THREE MALABAR PIRATES IN TRAVANCORE

 Arakkal Brothers as Naval Chiefs in Travancore

 This is the story of a Kolathiri prince of Kannur in Northern Kerala becoming King in Travancore,and he in turn,appointing two brothers from the Naval family of Arakkal in Kannur, as Naval Chiefs of Travancore- the first team to protect the waters of Travancore,much before Eustachius De Lannoy and Chempil Arayan.

The King was Adithya Varma,and the brothers,Mammali Kidavu and Kunjikoyamu.

Adithya Varma was adopted from the Kolathunad,along with his brother Rama Varma and two sisters, to the Attingal royal family,before the reigning King,Kottayam Kerala Varma,also from Kolathunad,was assassinated on 28,August,1696.Adithya Varma did the obsequies of Kerala Varma.

It was the time when Umayamma Rani of Attingal was ruling the Travancore Kingdom,though,Ravi Varma had taken over the elder's position(and so,the King) in 1685 itself.He was very weak,leading a sanyasin's life,till his death in 1704.Ravi Varma is considered by some as the son of Umayamma Rani.When Umayamma Rani died in July,1698,the Junior Rani,Pururuttathi Thirunal from Kolathu Nadu became the Queen of Attingal,since the elder sister had died within a year of the adoption.Marthanda Varma,is believed to be the her son.The attempt to make Adithya Varma or Rama Varma,the King ,was torpedoed by King of Nedumangad,Kerala Varma and some of the barons.The powerful Pillai barons,when the ship,Neptune,of East India Company wrecked in Manakkudi,near Kanyakumari,looted the entire cargo though the agreement between the Company and the Rani stipulated equal share of the cargo,in the event of a ship wreck.

Manakkudi

When Ravi Varma died in 1704,the attempt of Adithya Varma to become the King was again thwarted by the barons,who anointed Nedumangad Kerala Varma as the King in February,1805.Though,Adithya Varma approached,the King of Karunagappaly,he was not in a position to help,because he had become an ally of the Kayamkulam King,who in turn,was an ally of the Dutch.But political pressures made the Karunagappaly King to return to his old position, and he adopted he Junior Rani and her son,Marthanda Varma from Attingal to Karunagapally.The Karunagappally King died in September,1707 and the Junior Rani,Pururuttathi Thirunal,became the Regent,making her brother,Adithya Varma,powerful.Since his family had close relationship with the Muslim Kingdom of Arakkal,he invited Mammali Kidavu and Kunjikoyamu in an effort to protect the commercial interests in the Travancore coast,and to post them,he established a Naval facility at Kadiapattanam,in Kanyakumari.

Kadiapattanam

While the Arakkal brothers were busy organizing a naval force,Nedumangad Kerala Varma died and his successor declared himself King of Travancore.The Naicker of Madurai accepted him and the barons,with the support of Madurai Force,ousted Adithya Varma from Kalkulam.As a result,Mammali and Kunjikoyamu lost the Naval Chiefs post and they became pirates.Though the ships which had a Dutch pass,were not required to pay the tax,the brothers,seized ships from Kayamkulam and Purakkad,for not paying taxes.Adithya Varma became helpless,and the traders at Purakkad and Kayamkulam,who were furious that the Dutch pass is not valid in Travancore,snapped ties with Travancore and approached the British.Smelling trouble,the barons declared loyalty to Adithya Varma,promising money to pay the arrears of tribute to Madurai,and on their demand,Adihya Varma banished Mammali and Kunjikoyamu from Travancore,in 1708.They were captured by the Dutch at Cochin in December,but they managed to escape soon,with the help of the English,who gave residence to the brothers,at Anchuthengu Factory.

 

Thengapattanam

We see Mammali and Mani Kurukkal,not Kunjikoyamu,next, in 1714,three years after their one time mentor, Adithya Varma ascending the throne,after the death of Nedumangad King.The English,with  Varma's permission,shifted Mammali and Kurukkal to Thengapattanam.They looted ships and levied extra tax from ships carrying Dutch pass,and once,dared to loot the ship of the King.They disappear from history at this point.Varma died in 1721.

The Dutch priest,Jacobus Cantervisscher,in his Letters from Malabar,has recorded that the English had encouraged Muslim pirates to loot Dutch ships.

Reference:

1.Venadinte Parinamam/K Sivasankaran Nair

2.Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore/Mark De Lannoy
3.Letters from Malabar/Cantervisscher

See my Post,ARAKKAL ALI RAJA'S ATTACK OF MALDIVES

UMMINI THANKA MARRIED A MALABAR PRINCE

Her Husband was King for just19 days

Historians and filmmakers have painted a tragic picture of the 18th-century Travancore princess, Ummini Thanka, weaving around her, a fateful love story with Marthanda Varma. She was the love interest of the protagonist in the movies, Marthanda Varma(1933)and Ummini Thanka(1961). In fact, she was a staunch enemy of Marthanda Varma, the cruel King, who not only killed her brothers but, hold your breath, her husband, too. We were taken for a ride by the loyal historians of the royal family, by never recording her marriage, and leading us to believe in the fiction, Marthanda Varma directly succeeded his uncle, Rama Varma. 

Marthanda Varma had to kill two natural successors of Rama Varma, to ascend the throne. When Rama Varma died on February 9,1929, Marthanda Varma was only, third in the line, as Prince of Eraniel. The prince of Karunagappally went to Kalkulam, sworn in as King of Travancore, but died within 19 days, in mysterious circumstances. Then, the next successor, Prince of Neyyattinkara, was anointed, as the King. He too died in mysterious circumstances, and Marthanda Varma was coronated as King on 30 August 1729.

The King for 19 days was known as, Thalassery Rajakumaran(Tellicherry prince), nothing much is there on him, in history, except a reference to his absence, during the signing of an agreement with the Dutch by King Rama Varma. When the Attingal Vanchimuttam Pillai blocked the pepper trade with the French in his territory, Rama Varma guaranteed trade at Thengapattanam.The business got cancelled since they wanted pepper, delivered at Kollam. Rama Varma then offered the business to the French at Colachel. Though the French reached Kalkulam with a draft agreement, it could not be signed because the King wanted the presence of Thalassery Rajakumaran. He could not attend because, he was at war with Kayamkulam, as the King of Karunagappally.

Dance of Ragini in Ummini Thanka movie

Ummini Thanka was the daughter of the dead King, Rama Varma. When he was crown Prince, he was given properties, including Kalkulam Fort. I have referred to the legend of Rama Varma marrying a Rajput princess from Ayodhya, Abhirami, and Avira Kochamma in folk tales, in my post, The Murder of Kunju Thampi Brothers. It is a fiction which alluded to Rama Varma, seeing her at the Suchindram temple festival, falling in love and marrying her. History says he married a woman from the Vellala Pillai community, a niece of a person called, Kochu Kumaran Pillai, and had two sons and a daughter. 

The sons were called Kunju Thampi brothers, Thampi Raman Raman and Thampi Adichan. The prefix, Thampi denotes a Pillai, not a Kshatriya, and says, he was the son of the King. Kunju Thampi Brothers became very powerful with the help of the Madurai Naicker, even ousting Marthanda Varma for a brief period of time, sending him to Kollam. Marthanda Varma killed the Thampi brothers, and then, Ummini Thanka and her mother committed suicide. There was no husband or son to Ummini Thanka, in the legend, as well as in history so far. She had a son, also called Raman Thampi.

