TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 144

  ENGLISH SUBBA RAO AND SATRAM SCHOOL

Dewan Subba Rao

The Govt. Fort U.P. School, Manacaud, popular among the locals as 'Satram School', is a grand heritage edifice located on the eastern end of the Ramavarmapuram Gramom (Sreevaraham). Despite being a popular landmark, the locals are hardly aware of its history. They maintain that the expansive two-story building was formerly a Satram, and it's where young T. Madhava Rao was first lodged when he came to Travancore in 1849 as 'Tutor' to the nephews of Rajah Uthram Tirunal Martanda Varma.

Undoubtedly the most distinguished Maratha Brahmin to serve Travancore, Madhava Rao was but one among the many Paradesi Brahmins, who occupied coveted administrative positions in the State from the early 19th century. A brilliant bureaucrat, it did not take the young tutor to secure a dominant place in the administrative machinery, and in 1857 he secured the enviable post of Dewan (prime minister) of Travancore.

Credited for reforming the Travancore administrative system in modern lines, Madhava Rao orientated the Princely State towards an era of Colonial modernity. While the residents of Thiruvananthapuram still remember him with gratitude (thanks to the life-size statue of Rao right at the heart of the city), the history of the Satram goes well beyond Madhava Rao, to the reign of the celebrated Rajah Swathi Tirunal Rama Varma (r.1829-1846).

The Huzur records reveal that the mansion was actually constructed in the 1840s as the residence of Dewan 'English Subbrow' (alias Tanjore Subba Rao), who, like Sir T. Madhava Rao, started career in Travancore as a 'Tutor' to the young princes, Swathi Tirunal and his brother Uthram Tirunal.

A record from 1015 M.E. (c.1840 C.E.) mentions the amount accorded to purchase land in Ramavarmapuram for constructing a house for Dewan Subba Rao. Another record from 1018 M.E. (c.1843 C.E.) details the location of the mansion—on the central street, towards the eastern end of the Ramavarmapuram Gramom—as well as the amount sanctioned for the purchase of gifts on the occasion of house warming ceremony. The second record is particularly useful as it dispels any confusion regarding identifying the Satram School as Subba Rao’s residence.

The Satram School, Ramavarmapuram Gramom

With its robust cornice, arches, and moulded balusters, the building distinguishes itself from other structures of the era. Rather than exhibiting an affinity to the local construction practices, the Satram borrows architectural elements from the 18th and 19th century mansions of Tanjore and Madurai, where the neoclassical paradigm blends with the heavy stucco moulding.

English Subba Rao (b.1775-d.1848), the tutor from Tanjore, had lived a remarkable life. Before he became the Dewan of Travancore, Rao had a commendable career in Tanjore court of Rajah Serfoji II. A polyglot, Subba Rao served as tutor to three Travancore kings and authored the first play (Kishun Koovur) written by an Indian in the English language. Rahul Sagar, in his latest book 'Krishna Kumari, The Tragedy of India', shares previously unknown details of Subba Rao’s life. Check out the book for more details.

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 143

  GIFTS FIT FOR A QUEEN

The Queen's Jubilee presents displayed in the Waterloo Chamber, Windsor Castle © Royal Collection Trust.

Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee festivities in 1887 provided the Indian Maharajahs with yet another magnificent opportunity to demonstrate their steadfast allegiance to the British crown. The royals took good advantage of the occasion as usual, competing to present the Queen with the best gifts.

A detailed account of the Jubilee Celebrations in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Travancore, is found in the personal diaries of a government official named M. Veloo Pillai. A staunch diarist, Pillai lists the important events: "The native officers were invited for a feast at Padmavilasom, the Dewan's mansion, whereas the Europeans had a State Dinner at Huzur Cutcherry. A grand durbar was held to receive the 'Khareeta' from the Governor's office, and the museum grounds became the venue for many celebrations and games aimed at entertaining the younger population. The poor and needy were not forgotten; they too were fed on these days of pomp and festivities."

