u/Cautious_Act_2549

Following the restoration of the Wodeyar dynasty to the Mysore Throne after Tipu Sultan's defeat by the British, three Queens of the state, headed by the Queen Dowager Lakshmi Ammani posed for Irish painter Thomas Hickey.

This however was not just any other court portrait. It was a political statement to the people of Mysore, that it's Queens were now endorsing the world's first vaccine, for smallpox.

The painting is intended to bring hope and to quell fears regarding the new science. The Senior queen Devajammani (left most) shows pigmentation around her mouth, likely the result of surviving smallpox, and possibly due to the use of earlier "variolation" to induce immunity.

At the far right, the Junor Queen (also named Devajammani), unorthodoxly lifts her sari to reveal the site where the revolutionary new vaccine would be administered, silently endorsing and reassuring her subjects of the progress being made in western medicine. She would take the vaccine in July 1806.

The woman in the center is Lakshmi Ammani herself, the grandmother to the Maharaja of Mysore. A shrewd woman who had orchestrated the royal family's rise back to power through an alliance with the British, she actively promoted the smallpox vaccine as her husband had died from the disease.

Rani Mangammal was a female ruler of the Nayaka dynasty, who ruled the Kingdom of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. Following the deaths of her mentally troubled husband and smallpox afflicted son, she became regent for her minor grandson, ruling from 1689 to 1704.

The above painting was part of a broader series of efforts by herself to legitimize her reign.

Ironically, Mangammal's demise is also linked to her depiction in a scandalous painting. According to folklore from this era, she would be imprisoned and starved to death by her grandson, following the circulation of a painting (now lost - if it ever existed) depicting the Queen making love to her commander Achayya, in "unconventional" clothes.

An exceptionally talented conqueror, Samudragupta did not fail to project his Imperial power onto his subjects through the use of coins. He presented himself not only as a King, but as an avid musician, hunter and Ashwamedha sacrificer.

A Marathi Princess whose favorite hobbies included playing the sitar, painting flowers and giving nightmares to the Mughals.

She successfully defended her capital of Ahmednagar against a Mughal invasion sent by Akbar in 1595. She also rallied other local Marathi chiefs and Sultans against the Mughals.

She would be assassinated by her own troops in 1600 due to false rumors, paving the way for the Mughal conquest of Ahmednagar.

What are your thoughts on him? Was he a reckless prince or a master strategist? I have read different views about his actions. Some historians say that his defection to the Mughal side was genuine and that he hated the control his father (Shivaji Maharaj) had over him. Others say that his defection was actually a plot by the Marathas to spy on the Mughals. Considering that at one point even Shivaji Maharaj tried to work under the Mughal vassal system like the Rajput Rajas, how do we go about determing the true intentions behind the actions of Sambhaji?

Anizham Thirunal Bala-Marthanda Varma, more popularly known as the "maker of modern Travancore" was one of the few Indian monarchs to defeat a much more stronger European enemy. In 1741, his forces defeated the superior Dutch navy at Colachel. His "navy" during this time consisted of a few fishing boats. By 1753, Varma had forced the Dutch East India Company into signing the Treaty of Mavelikkara, which effectively ended their commercial interest in the subcontinent.

While today he is known outside of Kerala solely for this achievement, his 30 year reign and life of 53 years is very interesting. From hiding inside the trunks of trees to escape enemies as a child, to throwing his own cousin out a window to death, he built a modern nation state that endured for 200 years, becoming one of British India's model princely states.

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Marthanda Varma was born in 1706 in Attingal, to the sister of the King of Venad.

Venad was a small principality in the southernmost end of Kerala, which was troubled by neighbouring chieftains as well as rebellious feudal landlords from within. His two uncles, Aditya and Rama Varma, ruled the principality in succession for about 2 decades, during which they were repeatedly forced to flee as they tried reforming the political system. Without any power or prestige, Marthanda Varma and his siblings (an elder brother and two sisters) grew up away in Karunagapally, a neighbouring chiefdom where his family had relatives. Legends speak of how Marthanda Varma, as he grew into a teenager, was particularly targeted by the opponents of his uncle the King, for his assertive character. He spent much of his youth on foot, running from one place to another in incognito. He narrowly escaped death several times, once by hiding in the trunk of a jackfruit tree and the other time by swapping clothes with a Brahmin priest. In the second instance, the enemies of Marthanda Varma killed the priest who created a diversion for Varma to escape.

