's minister Kuruppu's
Arabic letter to
Vasco da Gama (1524)|235x235px The political lordship of the original kingdom of Kolattiri was partitioned along various matrilineal-divisions of the Kolattiri family and had rulers of the respective parts or Kũrvāzhcha (part-dominions) namely Kolattiri, Tekkālankũr, Vadakkālankũr, Naalāmkũr, and Anjāmkũr. The administration of Kolattunādu was divided into various segments of authority each of which performed functions similar to those of the superior powers but on a smaller scale. The administration was conducted through chiefs-in-tenant under the Kolattiri. This included dignitaries called "nāduvazhis", "desavazhis" and "mukhyastans". The nāduvazhis, who were heads of "nādus" or districts headed Nair militias of 500 -20,000. Below the nāduvazhis in the administrative hierarchy were desavazhis who were heads of hamlets called "desams". These were divisions of nādus. Desavazhis headed Nair militias ranging from 100 to 500 men. Below the desavazhis were other local potentates called mukhyastans. However, as in any feudal society, the Kolattiris were unable to centralize their state and the inability of the Kolattiris 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.
Decentralized realm There appears to have been a significant discrepancy between the ideal type of polity presented in Brahmanical texts such as the Keralolpathi, where the Kolathiri Rājā is presented as the custodian of legitimized political power, and the actual working of power relations in the region. It appears the Kolathiris never exercised a monopoly of authority in the realm. Authority was a decentralized, shared, and pluralistic entity. The kingly status attributed to the Kolathiris remained more or less a nominal one. The Kolathiris had to sustain their political dignity within the constraints set by the limits of their economic resource base as the geographical features of Kolathunādu did not guarantee a large-scale agricultural surplus. Shaped by the limited agrarian economy in Kolathunādu, the possibility of a centralized political structure to emerge was limited. This constricted opportunity to exploit the limited agricultural surplus obviously restricted the chances of the Kolathiris to exercise considerable influence over the people of the region. Instead, there emerged a fluctuating field of powerful taravādus of Nāyars exercising control over the resources from their respective landed properties and the dependent labour-service classes. 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. The Kolathiri Dominion emerged into independent 10 principalities i.e.,
Kadathanadu (
Vadakara),
Randathara or Poyanad (
Dharmadom),
Kottayam (
Thalassery),
Nileshwaram, Iruvazhinadu (
Panoor,
Kurumbranad etc., under separate royal chieftains due to the outcome of internal dissensions. The Poyanad (Randu Thara) and a vast area of land including (Anjarakkandy, Chembilod, Mavilayi, Edakkad, and Dharmadam) up to New Mahe was ruled by achanmaar of Randuthara. Randuthara Achanmār is a conglomerate of 4 Nambiār families (Kandoth, Palliyath, Āyilliath and Arayath) who were descendants of Edathil Kadāngodan and Ponnattil Māvila and were chieftains of Poyanādu. The "Achanmar's" later came under the special care of the English East India Company. The
Nileshwaram dynasty on the northernmost part of
Kolathiri dominion, were relatives to both Kolathunadu as well as the
Zamorin of
Calicut, in the early medieval period.
Events leading to British colonization and after in 1804. Note that only
Thalassery,
Kozhikode, and
Kochi, are marked as cities within the present-day state of
Kerala. Important events between 1689 and 2000 leading to British colonization of Kolathunādu.
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. In 1761, the British captured
Mahé, and the settlement was handed over to the ruler of
Kadathanadu.
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 in
British India 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 Calicut.
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 1 October 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 1 November 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
Madras State. ==Constitution of the Kolathiri family==