Marthanda Varma

Marthanda Varma killed the two natural successors of his uncle, assessing that they were weak. When they took over, the Attingal Pillai s resurfaced and entered into an agreement in 1729, with the Nedumangad King. The British gave guns and other weapons to the Kollam King and his loyal, Vanchimuttam Pillai of Attingal, in March. They had an agreement with the Pillai in April, to supply weapons, for a sufficient quantity of pepper. It was to crush them, Marthanda Varma went from Eraniel to Neyyattinkara, killing the weak predecessors.

Was one among those two, Ummini Thanka's husband?
A line in the letter dated March 23,1742, written by Marthanda Varma, to the Chief Minister of Cochin, Paliath Achan, found by Mark De Lannoy and quoted by him in his book, Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore, is a silver lining, in unravelling the mystery of Ummini Thanka. Marthanda Varma writes, A Thampi, my elder brother's son, too joined the rebels.

This letter, on request, has been sent to Historian K Sivasankaran Nair, by De Lannoy, from Leiden University, where he is a Professor. It means, Marthanda Varma had an elder brother, he married the sister of the Thampi brothers, and her husband was a Prince/King(hence her son is called a Thampi).

Now, who was this elder brother?

The Adopted Brother in History

De Lannoy refers to the attempts of Adithya Varma, who was adopted to the Attingal royal family, from Kolathunad, to become the King and the resistance to it by the Pillai s and ministers, who made the Nedumangad King, the King of Travancore, in February 1705. Though Adithya Varma sought the help of the King of Karunagappally, he was not in a position to help, because of internal strife. After the death of Kottayam Kerala Varma, he was not getting any help from Travancore, and he allied with the Kayamkulam King, a friend of the Dutch. The Pillai s of Karunagappally rose in rebellion, and the King had to seek asylum in Kayamkulam, and adopt the nephew of Kayamkulam Raja, his successor, in 1706. Palakkad, Thekkumkur and Cochin Kings, fearing the strengthened Kayamkulam, pressurized the King of Karunagappally to withdraw from the alliance and cancel the adoption. He returned to Karunagappally and then adopted the Junior Rani of Attingal and her two sons, in 1707. This was Marthanda Varma and his elder brother. The King died in September, and the mother of two, assumed the throne, as Regent, because, Marthanda Varma was only a year old, and his elder brother, we do not know.

Travancore historians have played a hide-and-seek game on the mother of Marthanda Varma, and there is hardly any clue about his father. Umayamma Rani, the powerful Queen of Attingal, who ruled the entire Travancore, had adopted two princesses from Kolathunad, Malabar, in 1688. The elder one died without a child, according to the history, written by Vaikathu Pachu Moothathu. Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer says, referring to Mathilakam scrolls, that, Pururuttathi Thirunal, the Junior Rani, was childless. If this is accepted, Marthanda Varma becomes the son of the elder Rani, which has been proved nonsense by De Lannoy by recording, the junior Rani was adopted with two sons. It is well known that Marthanda Varma had his childhood at Karunagappally. 

Alexander Hamilton, who was a trader, during 1683-1723, recorded that a princess of Attingal was in love with a Britisher of Vizhinjam Factory, and he had stayed at the palace for some time. Maybe this love affair prompted the decision to grant permission to the English to establish the Factory at Anchthengu. Hamilton, Thomas Bowrey and Thomas Pitt did combine private trading with their command of ships, on the Indian coast. Hamilton was a Scottish sea Captain, who reached Bombay in 1688. He fought for the East India Company, in a local war and after that, set up a private trade, operating from Surat. He became Commander of Bombay Marines in 1717, to suppress the pirates. 

The love story, told by Hamilton, is there in John Pinkerton's A General Collection of Voyages and Travels(Vol VIII, page 383). According to the agreement on establishing the Anchuthengu Fort, it was specified that the British will present, annual presents, to the Queen. In 1685, according to the story, the envoy who carried the presents, was a " young beautiful English gentleman" and "the occasion was invested with a halo of romance".The female in the story seems to be Junior Rani, the year,1685 may be wrong.

De Lannoy records, when Marthanda Varma and his elder brother returned to Thiruvananthapuram in 1722, their mother became lonely at Karunagappally. At this time, a prince from the Kolathiri family, who was deported by his own family, sought asylum in the Thalassery Fort and the English sent him to Travancore. He was adopted by King Rama Varma, along with his sister and sent to Karunagappally. Since he came from Thalassery, he was known as, Thalassery Rajakumaran. So, he is different from Marthanda Varma's elder brother, though he became King of Travancore in 19 days. He, thus becomes the third one from Malabar, to become the King of Travancore after Kottayam Kerala Varma(died1696), and Adithya Varma(1711-1721). Dharma Raja, who succeeded Marthanda Varma was, Thalassery Rajakumaran's, sister's son. Now, the adoption records say, Thalassery Rajakumaran was adopted as the brother of the King of Neyyattinkara. History saves itself here: Marthanda Varma became the King of Neyyattinkara when he was just 15, and he was the King of Neyyattinkara, and thus, Thalassery Rajakumaran was adopted as the elder brother of Marthanda Varma! Even otherwise, he was his elder brother, since both of them could claim Kolathunad ancestry. When Marthanda Varma shifted from Karunagappally, Thalassery Rajakumaran was sent to Karunagappally.

Pachu Moothath

Assassination of Successors

It was a case of a mix-up by De Lannoy, mixing up two adoptions. The Travancore history which says, Marthanda Varma was the only son in 67 years, born in the Attingal family, remains intact. His mother had no other son.

History becomes straight now, breaking the myth: Ummini Thanka was married to the elder brother, Thalassery Rajakumaran, who became King of Travancore for 19 days, and was assassinated by Marthanda Varma, to usurp the throne. Hence, people who wrote to make Marthanda Varma a hero, threw out Thalassery Rajakumaran from the annals of history, without even attaching a name.

No wonder, she and her son, turned against Marthanda Varma. There is a Raman among the names of the Pillai s Marthanda Varma, hanged. Maybe, it was her son.

Ummini Thanka and her son were kept under house arrest by Marthanda Varma, after the attack on Kalakkad Fort on January 30,1730, by the Thampi brothers and Pillai s. They escaped and joined her brothers, who were with the Madurai Force. On 28 October 1730, Marthanda Varma invited the Thampi brothers for peace talks at Nagercoil palace and killed them. After the murder, Ummini Thanka and her mother rushed to the palace, pulled out their tongue and committed suicide.

Marthanda Varma's mother, Pururuttathi Thirunal was the Attingal Queen then. He prevailed upon her to relinquish all authority, and he shifted her from Attingal to Sreepadam Palace, Thiruvananthapuram. In 1758, he signed a re-adoption treaty with her, which had four conditions.1.Only unmarried princesses could be adopted.2.Only princesses of Kolathunad could be adopted(his mother's family).3.Adoptees will belong to Attingal only.4.Only the eldest male child of a princess so adopted could become the King.

The fourth condition assured that people like Thalassery Rajakumaran would never become Kings in Travancore.

