Musings from Antique Origins

Victoria Cross V ictoria Cross is the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Until 1912, the Victoria Cross was not awarded to Indian members of the Indian Army and was restricted for award only to the Europeans. Only Forty Indians and Gurkhas were awarded the Victoria Cross since 1912. Subedar Major and honorary Captain Umrao Singh, the last surviving Indian Victoria Cross recipient died in 2005 .Umrao Singh, was awarded the Victoria Cross, for beating off four Japanese attacks on his advanced battery position at Kaladhan valley in Burma on the night of 15th December 1944. He struck down three Japanese soldiers before being knocked out. Six hours later, a counter attack party found Singh at the site of his gun, so severely wounded that he was hardly recognizable. Around him lay ten dead Japanese soldiers. No south Indian has ever won a VC and so what can be the Travancore connection to a VC? Du...

Maharajah Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma of Travancore (AD 1846-60) I n one of the earlier blogs I had written about the “Opening of a New Bridge at Travancore - The Rajah's State Procession “based on an article as appeared in The Illustrated London News of 5th August 1854. It was during the reign of His Highness Uthram Thirunal Marthanda Varma, the Maharajah of Travancore (1846-60) who had succeeded his elder brother Maharajah Swathi Thirunal . He was known for his progressive rule including the abolition of slavery. He was comfortable with the European sciences and was instrumental in starting the zoo at Trivandrum. During his reign in 1857, immediately after the Indian mutiny, a reception was accorded to Lt. General James Outram and his staff in a grand durbar by the maharajah. Sir James Outram (1803-1863) was an English general, and one of the heroes of the Indian Mutiny. Attached picture is from an original copy of the engraving of 1857 which depicts this reception. Original ...

Sir Thomas Roe I n one of my blogs about AR Banerji ICS, former Diwan of Cochin, I had written that his mother Rajkumari was the first Indian woman to have set foot on the soil of England. She went to England in AD 1871 following her husband, Sevabrata Sasipada Banerji, a great social reformer of Bengal who gave special emphasis for the emancipation of woman. In this context I was curious to know as to who was the first Englishwoman who came to India. This information I got while reading the book “Chow Chow”, - A journal kept in India, Egypt and Syria- now a rare one at that written by Lady Falkland, the daughter of King William IV of Great Britain and the wife of Viscount Falkland. Lord Falkland was the governor of Bombay who came to India with his wife during the spring of AD 1848. William Hawkins, nephew of Admiral Sir John Hawkins –pioneer of the English slave trade and the terror of the Spanish Armada- came to Surat in 1608 and travelled to Agra to negotiate a treaty with the emp...

A tusker at Punnathur Kotta W atching the activities of an elephant or an ape is absolutely interesting to people of all age groups and of the entire world. While the African continent provides great opportunities for us to watch, very often in natural surroundings, all the wonderful wild life with special reference to elephants, the Indian subcontinent, particularly Kerala, can boast of its expertise in domesticating and maintaining these immaculate pachyderms. Guruvayur, the famous temple town in Kerala in Trichur District has the unique distinction of rearing and maintaining over 65 elephants- of which 58 are tuskers- in the yard at Punnathur Kotta . All these elephants belong to Lord Guruvayurappan -a synonym to Lord Krishna-the presiding deity of the ancient temple in Guruvayur. The temple authorities are responsible for the upkeep of these elephants. This place , about 3 km away from Guruvayur, is called Punnathur Kotta which used to be the abode of an ancient ruling family. I...

Hugh and Mary Ann Crawford R eaders of my blog may have noted that, in February 2008, I wrote an article titled “Some Royal Correspondence.” It dealt with an original letter dated 4th January 1893 sent by Maharajah Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma of Travancore (AD 1885-1924) to Mr. John Rohde, of the erstwhile Travancore Civil Service while the latter had gone to England for his holidays. Therein I had discussed at length on the historical personalities named in the letter. I received a few mails from friends and readers on this article about which I felt very happy because it had created quite a bit of enthusiasm about the 19th century Travancore and some of its colourful personalities. But, the email received from Mr. Robert Collingwood from England was very special and most heartening to me because he happened to be the great great grand nephew of Jack (John) Rohde, who was the Commercial Agent to the Maharajah. “John Rohde, like most members of his family, was born in India, as the son...

Autograph of Sir AR Banerji ICS D uring the early eighties, I was working as the manager of one of the branches of a nationalized bank in India, beside the Banerji Road in Eranakulam. Despite my work of almost five years in that address, little did I know about “Banerji” except that he was a Diwan of Cochin. Very little information is obtained from the books published in Kerala or India about this distinguished ruler and civil servant who had some of the most important assignments in British India as a member of the elite Indian Civil Service. It does not speak well of us as Indians or Keralites that we know very little of our people and heritage and that after sixty years of independence a lot more work needs to be done on events and personalities of yore. Sir Albion Raj Kumar Banerji (1871-1950) was the son of Sasipada Banerji who was a doyen of the Brahmo Samaj (The Society of God) founded by Raja Rammohun Roy in AD 1828 and a great social reformer in his own right. Sasipada Baner...

Jacob, Abraham and Anto Tharakans are on the left I was pleasantly surprised when Mr. Abraham Tharakan sent a mail presuming that I was in Kerala and then inviting us over to the Tharakan home in Olavipe. From my ancestral home in Chenganda in Cherthala, the tiny beautiful hamlet of Olavipe is not far away. I presume that before the land reforms came, the entire Olavipe might have belonged to the Tharakan family. The title “Tharakan” seems to have been given to this ancient and aristocratic family of Syrian Christians by Maharaja Marthanda Varma (AD 1706-58), the founder of modern Travancore.The Maharajah was ably assisted in conferring such titles by his selfless Diwan (Prime Minister) Ramayyan Dalawa. My wife Sindhu and son Mithun accompanied me to the Tharakan estate some 15 kilometers away through the country roads. The landscapes had not changed much over the last few decades and I could show the NSS College at Pallippuram to my wife where I had spent 5 years of my college life ...