Historic Alleys

The Checkered Story of Naduvattam, Palghat

Most inhabitants of Palghat would know little about this principality, located right in the middle of the district. In fact, it is the very area I come from, once upon a time full of forests and hillocks, later all paddy fields, sparsely populated. During the history of Malabar, it was a bone of contention that forced three powerful chieftains to fight many a war, the chieftains being the Cochin Raja, the Palghat Raja, and the Zamorin. The story which I narrate is far from complete and I am sure others will someday add to it or correct some errors now and then. What I present comes from the bits and pieces of information cleaved out from various Granthavari’s, NM Nampoothiri’s Malabar studies and KV Krishna Ayyar’s papers.

Some time ago, we talked about the Nair caste and the various sub castes related to it, as well as their characteristics. Medieval Malabar, Cochin and Travancore had many castes, classifications, do and don’ts, and what not. It was not fun if you did not belong to the top and even if you did, you had to remain in your tramlines (as they say in the US) or dividers. In the Nair caste, there were many more profession related titled classifications as well. Most significant were the Menon and the Menoki titles within the Nair caste, which are not very well understood. Complications also arose due to regional differences between Cochin, Malabar, and Travancore. This little article will provide more details to those interested as well as some background explanation.

Principally all these titles were connected to either supervisory capacities or positions or that of a scribe and accountant in the local chieftain’s Kovilakom or temple, preparing Grantha palm leaf manuscripts! Compared to the foot soldier Nair, these personnel were better educated, were closer in proximity to the ruler or chieftain and were ordained or titled, with the title passing on through generations, in a matrilineal fashion.

In general, Menoki is an overseer — By definition, Menoki in the 1901 Travancore and Cochin Census Reports are classified as a sub-division of Nayars, who are employed as accountants in temples. The name is derived from mel, above, nokki, from nokkunnu which means ‘to look after’.

An outhouse, a palace, the British residency and now a guest house

On the town hall road, in front of the Kerala Sangeet Natak academy and adjoining the Sakthan Thampuran palace in Trichur is the stately Rama Nilayam guesthouse, recently renovated. There has been a lot of conjecture about its origins and people have opined it was once a palace, a form of military barracks, a recruitment center etc. It is also said that it was once an outhouse of the Shaktan Thampuran palace which was refurbished to create the British residency in the 19th century. Trying to obtain details about this was somewhat difficult but stimulating and here below is the result of that search.

There is a furor these days about this 1921 Eranad rebel warlord and many expert opinions are being voiced. I was a bit intrigued as I had encountered VKH often in my Malabar Rebellion studies, but I had not really paused to study him, though spending a while on the Sinderby account caricaturing an antagonist based on VKH’s character. But it is time to do a little study and I will try to detail his actions as dispassionately as I can, referring to the numerous secondary sources I am in possession of. We will see that this is actually the story of a tired old man who had been perpetually on the run before 1921, nursing his grudges against the British, straying somewhat unwillingly into a larger revolt, with only a desire to help out his benefactor Ali Musaliyar, quickly changing his ideology when he became a fugitive and lording a gang who resorted to tactics he would not have approved otherwise.