In February 1729, Marthanda Varma's uncle passed away, followed by the untimely death of two elder princes. This put Varma in the spotlight, and he took power by August of that year. His enemies, most prominent of them being the "Ettuveetil Pillamar" or Barons of Eight noble houses, were caught and executed. These same nobles had carried out an assault on Marthanda Varma's sister in the previous year, killing her husband in front of her (and her minor son). The Dutch records speak of how Marthanda Varma wiped the principality of refractory nobles in the short span of 2 years.

Marthanda Varma then had the mansions of the nobles destroyed, and large holes dug up in the places where they once stood. These holes were later enlarged and filled with water, creating artificial ponds. This act was to wipe out the memory of the nobles, and the immense power and wealth that they once had. He went a step ahead in punishing the nobles by selling the women and children of their family into slavery, to the local fishermen of his kingdom. This decision, which may have arose partly due to personal vendetta, was to ensure that not even a distant descendant of the nobles would be able to rise back to their high status in the future.

In the process of crushing the feudal nobility of his Kingdom, Varma had also come into conflict with his paternal cousins, the sons of his late uncle. These sons were never destined to take the throne as succession was matrilineal, through the sister of the King. Marthanda Varma would go on to kill his cousins. According to one sanitised account, he physically picked up one of the cousins and throw him out of a large window. When the other cousin rushed in to question Varma, he had him killed by the sword.

Next, Marthanda Varma set out to conquer neighbouring chiefdoms, all of whom had large amounts of pepper as well as other precious resources. These chiefdoms were ruled by his own cousins as well as maternal relatives. In one instance, he captured a 17 year old cousin of his who ruled the chiefdom of Kottarakara. The captured prince, technically like a younger brother of Varma (if we looked at the relationship through the matrilineal joint family system), languished in a prison till his untimely death.

By 1740, he had conquered a large number of states to the north of his chiefdom, alerting the Dutch. The Dutch campaign into Travancore, and their subsequent defeat is what most people outside of Kerala read about him.

After the defeat of the Dutch in 1741, Marthanda Varma detained several Dutch officers, some of whom voluntarily switching to his side. These officers brought with him European military tactics and strategy, which Varma employed on a large scale. He also modernised Travancore's army by importing European weapons and Tamil mercenary troops. Interestingly, Marthanda Varma made sure to always keep the Dutch commanders in his army isolated from each other, so that they could never band together against him. They were sprinkled throughout his realm, surrounded by local soldiers. This ensured that they could be effectively used to strengthen his position, without the risk of them becoming a threat.

His closest friends were a Tamil Brahmin war commander and a Dutch naval officer named De Lannoy, and he employed a large variety of people in his administration, largely on merit. His bond with De Lannoy was particularly strong. According to one story, Varma was furious at an Anglo-Indian merchant for not marrying his daughter to De Lenoy. He then escalated the issue by forcing the English company into making the merchant give his daughter to Varma's Dutch friend.

Marthanda Varma understood that he lacked legitimacy in newly conquered regions, where the people saw him as a foreign invader. So, he dedicated his entire Kingdom to his family deity, Lord Padmanabhaswamy in 1750. He then assumed the title of "Padmanabha Dasa" or servant of Lord Padmanabha. He proclaimed that he would only rule as the regent of the deity. This was a political masterstroke, as criticising the King now became equivalent to insulting God. It also created a divine aura around the King and his family, whereby at least a small portion of the devotion that went to the deity, now also reflected on the King. Essentially, people began worshipping him in a way.

Despite all the questionable things he did, along with the mass destruction he brought upon his enemies, Marthanda Varma had created a modern nation state in Kerala for the first time. He broke the old feudal world and put in its place a strong centralised political system. The dominance of certain caste groups was abolished, and a bureaucratic system was developed. Immigration was encouraged and pepper trade was made a state monopoly, thereby preventing European companies from trading at whatever price they decided. When he died in 1758, his Kingdom of Travancore stretched from Kanyakumari to Cochin, and had a European style army of 50,000 soldiers.

Today however, not a single statue exists to him in Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala. The plot of land he was cremated in now belongs to a multinational real estate group.

Ask away any questions you have about him.