Among the other important events, Pillai records a generous donation made by the Maharajah towards the 'Imperial Institute' (London) and the 'Technical Institute' (Madras), and the Attingal Elaya Tampuran addressed a crowd of women when she made a speech on Queen Victoria's life and contributions. "Around two months after this," writes Pillai, "a portrait of the Travancore Maharani was sent to the Queen as a gift." This painting by Raja Ravi Varma, titled “The Presentation of a Jubilee Address to Queen Victoria” (signed and dated 1887), can still be found in the British royal collection.

'The Presentation of a Jubilee Address to Queen Victoria', by Ravi Varma © Royal Collection Trust.

Detail showing Ravi Varma's painting © Royal Collection Trust.

Pillai then proceeds to give us a brief account of other valuable gifts Maharajah Mulam Tirunal Rama Varma (r.1885-1924) had sent to the Queen; the three royal gifts, according to Pillai, were "made of elephant ivory and ebony."

Unlike the Ravi Varma painting, the history of the Golden Jubilee gifts has not been well documented. Some sources incorrectly report the gifts as those sent by Maharajah Uthram Tirunal Martanda Varma (r.1847-1860), who had sent the famed 'Ivory State Chair'/'Ivory Throne' to the Great London Exhibition of 1851. However, a photograph in the Royal Collection Trust titled “Golden Jubilee gifts arranged in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor” (RCIN 2916023) gives a rare glimpse of the Golden Jubilee gift from Travancore.

The ‘Register of Kentucky State Historical Society’ (May 1903) offers the ‘official description’ of the two gifts as follows:

1. Pair of elephant's tusks mounted on a buffalo's head carved in ebony which is supported on four griffins. The tusks are supported higher up by a cross-bar of ebony and resting on the heads of four figures representing some of the incarnations of Vishnu. Rushing from the projecting ends of the cross-bar to the tusks are two griffins with two elephants under them linking their trunks. In the center of the bar is a 16 handed figure of Shive (Shiva), standing on the prostrate form of an abamaram (apasmaram) or fiend. All figures are ebony.

2. Pair of elephant's tusks mounted as flower vases on a stand of rosewood covered with ivory mounted with gold and entwined by a pepper vine in fruit worked in gold. The vases are supported on two elephant's heads carved in ebony and rising from out of a base of rock and jungle worked in ivory and elephant’s teeth. The trunks of the elephants support a lotus of ivory on which is seated a golden image of Lukshine (Lakshmi) the goddess of prosperity.

Detail showing the gift from Travancore © Royal Collection Trust.

The exquisitely carved royal gift made of ivory and ebony.

The Jubilee presents and the Ivory State Chair presented in 1851 were among the star exhibits at the World’s Fair Louisiana, 1904, where they were exhibited at the Washington University building.

Writing on the fabulous assemblage of the priceless exhibits, a reviewer observes thus: “These Indian presents are interesting not merely on account of the precious metals and rare woods in which they are often worked but on account of their showing how in recent years the native art of India has been influenced by European ideas. At the same time, the collection contained many examples of Indian art in its most characteristic and unaffected form. They include richly illuminated addresses enclosed in costly and elaborate caskets of gold, silver, ivory or iron damascened with gold and silver; carvings in rare jade, sandal-wood, ebony, and gold; royal saddler, chairs of state, and elephant’s tusks of great size.

The presents exhibited comprised only a small proportion of thousands sent from every part of the Empire now included in the Royal Collections at Buckingham Palace Windsor Castle Osborne and Sandringham.”

Queen Victoria's Jubilee Presents (the ivory state chair in the center was gifted to the Queen in 1851) exhibited at World's Fair Louisiana.

The assessment is all the more interesting and relevant considering the evident Western influence in all walks of native life since the mid-nineteenth century. For instance, Ravi Varma’s art was founded on Indian ethos, but the artist adopted Western technique and medium to manifest it. However, the gilded figurine of Goddess Lakshmi, depicted as seated on the lotus, strictly adheres to the traditional system of Hindu religious iconography. As observed by the reviewer, it remains a fine example of Indian art in its “most characteristic and unaffected form.”

Sharat Sunder Rajeev

30.06.2024.

