Conventional long name	Venad Swaroopam
Common name	Venad
Continent	Asia
Region	South Asia
Country	India
Religion	Hinduism and other religions
P1	Later Chera kingdom
S1	Travancore
Flag s1	Travancore.jpg
Year start	Unknown
Year end	1729
Event end	Formation of the Kingdom of Travancore
Image map caption	Map of Kerala just after the fall of the Later Cheras.
Capital	Kollam
Common languages	MalayalamTamil
Government type	Feudal monarchy
Title leader	Venattadi
Footnotes	}}

Venad Swarupam or Quilon (ISO 15919: Vēṇāṭ, Malayalam: വേണാട്, Tamil: வேநாடு) was a former feudal state at the tip of the Indian Subcontinent, and was one of the three powerful medieval Hindu feudal kingdoms on the Malabar Coast, South India, along with Zamorin's Calicut and Kolathunad. Venad was ruled by Venattadis and was the forerunner to the Kingdom of Travancore, established by king Marthanda Varma in 18th century. The rulers of Venad traces their relations back to the Ay kingdom and the Later Cheras. Venad included most of modern day Kollam, the Thiruvananthapuram districts of Kerala state, and the Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu.

The region south of Cochin centered around Quilion came to be known as Venad. It was an autonomous state within the Chera Empire. The port was visited by Nestorian Christians, Chinese and Arabs. A new calendar was established called 'Kolla Varsham' [Quilon year] starting in AD 825. The Kulasekara Empire lasted for three centuries.

In the Sangam age most of the present-day Kerala state was ruled by the Chera dynasty, Ezhimala Kingdom and the Ay Kingdom. Venad, ruled by the dynasty of the same name, was in the Ay kingdom. However, the Ays were the vassals of the Pandyas. By the 9th century, Venad became a part of the Kulasekhara kingdom as the Pandya power diminished.

During 12th century, the dynasty merged the remnants of the old Ay Dynasty to them forming the Chirava Moopan (the ruling King) and the Thrippappur Moopan (the Crown Prince). The provincial capital of the local patriarchal dynasty was at Kollam. In same century, the capital of the war-torn Kulasekhara kingdom was relocated to Kollam and the Kulasekhara dynasty merged with the Venad rulers. The last King of the Kulasekhara dynasty based on Mahodayapuram, Rama Varma Kulasekhara, was the first ruler of an independent Venad.

Name

The name ''Venad'' is believed to derived from ''Ay vel'' (''Ay''=shepherd, ''Vel''=king), referring to the ancient rulers of ''Velnad''. 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 of 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 849 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

There was a time in Kerala, where the King was dedicated to the people and the people were dedicated to the King and Kingdom. If a need to protect the Kingdom is arisen, each individual was ready to give up his life on the King's request. It was the original culture of Kerala till end of 5th century. During the beginning of 6th century, Cheras had settled in a place called Keezperur near Chirayinkeezu and became strong by the 6th or 7th century. He may have moved to Quilion well before the inception of the Quilion Calendar in 9th century.

From the time this ruler (Ramavarma Kulasekara) all kings of Venad maintained the dynastic name of Kulasekara until the last Maharajah gave up his legal claims to power in 1949 when the state was absorbed in to the republic of India.

Ravi Varma Kulasekara who became ruler in 1299 would later expand his territory to include principalities north of what was Venad then. Ravivarman also attracted to his court scholars and poets from all parts of Drawidian India. The king himself was a competent musician and wrote a Sanskrit play Pradyumnabhyu dayam. Ravivarman who had expanded his kingdom died in Quilion in 1313. His cousin- Veera Udaya Marthanda Varma was the successor. For four centuries after the reign of Ravivarma the Kulasekaras lost ground and power.

Gradually they lost more and more territory. By the time Marthanda Varma (a later Venad expansionist ) began his rule only a small strip of land between Cape Comorin and Trivandrum remained in the hands of the Kulasekaras. The north and center of the Chera empire broke up in to small principalities at the beginning of the 12th century. Their rulers were local Nair or less frequently Brahmins chieftains who set themselves as Rajas. Marcopolo travelled along the cost in 1290s . He found a series of independent kingdoms -Comorin, Quilion, Ely (Cannanore),and Malabar.

When the Europeans started arriving in the Malabar coast besides Venad there were states called Calicut ruled by Zamorins, Perumpadappu swarupam later known as Cochin and the Kolathiris who ruled the region around Cananore. Each of these states had its own port namely Quilion , Venad, Calicut, Cochin and Cannanore. One minor ruler besides the above was the ruler of Kayamkulam.

