Nanjil Nadu · Eastern Coastal Plains
This region's periodisation is Travancore's, not Tamil Nadu's, and that is the single most important thing about it. Its ancient period belongs to the Ay chieftaincy of the far south, absorbed into Venad by about the twelfth century; its medieval period is Venad's, run from Kalkulam in this district; and its modern period begins in 1729, when Marthanda Varma acceded and built Travancore outward from here, with Nanjinad as its granary and Padmanabhapuram as its capital until 1795. It was never British territory. There was no Company collector, no district magistrate and no Congress district committee here; the state had its own law, its own revenue system and its own army, and its nineteenth-century public history is therefore about disputes with its own administration — over dress, over temple roads, over land tenure — rather than about colonial rule. The four taluks were transferred to Madras State in 1956.
Periodisation is regional, not national — the medieval period does not begin in the same century here as it does elsewhere in India.
The far south beyond the Ghats was Ay country. Tamil poetry of the Sangam corpus praises Ay Andiran as lord of the Podiyil hills and names other chiefs of the line, and Ptolemy in the second century places an Aioi territory reaching to the Cape; both are useful and neither is documentary in the way an inscription is. What is documentary begins in the ninth century, when the Ay ruler Karunandadakkan endowed a salai — a Vedic college with its own regulations and endowment — at Parthivapuram inside this district, recorded in a copper-plate grant of 865/66. The Ay position was squeezed from the north by the Pandyas, who took Vizhinjam in the eighth century, and then by the Cholas, whose inscriptions of the tenth century appear at Suchindram; by the twelfth century the Ay house had merged into the ruling lineage of Venad.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| Sangam period | Ay Andiran and other chiefs of the Ay line are praised in Tamil poetry as lords of the Podiyil hills and the country below them; the evidence is literary. |
| c. 150 CE | Ptolemy records an Aioi territory in the far south of the peninsula, reaching to the Cape. |
| c. 765 | The Pandya ruler Jatila Parantaka takes Vizhinjam from the Ay chiefs, beginning the reduction of their territory. |
| 865/66 | The Parthivapuram copper plates record the Ay ruler Karunandadakkan's endowment of a salai at Parthivapuram, in this district — the earliest detailed documentary record from the region. |
| 10th–12th century | Chola inscriptions appear at Suchindram and elsewhere in the far south; the Ay house is absorbed into the ruling lineage of Venad. |
Under Venad this was the kingdom's grain country. Nanjai means land with assured irrigation, and the wet plain fed by the streams off the Agasthyamalai slope was the reliable rice supply behind a state whose other districts were spice and coconut country. Kottar, beside Nagercoil, was its market, and Kalkulam its fort and residence: Iravi Varma Kulasekhara Perumal built a palace there about 1601 which later became Padmanabhapuram. From the 1540s Portuguese missionary activity reached the Cape coast and a church was established at Kottar, dated by tradition to 1544; the coastal fishing settlements have been Catholic since, which is why the shore here keeps a parish calendar that the interior does not. By the seventeenth century Venad had fragmented among branch houses and powerful landholders, and Dutch trading interest had reached the coast.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 12th–15th century | Nanjinad is governed by Venad from Kalkulam; its wet paddy is the kingdom's principal grain supply. |
| 1540s | Portuguese missionary activity reaches the Cape coast; a church at Kottar is dated by tradition to 1544, and the fishing settlements of the coast become Catholic. |
| c. 1601 | Iravi Varma Kulasekhara Perumal of Venad builds a palace at Kalkulam, the nucleus of the complex later called Padmanabhapuram. |
| 17th century | Venad's authority fragments among branch houses and landholders; the Dutch East India Company establishes interests along this coast. |
| 1729 | Marthanda Varma accedes and begins the campaigns that turn Venad into Travancore, working outward from Nanjinad. |
