Dharma Raja and his legacy of good

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The treaty of Mangalore, in 1784, may have put an end to the second Anglo-Mysore war, but it did nothing to clear the air of distrust and resentment between Travancore, Mysore and the British. While Travancore had just about survived to fight another day, the British and Mysore were busy recovering from their losses knowing fully well that conflict between them was imminent. At stake was dominance over South India and its profitable spice trade. It would not be long before the swords would be drawn again and the dark clouds of war and destruction would descend over the Malabar. Rama Varma, the Travancore king, would have to choose between protecting Dharma or saving his life from Tipu Sultan, and the ‘Dharma Raja’ was to emerge in this battle for values and conviction.

This blog is one in a series on the Travancore royal family. The last post covered the early period of Travancore-Mysore hostilities up to the second Anglo-Mysore war. You can read all the posts in the Travancore royal family series here.

Travancore – British alliance

At the end of the second Anglo-Mysore war, there was an uneasy balance of power in South India. The British and Mysore were in an eyeball to eyeball situation with both sides neither comfortable with the other nor willing to escalate hostilities into open war. Malabar, especially coastal and southern Malabar, had fallen fully into Tipu’s hands and the British had managed to keep the Carnatic under their control.

Did you know…
By 1783, the British had lost their colonies in the Americas and the United States was born. The French had played a decisive role in defeating the British in Americas and when Hyder Ali/Tipu Sultan started receiving French assistance it made the British even more suspicious about Mysore.

Travancore was called out by the British as their ally in the ‘Treaty of Mangalore’. As per the terms of the treaty, neither Tipu nor the British were to attack each others allies.

(sic) the English will not directly or indirectly assist the enemies of the Nabob Tippoo Sultan Bahadur nor make war upon his friends or allies, and the Nabob Tippoo Sultan Bahadur will not directly or indirectly assist the enemies, nor make war upon the friends or allies of the English

Article 1 of the ‘Treaty of Mangalore’ signed between Tipu and the British East India Company

An attack on Travancore would now be considered as an attack on the British and this, Rama Varma thought, would be enough to prevent any misadventures from Tipu. This article would over time be exploited by the British to initiate war against Tipu and gain control over Travancore.

Tipu makes his move

With peace established in the northern boundaries of Travancore after the second Anglo-Mysore war, Rama Varma turned his attention to improving the lot of his people. Trade and commerce prospered, money was invested in public welfare such as roads and there was a general sense of well being in Travancore.

Did you know…
Rama Varma was a linguist who actively tried to learn many languages. He could speak Persian and Hindustani well and had a basic understanding of English, Portuguese and Dutch. Knowing the language of the foreigners helped him directly converse with their agents without needing intermediaries. He was also a patron of Kathakali and is credited to have composed more than a hundred Kathakali plays.

Tipu was, of course, watching the developments in Travancore and Malabar closely. Malabar was continuing to give him problems as organized resistance against Mysore rule was springing up all along the province. Pazhassi Raja, who had been up against Hyder Ali earlier, continued his guerilla attacks against Tipu’s troops. Occasional fighting broke out in a few British held pockets of Malabar – to avoid all out war, there was never a direct fight between Mysore and the British and was all conducted through intermediaries. It could be said that the two big powers were testing the waters before fully jumping in.

Genocide in Malabar

It was now time for Tipu to get into battle mode. In 1788, Tipu rode into Malabar at the head of a huge army. When the going started getting tough for the local chiefs of Malabar, they once again escaped to Travancore. For Tipu, chasing these chiefs and bringing them to justice was a golden opportunity he could use to subdue Travancore. But before getting to the unfinished business of Travancore, Tipu decided to end the uprisings in Malabar once and for all.

Martial law was declared along the entire Malabar territory under Tipu’s control. His forces then enforced a scorched earth policy – anybody who even remotely looked like a threat to Mysore was put to the sword. But that would not be enough: Tipu ordered forcible conversion of the local Nair’s to Islam. Boys and young men were rounded up and taken to camps where mass, forcible, religious conversions were conducted.