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 142

 THE JHAROKHAS OF TRAVANCORE - 

THE CASE OF PADMANABHAPURAM PALACE COMPLEX

Window of the palace at Pulpanabhaporum from which the Ranees view the processions, albumin print, 1868, Royal Collection Trust

The ‘jharokha,’ the Indian equivalent of the ‘oriel window,' has been identified as a significant medieval architectural element ever since Islamic architectural trends amalgamated with the indigenous. Jharokhas were often placed on the façade of palatial structures, overlooking a street or an important open space. While the women in the cloistered harems of the palaces and havelis framed their gaze to the other side of the world through jharokhas, the same was associated with the kingly ritual—the jharokha darshan—when the architectural setup served as the point from which the ruler addressed the public audience. The Mughal courtly custom of the emperor appearing before the subjects at the jharokha made it popular amongst their feudatories. It is perhaps due to the infiltration of Mughal courtly customs into south Indian provincial courts that the jharokha also got assimilated into the regional architectural vocabulary.

In Travancore, the oldest specimen of a jharokha can be found in the sprawling Padmanabhapuram complex in Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu. The ambari mukhappu overlooking the processional street on the northern side of the palace complex is an exquisitely carved bay window, fashioned like an ambari or howdah, with five openings supported by rampant vyali (mythical beast) figures on the outside and crowned with a conical roof. The window inspired the European architect R.F. Chisholm, who incorporated four replicas of the same in the Napier Museum in Thiruvananthapuram, designed by him. A champion of the Indo-Saracenic architectural style, Chisholm would have found the ambari mukhappu a ready ingredient for his masterpiece work in Travancore.

Watercolour sketch showing the northern street and the ambari mukhappu, by R.F. Chisholm, RIBA Library Drawings and Archives Collection

The jharokha window at Napier Museum, Thiruvananthapuram

A view of the forecourt at Padmanabhapuram, the jharokha atop the entrance gateway is seen on the right

That said, let us now look at a less discussed jharokha at the Padmanabhapuram palace complex. This window is strategically placed atop the grand doorway, overlooking the large forecourt in front of the palace, and connected to the other wings through secured corridors. During the eighteenth century, the forecourt would have been a happening place when the capital of Travancore was still based in Padmanabhapuram. The view from this elevated space makes one appreciate the ingenuity of the architects of yore who designed such a space from which the sentries could keep an eye on the activities both in the large quadrangle and also in the smaller yard in front of the poomukhamalika (entrance hall). On special occasions like navaratri, the kilivāthil (small windows) opening to the front quadrangle enabled the royal ladies to witness the celebrations and activities, seated comfortably, away from the teeming crowds below. Various recreational activities, like animal combats and wrestling, staged in the front quadrangle were witnessed by the king and his officials from the same bay window.

The jharokha window, Padmanabhapuram, a closer view.

(More on the other jharokhas in Thiruvananthapuram later).

Sharat Sunder Rajeev

15.08.2023

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 141

THE RAJAGOPURAM OF PADMANABHASWAMI TEMPLE

The eastern gopuram of Padmanabhaswami temple, also known as the ‘Rajagopuram’, is undoubtedly one of the majestic edifices erected by the rulers of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom. Though the credit for constructing the gopuram is claimed by Anizham Tirunal Martanda Varma, the founder of the Travancore kingdom, the annals at Padmanabhaswami temple take us back to the sixteenth century, to the reign of Aditya Varma, when Thottathil Achari, a master craftsman, is recorded to have laid the foundation stone of the eastern gopuram in 741 M.E. (c.1566 C.E.). Subsequent chronicles shed light on the internal strife among the Venad rulers and the powerful madampis, disrupting the smooth conduct of the construction activities. 

The royal commission was destined to remain dormant until the eighteenth century when Marthanda Varma took matters into his own hands. Martanda Varma appointed Kesavan Vishnu Thrathan of Thycattu Illam as the Stapathi and went about a thorough renovation of the Padmanabhaswami temple. When Marthanda Varma passed away in 1758 C.E., only five out of the seven storeys of the gopuram had been finished; however, the work progressed through the reign of Karthika Tirunal Rama Varma. The gopuram, when finished, stood at a soaring height of about a hundred feet and had every inch of its exterior decorated with fine stucco figurines depicting episodes from the Hindu epics.