Reference:

1.Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore/Mark De Lannoy
2.Essays on Travancore/Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer
3.Thiruvithamkur Charithram/Pachu Moothath
4.Venadinte Parinamam/K Sivasankaran Nair
5.Travancore Dynasty Records/M Raja Raja Varma
6. Marthanda Varma Muthal Munro Vare/K Sivasankaran Nair
7.A New Account of the East Indies/Alexander Hamilton/1727. 
8.At the Turn of the Tide/Lakshmi Raghunandan

See my Post,MURDER OF KUNJU THAMPI BROTHERS





 

MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH AT ATTINGAL,1721

The Biggest Massacre of Britishers in Kerala

 Umayamma Rani gave permission to the English East India Company to fortify the trade settlement at Anchuthengu,in 1694,not because she wanted it,but because she had gone back on her promise to grant permission to fortify the Vizhinjam Factory,after, she and some barons, having received a huge amount.She was thus forced to grant the right to establish the Factory and Fort at Anchuthengu,but it became operational only in 1696,because of the opposition of the Dutch and the Pillai s.The Pillai s of Attingal,Kudamon and Vanchimuttam were traditional rivals,and Vanchimuttam,secretly helped the English.After giving permission,the Queen,who became fearful of the English design,had sent an Army of Nairs and Muslims to attack the Fort,but the attempt was foiled by the advance information from Vanchimuttam.The Queen of Attingal was also the Head of the confederacy consisting of the principalities of Travancore,Nedumangad,Kottarakkara,Kollam,Karunagappally and Kayamkulam.

Anchuthengu Fort from the Light House

The Queen needed lot of resources to fund the action against the internal strife,she was facing,and the English request came in handy.The union jack was hoisted at Anchuthengu,on April 27,1694.The peace treaty of 1679,between Britain,France,Scotland,Ireland and Netherlands agreed to accept the colonial monopoly of any of these countries,once they raise their flag to establish a Fort.Located between Vamanapuram river to the East and Arabian sea to the west,it was built with 70,000 stones,at a cost of 7000 pounds,completed in 1699.It could trigger 60 cannons at a time.400 persons could stay at a time.Records show that the Queen got gifts worth Rs 300 from Commander Thomas Mitchell,first Head there,for the first consignment of pepper,and the next Commander,John Brabourne gave 250 coins(1 coin=21 panam)and velvet.Brabourne returned to London in 1707 and Simon Cowse who followed him remained Head,till 1712.John Kyffin who took over in 1712,was dismissed for over enthusiasm in private trade,and William Gyfford,greedy to the core,used even his beautiful wife,Catherine Cooke,for private trade.He made a fortune by sending additional pepper to Europe,in a brigantine,Thomas,owned by his wife's brother,Thomas Cooke.

Attingal Palace

There was one William Gyfford , a puppet of the Governor of the Company in London,Josaiah Child,who appointed him Agent of the Madras Factory in 1681,after removing,Strynsham Master on allegations of private trade.  Gyfford had become a Factor in 1657,became a member of the Council at Fort St George in 1662 and became second President of the newly formed Madras Presidency in 1685, after Elihu Yale.

Gyfford was instrumental in signing a treaty with Lingappa,Naik of Poonamallee,for protecting the Factory from criminals and private trade,by paying him,7000 pagodas.A firman was signed by Lingappa,on behalf of the Sultan of Golconda,providing new cowle,for the district of Madraspatnam at the rate of 1200 pagodas/annum,on November 12,1683.Gyfford started the Madras Bank,at Child's suggestion to get more income to the Company.In 1686,he was removed as President of Madras,after a public rebellion against stringent tax.

I don't know whether Gyfford of Anjengo was related to the President Gyfford.The Gyfford appointed at Anjengo in June,1717 was 34 then,whereas the Presidne Gyfford would have been more than 80,at that time.The Anjengo Gyfford had come to India in 1705 as a Writer in the Company,at 17.When he was 25,he married the twice widowed,Catherine,whose life was tragic and adventurous.When Catherine and her first husband,John Harvey,who was Chief of the Karwar Fort,were living in Bombay,Gyfford was in charge of the Bombay market.It was after a stint as Super Cargo,in a vessel,Catherine, Gyfford was appointed at Anchuthengu.They reached after the monsoon. 

Simon Cowse,who was Head,remained second in Command after Gyfford took over Anchuthengu Factory.

Attingal was in great political crisis,in total anarchy, pulling on,without a Queen,when Gyfford took over.Nothing in the country could be moved,because of the rivalry of the two ministers,Kudamon and Vanchimuttam Pillai s.Kudamon Pillai died in 1721,and when his energetic nephew succeeded,Gyfford bribed Vanchimuttam,who supported the Queen of Kallada,Ammu Thampuran,sister of Kollam King Unni Kerala Varma,for the post of the Queen of Attingal,as a loyalist of the King.An agreement was worked out between Vanchimuttam and the new Kudamon Pillai and the Queen was consecrated. 

Gyfford,by nature,was sarcastic,making fun of others,and enjoying doing practical jokes.Unfortunately,when the practical jokes became religious,Hindus and Muslims formed an axis,against him.He insulted a Brahmin,forcing him to shave the beard of an untouchable slave,which made the Brahmin an outcast,by tradition,and his community was up in arms.The Linguist at the Factory,the Portuguese,Ignatio Malheiro, encouraged young boys to pelt rotten eggs at Muslim traders.Gyfford and wife poured impure water on Muslims.Malheiro,bought by force,the Kottathali grove owned by Sarkkara temple,giving one lakh panam.A large sea coast bought by Gyfford,made Kudamon Pillai angry,because he  was trying to raise funds for buying it,selling pepper.Three Hindu merchants on Shrove Wednesday,were insulted;a concubine of Malheiro rubbed ash on the fore head on one Muslim merchant,and he attacked and injured her.When a delegation of Nair merchants was ill treated by Gyfford on February 26,1721,Kudamon Pillai set fire to a British ship.

While the situation was tense,Gyfford was invited to meet the new Queen,with the arrears of the lease amount.

Elihu Yale

On April14,1721,a party of 12o British merchants and 30 slaves,led by Gyfford,Burton Fleming and Malheiro sailed by sea to the palace,6 kilometers away,with 17000 panam as tribute,and Vishukkazhcha.Since old Vanchimuttam was inebriated,the party was received by the young Kudamon.Cowse became suspicious when the talk on the gifts to the Pillai s was extended;he alerted Gyfford,but was rebuffed.The party had left the guns in the ship,where as,the Nairs were,as usual armed.Gyfford and the team was asked to spent the night,on the premises of the palace,in small batches.Gyfford also became suspicious and sent a messenger to Robert Sewell,store keeper/Adjutant/Captain.In the night,the combined Attingal forces,led by Kudamon Pillai,fell upon the Britishers,and butchered them.The party had left only the women,children,pensioners and only 4 males  to hold the Fort.Gyfford,Malhiero and Fleming were cut to pieces.The tongues of Gyfford and Malheiro were pulled out,the tongue of Gyfford cut to pieces and thrown into Vamanapuram river.His body was nailed on a log,thrown into the river,to float.Cowse,who tried to escape in Malayali dress,was caught by a Muslim who owed him money,and was killed.A total of 133 were butchered.

