of Chirakkal and Kadathanad ( 1779–1782), Pazhassi Raja sent 1000 troops commanded by Kunkan, who successfully repulsed all assaults by the Mysore army. The siege was later broken by a joint British-Pazhassi attack in 1782.
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| Koli tree at the Panamaram Fort site |
After the capture of Panamaram Fort, Kunkan went to Pulpally pagoda, where he made an appeal to the people to join the rebel ranks. The response was overwhelming, as three thousand men volunteered. From then until early 1804, Pazhassi rebels launched regular guerrilla attacks over British positions throughout Northern Malabar, reaching as far as the coastal towns of Kannur, Thalassery and Calicut.Kunkan confronted the British twice: in 1802 at Wayanad where he tried to block a British army en route to Mananthavadi and in 1803 when he tried to besiege an outpost at Pazhassi. Both ended in failure, but it helped him to revise his strategy as afterwards he concentrated only on guerrilla warfare. The British announced a reward of 1,000 pagodas for those who helped to arrest Kunkan.By November 1805, the rebels were on the run and after Raja's death, Kunkan, 'that determined and incorrigible rebel,' was killed by the British army at Mavilayi Thod alongwith Pazhassi Raja in 1805.
Kalpully Karunakara Menon,the Kolkaran who betrayed Pazhassi Raja,recorded thus in his report to the Malabar Principal Collector F Clemenston in 1834:
Pazhassi Raja's end came close to Karnataka on the shore of a stream named Mavila or Mavila Thod, on 30 November 1805,not far from Pulpally.Raja and party were caught by surprise and an intense but short fight followed. Six rebels were killed.
Aralathu Kuttyappa Nambiar was the only one among Pazhassi followers,who tried to defend at the grave, then he also was killed by them.The Company army confronted at Pulinjal the agitators and killed Emman, the nephew of Edachena Kunkan. Kunkan was also killed with Pazhassi. The Company army tried to catch Pallur Rayarappan, but he killed one of the Company men then committed suicide.Edachena Komapan caught by the Kolkkaranmar and Mundottil Mootha Nair were also killed. Emman, once the friend of Colonel Arthur Wellesley and others caught by the army and condemned to exile to the Island Prince of Wales, North to Australia.
After the killing od Pazhassi Raja,the East India Company held military trials at Sreerangapatanam during March and April,1806 and tried the captured soldiers.Edachena Komappan was tried on 31 March 1809.He pleaded not guilty.Coondy Kambier who had been a Gomastah belonging to a Cutcherry at Panartocotta at the time, and who had made his escape on the night of the massacre, was called to give evidence for the prosecution,thus:
Komappan had also laid an ambush of a detachment under Colonel Montresor, firing into this officer’s column from the flanks.Komappan in his defense,maintained that it was his brother Kunkan, a vakeel for the Pazhassi Raja, who had in fact led the attack. He said that he had been left in the rear because he had a sore foot.Montresor was an associate of James Hartley,who had been army Commander at Kochi,Palakkad and Kannur and later General,Supervisor and Magistrate of Malabar.
The Court Marshall found Komappan guilty. The court sentenced him to death by hanging.
Thomas Baber on 9 April 1807, instructed his vakeel Kulpilly Karunakara Menon to prosecute the case against Paleora Eman Nair, Kariakaran to Pazhassi Raja. The prisoners were taken to Sreerangapatanam where they were taken before a Court Marshall.Since there is record of an earlier trial date of 7April 1806 for Eman,The Court Marshall found all the men guilty and sentenced them to hang, so it is possible, that the instruction of 9 April refers to an appeal.
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| Order attaching Kunkan's Property |
The Court Marshall found all the men guilty and sentenced them to hang, which resulted in the men having their sentences commuted to transportation to Prince of Wales Island.
The Nilagiri Special assistant Collector on 17 April 1888 attached the properties of Kunkan.The order was found in the collection of Edachena E P Kunjikrishna Nair by his son K Madhusoodanan.The order says that since Kunkan had fought the British,he committed sedition and his family have no right to own properties in the country.The British,following this,denied land even for the cremation of dead bodies to the family and as a result,the bodies were thrown into river.The members of the family were denied government jobs.Why it took more than 80 years for such an order? No idea.
The Edachena family had migrated to Wynad,during the administrative expansion of the Kottayam dynasty.Kunkan was born at Pannichal,Edavaka in Mananthavadi.
The families, Edachana Kulangara, Edachana Puthenveettil and Edachana Koovammoola are still residing in Wayanad, and are third generation descendants of Edachena Kunkan.
The families, Edachana Kulangara, Edachana Puthenveettil and Edachana Koovammoola are still residing in Wayanad, and are third generation descendants of Edachena Kunkan.
Failure of Wellesley
Arriving in Calcutta in February 1797 Arthur Wellesley spent several months there, before being sent on a brief expedition to the Philippines, where he established a list of new hygiene precautions for his men to deal with the unfamiliar climate.Returning in November to India, he learnt that his elder brother Richard, now known as Lord Mornington, had been appointed as the new Governor-General of India.In 1798, he changed the spelling of his surname to "Wellesley"; up to this time he was still known as Wesley, which his eldest brother considered the ancient and proper spelling.
In a letter to his fellow army man, Lieutenant Colonel Kirkpatrick, dated 7 April 1800, Wellesley described Wayanad as a country "well calculated for turbulence"."There never was a country which, from its nature, its situation, the manners of its people, and its government, was so well calculated for turbulence," he had said.Expressing displeasure over the complicated geography of Wayanad which made the military operations difficult for the British troops, he described the whole place as a "jungle"."The whole country is one jungle, which may be open in some parts, but in others is so thick that it is impossible to see objects at the distance of two yards; and till roads are made, the country is impracticable for our troops," he said.Wellesley also called the native people as "savage and cruel" in the letter.However, records showed that despite his meticulous planning and strategies, Wellesley could not catch Pazhassi Raja as he wished.The commander had to return to his home country before Raja was defeated by the East India Company.
Both Arthur Wellesley and his brother were asked to return to England in 1805 before the Wayanad mission was completed.He was given the prestigious title of the Duke of Wellington in 1814 for his services and later assigned with the task of taking on Napoleon.As a military commander, Wellesley rose to the zenith of fame by defeating Napoleon in 1815.He was invited by King George IV to form his own government, following which he became the Prime Minister in 1828.
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*Major Drummond:Probably it was Robert Drummond of the Bombay Medical Establishment of the Company,who wrote Grammar of the Malabar Language in 1799.In its preface,he speaks of his visit to Bishop Luis of Uzula,who presided over the Carmelite mission at Verapoly ( Varapuzha ).He has listed names of other officers who learned Malayalam in Malabar:John William Wye,Affillant Surgeon of Bombay Medical Establishment,Lt Joseph Watson,Hay Clephane of the civil service.
** Major William Macleod,Principal Collector of Malabar
*** Cotiote:Kottayam
Wellesley:Arriving in Calcutta in February 1797 he spent several months there, before being sent on a brief expedition to the Philippines, where he established a list of new hygiene precautions for his men to deal with the unfamiliar climate.Returning in November to India, he learnt that his elder brother Richard, now known as Lord Mornington, had been appointed as the new Governor-General of India.In 1798, he changed the spelling of his surname to "Wellesley"; up to this time he was still known as Wesley, which his eldest brother considered the ancient and proper spelling.
© Ramachandran
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