Sannidhi-Vaasal, the eastern entrance to Padmanabhaswami temple, c.1868, The Royal Collection Trust. Note the absence of the finials in this photograph.

The gopuram, though it maintained an irrefutable presence in the skyline of the capital city, was to remain incomplete for the next hundred years. The earliest photograph of the gopuram from 1868 shows it without the seven golden finials—the kalashas—atop the ridge. The task of completing the project was taken up (c.1872) by Dewan Sir. Sashiah Sastri K.C.S.I. during the reign of Maharajah Ayilyam Tirunal Rama Varma (r.1860-1880). 

Sir A. Sashiah Sastri, Dewan of Travancore.

The following details regarding the completion of the eastern tower can be gleaned from the biography of the Dewan:

“The tower of Sri Padmanabha Swami temple at Trevandrum, which had been long left incomplete, was completed. Finials plated with gold were set up over the topmost storey of the tower and the gilt spires of Sri Padmanabha became a landmark amid the green fields and verdant groves for forty miles around.”

The eastern gopuram with the finials, c.1900 (attributed to D’Cruz, the Govt. Photographer), The British Library collection.

Sharat Sunder R

July 2023.

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 140

A Nair Wedding 

Recently, when I called on Suseela Bayi, granddaughter of the famed author C.V. Raman Pillai, she narrated several interesting anecdotes about her ancestors. Sitting in the hall of the famed 'Rosscote Bungalow', adorned with portraits of her ancestors she recalled the details of her parent's wedding. "My mother Gowrikutty being the eldest of C. V. Raman Pillai's daughters, the wedding was planned on a grand scale," she said. "My father wore a fine suit and gave a ring to the bride, which was unheard of in those days." Suseela’s father, Aiyappan Raman Pillai, alias, A.R. Pillai (b.1879-d.1938) was an Indian expatriate who, while stranded in Germany during WWI, worked for India's freedom. Before venturing to Germany, a young A.R. Pillai had made a name as a merchant in Trivandrum. He worked as a journalist, writer and book publisher in Germany. Pillai was a grand-nephew of Punnakkal Easwara Pillai Vicharippukar, a famed Kathakali artiste and a prominent courtier of Uthram Tirunal Marthanda Varma, the Rajah of Travancore.

B. Gowrikutty, alias Gowri Amma (b.1892), on her wedding day, 1904 (aged 12, according to Suseela Bayi) & Punnakkal A.R. Pillai, c.1904, photographed soon after the wedding. Image courtesy: Late Sri Rosscote Krishna Pillai.

A detailed report of the wedding ceremony at the Rosscote Bungalow came in ‘The Madras Weekly Mail,’ 1904.

A Nair Marriage

The Cloth Giving Ceremony

From a Correspondent, Trevandrum, 24th August

"The public of Trevandrum were invited by Mr C.V. Raman Pillay, Superintendent of the Travancore Government Press, to witness the cloth giving ceremony - a Malayalam Sambadham marriage - by which Mr A.R. Pillay, one of the most enterprising merchants of the town, married Mr. Raman Pillay’s daughter Miss. Gavari Cooty (Gowrikutty). The ceremony took place at 8:15 o'clock last night, and among those present were the Diwan, Mr. Nanaswamy Rao, Mr. Raja Ram Rao, Mr. A.J. Vieyra, Dr. Poonen, Mr. Justice and Mrs. Hunt, Mr. Keshava Pillay, Mr justice Govinda Pillay, and very many others well known in Trevandrum.