Gyfford signature

Three days later,Attingal forces laid siege to the Fort.Among the four males,Robert Sewell,Lieutenant Peter Lapthorne and Ensign Thomas Davis were useless.Sewell and Lapthorne were drunk with a Portuguese called Rodriguez and busy plundering the Factory.Samuel Ince,Gunner ,with volleys of cannon,repulsed them.Women and children were sent away in a ship,Prosperous,to Ceylon,without food and water,though,the Kollam King had invited the refugees to his country.It was not accepted because his loyalties were with the Dutch.There were intermittent attacks on the Fort for 6 months.The Kollam King went to Attingal and stayed with her few days.She sent a delegation including 100 Brahmins,to the Chief at Thalassery,to no avail.She fled to Kollam and never returned.The sister of Rama Varma,King of Travancore was coronated as the new Queen.The tradition of appointing wretched Britishers at Anchuthengu ended and a surgeon in the company,Dr Alexander Orme took over.His son,Robert Orme,born in Anchthengu,and who lived there for two years,became an authority on India and a reputed historian.

Robert Orme

Alexander Orme was the brother in law of the Thalassery Chief,Adams.On August 15,1723,the just 17 year old Marthanda Varma,Prince of Neyyattinkara,sent a letter to Ormes,saying,Adams was  very friendly with the Kolathiri family of Malabar,and as a Kolathiri family member,he too expects Ormes to be friendly with him.Marthanda Varma was the son of a princess from the Kolathiri family,adopted to Attingal family. 

Battle of Plassey was in 1757,killing,only 29 English men,36 years later! 

Reference:
1.English East India Company and the Local Rulers/Leena More
2.The Honourable Company/John Keay
3.Tamil Nadu Archives Letter to Brabourne,1696 May
4. Early Resistance to the English/T P Sankarankutty Nair
5.Venadinte Parinamam/K Sivasankaran Nair
6.A History of British Settlements in India/Talboys Wheeler
7.William Kyffin's letter to the President,Madras,11 January,1718
8.Pirates of Malabar and an English Woman in India/John Biddulph

See my Post,CATHERINE COOKE AT ANCHUTHENGU

VELUTHAMPI, MACAULAY AND PEPPER

Conflict of interest in trade made them enemies

Though Thiruvananthapuram was the Capital of Venad, in Kerala, South India, the Dewans, Raja Kesavadas and Velu Thampi, stayed at Alapuzha, away from the very weak Kings, Dharma Raja, and his successor, Balarama Varma. When Colin Macaulay became a Resident in 1800, Velu Thampi, his close confidante for seven years, shifted from Alappuzha to Kollam, where he built the Residency for Macaulay. The stay of both the Dewans, far from the administrative capital, was not so innocent, though historians belonging to the Dewans' community have put in all kinds of efforts to make them heroes. British records give ample proof to the effect that, both the Dewans sacrificed public interest for private trade interests, amassing wealth, and finally ending in their own destruction.

Anchuthengu (Anjengo) Fort

The Dewans were more interested in the Anchuthengu (Anjengo) trade settlement and the Alapuzha port, the hubs of trade, did their private trade with the Commercial Resident, overlooking the private interests of the Political Resident. The Commercial Resident of the East India Company was stationed at Anchuthengu, who often was at loggerheads with the Political Resident, especially during, 1760-1810.

Before Anchuthengu, the Company got a foothold in Thalassery in 1682. It was Regent Umayamma Rani, who granted the right to the Company to build a Fort and Factory at Anchuthengu in 1695, where the first trade settlement in Kerala came up. Anchthengu, a coastal town, lies 30 Kilometers North of Thiruvananthapuram, near Varkala. It was the first signalling post in India for ships from England, and the first permanent post on the Malabar Coast, a port of call for East Indian men, playing a vital role in the Anglo-Mysore wars of the 18th century. Anchuthengu was an old Portuguese settlement.

Anjengo, 1790s

Alapuzha port was built and opened by Raja Kesavadas in 1762, and Dharmaraja shifted the administrative Capital of Venad from Padmanabhapuram to Thiruvananthapuram, in 1795, the year in which the Raja signed the treaty with the Governor of Bombay, John Duncan.

The treaty of 1795 is known as the East India Company-Travancore Subsidiary Alliance Treaty, for perpetual friendship and alliance. Travancore thus accepted Company's supremacy. The treaty didn't specifically stipulate the aid of the British forces in suppressing the internal commotion in Travancore, but the march of three British Battalions, after the treaty, restored tranquillity.

Velu Thampi enters

When Velu Thampi took over in 1802, one measure of the economy was the scrapping of the field allowances paid to troops at times of peace, leading to a revolt of troops. The insurgency was crushed by native troops alone, but the Company was disturbed. The Madras Government, insisted on a modification of the treaty so that British troops can aid the Raja to quell the internal commotion, as well. Thus a new treaty was signed in July 1805.

The Mysore invasion of Malabar provided further opportunity for the British to expand, and the Travancore Raja was asked by the Company to meet the entire expense of the 3rd Anglo-Mysore War, on the plea that it was undertaken solely for the defence of Travancore. By the treaty of 1795, the Raja was forced to entertain a Subsidiary Force, far beyond his capacity to subsidize. The Company claimed a monopoly over the pepper trade in Travancore, and the country was dragged into the vortex of financial crisis. Raja was forced to raise loans from bankers and merchants, as well as Britishers inside Travancore, including the Commercial Resident at Anchthengu.

Attingal Palace

As we saw, Umayamma Rani of Attingal, gave the Company rights to establish the Anchuthengu Factory. During her time, the Attingal principality had semi-independence, and she administered over Anchuthengu, which system seems to have continued even after her death, in 1698. London Governor of the East India Company, John Child, had initially given the task to export 1500 tonnes of pepper. Thomas Mitchell, John Brabourne and Simone Cowse were the first Heads at Anchthengu, and the next, John Kyffin was dismissed in 1719, for private trade, and William Gyfford took over. 

On 15 April 1721, 133 factors at Anchuthengu, including Gyfford, were murdered by Kodumon Pillai and some noblemen of the new Queen, sister of Kollam King Unni Kerala Varma, in the premises of the Attingal Palace and the Fort besieged. There was no Attingal Queen for 8 years, from 1713, and the Kollam King had just made his sister, who was Queen of Kallada, the Queen of Attingal, with the help of the Pillais of Attingal. The Factory had refused to pay the lease amount, after 1713. The party led by Gyfford had come with presents and arrears of the lease amount to the Queen. Midford, who followed Gyfford was also corrupt and was replaced by Dr Alexander Orme, loyal to Travancore. On being informed, the King of Travancore, Rama Varma, uncle and predecessor of Marthanda Varma, wrote to Dr  Orme, Head of Anjengo Factory, on 15 August 1723: "Owing to the loss sustained by the Honorable Company,i.e, the capture of Attingal and then money and the artillery which the enemies robbed in our country, the Honorable Company have resolved, despite money expenses, to put down the enemies there in the best manner you may desire, regarding which we affirm to do without fail, and wish to know when we must come with our army".

