Kolathunadu

Kolathunādu (Cannanore or Kola Swarupam) was one of the three most powerful feudal kingdoms on the Malabar Coast during the arrival Portuguese Armadas to India along with Zamorin's Calicut and Venad. Kolathunād had its capital at Ezhimala and was ruled by Kolathiri royal family and roughly comprised the whole northern districts of Kerala state and parts of Karnataka in India. Traditionally, Kolathunādu is described as the land lying between Perumba river in the north and Putupattanam river in the south.^[1]

The ruling house of Kolathunādu, which was known as Kolathunau, was one of the major political houses which sprang up in Kerala after the disappearance of the Chera rulers of Mahodayapuram by the twelfth century AD.^[2] Kolathris traces their ancestry back to the ancient Mushika kingdom (Ezhimalai kingdom, Eli-nadu) of the Tamil Sangam Age. After king Nannan of Mushika dynasty was killed in a battle against the Cheras, the history of the dynasty is obscure. However, it is generally agreed among the scholars that Kolathris are the descendents of king Nannan, and later literary works point towards kings such as Vikramaraman, Jayamani, Valabhan and Srikandan from Mushika dynasty. Kolathunad was the northernmost province of the Later Chera kingdom and had considerable autonomy during 12th century.

Though the rulers of this house (popularly known as Kolathiris) were generally credited with a superior political authority over the geographical zone lying between the kingdoms of Canara and Calicut, their political influence was more or less confined to Kolathunādu.^[3][4] Ezhimalai, the ancient capital of the kingdom, was one of the most important trading centres on Malabar along with Kollam and Kozhikode, and has found mention in the writings of Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo and Wang Ta-Yuan and several other explorers. Randuttara, Kottayam and Wynad, Kadathanad (Badagara) and Arakkal (Kannur) and Lakshadweep were the primary vassals of Kolathiris. They engaged in frequent rivalry with their powerful neighbors in the south, the Zamorins of Calicut. When Portuguese explores under Pedro Álvares Cabral arrived in India, Kolathiris warmly welcomed them in Kannur (1501) and allowed the construction of a strategic fort in Kolathunad, seeking fortunes against the Zamorins. Later, Kolathiri gave up the Portuguese, and helped the Dutch, and then followed the English East India Company.

In spite of its fluctuating political fortunes throughout its existence, the Kola-swarũpam was considered as one of the most prominent political houses in Kerala until the British occupation of the region by the end of the eighteenth century. At least from the second half of the fifteenth century, Kannũr occupied the prime position of being the leading port town of Kolathunādu and, consequently, it was the core area of socio-economic and political dynamics of the region. During the Mysore invasion of Kerala, the Kolathiris found refuge in Travancore, and the territories were taken over by the British after the Anglo-Mysore Wars.

Cherusseri Namboothiri (c. 1375-1475 AD), the author Krishna Gatha, a landmark in the development of Malayalam literature, lived in the court of Udayavarman Kolathiri.

Administration

The political lordship of the original kingdom of Kolathiri was partitioned along various matrilinial-divisions of the Kolathiri family and had rulers of the respective parts or Kũrvāzhcha (part-dominions) namely Kolattiri, Tekkālankũr, Vadakkālankũr, Naalāmkũr, Anjāmkũr. The administration of Kolathunādu was divided into various segments of authority each of which performed functions similar to those of the superior powers but on a smaller scale.^[5]

The administration was conducted through chiefs-in-tenant under the Kolathiri. This included dignitaries called nāduvazhis, desavazhis and mukhyastans. The nāduvazhis, who were heads of nāds or districts headed Nair militias of 500 -20,000. Below the nāduvazhis in the administrative hierarchy were desavazhis who were heads of hamlets. These were divisions of nāds. Desavazhis headed Nāyar militias ranging from 100 to 500 men. Below the desavazhis were other local potentates called mukhyastans. However, as in any feudal society, the Kolathiris were unable to centralize their state and the inability of the Kolathiris to monopolize the use of force in the realm on account of their weak economic position meant that the outward appearance of regal authority remained more or less nominal.

Events leading to British colonization

Important Events between 1689-1801 leading to British colonization of Kolathunādu.^[5]

1689: Kolattiri Rājā and his Prince Regent (Vadakkālankũr), to protect the latter from his adversary Kurangoth nāyar, sent an ultimatum to the then British interlopers in Malabar to let them know that they could continue to trade in north Malabar only if they agreed to build a factory in the area.

1708: Completion of Thalassery fort.