Two spacious and artistically decorated pavilions formed an annexe to the main building, where the actual ceremony took place, and were used for the accommodation of European and Indian visitors. Such marriage ceremonies must take place in the house proper, and in a typical Nair house of the old fashion, there would ordinarily be plenty of room. Many Indian gentlemen have given up their style of house architecture and adopted the European bungalow style of residence. In the main room of Mr Raman Pillay’s house, at its southern end were seated many of the Indian and European visitors. At the northern end of the room facing the east a red cloth was spread on the ground on which was placed a white cloth, and on top of that a coloured (purple) cloth on which, just a few moments before the auspicious time, 8:15, the bridegroom sat down cross-legged. Before the bridegroom came in a young man read portions of the Ramayanam allowed relative to the marriage of Rama and Seeta.

Before the bridegroom was a figure of geometrical patterns drawn with rice flour like a chess board, and the signification of which I could get no one to explain. It probably had some astrological significance. On the right and left of the bridegroom stood two primitive brass lamps with coconut oil and five or six wicks which were in marked contrast to the brilliant Western chandelier overhead. On the right of the bridegroom, too, stood a para of clean paddy raised up in a cone, and in the mixed of which was a spring of coconut blossom. The para of paddy stood on sand spread on a plantain leaf. The paddy, etcetera, were significant of prosperity and plenty - a kind of cornucopia. By the side of the para was a subverted brass teapot like utensil of some size. Why it was overturned this deponent cannot say, but the utensil itself, and the coloured cloth over the white, on which the bridegroom sat, indicated that both the bride and groom were persons of consequence. Only Tambis and Chembagaramans and one or two other castes are permitted these privileges. Lower castes must use only a white cloth, and no brass vessel of the kind is permitted to appear on such occasions.

Just opposite to the bridegroom sat a Brahmin on a board for the receipt of the usual Deshnai. At the auspicious time the native music sounded, and the clothes to be presented on the occasion were handed by the Brahmin to the bridegroom. A moment later, the bride, a comely maiden of sixteen, dressed in a cream coloured cloth, heavily braided with gold, and wearing handsome jewels, stepped in from a side door and made obeisance to her intended, bowing with both hands folded. The bridegroom then leant forward and placed the cloth in her hands. Making obeisance a second time she turned to the Brahmin and did the same, and lastly bowed to the company and rapidly withdrew.

In the meantime the Nair ladies inside the house kept up the ululation called the Norava cry. The ceremony over, the guests strolled off to their respective pavilions, where they were treated in different styles. In the European pavilion cake (from M. D'Angelis) was handed round and wine. As soon as the glasses were charged the bride, leaning on the arm of her husband, and accompanied by her father, entered and seated themselves, and Mr Justice Hunt, by special request, said a few words congratulation the young couple and wishing them all happiness. The bridegroom responded in a few words and the guests were then rose watered and garlanded, the sandal paste also being handed round to be touched. In the Indian pavilion the Indian guests were treated in Indian fashion.

It may be observed that it is only very lately that Europeans have been invited to such functions. There were several departures from the time-honoured custom in the giving of a ring with the cloth; in the bridegroom being dressed in a white suit with a collar and wearing a cap, instead of in his national costume of two plain clothes, and in the bride's dressing up with jacket and jewels instead of in the more primitive garments usually worn and in the wearing of the hair. It was altogether a most interesting function."

Sharat Sunder Rajeev

17.10.2022.

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 139

The King's Craftsmen 

 History of the Ivory Carvers of Thiruvananthapuram

Sharing the link to the recording of the KCHR webinar 'The King's Craftsmen' where I discuss the history of ivory carving in Travancore.

https://youtu.be/9lNGb0SvA54

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 138

Sharing the link to the live recording of the Fort Area Thiruvananthapuram Heritage Awareness Programme conducted in collaboration with LSGD Planning and Art & Heritage Commission.