It should be noted that this letter was not to the Queen of Attingal, who had fled to Kollam. Earlier in the same year, Prince Marthanda Varma, just 17, on behalf of Rama Varma, had entered into a treaty with the Company, on erecting a Fort at Colachel, by the Company. The farms of Palattadi and Kotutali were secured by the Company on 10 January 1731 by way of compensation for the excesses of 1721-the Company took two documents, one from the King, and another from the Queen. On 5 April 1729, the Queen of Attingal, Pururuttathi Thirunal (Marthanda Varma's mother; her sister was issueless), entered into an agreement with the Company, in which she stated: "All pepper that (I) may have in my country, I will cause to be transported to the Fort of Anjengo, free of any embarrassment, whatever in these territories. And the Company must not give to any other person but to me, the customs for pepper of my country".

This means that the Attingal Queen, not the Travancore Raja, was getting the trade benefit from Anchuthengu. So, Marthanda Varma prevailed upon her about 1736-37, to renounce all the rights she had been exercising over that principality, and the Attingal family was shifted to Sreepadam Palace in Thiruvananthapuram.

Marthanda Varma delayed fulfilling the terms of the pepper contract originally entered into by the Company, with the Queen of Attingal, and the Company ran a tirade against him, for divesting the Queen of all authority. John Spencer, Chief of Anjengo, informed the Select Committee of Madras, that the country is in the absolute power of Marthanda Varma. Spencer met Surgeon Edward Ives, who wrote, Ives Travels, on his ship off the coast, and in his book(page 192), Ives said: "At a distance of half a mile from the river is a temple, where the Queen lives. Till of late, the town and country of Attinga were quite independent, but now subject to Travancore."The story gets repeated in James Forbes, Forbe's Oriental Memoirs,1773. Forbes was Chief at Anchuthengu, till 1772. The picture was somewhat different from what the Britishers tried to paint; the Queen was accommodated honourably.

Abercrombie

Pepper contract

In his Desultory Notes, Colin Campbell Macaulay, who was Political Resident during 1800-1810, referred to the contract for pepper in January 1793, with the King of Travancore, by General Robert Abercrombie, Governor of Bombay, while criticizing the conduct of the Commercial Resident at Anchthengu, Augustus William Handley. In that contract for 10 years, the Raja bound himself to deliver annually, 3000 candies (1 candy=746 kilos), at Rs 117/Candy, under a penalty of Rs 57.50 for each Candy deficient. From the date of this contract, Macaulay says, Handley, the Commercial Resident had no duty or function in respect of pepper, but to receive it from the Raja and ship it for England. He was an Officer of custody solely, receiving a rate of commission. Macaulay, then adds: A Dewan of Travancore could never be a purchaser of pepper from the Commercial Resident.

It means Velu Thampi had a trade relationship with Handley. While the contract was in force, the supply of pepper by the King, except for two years, fell short of the contract. On its expiry, Handley claimed some penalties and complained to the Madras Council that Macaulay was not allowing him to communicate directly with the Raja and his ministers. For us, this is a sufficient hint for the fact that a trade rivalry existed between Macaulay, Handley and Velu Thampi. Handley (1764-1808) was the son of Thomas Handley and was married to Anatolia De la Martiliere. He died at Kollam on July 1, 1808, survived by children, Charles Antolius Handley(born 1801) and Augustus Bernard Handley(1803-1877).

Handley

Macaulay, on the expiry of Abercrombie's contract in 1803, signed a new contract with the King for five years, which said the King would supply 3000 Candies of pepper at Rs 127/Candy, with a penalty at Rs 84 .75/ each Candy short delivered.

Macaulay has asserted in his Notes, that Velu Thampi had private trade relations with the Commercial Resident John Smee, and there was an application in April 1809, to settle accounts of Thampi and Smee, of course, after the suicide of Thampi, in March. On February 10, 1810, Macaulay found an earlier letter from Smee to Thampi, for a supply of the best coir at a very low price. A letter from Smee to Snow, on September 8, 1809, showed Smee had made arrangements with Thampi for liquidation of a claim at Rs 3000/men sem. There was always a favour price for Smee. Smee had received once 300 Candies of pepper, not for the Company. When once questioned, Macaulay says, Thampi had admitted matters of favour with Smee. There was evidence for Thampi's trade of pepper with Smee at much a lower rate, exposing a kickback scandal. Macaulay had complained that Smee had conducted clandestine correspondence with Thampi. The Linguist at Anchuthengu Fort, S D Fernandez also had engaged in 'treacherable' intrigues with Thampi; Macaulay had enclosed a letter by Fernandez to Thampi, without signature.

Corruption at Anchuthengu

Duncan

Anchuthengu was known for corruption before Macaulay, particularly, when John Hutchinson was the Commercial Resident from 1782-1787. Walter Ewer, Company Director, after his visit had written in 1796, that though the salary of Hutchinson was only Rs 200, he had made a fortune. His assistant, Dune was getting only Rs 140, after seven years of service, and Snow, another assistant, Rs 90. After making a lot of money, Hutchinson lends it to the Travancore King, Dharma Raja.

After his death, Hutchinson's brother Bury approached the Select Committee in London, in 1832, to get back the arrears from the King. Macaulay gave evidence to the Committee. Hutchinson had lent money to Dharmaraja, who died in 1797. Hutchinson too died in the same year. Seeing rampant corruption, by the Act 37 of George III, loans by East India Company Officials to royal families etc was, prohibited. 

The trial of Warren Hastings proved that he had lent loans to the Nawab of Arcot. The case was, Hutchinson lent money before the Act came into force. In 1795, John Duncan, Governor of Bombay examined the case and made a part payment from the money Travancore had paid the Company, to Hutchinson Estate. George Parry, the successor of Hutchinson, had written on March 13,1800, that out of Rs 4,89,735 Dharma Raja owed to Hutchinson, as principal with an interest of 16%, 2,80,000 has been paid. Governors, Wellesley, Barlowe and Minto, all had examined the affair. Hutchinson gave the unsettled state of his pecuniary transactions with the King as a reason for declining to accept a seat in the Madras Council. It was also found that Thomas Baber, Collector at Thalassery was helping the Travancore royal family in the case; they visited him in 1818. He had fallen out with the Governor of Madras, Stephen Lushington, who took over after Thomas Munro. On Baber's return journey to India in 1833 February, his letters to the King of Travancore were intercepted by the British.

Macaulay was getting Rs 19,000 annually, according to British records. The records also show that he was allowed to sell to "Ram Raja", certain houses and grounds in the vicinities of Anjengo.

Destruction of Cochin

A book by Anne Bulley, The Bombay Country Ships, 1790-1838, records the destruction of Cochin by Macaulay, who was a Resident of Cochin too, staying at Bolgatty Palace. On the resumption of the French war in 1803, afraid that the French would take advantage, Colin Macaulay blew up the greater part of Cochin and demolished fortifications, barracks, arsenals and even quays along the harbour. The only building left was the church and tower of the Dutch Company's offices-formerly, the tower of the Portuguese Cathedral. 

Two years later, Sakthan Thampuran died and the Nair revolt assured complete destruction. In 1809, Travancoreans attacked and destroyed the Customs House at Mattancherry, after the revolt of Velu Thampi. On February 28, 1809, the cruiser, Lively, from Bombay, which had come for help, succeeded in grounding opposite the Palace and the officer commanding, Lieutenant Gilmore had her blown up, in case, she fell to the enemy. The book records, Cochin would have been a viable alternative to Bombay to build ships, if its history was not turbulent(But the reference in the book, Mattancherry palace was blown up, taken from Francis Day's 1863 book, The Land of Perumals Or Cochin, is baseless. Repeated references are there in Day's book on the Nair Brigade's attack on the Dutch Governor's house. It is the Bolgatty Palace, built in 1744.

