Venad

:"For general context, see History of Travancore".Venad (véNAd) (േവണാട്) was one of the eighteen kingdoms of the ancient Cheran empire. Later, it was periodically under the suzerainty of the Madurai Pandiyan kingdom, until Pandiyan power declined after 880 AD.

Pliny, in the 1st century AD, recorded that the representative of Pandiyan kings invited him to places south of Thrissur (Kodungalloor), which were under the suzerainty of the Pandiyan king, offering spices. The Pandyan kings had their capital at Nelkinda (Nelcynda) (Niranam), while Thiruvattuvai Nadu (Thiruvalla), Quilon and Pandalam were minor capitals. The Ay Vel rulers of this area were vassals of the Pandyan kings.

Venad included most of modern day Kollam, the Thiruvananthapuram districts of Kerala, and the Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu. Trivandrum was established as its capital by Nedumchadaya Pandyan, when he converted a Jain Temple into a Vaishnavaite temple and consecrated the Sri Padmanabha Swami Idol in 785 AD.

Venad was the forerunner to the modern Kingdom of Travancore, established by King Marthanda Varma, who annexed Ilayidathu Swarupam (Kottarakkara), Desinga Nadu (Kollam), Pandalam, Kayamkulam, Chempakasseri (Ambalappuzha), Thekkumkur (Kottayam), Vadakkumkur (Vaikkam), and some parts of Kochi to Venad.

Origin

The name "veNad" is believed to derive from "Ay vel" ("Ay"=Shepherd, "Vel"=King), referring to the ancient rulers of the land known as "vEL nAd".

Sangam literature mentions three sets of seven "Vallals" (Philanthrophists). Out of the last set (the Kadaiyezhu Vallals, circa 100 AD), three lived in present-day Kollam and one in the Trivandrum area. Sangam literature also mentions the murder of Pari, ruler of Quilon. Kapila, a poet friend of Pari, married the slain Ay vel's daughters off to the Thirukovilur (Kollam) prince and built a temple for Pari at Parippalli.

The places Ayur (Ay), Oyur (Oy) and Kariavattam (Kari) were also named after Ay vels. The earliest use of the term "Venad" is found in the Tharisapalli plates of 892 AD, which gifted lands to the Nestorian Metropolitan, Mar Sapir Easo, by Venad king, Iyenadikal Thiruvadikal. There are also many manuscripts which support the conclusion that the land was ruled by "VeL"s.

Another theory regarding the origination of the name is that, in ancient Tamil, "Vezham" meant "elephant", so "Vezha Nadu" meant "Elephant country".

History

Chera power was re-established in Kerala about 800 AD by Kulasekhara Varman (also known as Kulasekhara Azhvar, the vaishnavaite saint), founder of the Kulasekhara Empire. After the fall of Mahodayapuram in 1122, the capital of the emperor was relocated to Kollam. The Cholas initially supported these Chera kings by making the Venad kings accept the suzerainty of the Imperial Mahodaya Cheras, thus starting the Kerala Perumal Vazcha (900 AD to 1100 AD).

After the 1100's, however, the Cholas became increasingly hostile to the Cheras. In the ensuing battles, Cheran armies defeated the Chola using "chaver" (suicide squads of nair warriors) tactics, finally eclipsing the Cholan power in South India. Unfortunately for the Cherans, and Keralam, a hundred years of war and loss of its imperial capital took its toll. The imperial power broke down soon after the war and all thirteen kingdoms became independent.

Venad became one of the more powerful successor kingdoms. Although the Yadava (Ay Vel) kings absorbed some elements of Chera families, they also defeated Cheras in battle when they occcupied Purakkad and Kodungaloor (1180 AD), the strongholds of the imperial Cheras. At the height of Venad's glory, its kings had conquered most of South India. Sangramadheeran, alias Kulasekhara Ravi Varma, crowned himself Tribhuvanachakravarthi ruler of Chera, Chola and the Pandiya kingdoms in 1312 at Kancheepuram. After the 1300s, the Venad rulers gradually intermarried with the Namboothiris, and sometimes with the Nairs, adopting the custom of marumakkathayam - matrilineal descendency. The original Ayar, or Yadava clan, believed itself to have mixed with the Quilon Nairs.

In the 18th century, the newly crowned prince Marthanda Varma (1706-1758), who was in his twenties, defeated the Thampi sons of Rajah Rama Varma and the Ettuveetil Pillamar (Pillai's of the Eight Noble Nair Houses). Marthanda Varma united the kingdom, destroyed other kings of Southern Kerala and expanded his kingdom northward to include half of modern-day Kerala. He named the kingdom Thiruvithamkur (Travancore), after the Thiruvithamkode branch of the Venad royal family from which he came. Marthanda Varma rebuilt the Anandha Padmanabha Swami Temple in 1730 AD. He defeated the Dutch in the Colachel War in 1741, but maintained good relations with the British East India Company for tactical reasons.

During the Madurai Sultanate, Travancore paid annual tribute.During the Madurai Naicker period (1550 to 1801), yearly tribute was paid by the Travancore kings to a General of the Nayaks of Madurai, who annually visited the capital Padmanabhapuram. Thiruvithamkur, or Travancore, became a subsidiary of the British at the end of 18th century, and remained a princely state with its own government under the Maharaja. On India becoming independent, Travancore joined the Indian Union in 1947 and later became a part of the State of Travancore-Cochin in 1949 which in turn became part of the state of Kerala when it was formed in 1956.

Further reading

* [http://www.keralahistory.ac.in/culturaltraditions.htm P.J.Cherian (editor, " Perspectives on Kerala History : The Second Millennium"]
* [http://www.shelterbelt.com/KJ/khkulashekharas.html Zacharias Thundy, (Northern Michigan University), "The Kerala Story: Chera times of the Kulasekharas"]
* Sivasankaran Nair K, "vENadinte pariNamam" (വേണടിന്റെ പരിണാമം), D C Books, 2005.