Did you know…

To get a measure of what Malabar went through and how committed Tipu was to destroying his enemies, one needs to look at the letter written by him to one of his Governors. Tipu writes “Don’t you know I have achieved a great victory recently in Malabar and over four lakh Hindus were converted to Islam? I am determined to march against that cursed Raman Nair (Raja of Travancore) very soon. Since I am overjoyed at the prospect of converting him and his subjects to Islam, I have happily abandoned the idea of going back to Srirangapatanam now.”

Eyes on Travancore

The influential and wealthy elite as well as the royal families of the Malabar region had escaped getting killed or forcibly converted to Islam by escaping south to Travancore. Like his father, Tipu took Travancore giving refuge to these people as a personal insult. This, he realized, was the perfect opportunity to strike against Rama Varma. Tipu, who had set up camp at Palghat, summoned his vassal, the Raja of Cochin, to come and meet him. Tipu’s order to the Cochin Raja: use any excuse and initiate war against Travancore. And how would Cochin attacking Travancore help Tipu? Tipu believed that Travancore was sure to defend itself and this would give enough excuse for Mysore to intervene and crush Rama Varma.

The Raja of Cochin was caught between the devil and the deep sea. He was a tributary to Tipu and was bound to obey his master; at the same time he had accepted the supremacy of Travancore as well. To compound matters, the British were treaty bound to support Travancore in case of attack and there was a genuine danger of Cochin becoming the turf of another Anglo-Mysore war. It was with much difficulty that the Cochin king got away from Palghat after convincing Tipu about his inability to wage war against Travancore. Instead, the Cochin king said, why not Tipu send a messenger to Rama Varma and ask him to comply?

Dharma Raja

Tipu’s messengers were graciously welcomed by Rama Varma in the presence of his British advisers. The presence of the British, the enemies of Mysore, in their private meeting with the Travancore king infuriated Tipu’s representatives. Rama Varma sent back a cordial response to Tipu: Travancore would look forward to an alliance with Mysore, but this alliance cannot be concluded without the approval of the British East India Company. In other words, Travancore valued and trusted the British more than Tipu’s Mysore.

Rama Varma also made it amply clear that no refugee who came to Travancore due to religious persecution in Malabar would be handed over to Tipu. He would protect the weak and the distressed and take care of them unless they felt it was ready to return to their homes. And Travancore was ready to pay any price to protect the lives and honor of those who took refuge in it.

He would protect the weak and the distressed and take care of them unless they felt it was ready to return to their homes. And Travancore was ready to pay any price to protect the lives and honor of those who took refuge in it.

Facing the might of the most powerful military force in South India, with no guarantee that his allies might intervene in time (or intervene at all), Rama Varma once again stood steadfast to his beliefs, his values and his Dharma. In the summer of 1789, this illustrious successor of Marthanda Varma came to be called Dharma Raja – the king who followed the principles of the Dharma Sastra.

British sneak into Travancore

Dharma Raja thought it wise to get the British more directly involved in the affair with Mysore. His military general, D’Lannoy, had recently passed away and there was a need for some experienced military hands to help steady the Travancore army. On requesting the British to depute a few commanders to lead the Travancore army, the British commander at Madras came with a counter proposal: instead of sending just commanders, he would send two regiments of the British army and have them posted at the northernmost boundary of Travancore. The British argument was that Tipu’s attack was bound to happen from this direction and seeing the British stationed there Tipu would hesitate.

Dharma Raja – the king who followed the principles of the Dharma Sastra.

Dharma Raja realized the political implications of this move – from being a British ally, circumstances was forcing him to become dependent on the British. But there wasn’t much he could do about it and he concurred. British troops immediately marched to Travancore and setup camp. The battle of Nedumkotta was to commence soon and history would be the judge whether this concession offered to the British made any difference or not.

The Fuse is Lit

Travancore, as we have already seen, was heavily relying on the effectiveness of the Nedumkotta to prevent the imminent Mysore invasion. While this defense line was suitable protection, or at least a significant hindrance, there was a strip of land towards the western coast that was unprotected. The Dutch forts at Cranganore and Aycottah dominated this landscape and Travancore, worried that Mysore would use this route to attack, entered into negotiations with the Dutch to purchase these forts.