It is felt by historians that the King was put into dire straits by insistence on the arrears of the tribute by Residents like Macaulay. He admits he asked for 15 lakhs once and got 10. He calculates that the King had a revenue of Rs 25 lakhs, and comments: But it was hoarded inside vaults, inside temples. Once placed there, the difficulty of extracting it for secular purposes was great.

It is interesting to read the letters Macaulay wrote to the Chief Secretary, Madras, from the ship in the sea, after the attack on his Residency, Bolgatty Palace, on 28 December 1808. The Desultory Notes ends, spewing venom on the dead Velu Thampi:

Had this man been brought to me alive, it was my determination to have him arraigned and tried before a drum-head court martial. For the atrocious murder of a party of the 12th Regiment, consisting of 33 non-committed officers and privates, driven by the stress of weather to seek shelter on the coast, and ordered by him, to be put to death, after undergoing, by his express commands, (the proof of which was in my possession), a series of lingering cruelties and torments, exceeding anything, perhaps, which the annals of savage ferocity and barbarity record. And then, as a just example, to have him hanged on a gibbet erected in the centre of the 12th Regiment, formed in a square....these my intentions were formally made known to Lieutenant Colonel Pickton, commanding His Majesty's 12th Regiment and to Colonel Chalmers, the Officer in Command of that Division of the forces of which the 12th Regiment formed a part...but that man, anticipating in all probability his fate, committed suicide."

Velu Thampi

Macaulay says a notification was made public within Anchuthengu, under the authority (of Velu Thampi), which stated the Company disapproved and condemned the conduct of Colonel Macaulay, for having changed the mode of weighing pepper. "I made efforts from time to time, to save him, from the precipice, on the brink of which he placed himself, but in vain", Macaulay laments and adds: "but he found himself, as it would appear, so far committed to the cold-blooded and congenially wicked wretch of a Raja (BalaramaVarma), whom he served, as to make it more difficult for him to wade on".

Reference:

1. Essays on Travancore/Ulloor S Parameswara Iyer
2. Desultory Notes/Colin Macaulay
3. Proceedings on the Travancore claim since the report of the Select Committee
4. The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British and Foreign India, China and Australia, 1834, Vol 13
5. India Office Records on Macaulay
6. The Bombay Country Ships 1790-1838/Anne Bulley

© Ramachandran

See my Post, CHEMPIL ARAYAN'S ATTACK ON MACAULAY





 

 

 

CHEMPIL ARAYAN'S ATTACK ON MACAULAY

Chempil Arayan was Admiral of the Fleet in Travancore

The joint adventure of the Dewan of Travancore,Velu Thampi, and the Chief Minister of Cochin,Paliyath Achan,Govinda Menon, against the Resident of Travancore and Cochin,Colin Campbell Macaulay(1760-1836)and their attempt to kill him,in 1808,also saw the Chempil Arayan leading the attack.He was Admiral of the fleet of the Travancore King,Balarama Varma,who had fallen out with the Resident.Both the King and the Dewan thought that the British rule was coming to an end,and killing the Resident would herald freedom.The King of Cochin,in whose territory,the attempt was made,was a silent witness.Macaulay was residing at the Bolgatty Palace,the Residency.

Bolgatty Palace,Macaulay's Residency

Though the name of Arayan has been masked by most of the Kerala historians,the British biographical sketches of Macaulay,do mention,the attempt was by Chempil Anantha Padmanabhan Valiya Arayan Kankumaran.His ancestral home is close to the house of popular Malayalam actor,Mammootty,and the actor's ancestral family was Arayan's tenants,once.Arayan was the first to respond to the Kundara Proclamation of Velu Thampi.

Colin Macaulay,son of a priest,Rev.John Macaulay,minister of the Church of Scotland,was one among 12 children.His grand father,Rev.Aulay was also a Presbyterian minister.Both were involved in the attempt to turn the fugitive,Charles Edward Stewart,over to the authorities,in 1746.Zachary Macaulay,colonial Governor and abolitionist,was Colin's brother,and Thomas Babington Macaulay,the great historian and Whig politician,known as Lord Macaulay,was Zachary's elder son.Indians know Lord Macaulay,Colin's nephew,better,as the first Law member of the Governor General's Supreme Council,who called Sanskrit history trash,in his A Minute on Indian Education,1835.

Thalakkulam Valiya Veedu,Velu Thampi's Home,Thucklay

Colin entered the Indian army of East India Company, was captured by Hyder Ali in 1830 and imprisoned for 4 years,withMajor General David Baird,who later oversaw the siege of Srirangapattana.Colin lived in squalor and barbarity in Prison.In 1799,he was Secretary to Political and Diplomatic Mission,headed by Arthur Wellesley,which accompanied General Harris,on invasion of Mysore.Colin was present at the capture of Srirangapattana.Colin was involved in the controversy surrounding the dismissal of George Vaughan Hart,Commissary of grain to the army of Mysore,for alleged peculation,or misappropriation of public fund,and later sought to vindicate his conduct,in,Two Letters to Lord Harris(1816).Arthur Wellesley's brother,Lord Richard Wellesley,Governor General of Bengal,appointed Colin,Resident of Travancore and Cochin,in 1800,the first Resident,after the treaty of 1795.He was a Major in rank.He proved a failure within a year,as Commander in Palayamkottai,when Veerapandya Kattabomman and other revolutionaries,escaped from the near by prison,while he was having dinner in his Bungalow.Those who escaped,went to Panchalamkurichi,rebuilt the Fort within no time,and the attack on them by Macaulay's forces on March 30,1801 became futile.Macaulay was 'allowed' to resign the command and proceed to Bengal,but Wellesly protected him.The Command was given to Colonel Agnew and Macaulay returned to Thiruvananthapuram.He had his knuckles wrapped 4 years later for making,'unguarded','imperfect' statement of a transaction concerning tobacco.Henry Powney,Resident at Colombo, complained against Colin,in 1804,and asked for compensation,for sustaining losses,when he was forbidden  to import tobacco to Travancore.The Government of Madras took grave exception at Colin's action,but,Governor General Wellesley was anxious to protect his brother's friend, Colin,pardoning the indiscretion,and he continued,till,1810,when he went back to London citing, 'health' reasons.

Veluthampi was very cordial with Macaulay,for 7 years,in his tenure of 10 years in Travancore.The King Balarama Varma hated Macaulay from the beginning onwards,because,Macaulay expressed his displeasure in the absence of the Dewan,in the first meeting.The King,asked the Samprathi(Head,Finance),in Malayalam:Iyalkku Dewan Undenkil Mathrame Nakku Pongukayullo?(his tongue will wag,only if Dewan is there,is it?).The King even didn't like the friend ship between Macaulay and Velu Thampi,who had buit a Residency at Kollam,for Macaulay,shifting himself to Kollam,from Alapuzha.Kollam became the administrative capital.The King was involved only in religious activities.Using his influence on Macaulay,Velu Thampi reinstated Paliath Achan in Cochin,where,Sakthan Thampuran had removed the powerful Komi Achan from minister ship,in 1779.The King who succeeded Sakthan,Rama Varma X,was weak.The Achan,Govindan Valiyachan, was also new,the one whom Sakthan considered his enemy,had died.Velu Thampi,visited the King in Tripunithura Palace,to realize his plan.Achan took over the reins,and Velu Thampi sent a detachment of Travancore troops to guard the King at the Tripunithura palace,thus making him a hostage.

