Marava & Ramnad · Eastern Coastal Plains

History

Authority in this country was held by office rather than by dynasty for most of its recorded history, and that is the finding rather than an absence of one. The Sethupathi was not an ancient kingship: it was created in 1605, when a Madurai Nayak granted a local chief the guardianship of the pilgrim road to Rameswaram, and only in the later seventeenth century did its holders behave as independent rulers. Below it, the palayakkarars held tracts on military tenure — troops, a fort, a share of the crop and a kist paid upward — and the Pudukkottai Tondaimans held a chiefship on the same terms. So the region's medieval period effectively begins in 1605 and its modern period in the 1730s, when the country split into Ramnad and Sivaganga and set up the succession quarrels the Company later fought over. Two boundary notes: Panchalankurichi and the Tuticorin coast lie south-west of this region's core, in the Tirunelveli palayam country, and appear below because the confederacy of 1801 and the shipping venture of 1906 joined them to it; and the region's other great history is not political at all but a banking and shipping history conducted almost entirely outside India.

Periodisation is regional, not national — the medieval period does not begin in the same century here as it does elsewhere in India.

Ancientc. 300 BCE – 600 CE

The dry coast between the Vaigai's tail and the Gulf of Mannar has no river and never had an agricultural surplus, so its early record is maritime and extractive rather than agrarian. Greek and Latin writers of the first century describe the pearl fishery of the gulf; Tamil poetry of the same general period names the chank divers and the dry-country chiefs. Excavation at Alagankulam, near the Vaigai mouth, has produced Roman-period pottery and other imported material, which places this shore inside Indian Ocean trade well before any of its later polities existed. The strait itself was a crossing rather than a barrier: the same fishing ground, the same reef and the same monsoon lie on both sides of it, and traffic across it is older than any of the states that later taxed it.

When	What happened
c. 3rd century BCE – 3rd century CE	Tamil poetry names the dry-country chiefs of this coast and its pearl and chank divers; the record is literary.
c. 1st century CE	Greek and Latin writers describe the pearl fishery of the Gulf of Mannar as one of the richest in the known world.
c. 2nd century BCE – 5th century CE	Alagankulam, near the Vaigai mouth, functions as a port; excavation there has produced Roman-period pottery and other imported material.
early centuries CE	The strait is a working crossing to the island opposite, used for trade, pilgrimage and migration long before any state administered it.
c. 3rd–6th century	The Pandya line, which claimed overlordship of this coast, drops out of the record during the interruption its own later plates call the Kalabhra period.

Medieval600 – 1730

For a thousand years this was the seaward margin of somebody else's kingdom — Pandya from Madurai, briefly Chola, then Pandya again, then the Madurai sultanate and Vijayanagara. Its own institutions begin in 1605, when Muthu Krishnappa Nayaka of Madurai granted Sadaikka Thevar the office of Sethupathi, literally the guardianship of the causeway, with the duty of protecting pilgrims crossing the dry country to Rameswaram. The grant was a policing contract; within three generations it had become a state. Kilavan Sethupathi, from the 1670s, stopped remitting to Madurai, moved his seat to Ramanathapuram and fortified it, and his successors built the palace known as the Ramalinga Vilasam. Around the same time the Tondaimans established a chiefship at Pudukkottai on the north-western edge, and the Nagarathar merchant families of the Chettinad villages began the long-distance trade that later became a banking network.

When	What happened
7th–13th century	The coast and the dry interior are held as the seaward margin of the Pandya country governed from Madurai.
12th–15th century	Building at the Ramanathaswamy temple on Rameswaram proceeds under Pandya and later patronage; the long corridors were added considerably later, under the Sethupathis.
1311–1378	The expedition from Delhi, the Madurai sultanate and then Vijayanagara pass over the country in turn; effective local authority remains with chiefs.
1605	Muthu Krishnappa Nayaka of Madurai grants Sadaikka Thevar the office of Sethupathi — guardian of the causeway — with responsibility for the pilgrim road to Rameswaram.
c. 1674–1710	Kilavan (Raghunatha) Sethupathi ceases to remit to Madurai, moves his seat to Ramanathapuram and fortifies it; Ramnad functions as an independent state.
c. 1680	Raghunatha Raya Tondaiman establishes a chiefship at Pudukkottai, at first as a dependency of Ramnad.
1730s	The western tracts break away as Sivaganga under a collateral line; the Marava country is thereafter two rival chiefships rather than one.

