Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma and Nellimoottil Kudumbam
According to the accounts of various authors, King Aniz
ham Thirunal Marthanda Varma the founder of Travancore Kingdom had taken refuge in the Nellimoottil Tharavadu around 1720 AD prior to his coronation in 1729 AD. The legend goes that the adolescent king was moving around in disguise along with a Namboothiri Brahmin advisor and Kochiravi Pillai, one of his most trusted lieutenants to escape capture and assassination at the hands of his own uncles and cousins, the Ettuveettil Pillamar who were scheming to take over the Travancore throne. He had in this process hid himself in different places: in dense forests, under the shadows of rocky mountains, in the dark underground cellars of the Padmanabhapuram palace and so on. He came to Kannamcode, Adoor on the way to what he and his associates considered as a safe haven in Mavelikkara. The adolescent king was barely 14 years according to one account and was finding this run extremely difficult to bear. Often, he and his associates lived on edible fruits and berries, which they found sparingly in the jungles. Even drinkable water was scarcely available. According to the legend Marthanda Varma was dead tired when he reached Adoor and badly wanted food and nourishment to take him through the last stretch of his refugee trail to Mavelikkara. Kochiravi Pillai says “if I had a clean cloth, I could spread it out in the misty night, squeeze out the water from the cloth and quench the child King’s thirst.” But as the three were travelling with little spare clothes he didn’t have such clean clothes with him. The Namboothiri advisor wanted to fetch some milk for the child King as it would offer the much-needed nourishment. They reached Kannamcode with such dire need for food, water and nourishment to give them the energy to tide over the remaining part of their journey to Mavelikkara. They also wanted to spend some time at Adoor safely to recoup and plan their further strategy.
A section of the Nair gentry under the leadership of Ettuveettil Pillamar, mentioned above was already ranged against the heir apparent to the Travancore throne. Though there were other Nairs in the Adoor area who were loyal to the royal family, it was not possible for the royal refugees who were hiding themselves from public recognition to locate them in a hurry. So, Marthanda Varma and his associates decided to take refuge in the house of Syrian Christians, who the adolescent King had heard from his ancestors to be a community loyal to the King. Accordingly, one morning after reaching Kannamcode, they first approached a prosperous Syrian Christian family. They told the lady of the house that they were on a long journey by walk and just thought of quenching their thirst and relaxing there for a while. However, the lady of that house offered them only pickled mangoes (Uppu Manga) and water, when they expected some milk at least for the child king. They could at the same time see many cows being milked in front of them, out of a herd of cows which that family owned. As pickled mangoes in those days were offered only to poor alms seekers, the royal entourage in disguise got offended and went away. They then came to know from a girl who was carrying milk in a Kindi about the Nellimoottil house, where according to her they would get plenty of milk. Though the response at the first Syrian Christian house had hurt the visitors, they decided to explore in the Nellimoottil house also, which was the abode of another Syrian Christian family. The child King and his entourage was provided loving care and hospitality by the then lady of the house at Nellimoottil, our great great great grandmother Oonnoonniamma Ammachi with no inkling of imagination that he was the heir apparent to the throne. Oonnooniamma Ammachi of course got a sense that these were no alms seeking beggars. She placed them as itinerant travellers from Hindu upper castes who were tired due to long distance travel by foot, which was not uncommon in those days. The travellers told them their usual take only; that they were tired and distressed from a long travel which they were into, and so they thought of relaxing there for a while. However, Oonnoonniamma Ammachi could find that the child among them was the most distressed. She went into the house and brought water in a big Charuvam, along with three white brass Monthas. She also got one milking cow from the cow pen to the courtyard where the guests had come and told them that sugar was already put in the monthas; they could wash the cow’s udder, milk it and have as much milk in the monthas. She also welcomed them to rest as long as they wanted in the Poomukham, i.e., the drawing room in the front end of the house. She also offered them a whole Kula of Poovanpazham and a jar of sugar for them to have as and when they wanted. The child King is reported to have told his associates: “she is the mother who has got back my life”.
