Marthanda varma biography for kids

Maharaja of Travancore from 1729–1758

This article is about the 18th century Indian king. For other uses, see Marthanda Varma (disambiguation).

Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (Malayalam: അനിഴം തിരുനാൾ മാർത്താണ്ഡവർമ്മ) was the founding monarch of the southern Indian Kingdom of Travancore (previously Venadu) from 1729 until his death in 1758. He was succeeded by Rama Varma ("Dharma Raja") (1758–98).

Marthanda Varma defeated the Dutch East India Company forces at the Battle of Colachel in 1741. He also put an end to the ettuveetil pillamars and the ettara yogam council and took the full power as a king. The Yogakars and Pillamars were always against the Royal Family of Venad (Padmabhaswamy Temple Judgement page :16) He then adopted a European mode of discipline for his army and expanded his kingdom northward (to what became the modern state of Travancore). He built a sizeable standing army of about 50,000 nair men, as part of designing an "elaborate and well-organised" war machine, with the role of the travancore army and fortified the northern boundary of his kingdom (Travancore Lines). His alliance in 1757 with the ruler of Kochi (Cochin), against the northern Kingdom of Calicut, enabled the kingdom of Kochi to survive.

Travancore under Marthanda Varma made a deliberate attempt to consolidate its power by the use of Indian Oc

The early 18th century was the time when medieval Kerala’s political structure was going through a period of turmoil. The state had become decentralized with the  Ettuveetil Pillamar( local landlords) and the Madampimar( the barons) calling the shots, while the authority of the throne was curbed by the Yogakkar( council of eight and a half), who also managed the Padmanabhaswamy Temple. There was no standing army, and the various royal lineages constantly clashed with each other. This left the field open to the Dutch and English traders to assert their supremacy over the lucrative spice trade, often resorting to blocking of the West Coast.

It was in such chaotic times, one man would emerge, who would defeat the Dutch, found the kingdom of Travancore, create a modern army on European lines and gain control of the spice trade.

Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma, born in 1706, to Raghava Varma of Kilimanoor and Rani Karthika Thirunal of Attingal, in the Trippappur Swaroopam, which was then just a small kingdom, between Edava in the in the north to Aralvaimozhi in the south. He would ascend the throne at a time of great crisis.

The then ruler of Venad(current day Travancore) Rama Varma, was at the mercy of the East India Company and Madurai Nayaks with whom he had entered into treaties with for support against the troublesome nobles in his court.  The British had already set up a factory at Vizhinjam in 1644, while the Ajengo Fort was strengthened in 1695 by them. The Padmanabhaswamy Temple on the other hand was facing a funds crunch. Add to it the Thampi brothers, the sons of Rama Varma, revolted against him,with the help of the Madurai Nayaks.

Marthanda subdued the revolt, and drastically curtailed the powers of the Ettuveetil Pillamar, the Nair aristocracy as well as that of the Yogakkara.  Realizing that the Dutch power in Kerala stemmed from their monopoly over the spice trade, he turned his attention to Central

Marthanda Varma - The lion among lambs.

Marthanda Varma
  Born: 1706 Died: 1758

The kings of the Travancore dynasty were invariably pious god fearing and innocent,But this one was different who could get in to the den of any lion and offer a challenge. Well versed in martial arts he rose to the status of a jack of all games. In administration tactics and strategies he matched Chanakya and in sky high ambition he nurtured, could match Alexander the great. By any means this king stands as a towering personality and his heroic deeds crown the pages of Kerala history.

His full official name was “Shree Padmanabadasa Vanchipala Marthanda Varma  Kulasekharapperumal”. Born on 1723 and crowned as the king of Travancore on 1729 at the age of 23. He had that quality what the generations of other kings of Kerala dynasty lacked, the ‘killer instinct”. Marthanda Varma was terror personified for his opponents, while a model king for the country and the people.

At that time the land was divided in separate fiefdoms controlled by feudal lords. The eight families which controlled major portion of the country with feudal rights never heeded the advices of the pious kings. They continued to torture the people with hefty taxation and all other misdeeds. Same time they were also engaged in plotting against the dynasty. The former kings as well as well as the members of the royal families lived in perpetual fear of these formidable foes numbering eight! (They were known as the “Ettuveettil Pillamar”) and their cronies.

Ammachi plavu (Mother jackfruit tree) in his teen ages Marthanda Varma was chased by these cronies of the conspirators and he had to escape from them by hiding in a big pothole in a jackfruit tree. This tree stood at the premises of the Sri Krishna temple at Neyyattinkara was live until recent times. People treated as a divine tree which saved the life of their beloved king. They named the tree as 

Maharaja of Travancore (1922–2013)

Sree Padmanabhadasa Sree Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma (22 March 1922 – 16 December 2013) was the titularMaharaja of Travancore. He was the younger brother of the last ruling monarch of the Kingdom of Travancore, Maharajah Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma.

Named Heir Apparent from birth, as per the Travancore matrilineal law of succession, Sree Uthradom Thirunal joined the firm of Plymouth and Company at Bangalore in 1952, working there as a clerk and truck driver briefly to study the functioning of industries at a basic level. He was the Chief Scout of the regional Boy Scout troop, and is also a patron of local hospitals and charities.

He married Ammachi Panapillai Amma Shrimati Radhadevi Pandalai, the daughter of Lt. Col. Krishnan Gopinathan Pandalai, a medical doctor, military veteran, and superintendent of the Government General Hospital, Madras, from 1921 to 1935. The couple had a son, Ananthapadmanabhan Thampi and a daughter, Parvathidevi Kochamma. Sree Uthradom Thirunal resided at Pattom Palace, Thiruvananthapuram until his death in 2013.

Early life

Sree Uthradom Thirunal was the youngest son of H.H queen motherSethu Parvathi Bayi of Travancore by her consort, Ravi Varma Kochu Koyi Thampuran of Kilimanoor Royal House, a Sanskrit scholar and the great-nephew of the celebrated painter, Raja Ravi Varma. He was born on 22 March 1922 in Travancore. His siblings were Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma and Karthika Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi. His mother, Sethu Parvathi Bayi, was distantly related, by birth, to the Travancore Royal Family in the direct female line. In 1900, following the absence of heirs in the Travancore Royal Family, she had been adopted by her maternal great-aunt, Maharani Lakshmi Bayi. According to the matrilineal traditions of the Travancore Royal Family, Sree Uthradom Thirunal, at the ti