The Last Monarch

-

Shri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma (1912-1991) was the 12th monarch of Travancore.The full name of the royalty was HH Shri Padmanabha Dasa Vanchipala Kulashekharaperumal Shamsherjung Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma.He was the last ruling Maharaja of the Princely State of Travancore, later on becoming its titular ruler.The monarch who was a visionary who built the modern day Travancore, established educational institutions, fought for women rights and threw away caste based discrimination, resulting in the temple entry proclamation for the so-called lower castes.He was against all the social evils that existed in Kerala during his reign and he wanted this situation to change for the development of the society.He was well educated and had shown academic brilliance.He gave importance to his subjects and therefore he was regarded as a generous king.Chithira Thirunal is still respected and honored by the people of Thiruvananthapuram.He was a monarch, who lived a simple life just like others.Even though he had passed away, he is still remembered by the people all over Kerala.He introduced modern education in Travancore and provided funds to build modern educational institutions.

After Travancore merged with the Indian union in 1947, Chithira Thirunal then became the Maharajapramuk in 1949 (Governor) of the Indian state of Thiru-Kochi (State of Travancore-Cochin) until 1956.He retired from all state services from 1956 when Kerala State was formed and the system of inherited Rajapramuk concept ended in favour of the current system of Governorship of Indian states.He lived a strict and disciplined life.He was a devotee to lord Padmanabha and he took part in the temple ceremonies and processions regularly.He was a follower of music and listened to music concerts almost every day.He liked to interact with people as he held durbar sessions to discuss various matters.He worked in close association with Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India.From his contributions it is evident that he was an able and responsible monarch. -Mukund T

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Proselyte King

-
Image
Cheraman Perumal is considered to be the Chera king who left the royal throne and later on converted into Islam.He was a Hindu king from Kerala, regarded as the first who converted into Islam from the Indian peninsular.There are also other claims stating that he never converted to Islam, but followed the religion strictly.He was the ruler of Kerala with his capital in Kodungallur which was known as Mahodayapuram back then.It is said that he had a miraculous dream of the new moon being split into two halves at the horizon.This made him to consult astrologers, and Arabic travellers who visited his court; from them he got to know more about Islam as a religion and they interpreted that the dream was a message from Prophet Muhammad.After that he did a self research about the religion and Prophet Muhammad, who lived during the same era.With his in depth analysis on Islam, he had plans to learn more about the religion and meet the Prophet personally.Perumal left all the worldly pleasures, hi...
Read more

The Princely State of Cochin

-
Image
Origin and Existence Over the Years The dynasty of Cochin originated from the Perumpadappu Swaroopam which came into existence in 1102 AD after the splitting of the Kulasekhara empire, tracing its origin from the Chera dynasty also referred as the Keralaputras. Cochin was first mentioned in the travel account written by the Chinese Traveler Ma Huan in 1399 AD. There are less written records on Cochin till the arrival of the Portuguese in 15th century. References on Cochin was also found in ancient Tamil works, memoirs of foreign travelers, inscriptions and copper plate grants which are still preserved and serve as valuable sources that provide glimpses into the past of Cochin. However, these records are not sufficient enough to gain a clear idea of the political and social evolution of the region. Earlier, the Chera kingdom of Mahodayapuram or Makotai in the present day Kodungallur was established in the 9th century, and Kulasekhara which was a later Chera dynasty continued the Chera r...
Read more

The Kingdoms Of Kerala

-
Image
Before independence Kerala was not a single state, instead it was a collection of mainly three royal Kingdoms which were referred to as Princely States by the British.Each of the three kingdoms were ruled by the respective kings on a hereditary basis and followed the system of absolute monarchy.The kingdoms were Travancore, Cochin and Malabar.All the three kingdoms belonged to the Chera dynasty which established rule in Kerala many years back.Travancore was considered to be the most prosperous kingdom, it was also the oldest kingdom of Kerala with vast amount of land and wealth.Cochin was the tradecentre of Kerala with trade and commerce taking place around the world.Ports and markets flourished on the shores of Cochin.Spices and other goods were exported in large numbers to European countries.Pepper was the most expensive spice which had high demand and price through which it was referred as the black gold by the Europeans. Malabar was the kingdom under the Zamorin rule.Traders such a...
Read more