After resting and recouping at Nellimoottil, when sun’s heat showed signs of abating for a while the child King and his associates wanted to take leave of Ammachi. However, she requested them to have lunch at a Namboothiri house nearby, for which she had already sent the necessary provisions and vegetables. They proceeded to the Namboothiri house only after ensuring that the house had only a couple of widows and the eldest boy was only 16 years and also that Adoor as a whole did not generally have people who allied with the forces which were out to kill the child King, other princes and princesses. Even as they were going to the Namboothiri house, a couple of huge men approached them and asked whether they were from the North or South of Travancore. They appropriately misled those men by saying that they were from the North, though they belonged to the South. In order to convince them they added that they had come to fulfil a Vazhipadu at the Sasthamkotta temple. To this the huge men said that they were hoping them to be Venganoor Pillai’s men whom it seemed they were expecting. This gave the royal travellers a hint that the place in fact was not as safe as they thought, because Venganoor Pillai was one of the Ettuveettil Pillamar. After the lunch, they went back to Nellimoottil and expressed their profound thanks to Oonnooniamma Ammachi for the sumptuous lunch, particularly the plantain pradhaman. They confirmed the information about the name of Ammachi’s house. The child King asked Ammachi her name and got to know it from her. They were by then decided to move from Adoor and set up themselves securely in some other safe place before the sunset. So, they bid farewell to Oonnoonniamma Ammmachi, though she insisted them to stay overnight and leave the next morning only. As the guests persisted to leave, she brought them beaten rice (Aval), plantains and sugar as food for them on the way.
Years passed by. In 1729 Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma ascended the throne after containing the Ettuveettil Pillamar and annexing various small principalities. He was on his way to extending the territory of the erstwhile Venad, which his ancestors ruled to the much larger erstwhile princely state of Travancore with its northern boundary extending up to Angamaly near Cochin. In those initial years of Marthanda Varma’s ascension an old man came and stood at the Padippura of the other family’s house in Adoor which had offended the child king. He presented himself as a tired traveller seeking a place to rest. The woman of the house who illtreated Marthanda Varma meted out the same behaviour to this old man also. She scolded her servant for not closing the Padippura on sunset and unfastening the dogs so that such unwanted rest seekers could be driven away. The old man overheard clearly the response of the woman of that house to his help seeking. He appropriately went over to Nellimoottil house and entered the Padippura of Nellimoottil. He told the woman of the Nellimoottil house, Oonnoonniamma Ammachi that he was an old Nair, coming from Konni on the way to Kannetti and wished to spend a night in the Padippura. Oonnooniamma asked him;” have you taken dinner”? . He said he had lunch during the day and was not hungry then. However, Oonnoonniamma told him that he should not remain empty stomach without taking dinner. She gave him rice and provisions and vessels to cook and eat rice. The old Nair man cooked his food and slept in the Poomukham of the house. On leaving the house he had left a small bag of gold coins. Oonnoonniamma Ammachi got upset seeing the bag of gold coins and entrusted it to her husband’s brother Peelipose Appachan, who was managing the affairs of the house as her husband had passed away some years ago. Peelipose Appachan told her to keep it safe while he enquired about the old man to give it back. They could not find the old man even in Konni, from where the man said he had come.
After a few weeks a horde of officials from the Travancore King’s capital along with large number of soldiers descended on Nellimoottil. They asked for the head of the household and wanted to know how he was related to Oonnoonniamma. On learning that Peelipose was her late husband’s younger brother, the senior official told him that they had come to take Oonnoonniamma and produce her before the King. In those days there was a practice of producing in front of the King or the Dewan those who were awarded death penalty, prior to their execution. So Oonnoonniamma and her relatives and neighbours thought that she was going to be killed by the Travancore King for some grave mischief that she had committed. Peelippose Appachan and Onnooniamma Ammachi could only remember about the bag of coins, which they had kept safely to be handed over to the old man. Appachan told the official that they had enquired in Konni also about the old man who left the bag of coins with them but couldn’t locate him. To this the official said that they could mention these things before the King and that their brief was to only take her to Thiruvananthapuram. They instructed Oonnoonniamma to be ready in no time. The first response of the family was to somehow prevent her from being sent to Thiruvananthapuram, by any means. However, some elders prevailed and said that as they had done no wrong they should send her along with few close relatives as the King’s order had to be obeyed. Oonnoonniamma took blessings from all the relatives and got into the Menavu, brought by the King’s officials. Peelipose Appachan and a few other relatives also followed her with the necessaries required for such travel. When Ooonnoonniamma Ammachi and Peelipose Appachan were produced before King Marthanda Varma he called out for “Mizhalam”. On hearing his name being called, an old Nair appeared before him. The King asked Ammachi,” have you seen this man before?”. Ammachi said in broken words that one evening the man had come to Nellimoottil, stayed overnight, left the bag of gold coins. She also said she had not stolen the coins, but kept them, enquired for the man in Konni where he came from, but still they could not find him. Amidst tear drops rolling down her eyes Ammachi sought help from the King to save her. Peelipose Appachan reiterated what Ammachi said and handed over the bag of gold coins to the King. He also sought pardon to the King and begged him to save them from death penalty.
