Maharani Ayilyom Thirunal Gouri Lakshmi Bayi (1791–1814) was the Maharani of the Indian state of Travancore from 1810 till 1813 and Regent from 1813 till her death in 1814 for her son Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma. She was the only Queen of Travancore to have reigned in her own right for two years before becoming a regent.

Background[link]

Gouri Lakshmi Bayi was born in the year 1791 to Princess Attham Thirunal, Senior Rani of Attingal of the Travancore Royal Family, adopted sister of Maharajah Balarama Varma. Attham Thirunal was adopted into the Travancore family from Kolathunad in 1788. The Maharanis of Travancore were styled as the "Ranis of Attingal". Gowri Lakshmi Bayi was one of Travancores most popular Queens and introduced several reforms in the state.

Accession[link]

The unpopular Maharajah Bala Rama Varma, during whose reign Travancore faced a number of internal and external problems, revolts and unnecessary battles and conspiracies, including the most important revolt of Velu Thampi Dalawa, died in 1811. At the death of the Maharajah, Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, the senior Rani of Attingal, was barely twenty years of age. There were no eligible male members in the family which meant she would have to take over Travancore and rule it as regent till such an heir would be born to her. However her accession was not easy because a member from the Mavelikara branch of Royal family, a distant cousin, Prince Kerala Varma, who was the pet of the previous ruler, staked a claim on the throne which was anything but unsubstantiated. The Princess placed in the hands of the British Resident Col. John Munro, one of Travancore's most loved British Residents, a document asserting her claim and proving the claim of Kerala Varma untenable. This irked Kerala Varma who resorted to tact and tried to convince the Princess to give up her claim. However the Resident sided with Gowri Lakshmi Bayi and she was made the Regent Maharani of Travancore in 1811. Kerala Varma was permitted to reside at Trivandrum, the capital; but when he tried to create further troubles, he was imprisoned and banished from Travancore.

Colonel Munro Dewan[link]

On of the earliest acts of Gowri Lakshmi Bayi was Regent was to dismiss the existing Dewan or Prime Minister, Ummini Thampi. Ummini Thampi was accused of squandering money and acquiring all the property of the vanquished rebel freedom fighter Velu Thampi Dalawa and others. He was dismissed and when he tried to cause further trouble he was imprisoned and punished after being found guilty of conspiracy against the Regent Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi. The Maharani was now asked to nominate some individual for the post of Dewan, to which she stated that she found no eligible individual and would like to appoint the Resident Colonel John Munro as her Dewan. Accordingly, Munro became Dewan of Travancore in 1811.

Government reforms[link]

• The Dewan Col. Munro informed the Maharani of the widespread corruption in her Government owing to the practice of giving all power, administrative and judicial, to a single officer right from village level to district level. To end this the Proverticars (village officers), Kariakkars (Taluka officers) and the district officials were all deprived of their judicial powers and instead a Court of Appeal and five District Courts at Padmanabhapuram, Mavelikara, Trivandrum, Vaikam and Alwaye were established and modern judicial system was introduced in Travancore. The Courts had each two judges and a Brahmin Sastri. The judges were chosen only from the Brahmin and Nair castes and the Christian community of Travancore. For the trial of Government servants another court known as the Huzhur court was also established.

• The Police was reorganised in Travancore during the reign of Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi at the suggestion of Col. John Munro Dewan.

• Deprived of magasterial and judicial power, the district and village officials now could concentrate their attention on the collection of revenue alone, curtailing their power greatly and making them subject to judicial trial in case of misconduct. The revenue department was cleaned of corruption and revenue collection became smoother and organised.

Social reforms[link]

• All males excepting of the Brahmin and Nair castes and a few communities from the Christian and Islamic religions had to pay a certain capitation tax, taxes on festivals, taxes on inheritance of property was abolished.
• Travancore contained a large number of Devaswoms or Temple Corporations that held vast areas of land and controlled most of the important and wealthy temples in the country. These corporations had fallen prey to corruption and mismanagement and they next engaged the Dewans attention. More than three hundred of the biggest temples of Travancore were appropriated by the Government under a Devaswom Board and cleared of corruption and mismanagement.
• By a Royal Proclamation in 1812, Her Highness Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, abolished the purchase and sale of all slaves and granted them independence excepting those attached to the soil for agricultural purposes. Syrian Christians were freed from their attachment to temples and castes like the Ezhavas, Kaniyans etc. were given independence from their Lords.
• A vaccination department was started in Travancore in 1813 under her regency. Finding orthodox reservations amongst her subjects with regard to vaccination, the Queen first vaccinated herself and other members of the Royal family to reassure her people.

