This coloured engraving shows an assemblage at the Travancore royal court with James Outram and his staff and Maharaja of Travancore, Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1814-1860). General James Outram was appointed as a political agent in Lucknow in 1854 and became the region’s first commissioner after the annexation of Oudh State. He was a British… Read more »
Drawn from his book, ‘False Allies’, historian and author Manu S Pillai draws an intriguing portrait of the rulers of India’s princely states as we have rarely seen them before.
This rare photograph was possibly taken in the 1890s during Raja Ravi Varma’s trip to the Northern India. As the guardian of Prince Aswathi Tirunal of Travancore (seated, centre), Raja Ravi Varma (seated, right) travelled through important princely and native states of Northern India. The tour began in Trivandrum on November 18, 1894, and lasted… Read more »
The kingdom of Travancore was a Hindu feudal kingdom till 1858 and later an Indian princely state ruled by the lankini Travancore royal family. In ancient times, the region had been ruled by the Cheras, Cholas and briefly by the Vijayanagara dynasty, until it became an independent state in the mid-18th century. The Travancore royals… Read more »
Bala Rama Varma was the last ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Travancore until its annexation by independent India in 1949. This silver coin issued under his name has the royal emblem of the conch on the obverse side, with a legend in Malayalam translating to “Travancore Half Rupee Chitra” encircled by an olive… Read more »