Travancore was built from this district outward. Marthanda Varma broke the landholding houses, annexed the principalities to the north between 1731 and 1753, and in 1741 defeated a Dutch force at Colachel on this coast — after which the captured officer Eustachius De Lannoy spent the rest of his life training and commanding the Travancore army from Udayagiri, inside this region. In January 1750 the kingdom was formally dedicated to Padmanabha and the ruler governed as the deity's regent; the palace at Kalkulam was rebuilt and renamed Padmanabhapuram, and remained the capital until 1795, when the seat moved north to Thiruvananthapuram and Travancore entered a subsidiary alliance with the Company. The nineteenth century here is a sequence of arguments with the state's own administration: over the dress permitted to particular communities, settled by proclamation in 1859; over caste disability at temples, settled by proclamation in 1936; and over schooling, which the London Missionary Society had been running in the district since 1809.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| 10 August 1741 | A Travancore force defeats the Dutch East India Company at Colachel; the captured officer Eustachius De Lannoy afterwards commanded the Travancore army from Udayagiri. |
| January 1750 | The Trippadidanam — the kingdom is formally dedicated to Padmanabha and the ruler governs as the deity's regent. The palace at Kalkulam is rebuilt and the town renamed Padmanabhapuram. |
| 1795 | The capital moves from Padmanabhapuram to Thiruvananthapuram and Travancore enters a subsidiary alliance with the East India Company; a further treaty in 1805 reduces its autonomy again. |
| 25 April 1806 | The London Missionary Society's first missionary to south Travancore enters through the Aralvaimozhi pass; the first Protestant church of the region is dedicated at Mylaudy in September 1809, and schooling follows. |
| 11 January 1809 | The Dalawa of Travancore, Velu Thampi, issues the Kundara Proclamation calling for resistance to the Company; the rising was defeated by February and he died at Mannadi the following month. |
| 1813–1859 | A long dispute over the upper cloth permitted to women of particular communities in southern Travancore. An order of 1813 allowed Christian converts to cover the breast, a proclamation of 1829 refused the same to others, disturbances followed in 1858, and a proclamation of 26 July 1859 granted the right generally. |
| 1833–1851 | Ayya Vaikundar preaches at Swamithope; he is held by the Travancore state at Singarathoppe from 1838 and released on 26 March 1839. The movement that grew from his teaching, Ayyavazhi, put communal bathing and dining across caste lines at the centre of its practice. |
| 12 November 1936 | The Temple Entry Proclamation opens Travancore's temples to worshippers previously excluded by caste. |
| 1956 | The four southern taluks are transferred from Travancore-Cochin to Madras State and constituted as Kanyakumari district. |
Rulers and commanders
The best known of the Ay chiefs, praised in the Purananuru and named in later Tamil poetry. He is a literary figure with a probable historical core, not a documented reign.
Dynasty: Ay line. Seat: Podiyil hills and the country below them
Endowed the salai at Parthivapuram, in this district, recorded in a copper-plate grant of 865/66 that sets out the college's regulations and endowment — the earliest detailed document from the region.
Dynasty: Ay line. Seat: Vizhinjam and the far south
Built the palace at Kalkulam about 1601 which later grew into the Padmanabhapuram complex, the largest wooden palace on the subcontinent.
Dynasty: Venad. Seat: Kalkulam
Turned Venad into Travancore by breaking the landholding houses and annexing the principalities to the north between 1731 and 1753, and defeated the Dutch at Colachel in 1741. In January 1750 he dedicated the kingdom to Padmanabha and governed as the deity's regent, an arrangement his successors kept.
Dynasty: Travancore. Seat: Padmanabhapuram
A Dutch officer captured at Colachel in 1741 who entered Travancore service and spent the rest of his life raising, drilling and commanding its army and building its forts. He is buried at Udayagiri, inside this region.
Dynasty: Travancore service. Seat: Udayagiri fort
Held Travancore through the Mysore wars and moved the capital north to Thiruvananthapuram in 1795, the year the state entered a subsidiary alliance with the East India Company.
Dynasty: Travancore. Seat: Padmanabhapuram, then Thiruvananthapuram
Born at Thalakulam in this district. As Dalawa he reorganised the state's revenue and its accounts and dealt directly with the Company's Resident until the demand for arrears on the subsidy broke the relationship; in January 1809 he issued the Kundara Proclamation calling for resistance.
Dynasty: Travancore administration. Seat: Thiruvananthapuram
Issued the Temple Entry Proclamation of 12 November 1936, opening Travancore's temples to worshippers previously excluded by caste.
Dynasty: Travancore. Seat: Thiruvananthapuram
The history of Nanjil Nadu from ancient through medieval to modern times, and the rulers, commanders and administrators who shaped it. (8)