The Dutch, during Hyder Ali’s earlier invasion, had acted as a barrier between Mysore and Travancore and prevented Hyder’s army from passing through. Compared to Hyder, Tipu was at the head of a more powerful army and he had established a reputation for ruthlessness in Malabar. The Dutch thought it wise to sell the forts to Dharma Raja and step aside. In July 1789, the forts of Cranganore and Aycottah were sold to Travancore and they now formed the western end of the Nedumkotta.

^{Alignment of Nedumkotta from the newly acquired forts of Aycottah and Cranganore all the way to the Western Ghats. Click on image to see an enlarged version. Picture copyright: Let Us Discover India}

Tipu was furious on hearing this news. He claimed that the fort stood in land that belonged to Cochin and since the state of Cochin was a vassal to Mysore, the land technically belonged to Mysore. Travancore had no right to purchase these forts and should immediately return back to status quo. Dharma Raja refused and after a brief correspondence with Tipu, the Mysore army swept through Cochin and arrived at the Nedumkotta on the 24th of December 1789.

First Attack on Nedumkotta

Battle commenced on the night of 28th December 1789. The first task at hand was to fill the ditch before breaching the Nedumkotta. To quickly recall, the Nedumkotta had a defensive ditch 16 feet wide and 20 feet deep on which thorny shrubs were grown. The army could not cross over unless the ditch was cleared. Working through the night, Tipu’s scouts cleared part of the ditch and by early morning on the 29th reached the ramparts of the Nedumkotta. Minor skirmishes occurred, with Travancore forces holding their ground initially and then gradually retreating in the face of superior enemy troops.

Just as the attackers were marching by the side of the wall towards the gate to force their way in, a small contingent of Travancore soldiers attacked them. Hand to hand fighting ensued in a small space and the Mysore commander leading the enemy troops was killed. Panic set in amongst the Mysore troops and they started running helter-skelter, all the while being chased and slaughtered by the Travancore troops. Men jumped, or were pushed, into the ditch and died from the fall. As more bodies filled up the ditch, it became a temporary bridge over the ditch and an all out assault was launched by the Travancore forces.

Did you know…

In his book, ‘History of Travancore From the Earliest Times’, Shungoony Menon claims that Tipu himself was injured in the assault. Falling down from his palanquin, Tipu is supposed to have received injuries to his leg that gave him a permanent limp while walking. While this limp is disputed, it is generally acknowledged that Tipu was present at the site and was forced to retreat. The first attempt at overpowering the Nedumkotta ended in a rout for the Mysore forces. Several of Tipu’s personal artifacts – such as his ring, flag and sword – were captured by Dharma Raja’s forces as trophies.

British Offer to Mediate

If there was one thing that the ‘Honourable’ British East India Company was good at, it was their ability to play with, for and against all players at the same time. British forces were stationed in Travancore territory with the express intent of protecting Travancore with whom they had an alliance. When the first attack on the Nedumkotta happened, the British forces did not move out of their camps as their superiors in Madras had not given them orders to do so. Dharma Raja’s hope that the presence of the British would prevent Tipu from attacking had been in vain, and to add insult to injury the stationed British forces refused to even provide assistance to their allies.

But there was more trouble that the British were up to. In private correspondence with Tipu, the British Governor at Madras offered to mediate between Mysore and Travancore. The ‘Honourable’ East India Company, the Governor said, could be trusted by all parties to examine whether Travancore should have purchased the Cranganore and Aycottah forts from the Dutch. If the British concluded that Travancore had conducted illegal business, they would force Travancore to hand over the forts back to the Dutch and establish status quo.

By the time this correspondence could go any further, Tipu had already faced a humiliating loss at the Nedumkotta. He was now determined to crush Travancore at any cost.

Second Attack on Nedumkotta

After a few months interval, Tipu summoned up his main army and commenced his march towards Travancore. Aiding him was his French commander, Lally, and the famed Mysore rockets.