1722 : The French claim for a factory was staked at Māhe to protect their interest in Malabar. They started to wage a war against the Vāzhunor of Badagara with a view to establishing a factory in Māhe which was only three miles south of Thalassery. Kolattiri through a royal writing granted to the East India Company ’all the trades and farms’ within his ’territory from Canharotte down the Pudupatnam river’, excluding the areas where concessions were held by the Dutch who were based at Kannũr. The British were also authorized to ’punish, prevent and driveaway’ ’any other stranger’ who interfered with their concessions.

1725: French established factory at Māhe by making a deal with Vāzhunor.

1720s Ali Raja of Arackal Raja attacked the then Prince Regent of Kolathunād, Cunhi Homo and he approaches the British for succour in return for the privileges and factory granted to them by his uncle the Kolathiri.

August 1727 : Chief of Thalassery informs the Prince Regent that it is the policy of the Bombay Presidency to supply local potentates with ammunition to wage wars at their own expense.

1728 Chief of Thalassery, Adams, was recalled to Bombay and Prince regent asks for military assistance from Dutch at Cochin. The Dutch demanded the port of Dharmapatanam in return. The East India Company fearing Dutch influence supplied Kolathunād with 20,000 fanams of military stores and Ali Rājā was silenced. The British in return were given exclusive permission over other Europeans to buy spices in Kolathunādu by Prince Udaya Varman.

1732-34: Kanarese invaded North Malabar in 1732 at the invitation of the Arackal Raja. Under the command of Gopalaji, 30,000 strong Kanarese soldiers,,easily overran Cunhi Homo’s forts in northern Kolathunād. Early in 1734 the Kanarese soldiers captured Kudali and Dharmapatanam

1736: Kanarese army was driven out of the whole of North with assistance from the British but the Prince Regent incurs a huge debt with the factors at Tellichery as a result 1737: Nayaks of Bednur plan another attack on Kolathunādu. Prince Cunhi Homo agreed to sign a peace treaty with the Kanarese which fixed the northern border of Kolathunād on the Madday. The factors of Tellicherry also signed their own treaty with the Nayak of Bedanur which guaranteed the integrity of British trading concessions in Malabar in the event of future conflicts between the Kanarese and the rulers of Kolathunād.

1739-42 Prince Ockoo, a French supported adversary of the Prince regent and his followers were killed by the factors of Tellichery.

1741 Prince regent asked his vassals, the Achanmārs of Randuthara to contribute 30,000 fanams towards defraying state debt. The Achanmārs refused. Prince Regent’s threatened to assume the collection of tribute in Randuthara unless the Achanmārs agreed. the British arranged to pay the Prince Regent the sum of 30,000 fanams on behalf of the Achanmārs in exchange for the land revenue collection of Randuthara. Thus The debt trap was an important instrument which the British used to secure the monopoly of trade in Malabar.

1745: The direct relations which the factors of Tellicherry were cultivating with the vassals of Kolathunād, however, tended to alienate the Kolattiri. The Prince Regent of Kolathunād accused the factors of Tellicherry of interfering ’too much in the government of his country’.

1746: Death of Prince Udaya Varman. The disintegration of the Kolathiri's dominion had started and the English fanned dissensions in the royal family. The British started taking control of more and more area by purchasing land through consorts of the royal family.

October 1747: Minor war between Kolathiri and factors at Tellichery who using Prince Raman Unithiri ’chastized’ ’ant-British ministers’ in the samastanom. On succession due to Prince Kunhi Homos death, Prince Cunhi Raman tried to ambition to reaffirm his authority upon his Vassals to the East India Company concern. Having consolidated his authority, Prince Cunhi Raman embarked on a policy of centralizing the administration of Kolathunād so as to acquire more power over his vassals. He expressed the desire to collect the land revenue of Randuthara because he felt that the Achanmār no longer obeyed him.

1749: Prince cunhi Raman threatened to appoint his own sons to administer the taluks of Iruvalinad and Kadattanad. In the same year, however, the Boyanore cut the last links of Vassalage with the Kolathunād palace and declared himself Rājā of Kadattanad. The Nambiārs of Iruvalinād threatened to follow suit. The Achanmār of Randuthara appealed to the British for more protection. Kolathunād was being dismembered. The Kolattiri and his Prince Regent were being forced to withdraw to Kolathunād ’proper’ and so restrict their authority to what was to become the taluk of Chirakkal.

April 1751: Following the Boyanore’s assumption of the title of Rājā, Prince Cunhi Raman declared war on Kadattanad, Iruvalinad where the East India Company had acquired the monopoly of buying pepper . Following many discussions, the factors managed to convince the Kolattiri (the Senior Rājā of Kolathunād) to dismiss Prince Kunhi Raman and appointed Ambu Tamban as Prince Regent in the presence of Thomas Derryl of the East India Company at Thalassery .