Govindan Valiyachan,Paliyam,the plotter

Things went on as usual between Macaulay and Velu Thampi,for two years,even after the treaty of 1805.The King had written to the Governor General,Cornwallis, to remove Macaulay.Thampi fell out with Macaulay on the question of paying  extra tribute,as per the new treaty.Balarama Varma had paid the entire tribute of 42,914 pounds,from 1798,till,1805.In the 1805 treaty,the tribute was enhanced by 4 lakhs,which remained unpaid,due to the King's resentment.Velu Thampi found himself between Scylla and Charybdis,between the King and the Resident.In 1807 February,Macaulay became aggressive on the unpaid extra tribute,writing a strong letter to the King's representative in the Residency,Subbayyan,who was playing games against Velu Thampi.In the letter,Macaulay threatened to throw the Dewan , into the sea,at Valiyathura,and to remove the King from the throne.

Sword of Velu Thampi

When Velu Thampi got information on Subbayyan's intrigues from his wife's house of Arumana,he called Subbayyan to Alapuzha.He was killed by the King sending mercenaries,and,news was spread that Subbayyan died of,'snake bite'.Ramalinga Muthaliyar,Secretary,Commerce,who had encouraged the fearful Subbayyan to go to Alapuzha,fled to Cochin,from Thiruvananthapuram.

Velu Thampi wrote to the Governor General,Lord Minto,against Macaulay,in June,1808,his first letter to him.In the reply,he was advised to write through the Resident .The shocked Velu Thampi,wrote a letter of apology to Macaulay,saying,he was acting only on the instructions of the King.He sent coins worth 60,ooo with the letter,and then Dr Kenneth Macaulay,Macaulay's brother's son,on October 30,met the King for arrears.He insisted the tribute should be paid at once,a demand the King rejected.Velu Thampi met Dr Kenneth at Kollam, and guaranteed payment by March.Maybe it was a ploy,because Velu Thampi had devised a plan to send back the Subsidiary troop stationed at Kollam,immediately.He began training the Nairs,under Kizhakkumukham Secretary,Krishnan Chempaka Raman.The Crown prince,Kerala Varma,en rout to Kumaranallur,to take part in the Karthika festival,got down at Kollam,and held a strategy session with Velu Thampi,his brother,Chempaka Raman Thampi and Commerce Secretary,Vaikam Padmanabha Pillai.Krishnan Chempaka Raman and Padinjarumukham Secretary,Mathevan Chempaka Raman Pillai were called to Alapuzha and asked to implement the King's instruction to call back the troops from Kollam.Mathevan Pillai was asked to block the British Force at Cochin from entering Travancore.Thekkumukham Secretary,Kumaran Chempaka Raman was instructed to keep the Kollam troops from going beyond,Aralvaimozhi.

Kollam Residency

Macaulay got information of the movement, on 5 December,from Anchuthengu (Anjengo) Fort.20,000 people,including 6000 Nairs from Kulachal, were trained on weaponry,and cannons were being manufactured at Udayagiri Fort,with iron ore from Aralvaimozhi.The terminated soldiers were called back to service.Macaulay alerted Kollam Commander,Colonel Chamers,sought permission of the Madras Council,to arrest Velu Thampi and  requested the Council to sent,troops from the East and North.The Council voted to sent troops from Kozhikode and Tiruchirappally,at the call of Macaulay.He was given permission to take all necessary steps.

Three Armenians who had been in Thiruvanthapuram in November,briefed the King that Russia and France would attack India in January,and the Marathas and the French will move against the East India Company immediately.Both the King and Thampi believed in the theory,unaware of the International political dynamics.Only the Paliath Achan of Cochin, and Chempil Arayan,stood by Velu Thampi,in the hour of crisis.

Thomas Macaulay

The ambitious Paliath Achan  saw a threat to his machinations,in the Cochin Financial Secretary,Nadavarambu Kunjikrishna Menon,and cooked up false cases against him.The Cochin King,fearing an attempt on the life of Menon by Achan,requested Macaulay,to protect him,and Menon began staying in the Bolgatty palace with Macaulay.Achan sought Velu Thampi's help in choking Menon,out of Residency.Thampi,thinking a war could be avoided if Macaulay was killed,agreed to sent troops from Travancore.A plan to attack the Residency on the night of December 28,was chalked out,and the mission was assigned to a section of the Travancore troops,under,Secretary,Commerce,Vaikam Padmanabha Pillai,and a 3000/4000 strong force of Achan.Arayan's fleet was called to join by Padmanabha Pillai,who was from the same area.

Zachary

Macaulay badge

Meanwhile,on 24th,Velu Thampi  met Macaulay with mediator,Head of Carnatic Brigade,Major Dali,and conveyed his decision to resign,if no waiver was given.Macaulay refused amends,but guaranteed pension and asylum,to Thampi,if he resigned.Thampi wrote a letter, agreeing to resign,on 27th ,but dated 28th(since Macauly will be assassinated on 28th!),to Macaulay,and thanked Ramalinga Muthaliyar for rescuing him,by putting in, his word.He asked for a palanquin to be sent,to take him to Malabar,and a cash of Rs 2000.Major Dali delivered Macaulay's reply,same day at Alapuzha,to Velu Thampi,with soldiers to accompany,Velu Thampi to Malabar.Thampi asked Padmanabha Pillai,to prepare the resignation letter.He told Dali,he will leave on 29 night,meaning,he would wait for the result of the Residency attack of 28th.Dali realized,he was cheated,when he met Thampi,on the evening of 29th.Thampi described the war preparations,and said,Macaulay was a fool."The head of Macaulay will be rolling on the Cochin roads now",Thampi boasted.Dali had entrusted Rs 12000 with Thampi,which he feared,has been lost.But when he reached his place,the voucher was there.

Paliyam Kovilakam

Macaulay's head was intact.Chempil Arayan's fleet reached Bolgatty after midnight on 28 December,1808,in Odi boats.600 men commanded by Achan and two officers of Thampi surrounded the palace and opened fire.They over powered the guard,entered and pillaged the building,and destroyed public records.They could not find Macaulay or Menon.The Resident concealed himself,in a recess in the lower chamber,and in the morning,escaped in the British ship,Peacemont,which was just embarking,with reinforcements from Malabar.Menon,who had gone to Mattancherry, joined Macaulay in the morning,and they together shifted to the ship,Snow,in the outer sea.They returned to Cochin,after  a fortnight,when information came that the rebellion has been crushed.There is copy of a letter dated January 10,Macaulay has written,From the Sea,in his Desultory Notes.