At this the King called Kochiravi Pillai and the Namboothiri who accompanied him in his adolescence to Nellimoottil, when he was living in hiding from Ettuveettil Pillamar. He asked Ammachi, “do you remember two men having accompanied a boy to Nellimoottil on one morning some years ago and are those the same men?”. To this Ammachi said that they seemed to be those men.
Then Marthanda Varma asked Ammachi to find out the boy who came to Nellimoottil from among the officials, soldiers, other royal hangers on and the Namboothiri boys in the court. After watching sharply, those who were gathered at the Royal court she said she couldn’t find the boy amongst them. To this the Raja said; “ but I do see that boy here. I am standing in front of that Ammachi who gave milk, plantains, sugar and life itself to a helpless boy who came to Nellimoottil along with these two men”. Ammachi was still searching closely for the boy among the Namboothiri children who were standing in the royal court. Amidst her continuing search, Marthanda Varma declared: “My loving Ammachi’s boy is I myself who is standing here.” As an astonished Ammachi fainted instantly, Peelipose Appachan held her.
The King then ordered that he had decided to destroy the pride of the other Syrian Christian family in Kannamkode who humiliated and illtreated him; by taking over their land, buildings, gold, silver, brass vessels and animals. He acquired the gold and silver to the Kingdom’s treasury and took over all land and buildings. All brass vessels and a part of the land was also donated to the Sasthamkotta temple for providing rice gruel to the devotees as the King’s Vazhipadu to the Shastha. The King’s soldiers also demolished the palatial house of that family from its foundation (kulam thondi) except its kitchen. Marthanda Varma’s purported aim was to teach a lesson, that wealth should not breed arrogance.
On the other hand the Nellimoottil family was rewarded for the kindness and hospitality extended to the helpless boy and his associates by Nellimoottil Ammachi who had no idea that they were a royal entourage in disguise. The King elevated Oonnooniamma Ammachi “as the Ammachi of all people of this land”. The lady of the Nellimoottil tharavadu is hailed as “Ammachi” to this date. He rewarded Nelllimoottil with nine hundred paras of paddy fields for the bed and food which Ammachi provided. Along with this he also gave Nellimoottil 36 pieces of dry farm lands for the sugar, plantains, oil for bathing and the tiffin for the way, which Ammachi gave to the child King and his associates. Ammachi was also presented with pattu, a pair of swords and chengala. The King also bestowed the title of Muthalali on the Nellimoottil family.
The Nellimoottil tharavadu which existed in the first half of 18th century was already one of the established houses in Kannamcode, Adoor and is dated back to at least 500 years. The branches of this ancient family are Nellimoottil, Chavadiyil, Thottuva, Padinjattekkara and Valliaveettil.
The legend involving the Hindu King of Travancore and the Syrian Christian family of Nellimoottil, forms part of the history of religious pluralism and harmony in Kerala.
References:
Kottarathil Shankunny, Eithihyamala First Published 1909-1934.
Chithramezhuthu KM Varghese, Nellimoottile Nammude Ammachi, Fist Published 1927.
A Sreedhara Menon, A Gazetteer of India, Kerala, Trivandrum District, 1962
T C Varghese, Agrarian Change and Economic Consequences: Land Tenures in Kerala, (1850 to 1960), 1970.