Change in Dewanship[link]

In 1814, Colonel John Munro resigned his Dewanship as it was not a permanent arrangement for the Resident to take that post. In his stead the Judge of the Appeal Court, Devan Padmanabhan was appointed as Dewan. However he soon after died from smallpox. In his place, one of Col. Munro's assistants, Bappu Rao, was appointed as Dewan of Travancore in that same year.

Family and demise[link]

The Maharani was married to a Koil Thampuran, Prince Rajaraja Varma Avargal of the Changanassery Royal Family. From this marriage Gowri Lakshmi Bayi had issue two sons and a daughter. Her daughter was Maharani Gowri Rukmini Bayi born in 1809. Her eldest son was born on 16 April 1813, the famous Maharajah Swathi Thirunal who was a musician and artist and ruled independently from 1829-1846. He married a lady who belonged to the Thiruvattar Ammaveedu family. The Maharani next had a son in 1814, Maharajah Uthram Thirunal who ruled from 1846-1860. The Maharani Gowri Lakshmi Bayi started losing her health after giving birth to Uthram Thirunal and died in 1815. She was succeeded as Regent Maharani by her sister, Gowri Parvati Bayi. Her only daughter, who was now the only female in the matriarchal Travancore Royal Family, Gowri Rukmini Bayi married Rama Varma Koil Thampuran of Thiruvalla Royal Family in 1819 and had seven children, five sons and two daughters. One of these daughters died soon while the other married and had two sons, including Moolam Thirunal Sir Rama Varma.She too died in 1857 after the birth of Moolam Thirunal and so in 1858 two princesses were adopted from the Mavelikara Royal family into Travancore.

Full Title[link]

Her Highness Sri Padmanabha Sevini Vanchi Dharma Vardhini Raja Rajeshwari Maharani Ayilyam Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi, Attingal Mootha Thampuran, Rani of Travancore.

See also[link]

• Travancore
• Maharani
• Swathi Thirunal
• Moolam Thirunal
• Nair
• Ammaveedu

References[link]

• Travancore State Manual by V.Nagam Aiya
• History of Travancore by Shungunny Menon

Anuradha Paudwal
Background information
Born	(1954-10-27) October 27, 1954 (age 57)
Genres	playback singing, bhajans
Occupations	Singer
Instruments	Vocalist
Years active	1973–present

Anuradha Paudwal is a popular playback singer in Bollywood in India.^[1] She has sung songs in Hindi, Marathi, Oriya, and Nepali.

Biography[link]

She studied at Xavier's College in Mumbai. She was married to the late Arun Paudwal, who worked with music director S. D. Burman as his assistant. Her singing career started in 1973 with the movie, Abhimaan, (starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan) in which she sang a Shloka (a Sanskrit verse). In the same year she also made her Marathi film debut with "Yashoda" (music by Datta Davjekar). In 1974, she brought out a record of Non-film Marathi songs or "bhav geeten" which became very popular.

In 1976, she got her break as a playback singer in Hindi films with Kalicharan (starring Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy). Her first solo was in the movie, Aap Beati, (starring Hema Malini and Shashi Kapoor). Laxmikant-Pyarelal were the music-composer duo for that movie. She also occasionally sang songs for composers Rajesh Roshan (Des Pardes), Jaidev (Dooriyan, Laila Majnu), Kalyanji Anandji (Kalaakar, Vidhaata), and Usha Khanna (Souten, Sajan Bina Suhagan).