The Wall is Breached

For a whole month, Tipu’s forces kept bombarding the wall with artillery. Dharma Raja’s forces kept repairing any small breaches and in general put their head down and waited for the Mysore forces to get tired. Eventually in April 1790 a significant portion of the wall broke down and the Travancore army retreated. It is said that Tipu, who had anger and contempt towards the Nedumkotta, was leading from the front and ordered the destruction of the wall. And to set an example, he personally picked up a pickaxe and set to work. His soldiers enthusiastically followed and the famed Travancore line was broken up large enough for his troops to easily pass through.

Once his troops entered Travancore territory, they resorted to the same lawless activities that they had been infamous for in the Malabar. A scorched earth policy was adopted and villages and temples and churches were burnt down. People escaped en masse to the hill sides or further south deep into Travancore territory. Tipu’s invading army was now unstoppable.

Cranganore falls

And to set an example, he personally picked up a pickaxe and set to work.

While Tipu was personally pulling apart the Nedumkotta, Lally and a section of the Mysore army moved west and raided Cranganore and Aycottah. The Travancore forces stationed there could not hold off against the Mysore artillery and within a month these forts were taken over and ransacked by Lally’s troops. The two forts whose purchase from the Dutch had triggered the war against Travancore were now in the hands of the Mysore king.

The Heavens Open Up

With the Nedumkotta breached in the East and the defensive forts seized in the West, Tipu’s forces raced down the country before reaching the idyllic town of Aluva at the banks of the Periyar river. And, as if to welcome them to Aluva, the South Western Monsoon arrived.

Anyone who has ever been to the state of Kerala during the monsoon season would well understand the fury of the rains. The heavens open up, small rivulets turn into raging torrents, landslides bring hill slopes down with them and in general it becomes difficult to travel through the rivers and water bodies that dot the entire state.

For the Mysore army, with no prior experience of dealing with rains as ferocious as seen in Travancore, it was a deadlock. They wouldn’t dare to cross the swollen Periyar river at Aluva. With the mud roads not navigable any more, Tipu could not order a withdrawal of his forces either. The scorched earth tactic had destroyed every temple/church that Tipu’s forces could have used for taking shelter.

A gigantic wall of water raced down the river and engulfed the Mysore army downstream.

Dharma Raja’s forces, on the other hand, had managed to slip through before the rains came down and commandeered all the boats on the river and hauled them away. The two armies were now separated by a raging river and a waiting game began.

Flash flood strikes

With the Mysore army stopped dead in its tracks, a few brave Travancore commanders decided to take matters in their own hands. Under the leadership of Vaikom Padmanabha Pillai, a general of Dharma Raja’s army, a band of a few hundred men rowed all night up the Periyar river in the cover of darkness. Their destination – the Bhoothathankettu dam on the Periyar. Toiling through the next day, they broke one of the walls of the dam.

A gigantic wall of water raced down the river and engulfed the Mysore army downstream. For an army that was already pounded by incessant rain, with no place to take shelter, this was the last straw.

In the meantime, the British, Tipu learnt, had declared war on Mysore for breaking the Treaty of Mangalore. And to make matters worse, the Marathas were joining hands with the British. With the morale of the troops down and all their ammunition and gunpowder wet and dormant, Tipu ordered a general withdrawal of forces back home. Dharma Raja’s Travancore had once again defied all odds and stood its ground against the Sultan of Mysore.

Third Anglo-Mysore War

With Tipu away from the Nedumkotta, the Travancore army joined forces with the British and fought pitched battles all through Malabar and into the Carnatic. The Third Anglo-Mysore War may have been won by British military prowess but it was surely sustained by the persistence and unwavering perseverance of Travancore. The war ended with the treaty of Srirangapatanam and was a humiliating loss to Mysore.

The Company care more for money than for their friend.

The British took complete control over all of Tipu’s territory in the Malabar. The ‘Honourable’ company chose it wise to forget the help that Travancore provided in their fight against Tipu – as part of war expenses, the British demanded a huge amount of money from Travancore. By this time, Dharma Raja was in no position to disagree with the British and had to pay up this ransom amount. Not only this, the British demanded that a permanent force be maintained in Travancore (which was to be paid by Travancore, of course) and a political agent of the British would ‘advice’ Dharma Raja in his court. As Dharma Raja would say, “The Company care more for money than for their friend“. The proverbial chickens had come home to roost and Travancore would forever be under the supervision of the British.

