Harper Collins India Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore

Ivory Throne – Chronicles of the House of Travancore : Manu S PillaiHave you ever wondered why Kerala, tucked in the Southern most corner of India has some of the best social indices – in education, caste, gender equality and a historically superior urban infrastructure compared to the rest of the country. There in lies a tale whose genesis can be traced to the late 18th century….of a kingdom founded by the legendary Martand Varma….and Manu S Pillai, traces the history of the Travancore kingdom ( and also the related kingdoms of the Calicut Zamorins and the Cochin rulers) with a special focus on the two grand nieces of Raja Ravi Verma, the celebrated painter who put a face to the many Gods and Goddesses of the Hindu pantheon.Manu Pillai is an remarkable writer and a great historian in the making. He was all of 25 years of age when he wrote this rather elaborate and extensively researched book. I read his second book ‘Rebel Sultans – From the Khiljis to Shivaji’ recently and ventured to his first book – notwithstanding the rather intimidating length of over 600+ pages and a font size, which is an optician’s delight.The Ivory Throne has multiple stories running concurrently. It is the biographies of Rani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, the Regent Queen of the Travancore Kingdom and her fractious relationship with her younger cousin, who is the mother of the prospective Monarch, a commentary on the British rule and their delicate management of the kingdoms under their charge as the Supreme protectorate, the shenanigans of the Consorts, Princes, Regents and Dewans who dotted the landscape and at the same time, a sweeping overview of the pre-independent India and the struggle for self determination – both from their kings and also the British, the kingdom’s tentative attempts at people’s representation - and a story of India on the throes of gaining its freedom.( A major part of the book is in the late 20s to the 30s).Destiny plays a larger than life role in the celebrated life of Rani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi. Born into the fringes of Royalty, she gets fast tracked into the imperial World of Royalty thru adoption along with her Cousin. The adoption necessitated by the unique matrilineal system in Travancore where it is the Monarch’s sisters’ children who have a shot at Royalty and not the children of the ruling monarch as was the custom in the rest of princely India.She gets the necessary education, the skills required to navigate the hallowed corridors of the palaces and is geared up for betrothal and conceiving a male offspring. Ditto with her cousin who is the back-up in case the elder sister does not beget a male child. Fate plays its own tricks and the younger sister has a male off-spring who is designated the heir apparent. As fate would have it, the king dies and the heir apparent is still a child – therefore the elder queen – by tradition is anointed the Regent Queen to rule on behalf of her nephew till he comes of age.The Travancore kingdom sees its best years under the Rani thru her enlightened rule. Parallely, the run-ins with the younger queen ( who is the mother of the future king and expecting her share of sunlight) forms a significant part of the book. The future king in his own way continues the enlightened rule till India attains independence.The King comes of age and is handed over the kingdom by the British and the former Queen, gracefully retires ( albeit with a bit of heartburn at the shoddy treatment of the new king and his impetuous mother), first in the kingdom and later moves to Bangalore to be closer to her children and grand children. And fades gracefully into the sun-set on Richmond Road, Bangalore. ( the original house 7, Richmond Road still exists opposite the Bangalore Club).It also gives a ringside view into the complex way the British managed their principalities – thru their Regents and the interplay and dynamics of walking on flakes of ice between the Ruler, Regent and the Queen’s Dewan provides us a deep insight into delicate balance of power between the principal stake holders of the kingdomUnlike most Indian Royalty who were philanderers , spend thrifts, devoid of education and scholarship and with questionable interests in ruling fairly and justly, here was a Queen who was hands-on, concerned about the well being of her people, trying to integrate the changing mores in society ( and selectively imbibing what is good out of the Western system) and getting the kingdom future ready. The Queen ( although she knows that her rule is for a defined period), gets some fundamental changes in the society – whether it is issues of caste, temple entry, education, empowerment of women, spending on infrastructure – the benefits of these still flow into what is now called Kerala state and keeps it a notch or two ahead of most other states.Tucked somewhere in the end is the role of the last Dewan CP Ramaswamy Iyengar and his rather ham handed attempts at keeping Travancore independent of the independent India. His clumsy attempts (similar to the rulers of Junagadh and the Nizam of Hyderabad) forms a brief interlude in the concluding chaptersNever has history been written so evocatively and the young author has the unique ability of getting into great detail on each of the principal protagonists – their background, their motivations, their anxieties and why they behave the way they do. The many layered social mores and practices of the Travancore kingdom which are different from what is commonly practiced in the rest of the country comes out very well in the concluding chapters thru the book.Watch out for Manu Pillai. He is still not 30 years and we can expect some more books on Southern kings / Indian history from his prolific and creative pen (or is it the keyboard?). He seems to be the future William Darlymple.

I finished this book on 8-6-2021 at 12:26 am. It was 2 months journey to complete this book of 927 pages. I literarily travelled a time travel to be with the Travancore kingdom and I enjoyed going through the ups and downs this dynasty went through. Moreover, it gave a clear picture what was going inside the palace during many proclamations that was announced. I can’t remember another book that engaged me like this one in recent times. Let me make it clear that I was almost unaware of the Travancore kingdom apart from few things I have learned from my high school texts and some stories in black and white that I read in my childhood.The main attraction that I find with this book, is the way the author tries to captivate the attention of the reader throughout its pages. Anyone who have a little interest in history of Kerala will be allured to this book starting from chapter -1.The book I believe ,is history flavored with a narrative diction which makes readers to travel with the author till the last line. Many characters that I learned in my history text or was explained was in black and white terms. For example .Sir CP Ramaswamy Iyer was a complete dictator for me.It was through this book that I came to know that he had done many good deeds as well. We can see many greyish characters in this chronicle, but none as we learned or atleast I recognized was not completely good or bad. In other words, we can see real human beings who had their plus and minus as well.. Though the book itself was enticing for me, there were some really interesting areas which really made me curious. Firstly, the way in which author try to explain ‘thripadidhana’ of Marthandavarma with the situation prevailing during those time. Secondly, It was a new knowledge for me that the entire present generation of the dynasty are the direct decedents of Rajaravi varma,the great artist. Thirdly, the backstage of temple entry proclamation, which I had always thought as a child while I was studying this in my history textbook during school days. Finally it is the forgotten Sethu Lakhsmi bhai and her family genogram which had my attention. I really think there is a scope for a movie /biopic for this Attingal rani as how the table turned for her from the privilege of Senior Rani to Sri Sethu lakshmi bhai.While I feel the author has done a real hard work and had his justification for all the chronology of events in this book , I think the book may be more complete if more information about Sethu Parvathi Bhai and her successors or their version of history was incorporated .But ,I think the author can be justified as he had mentioned in this book that he had tried his best to get information and records from her succecors,but was not able to accomplish that because they were reluctant to open the door of discussion and records to the author. I wish, if they had done that ,this book may have more conditions to talk.Overall, I would like to suggest this book for all the younger people out there who would like to know how we evolved culturally in this country .Of course this have more pages than one usually think, but once you start reading it will persuade you to turn pages until you reach the last page.I thank Mr.ManuPillai for taking such a herculean task to explore the older Travancore and made this book availiable for us. I wish him all the success in his future ventures.