Anuradha apparently never received any formal training in classical music, stating in an interview, "I have not received any formal training in classical music. I have tried many times, but it has never worked out. I learnt a little here and a little there, but ultimately, I just practiced for many hours listening to Lataji".^[2]

Anuradha gained recognition with her popular numbers for the movie, Hero, for composers Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Her collaboration with Laxmikant-Pyarelal produced more success with songs for Meri Jung ("O Mere Kwabon Ke"), Batwara ("Thaare Vaaste Re Dola-Tu Maaro Kaun Lage"), Nagina and many more.Ram Lakhan saw Laxmikant-Pyarelal giving three major hit songs to Anuradha. Their association ended with Tezaab where she sang two good numbers for them - "Kehdo Ki Tum" and "Hum Tumko Dilbar Kyon Maane".

Following this she collaborated with movie producer, Gulshan Kumar, and began a success streak with the movies, Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka, Tezaab, Aashiqui and Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin. She along with Gulshan Kumar were instrumental in getting many unknown playback singers to the fore, including Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, Abhijeet, Sonu Nigam. New Music directors, including her husband Arun Paudwal, were introduced to the music world. Nadeem-Shravan, Anu Malik, Anand-Milind, Nikhil Vinay and Amar Utpal all collaborated with T-Series (Gulshan Kumar's music label) and started a new era of melody in Bollywood. She has sung over 2000 songs til now from the start of her career. Most of her duets have been with Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, Mohammed Aziz. She sang some songs with Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi and also with her female co-singers; Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamurthy and Sadhana Sargam. Her other notable songs were also for the famous duo Shiv-Hari, for the movie "Sahebaan". She has also sung for R.D. Burman in her initial days and actually convinced him to make songs for Gulshan Kumar's label in his last days and the song "Aja Meri Jaan" set to one of the background score of R.D.Burman from Saagar is still popular. She also sang beautiful duets with her co-singers from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, notably S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and K. J. Yesudas.

Controversies[link]

Anuradha has had her share of controversies as well. She was one of the rare singers to bloom during the reign of the Mangeshkar sisters in the Bollywood music industry. She was also under much controversy when she dubbed the songs of Alka Yagnik in the film "Dil". This also caused rifts between Anand-Milind and Alka Yagnik, thereby causing them to not collaborate for 2 years. Later in 1998, Anuradha Paudwal dubbed the songs of Alka Yagnik once again for the film Itihaas, this time under the music direction of Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen. However, Alka Yagnik, protested, to which the music company, T-Series was forced to include both versions of the same song, one in the voice of Alka Yagnik and the other in the voice of Anuradha Paudwal. She further went to dub Lata Mangeshkar's song in "Radha Ka Sangam" citing that her voice suited the heroine better. Anu Malik, a smaller name then, who had composed the soundtrack of Radha Ka Sangam, protested against this move.

At her peak, Anuradha announced that henceforth she would sing exclusively for "T-Series", and concentrated on devotional songs and "cover-version" albums. T-Series used her attractive and pleasing looks to good effect in numerous Bhajan and promotional videos. She was the first playback singer whose face featured on music covers more than the film's actors. She sang for T-series for some time and then went into a sabbatical. After about five years, she restarted her playback career. She sang a few hit songs for her old music directors but the reception for her comeback was mild.

Although Anuradha has significantly cutback in singing for films, she has continued on with her popularity for singing devotional songs and creating devotional albums, which ultimately remains her forte. She has collaborated with Pandit Jasraj on his "Geet Govind , many devotional albums with Anup Jalota. Her voice is well suited on devotional numbers.

Marathi[link]

Anuradha sang in a number of Marathi movies including the memorable Disate Majalaa, Raja Lalakaari, and Kaalyaa Maatita Maatitaa. Most of these movies had music by the duo of Anil-Arun, Arun being her husband, who collaborated with Anil Mohile to form a pair.

Bollywood Songs[link]

Awards and recognition[link]

• 1986: Filmfare Award for "Mere Mann Bajaa Mridang" from Utsav.
• 1990: National Film Award for "He Ek Reshami" from Kalat Nakalat
• 1991: Filmfare Award for "Nazar Ke Saamne" from Aashiqui.
• 1992: Filmfare Award for "Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahi" from Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin.
• 1993: Filmfare Award form "Dhak Dhak Karne Laga" from Beta.
• 2011: Mother Teresa Award for Lifetime Achievement ^[3]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Anuradha Paudwal at the Internet Movie Database
• List of Hindi movies with songs by Anuradha Paudwal
• Bio at HindiLyrix.com