The ancient port of Muzuris under the raja of Cranganore became silted up in 1341 and a great deal of the trade shifted to Cochin. The sea had retreated from Kottayam and Tripunitura and these were no longer ports. Trivandrum, Aleppy, and Tellicherri remained in use. Quilion was the center of China trade. Calicut and Cananore were the ports favored by the Arabs. Cochin gained importance after the arrival of the Portuguese on account of its sheltered harbor

There were frequent warfare between the Dravidian kingdoms namely Cheras, Cholas and Pandiyas. The caste system had not become entrenched. Religious tolerance was complete. Old tribal Dravidian cults, Vedic Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism all existed side by side. Art forms of music, dance and poetry flourished. Women enjoyed equal status as men. Compared to Chola desham and Pandiya desham Arynization was slo in Chera kindom..

The Quilion year was started in AD 825

According to Elankulam Kunjan Pillai the rulers of the second Chera empire of this period were:- Kulasekara Alwar 800- 820 Rajasekara 820-844 Sthanu Ravi Varma 844-885 Rama Varma 885-917 Goda Ravi Varma 917-947 Indukotha Varma 944-962 Bhaskara Ravi 1 962-1019 Bhaskara Ravi 2 979-1021 Vira Kerala 1021-1028 Rajasimha 1025-1043 Bhaskara Ravi 3 1043-1082 Ravi Rama Varma 1082-1090 Rama Varma Kulasekara 1090-1102

Other writers have given slightly different list of rulers of the same period:- SthanuraviAD871-907 Ayyanadikal Thiruadikal-Tharisa palli copper plate Veerakeralavarma2 Veeramarthandavarma 8th century Udayamarthandavarma 8th century Srivallabhan Kotha AD 964 Kotha Adicha varman-AD 964 to 981 Veera Keralavarma-AAD 964-981 Ramar Thiruadikal-12 th century Veera keralavarma 1117-1145 Kotha Keralavarma Veera Ravivarma1151-1164 Veera Keralavarma Veera Aditya Varma Udaya Marthanda Varma

Ravivarma Kulasekhara

Ravivarma Kulasekhara was a feudatory of the Pandya Maravarman Kulasekara (1268–1311) and married one of his daughters. At the death of Maravarman Kulasekhara, he staked his claim to the Pandya throne and started issuing records as an independent sovereign. During this period, Delhi Sultanate raided the region and unsettled power relations. Ravivarman Kulasekhara, taking advantage of the unsettled nature of the country, quickly overran the surrounding country and brought the entire south, from Kanyakumari to Kanchipuram, under Venad. ''Sangramadheeran'', or ''Kulasekhara Ravi Varma'', crowned himself Tribhuvanachakravarthi ruler of Chera, Chola and the Pandya kingdoms in 1312 at Kancheepuram. His inscription is found in Punaamalli, a suburb of Madras. A scholar and musician himself, he patronised intellectuals and poets during his tenure. The Sanskrit drama Pradyumnabhyudayam is credited to him.

Trade and commerce also flourished during his rule, and capital Kollam became a famous centre of business and enterprise.

Later kings

In 1314, Kolathiri send two princesses called Attingal Rani and Kunnumel Rani to replace Venad dynasty then ruled by Vira Marthanda Varma, the son of Ravivarma Kulasekhara. So, the Attingal Rani founded the ''matriarchal Venad'' in the 1314.

After the 14th century, the Venad rulers gradually intermarried with the Namboothiris, and sometimes with the Nairs, adopting the custom of Marumakkathayam - Matrilineal Descendency. Later in the 16th century the Chirava Moopan became the ruler of Kollam (Desinganad) and Thrippappur Moopan became the Venad king.

During the Madurai Sultanate, Venad paid annual tribute and 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.

Formation of Travancore

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. 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

P.J.Cherian (editor, '' Perspectives on Kerala History : The Second Millennium''

Zacharias Thundy, (Northern Michigan University), "The Kerala Story: Chera times of the Kulasekharas"

Sivasankaran Nair K, ''VENadinte pariNamam'' (വേണടിന്റെ പരിണാമം), D C Books, 2005.

Category:Kingdom of Travancore Category:Feudal states of Kerala

lt:Venadas ml:വേണാട് ta:வேணாடு