Modern1730 – 1947

Everything the Company did here followed from the split of the 1730s: two chiefships with competing claims, each able to be supported or punished. Company troops attacked Kalaiyar Kovil in 1772 and the Sivaganga chief was killed; his widow recovered the chiefship in 1780 with the help of neighbouring chiefs and of the Maruthu brothers, who then administered it. The Ramnad ruler was deposed in 1795. The palayakkarar wars of 1799 and 1801 followed, and with them the end of armed chiefship: between 1801 and 1803 the palayams and the Ramnad and Sivaganga territories were converted into permanent zamindari estates, which replaced a military tenure with a rent-collecting one. What replaced politics as the region's business was capital. From the mid-nineteenth century Nagarathar firms from the Chettinad villages financed rice cultivation, trade and property in Ceylon, Burma, Malaya and Indochina, and the profits came home as the courtyard mansions the region is known for. That system contracted after 1929 and ended with the Japanese occupation of Burma in 1942.

When	What happened
1772	Company forces attack Kalaiyar Kovil; the Sivaganga chief Muthu Vaduganathaperiya Udaiyathevar is killed and the territory is taken over.
1780	Rani Velu Nachiyar recovers Sivaganga after eight years in exile at Virupachi; the Maruthu brothers administer the territory under her and her successor.
1795	The Company deposes the Ramnad ruler for arrears and misgovernment and installs his sister in his place.
16 October 1799	Veerapandiya Kattabomman, palayakkarar of Panchalankurichi, is hanged at Kayathar after the first palayakkarar war.
24 October 1801	The Maruthu brothers are hanged at the fort of Tiruppathur after the second palayakkarar war; the confederacy that had issued a proclamation at Tiruchirappalli earlier that year is broken up.
1801–1803	The palayams and the Ramnad and Sivaganga territories are settled as permanent zamindari estates; the obligation to keep troops is abolished.
c. 1850–1942	Nagarathar banking firms from the Chettinad villages operate across Ceylon, Burma, Malaya and Indochina; the network contracts after the depression of 1929 and ends with the Japanese occupation of Burma in 1942.
February–March 1908	A nine-day strike at the Coral Mill in Tuticorin, and the arrest of V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Subramania Siva on 12 March, close the region's Swadeshi agitation.

Rulers and commanders

The Sethupathi Guardian of the causeway Administrator 1605–1803 as a ruling office; a zamindari thereafter

The defining institution of this region and a policing contract before it was anything else. The holder was made responsible for the safety of pilgrims crossing the dry country to Rameswaram and was allowed to levy for the purpose; within three generations the office had acquired a fort, a revenue and a foreign policy. It was reduced to a zamindari by the Company in 1803.

Dynasty: An office granted in 1605, not an ancient kingship. Seat: Pogalur, later Ramanathapuram

Sadaikka Thevar Sethupathi Founder from 1605

The first holder of the Sethupathi office, granted by Muthu Krishnappa Nayaka of Madurai in 1605.

Dynasty: Sethupathis of Ramnad. Seat: Pogalur

Kilavan (Raghunatha) Sethupathi Sethupathi Ruler c. 1674–1710

Stopped remitting to Madurai, moved the seat to Ramanathapuram and fortified it, turning a Nayaka office into an independent chiefship. The palace complex at Ramanathapuram, with its painted Ramalinga Vilasam hall, dates from his line.

Dynasty: Sethupathis of Ramnad. Seat: Ramanathapuram

Raghunatha Raya Tondaiman Raja Founder from c. 1680

Established the Pudukkottai chiefship on the north-western edge of the Marava country, at first under Ramnad. His successors allied with the Company early and Pudukkottai survived as the only princely state in the Tamil country.

Dynasty: Tondaimans of Pudukkottai. Seat: Pudukkottai

Muthu Vaduganathaperiya Udaiyathevar Chief of Sivaganga Ruler to 1772

Held Sivaganga after the partition of the 1730s and was killed when Company forces attacked Kalaiyar Kovil in 1772.

Dynasty: Sivaganga line. Seat: Sivaganga

Rani Velu Nachiyar Rani, regent Regent 1730–1796; held Sivaganga from 1780

Widow of the chief killed in 1772. She spent eight years in exile at Virupachi, returned in 1780 with the support of neighbouring chiefs and recovered Sivaganga, and governed it until her daughter succeeded her about 1790.

Dynasty: Sivaganga line. Seat: Sivaganga

Periya Maruthu (Vellai Maruthu) Commander Commander born 1748; died 1801

Commanded the Sivaganga forces under Velu Nachiyar and after her, and led its troops in the confederacy of 1801.

Dynasty: Sivaganga service. Seat: Sivaganga

Chinna Maruthu Minister of Sivaganga Administrator born 1753; died 1801

Administered Sivaganga on behalf of the ruling line from 1780, managing its revenue and its relations with neighbouring chiefs and with the Company, and endowed works at Kalaiyar Kovil and elsewhere.

Dynasty: Sivaganga service. Seat: Sivaganga

The history of Marava & Ramnad from ancient through medieval to modern times, and the rulers, commanders and administrators who shaped it. (8)