October 1751: Prince Cunhi Raman allowed the French to fortify Mount Delli so as to disrupt the British rice trade between Mangalore and Tellicherry.

January 1752: The Rājā of Cotiote mediated for a settlement between Tellicherry and Kolathunād.

1756: Death of Prince Cunhi Raman and succession by Prince Rama Varma

1760: Death of Prince Rama Varma

August 1760: Unanamen Tamban (new Prince Regent) had Siben Putteiah, the leader of the pro-British faction in the Kolathunād Raj, blinded.

1761: Kolattiri dismisses the Prince Regent and took charge of the Kolathunād Raj directly and granted the British the right to collect all the custom duties of North Malabar on behalf of the samastanom.

1764: Prince of Chirakkal took over the administration of Kolathunād.

1765: Prince of Chirakkal recognized the dominant position of Tellicherry in the taluk of Randuthara by ceding the area to the East India Company.

Feb 1766: Hyder Ali along with a formidable force is welcomed into Kerala by the Ali Rājā of Kannũr. The Mysorean army guided by Ali Rājā and his brother seize the palace of the Rājā of Kolathiri at Chirakkal. The Rājā and his family flee south to take refuge at the English trading station in Thalassery. He appointed Ali Rājā as his Naval Chief (High Admiral) and the Rājā 's brother Sheik Ali as Chief of Port Authority (Intendant of Marine).

1773: Hyder Ali invaded Malabar for a second time in 1773 on the pretext that the Rajas of Malabar had not paid him tribute as agreed in 1768.^[6]

Feb 1789: Tipu Sultan enters Malabar for the second time as all the Rājā and Chieftains of North Malabar had revolted and declared their independence from Mysore. He devastated Kadathanād and marries off his son (Abdul Khalic) to the daughter of the Arackal Bibi of Kannũr. One of the princes of the Kolathiri family was killed by Tippu´s soldiers during his escape and his dead body was dragged by elephants through Tippu's camp and it was subsequently hung up on a tree along with seventeen of his followers who had been captured alive.

May 1790: Tipu leaves Malabar never to return

March 1792: Malabar was formally ceded to the British. The British entered into agreements with the Rājā of Chirakkal, Kottayam and Kadathanād and all of them acknowledged the full sovereignty of the Company over their respective territories. The British Government divided the province of Malabar into two administrative divisions - the Southern and Southern, presided over by a superintendent each at Thalassery and Cherpulasseri, under the general control of the supervisor and chief magistrate of the province of Malabar who had his headquarters at Kozhikode.

1800: Malabar was made a part of the Madras Presidency

1801: Death of the last Kolathiri Rājā who ceded all his dominions to the British (was commonly known as the first Rājā of Chirakkal). Major Macleod took charge as the first principal collector of Malabar on October 1, 1801.

Kolathunād remained part of Malabar District (an administrative district of British India under Madras presidency till 1947 and later part of India's Madras State till 1956. On November 1, 1956, the state of Kerala was formed by the States Reorganisation Act merging the Malabar district, Travancore-Cochin (excluding four southern taluks, which were merged with Tamil Nadu, and the taluk of Kasargod, South Kanaramerged with Karnataka.

Calendar system

The version of Kolla-Varsham or Kolla-varsham practiced in central/south Kerala excepting North Malabar (Kolathunadu) began on August 25 825 A. D and the year commences with Simha-raasi (Leo) and not in Mesha-raasi (Aries) as in other Indian calendars. Although there are several accounts, current, recorded and heresay about the commencement of the Kollam era , however in erstwhile North Malabar / Kolathunadu, the Kollam era is reckoned from the next month, Kanya-rasi (Virgo) (September 25) instead. This variation has two interesting accounts associated with it.^[7]

(1) The traditional text Kerolopathi attributes the introduction of Kollam era to Shankaracharya. So if you convert the word “Aa chaa rya vaa ga bhed ya” (meaning Shankaracharya's word/law is unalterable) in to numbers in the Katapayadi notation it translates into 0 6 1 4 3 4 1 and these written backwards gives the age of the Kali yuga on the first year of the Kollam era. Kali day 1434160 would work out to be September 25, 825 A.D which corresponds to the beginning of Kollam era in Kolathunadu, i.e. the first day of the Kanya-raasi (Virgo) .

(2) The second account is that Kollam era commenced with the proclamation made at Kollam.

References

See also

• Mysore invasion of Kerala