Travancore & Kuttanad · Western Coastal Strip

People

Name	Years	Field	Known for
Marthanda Varma	1706–1758	Ruler	Consolidated the small Venad principalities into Travancore, defeated a Dutch East India Company force at Colachel in 1741, and in 1750 performed the Thrippadidanam, making the kingdom over to Sree Padmanabha and reconstituting his own dynasty as the deity's servants. Every later Travancore institution is built on that legal fiction.
Eustachius De Lannoy	c. 1715–1777	Soldier	The Dutch commander captured at Colachel who then spent three decades rebuilding the Travancore army on European lines with drilled infantry and artillery, and who is buried at Udayagiri fort. The state that later resisted Mysore was largely his construction.
Velu Thampi Dalawa	1765–1809	Administrator and rebel	Travancore's dalawa, who reformed revenue collection and then turned on the British subsidiary alliance with the Kundara Proclamation of 1809, calling on the country to rise. He died by his own hand rather than be taken.
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma	1813–1846	Ruler and composer	Reigned from 1829 and left several hundred Carnatic and Hindustani compositions, drew Vadivelu of the Thanjavur quartet to his court, and presided over the codification of the Mohiniyattam repertoire. A ruling monarch with a standing place in the concert repertoire is close to unique.
Ayyankali	1863–1941	Social reformer	Born at Venganoor into the Pulaya community, he broke the ban on lower-caste use of public roads by driving a bullock cart down one in 1893, founded the Sadhu Jana Paripalana Sangham, forced open school admission through an agricultural labourers' strike, and sat in the Travancore legislature.
Sree Narayana Guru	1856–1928	Philosopher and reformer	Born at Chempazhanthy, he consecrated a Siva image at Aruvippuram in 1888 in defiance of the rule that only Brahmins could do so, and left a body of writing arguing one caste, one religion, one god for humankind. His mutt at Sivagiri remains the centre of the movement he began.
Mannathu Padmanabhan	1878–1970	Social organiser	Founded the Nair Service Society at Changanassery in 1914 and built it into an institutional network of schools and colleges. He also joined the Vaikom Satyagraha of 1924–25 over temple-road access, which is the point at which Travancore's caste question became a national one.
Accamma Cherian	1909–1982	Independence activist	Led a mass march to the Travancore ruler's palace in 1938 demanding the lifting of the ban on the State Congress, and offered herself to be shot first when troops were ordered to fire. She later headed the State Congress herself.
Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai	1912–1999	Novelist	Wrote from his own village in Kuttanad and made its labour, land and water the subject of Malayalam fiction — Randidangazhi on the tenant farmers, Chemmeen on the coastal fishery, and Kayar on the century-long history of land in the region. Awarded the Jnanpith in 1984.
Kunchan Nambiar	c. 1705–1770	Poet and performer	Invented Ottamthullal while attached to the Ambalappuzha temple, writing in a Malayalam plain enough that no Sanskrit was needed to follow the satire, and aiming it squarely at the landlords and officials in the audience.
O. N. V. Kurup	1931–2016	Poet and lyricist	Born at Chavara in Kollam, he wrote several hundred film lyrics alongside a body of poetry marked by an early Marxist commitment and a later ecological one, and received the Jnanpith in 2007.

People from Travancore & Kuttanad who shaped its history, arts, science, sport and public life. (11)