Timeline

While history is not just about a rote understanding of days and dates and events around them, it is still valuable to list events in their order of occurrence. Hopefully this timeline helps the readers follow the sequence of events better.

Venice of the East

While the reign of Dharma Raja is most remembered for his resolute stance against Hyder Ali and Tipu, there was yet another contribution by this king that is often overlooked. In this he was ably assisted by his prime minister, Dewan Kesava Pillai. Kesava Pillai was to Dharma Raja what Ramayyan Dalawa was to Marthanda Varma. An accomplished scholar, with mastery over Dutch and Portuguese as well as Persian and Hindustani, Kesava Pillai was trained by D’Lannoy on warfare and was the commander of Travancore forces defending the Nedumkotta.

Burdened by the annual payment that had to be made to the British for the support that the ‘Honourable’ company had extended during the war with Mysore, Travancore had to look for additional sources of income. Levying additional taxes on the citizens of Travancore was one option; Dharma Raja did not support this option since he felt that the people were already troubled by the Mysore invasion and slowly rebuilding their livelihood. Any additional taxation could not be borne by the citizens.

The alternative was to improve trade and commerce, especially along the seaports of the state. Kesava Pillai established multiple ports from Kanyakumari up towards Vizhinjam and augmented the ports by constructing additional warehouses and godowns. He also invited wealthy merchants from Kutch, Surat and Bombay to settle down at these ports and provided them trade concessions.

Alappuzha

Nowhere was the Dewan’s attention more focused than on the small port of Alappuzha. During his tours he immediately recognized the potential of establishing a planned city around the beach and with Dharma Raja’s permission enthusiastically got to work. The forest around the beach was cleared, warehouses and other buildings erected and wealthy merchants within Travancore invited to settle down at Alappuzha. To show the government’s commitment towards the new city, a new palace was constructed for the king to stay during his visit.

The government also ordered forest produce, such as timber, to be traded through Alappuzha. Other forest produce such as honey, bee-wax, spices (including cardamom) were stored in the warehouses and traded further via ships. The kingdom also invested in ship building and had its own fleet of ships to help carry these produces to Bombay and Calcutta. To facilitate inland trade, canals were opened connecting the ports to the various backwater channels. Within a short period of time, Kesava Pillai had transformed Alappuzha from a sleepy little village to the financial nerve center of Travancore.

The Fallout

Dharma Raja’s legacy

Rama Varma, as we already saw, was not a military man unlike his predecessor Marthanda Varma. But he more than made up for this by his adherence to the principles of right vs wrong. To win a war, especially where the opponent is much stronger and ruthless than you, it is important to never waver from your principles. Rama Varma refused to bow down to Hyder Ali or Tipu Sultan and continued to provide sanctuary to the people fleeing the Mysore forces in Malabar. In the face of imminent personal danger to himself, he put his duty first and is rightly remembered as ‘Dharma Raja’.

The price Rama Varma paid to keep Mysore at bay was to, ever so slightly, be controlled by the British. What started with a few company of the British army being placed in Travancore soil as a deterrent against Tipu, soon turned into Travancore effectively signing off its free will to the British. It was a very heavy price to pay and something that would cause an anti-British revolt in Travancore within a few years of Rama Varma’s demise.

Tipu – Freedom Fighter or Tyrant?

The religious atrocities committed by Tipu’s troops in Malabar, under his explicit instructions, has been the subject of controversies. How could Tipu, who was revered in the Mysore kingdom and having had no particular ill-will towards the Hindu community there, turn into a barbarian in the Malabar? Some historians have tried to pin the blame on the Nair community who opposed him, while others have questioned the validity of the claims of religious genocide itself.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle. In his eagerness to put down the continuous uprising in Malabar, Tipu wanted to act decisively. He strongly believed that a Muslim majority Malabar would stand by him, and the forced religious conversion were meant to subdue and instill fear in the local Nair population. Whatever Tipu may have been in Mysore, and whatever his political compulsions may have been in Malabar, 1787-1788 witness religious genocide and would forever alienate the people of Malabar, Cochin and Travancore against Tipu. The ultimate benefactors of this mindless violence were the British, as they were now seen as the only power who could protect the local population against religious violence.

