Reading atlas for Horse of the Servant

Travancore, 1671 to 1758

Every dated event in Mark de Lannoy's The Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore (Leiden, 1997), placed on the real terrain of the coast, with the printed page, his quotations from the archives, the record he cites, and every point where the book disagrees with itself or with the novel's Historical Note. Scroll the timeline and the map follows; drag the slider and watch the principalities fall to Travancore one by one.

How it happened

The book in nine stages. Each opens its stretch of the timeline below and sets the map to that moment.

How the kingdom grew

Who held each principality, year by year, from 1700 to 1760, using the same colours as the map. Hover a bar for the change and its date; click to open the atlas at that moment.

Read across a row to follow one state; read down a column to see the whole coast in one year.

Colachel, February to August 1741

The siege from the Dutch landing to the prisoners' march, drawn on the real coast of the far south. Hackert's detour to Tuticorin lies off the map to the east. Hernitte, where the king pulled back his army in late July, and the Cobolon gate on the lines could not be located and are left off.

    Houses and people

    Why the kingdom kept falling apart, who was who, and how the Venad line was kept alive by adoption. Each person links to the events that name them.

    Trippappur house

    Rulers of Venad, with the women's palace at Attingal. Kept dying out and adopting from Kolathiri in the north (1681, 1696, 1718). Martanda Varma's line. pp. 2-4, 186; table 3

    Jayasimhanad house

    Princes of Quilon, the Dutch 'Desinganadu', with the women's palace at Kallada. From 1722 ruled by princes adopted from Kayamkulam, so in practice one block with the Cheraway house. pp. 36-37; table 5

    Cheraway house

    Odanad, that is Kayamkulam, and Karunagappalli. Claimed seniority over all three branches and fought Travancore for Karunagappalli and Nedumangadu for forty years. pp. 2, 16-25; tables 6-8

    Perakat branch of Nedumangadu

    The hill principality around Kottarakkara, the 'pepper-storeroom of Malabar'. Its princes kept claiming Venad by adoption; annexed in 1736. pp. 11-12, 65; table 4

    Pillamar and madumbimar

    Temple administrators in Venad and hereditary officials in the smaller states. They collected the taxes with their nayar militias, so every claimant needed them, and they changed sides whenever one grew strong. pp. 5-11, 185-187

    The northern states

    Purakkad, Tekkumkur and Vadakkumkur, nominally under the Cochin king, the head of the chovvaram Brahmin faction. Divided by their own successions and taken one by one after 1745. pp. 119-147, 190

    The Venad line by adoption

    Simplified from the book's genealogical table 3 (p. 230). Marumakkathayam: the heir is the sister's son, so every adoption brings in women as well as men.

    Who's who

    Key terms

    Words the book leans on, from its glossary (pp. 193-205) and text.

    The book against the novel's Historical Note

    The 2e Historical Note read line by line against the study. Most of its dates already come from de Lannoy and match. These rows are where the book says something different, more precise, or useful that the Note does not use. Nothing in the manuscript was changed.

    TopicThe Historical NoteDe LannoyPage

    Already in agreement: De Lannoy born at Arras in December 1715; deserted at Kanniyakumari on 2 August 1741; magazine explosion on 9 August; terms on 12 August and the march-out on 13 August; palace guard at the end of 1742; Udayagiri from 1744; chapel after his son's death at Kalakad in 1765; died at Udayagiri on 1 June 1777. Ramayyan dalawa 1737 to 1756. Tambis killed at Kalkulam in 1730. Kottarakkara taken in April 1742. First Mavelikara peace on 22 May 1743, never ratified. Thrippadidanam in January 1750. Second Mavelikara treaty on 15 August 1753.

    Slips in the book, and the places

    Where the book contradicts itself, and how each place on the map was identified. Places marked uncertain are drawn as open circles.

    Gazetteer