The Travancore
In the last week of May, each year, Keralites weary of the muggy summer days turn to the meteorological Centre at Thiruvananthapuram with thinly disguised anticipation. The centre, built in 1840 by the musician – monarch Swathi Thirunal of Travancore, has a hilltop location that offers stunning views of the sky over the Arabian Sea. In the days before the advent of radars and satellites, it was from the centre’s lofty setting that the Indian Meteorological Department experts observed the tumultuous approach of the monsoon through their telescopes. And it was from here that the arrival of the monsoon in India was formally announced.
India had undergone many changes since those days, but the entry of the much – awaited rainy season is still signaled first from this imperial structure in the current state capital. A small province known as Venad was the nucleus around which Travancore emerged in the 18th century. The marthanda Varma (1729 – 1758), who extended his kingdom all the way to kochi, annexing or absorbing areas such as Attingal, Kollam, Kottarakkara, Kayamkulam, Kottayam, Meenachil and Ambalapuzha.
Travancore’s heritage is enticing too- both the elegant structures left behind by the kings and the progressive policies they framed. The two major footprints the Travancore royals left on Kerala’s social development scene are visible even today. First, they made primary education compulsory in the kingdom way back in early 19th century. As a result, Travancore become the first fully literate native kingdom in india, a reputation that the state of Kerala would later live up to in Independent India. Travancore Royal house was to open temples to all hindus, including the so-called untouchables, through the 1936 Temple Entry Declaration.
After the state of Kerala was carved out in November 1956, comprising Travancore in the south, Kochi in the middle and Malabar in the north, Thiruvananthapuram continued to serve as the state capital. The world took note to the city when communists formed their government here the following year - it was for the first time in history that the communist had captured power through the ballot.
Like in other parts of kerala, residents of Travancore were receptive of, and assimilated , other culture and external influences. They respected each other’s faiths and practices as well. It should explain why the forest temple of Sabarimala, open to people of all faiths, is today a symbol of secularism and communal harmony. At Erumeli en route Sabarimala, one finds a mosque dedicated to vavar, a muslim friend of the temple’s deity Ayyappan. Pilgrims to Sabarimala dance all the way to Palli to pay their respects to Vavar, a ritual that’s Known as Petta Thullal. The leader of the local Muslim community receives the pilgrims at the mosque.
Thw way summer makes way for rain in this part of kerala is indeed something special. Every year, as the south – west monsoon keeps its date with the state in the first week of June, the sky darkens and a cool wind rushes in from the sea. There’s thunder and lightning even as the officials at the Thiruvananthapuram Meteorological Department prepare their notes. And as the first raindrops fall from the sky, it’s as if the land that equally loves kings and communists is being given yet another chance to script a new future, one that perhaps will be full of as many unexpected twists and turns as the past.