Did you know…
After the third Anglo-Mysore war, Tipu reached out to Napoleon Bonaparte in France, the Ottoman Sultans in Turkey and, worst of all, the Durrani warlords of Afghanistan. To the French he held the promise of defeating the common enemy – the British. To the Ottoman Turks and the Afghans it was a shared religious view that he held out as the reason for them to invade India.

British rise to power

The ultimate benefactor in the battle between Travancore and Mysore were the British. From being on the losing side during the first Anglo-Mysore war, the British shrewdly moved their pieces on the political chess board of South India and ended up on the winning side by the third Anglo-Mysore war. Tipu’s power had been curtailed – he had to agree to the humiliating condition of sending his children as hostages to the British in the Treaty of Srirangapatanam – and, as the icing on the cake, Travancore and Arcot forever became tributaries to the ‘Honourable’ company. Both East and South India were now under their control and they would soon get to war with the Marathas and end up as the overlords of the whole country.

What it could have been…

Hindsight always offers you the chance to dispassionately examine past events and draw learnings from them. What if the alignment of political powers in South India had been very different than what it turned out to be? What if Tipu’s military brain had joined hands with Dharma Raja’s statesmanship? It was, alas, not to be. By the end of the 18th century, Tipu had alienated every single one of his neighbors – the powerful Marathas that the British were worried about, the Nizam, the Arcot Nawab, the British and Travancore.

Mysore’s sustained attacks on Travancore drove Dharma Raja to the embrace of the British; it was to be a deal with the devil as we already saw. The Arcot Nawab was anyways indebted to the British for having come to power itself; only the Marathas now stood between the British and complete domination of the country. And how did Tipu deal with the Maratha’s – by inviting the Durrani chiefs to attack India. Keep in mind that it was Ahmad Shah Abdali, the Durrani chief, who had defeated the Marathas in the 3rd battle of Panipat in 1761. No wonder the Marathas were against Mysore.

The Young Monk

What India lacked in the 18th century was not brave warriors or leaders with a mission. What the country lacked was a Chanakya like visionary. Someone who could rise above the politics of the various kingdoms that dotted the country and culturally unite India. The country would have to wait till the end of the 19th century when a young monk from Calcutta would explode on the world stage and lead the country away from her days of darkness. In a country that had begun to believe that everything had to be learnt from the West, this monk traveled to the West to teach them the knowledge of the East. He was to become the spiritual guide of the Indian freedom struggle; a man whose vision guided leaders from Tagore to Gandhiji, Savarkar to Bose and Tilak to Patel. Born Narendranath Datta, the world knows him as Swami Vivekananda – one of the brightest beacons ever to shine in this land.

Further Reading

The best source to read and understand about Marthanda Varma and Travancore is Shungoonny Menon’s, ‘A History of Travancore From the Earliest Times’. Published in 1878, Rare Books Society of India has the free copy here. Rama Varma’s reign and the Mysore attack on Travancore is covered in Chapter III.

Marthanda Varma’s reign was covered in a two part blog series earlier, the first of which can be read here.

South Asian archaeology has a very nice article on the storming of the Nedumkotta, I would encourage reading through this one.

Tipu remains a controversial character, especially in light of his attack on Malabar. Many books and articles have been written/published covering different view points – I don’t intend to put an exhaustive list here. Logan’s ‘Malabar Manual’ and dispatches from British military officers are part of this. There are also books written by native authors of Kerala (K M Panicker’s Bhasha Poshini, for example). These pre-Independence Indian authors were highly critical of Tipu’s attrocities in Malabar.

Another interesting read is the Travancore State Manual of 1906. Linked here is the part about the battle of Nedumkotta.

Shri K V Krishna Iyer was one of the most highly regarded historians of Kerala and his book, “The Zamorins of Calicut” (published 1938), is a must-read classic. Chapter 16 of this book covers the Mysore invasion.