For more information on the building regulations (focused on the Agraharams) you may visit kerala.gov.in https://townplanning.kerala.gov.in › ...PDF FORT AREA HERITAGE ZONE to download the handout prepared in collaboration with the Department of Architecture, College of Engineering Trivandrum (CET), Thiruvananthapuram. 

https://youtu.be/KNJstd3j6eg

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 137

                                         Uma Amba Tampuratti of Kilimanur

                    Previously unseen excerpts from C. Raja Raja Varma's Diary

 Uma Amba Tampuratti, Raja Ravi Varma's mother 
 Image courtesy: RajaRavi Varma, Portrait of an Artist: Diary of C. Raja Raja Varma

For me, Raja Ravi Varma's birthday is an occasion to celebrate the artistic contributions of the members of the Kilimanur clan over the generations. Kilimanur family's tryst with art starts with two sisters, one of whom was Ravi Varma's maternal grandmother. Bharani Tirunal Rajaraja Varma (Ravi Varma's uncle), C. Raja Raja Varma and Mangala Bayi, the painter's siblings and descendants, kept the tradition alive.

Uma Amba Tampuratti, Raja Ravi Varma's mother (seen here in a reproduction of a posthumous portrait by the Varma brothers, painted around 1887) was also an artist. It is said that she taught art to the younger members of her family and possibly contributed to her own children's early artistic training.

In his diary, artist C. Raja Raja Varma says: "My mother was born under the star Makayiram in the month of Medam 1007 M.E. She was the youngest of my grandmother's eleven children. She had a very fair complexion. She was rather below medium height and was very delicately formed. She was endowed with musical and artistic tastes though she had no opportunity of cultivating them. She had an extremely kind and tender heart and could never see any suffering in others. I had seen her crying when she listened to tales and accounts of human suffering and misery. She was attacked with a  sort of eye disease from which she suffered, but she took advantage of the illness to learn Ophthalmology or the science of treating eye diseases from the various physicians who treated her and notably from a Thirumulpad of Naikunnam. She knew also to treat ordinary ailments of children. She appears to have given certain medicines to Her Highness the late Senior Ranee, C.I. The Ranee had cherished a great regard for the lady as some of the letters from the former to the latter testify. She had such self-sacrificing heart that she treated poor women and children gratis giving them medicines and clothing. She composed in Malayalam verse a Thullal called Parvathiswayambaram and several stray verses. Parvathiswayambaram has been published by my second brother Goda Varma at his expense. She was a great devotee of Siva and Parvathi, and when the disease (consumption) laid its icy hand on her about the latter part of her life, she devoted most of her time to prayers and worship. A melancholy circumstance connected with her death was that she had not her eldest son (Raja Ravi Varma) by her side when she died in the month of Makaram 1062. When her last illness took a serious turn we all gathered around her bed, but a day or two previous to her death urgent business compelled my eldest brother Ravi Varma to go to Trevandrum. From the next day she began to sink, and she used to ask, until she became unconscious, if he had returned. When we saw that she had not many hours to live, a man was sent post haste to Trevandrum to give him information of her condition and he arrived to his deep sorrow an hour or two after her death. Her obsequial ceremonies were celebrated in a grand style by my brother  Ravi Varma. When the year of mourning passed away he and myself took a pilgrimage to Benares with the urn containing her ashes which we duly consigned to the holy Ganges. So let her soul rest in peace. We regretted very much that we neither painted her portrait nor even photographed her while she lived. Her portrait was painted... From memory and yet it is a fairly accurate likeness."

 The previously unseen excerpt is taken from an article by R. Kulathu Iyer, dated 1907.

Sharat Sunder Rajeev

29.04.2022

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 136

 Uthram Tirunal Marthanda Varma's Ivory Skeleton

It was great fun working with the staff of the Natural History Museum, Thiruvananthapuram, for this short film on the ivory skeleton currently on display at the museum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p9ly4K9u_E

TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 135

Life Around the Temple - Urban Form of Trivandrum Fort | SPACES 2021

Ar Sharat Sunder R & Dr Bina Tharakan

The Kerala Architectural Festival, popularly known as SPACES, supported by the D.C. Kizhakemuri Foundation, DC School of Architecture and Design (Trivandrum & Vagamon) and co-promoted by D.C. Books, the makers of the Kerala Literature Festival commences on July 15, 2021.

The festival will be conducted online Live via YouTube & Facebook platforms due to the current pandemic restrictions. It will be held every week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7pm to 9pm, till 31st July, 2021.

Please go to this link to see the recorded session:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=814Y_qmoa_U