There is a story of the massacre of Dr Hume and 33 British soldiers,next day,December 29,in the Pallathuruthy river.It is said,they were captured,at Purakkad,on their journey from Kollam to Alapuzha,and Velu Thampi ordered  the massacre.British records have a testimony of the Writer of Veluthampi,Kochu Sankara Pillai,saying he took down the order.The story spread,as an eyewitness account  of the servant,Ramalingam,who was with the team.It got repeated by V  Nagam Aiya and T K Velu Pillai,who wrote the State Manuals,taking the description by James Grant,who wrote,History of India,to be true.Some historians argue,it is possible that they were captured,but there is no evidence of a massacre.Historian Sangunni Menon says,the team consisted of one lady,Dr Hume,12 Britishers and 34 native soldiers.The lady was,the wife of Colonel Chlamers,Commander of the Division,which included the 12th Regiment,and there is proof that the sick Lady Chalmers was sent from Kollam to Cochin,with full protection,at the order of Velu Thampi.Major Dali,who was with Velu Thampi,till late evening on 29th,has not mentioned the 'massacre',in his report to Macaulay.There is also a letter, which Colonel Chalmers sent to  Velu Thampi,asking him to set free the captured,including Dr Hume.

In his reply to Chalmers,Thampi criticized  the firing by the British troops against women and children,at Azheekkal.There is no chance for such a correspondence,after a terrible massacre,historians who reject the massacre theory,point out.Dewan Munro had collected statements,in 1816,from all the officials in the service, during the administration of Thampi.There is no mention of a massacre,though,both the killing of Subbayyan and,the attack against Macaulay find mention.But,Letter From Court of Dirctors,29 September,1809,On Political State of the Travancore Territory,in,Parliamentary Papers,(East India Company),Fourth Part,Volume X,(page 130),which I have seen,records:the design of Dalawa,in 1806 , Col Macaulay to have poisoned,was a prelude to the murder in cold blood,which he afterwards ordered of Dr Hume and 33 soldiers of His Majesty's 12th Regiment....If it was Dr John Robert Hume,who joined the British Army in 1800,he was in the service,till 1826,and was Surgeon of the Duke of Wellington,Arthur Wellesley,whom Colin Macaulay knew very well.But,Macaulay,in his Desultory notes(page 30),confirms the massacre.

Arayan's descendants claim,it was Arayan's fleet that captured Dr Hume and his team.If true,he raced through  the back waters,to Kollam after the failed attack on Macaulay.It is also said,his house was searched,he was held,but freed on a ransom.Even after it,he had vowed to present Macaulay's head to the King.

The Madras council's permission to arrest Thampi had been withdrawn,3 days before the Bolgatty attack,on December 25.Governor General Lord Minto informed London in a confidential report,on December 29,that the Company has lost confidence in Macaulay.But the Kundara proclamation, of 12 January,1809,by Thampi,was a blunder,giving the British ample grounds to arrest him.Thampi played wrong politics,by owning up the rebellion against the British,exonerating the equally responsible,or irresponsible,King.The British had feared a public upsurge,if they had moved against the King.So,the British declared war,removed Macaulay and transferred the Resident of Thanjavur,Blackburn to Travancore.Blackburn was in charge of the peaceful negotiations,with Thampi.Travancore forces got defeated on 19 January.Blackburn left for thanjavur,and Macaulay was reinstated.Paliath Achan surrendered to the British on 10,February.Thampi met the King on February 19,and resigned.

There is a folklore on Thampi's final days:Thampi had a magician friend called Kadayatt Unnithan.When Macaulay asked for the arrears of the tribute,Thampi offered to pay in gold,took Unnithan with him to Macaulay,carrying a box.Unnithan opened the box before the eyes of Macaulay;he was amazed to find glittering gold inside the box and was satisfied.Hours later,he could find only stones inside the box-Unnithan had just performed a magic!

After resigning,Thampi went in seatrch of Unnithan on a horse back.As he approached the house,he saw Unnithan's house in flames-he had committed self immolation.

Thampi had the habit of eating the meals,on two tender banana leaves,one upon other.After resignation he fled to Mavelikara,where a friend denied him asylum.From there he went to Vallikkod in Pathanamthitta,wher on the banks of Achankovil river,he found asylum in a home.Two policemen who were taking bath in the river saw two tender banana leaves on the river on an after noon and began a search.Thampi escaped to Mannadi. 

When he committed suicide,on 21 March,cutting his neck himself,when his brother refused to do it,he was a free man.Kerala historians aver,the new Dewan,Ummini Thampi,avowed enemy of Thampi,insulted even the dead body,by an order to hang it.But,India Office,London,records,which I referred(IOR/F/4/338/7687),show that,Colin Macaulay was asked by authorities to explain,why he ordered to expose the corpse of Thampi,on a gibbet,and why he publicly degraded the officers of the Carnatic Brigade.The place where Thampi's corpse was hanged,near Ullur,is known now, as,Dhalavakunnu.I had been there few times,to meet Dr K N Raj and I S Gulati,economists,who had built their houses,there.

There were protests against the British,on the day of the Kundara proclamation,and Chempil Arayan was one among the firsts,to respond.He was killed, survived by a son,Thanu Arayan.His traditional Ettukettu(eight halled with two court yards) house and 20,000 acres of forest land in Erumeli,Edakkunnam and Ranni villages, under his possession,were attached  by the Alapuzha District Court,on January 31,1928.

Paliath Achan was deported to Madras,and kept prisoner at Fort St George for 12 years.He was then taken to Bombay,remained there for 13 years,and died at Benares.

Colin Macaulay went back to London,after his tenure in Travancore,met his nephew and brother in law,Thomas Babington in Leicester shire,bought a property there,but spent much of his time,at Calpham.Babington was a child prodigy.Colin recorded in January,1811:"If I could support sitting at night,I will become a member of the House of Commons,but I must relinquish all thoughts of this,during winter".He did become an MP from Saltash in 1826,seldom attended the Parliament,and never made a speech.He as a devotee of Lord Wellesley,now Duke of Wellington,accompanied him to several places.In 1827,he gave evidence before the Select Committee of Parliament,inquiring into the claims of John Hutchinson,who was Commercial Resident at Anchuthengu(Anjengo),for payment of balance of a debt due to his Estate from the Raja of Travancore.He published his testimony,in,Desultory Notes.

According to Hanna More,English religious writer,poet and playwright,"he was a first rate man with great manners",who brought home,"after all his hair breadth escapades,an ample fortune and a sober mind."

Yes,his brother's son,Dr Kenneth Macaulay,was staying at Kollam,extorting money,as I wrote in my post,The Rise and Fall of Thachil Mathu Tharakan.Colin Macaulay died in Clifton,on February 20, 1836,after a visit to Italy.He directed his Estate be sold and Thomas be paid 10,000 pounds and residue to Zachary.His personality was sworn,under 8000 pounds.India Office records,London, reveal,he owed the Company,a debt of 361 pagodas,on account of allowances overdrawn by him.

Reference:

1.Veluthampi Dalava/V R Parameswaran Pillai
2.Cochin State Manual/C Achyutha Menon
3.Kerala History/A Sreedhara Menon
4.Marthanda Varma Muthal Munro Vare/K Sivasankaran Nair
5.Sakthan Thampuran/Puthezhathu Raman Menon
6.Dewan Velu Thampi and the British/Dr B Sobhanan
7.A Fresh look at Velu Thampi/Dr B Sobhanan 
8.India Office records
9.Parliamentary Papers
10.Desultory Notes/Colin Macaulay 
11.A Political and General History of the District of Tirunelveli/Bishop Caldwell

See my Post,THE RISE AND FALL OF THACHIL MATHU THARAKAN