Travancore

Recently, we have all been reading about the huge wealth, or treasure, that has been discovered from the hidden bunkers in Sree Padmanabha Swami temple at Thiruvananthapuram. They have found out nearly 90000 Crores of Indian Rupees worth treasure in gold and other precious stones. Where did all these money come from?? A short note on the history of the temple and the erstwhile Travancore Kingdom will help us to understand that.
It all started on 3rd January, 1750, when the then King of Travancore, Marthanda Varma dedicated his land and himself to his tutelary diety - Padmanabha of Sree Padmanabha Temple, Thiruvananthapuram. After that, the Royal Family acted as servants to Lord Padmanabha and ruled their country in the name of the Lord.
 During this time, the Travancore-Dutch war(1739 - 1753) was also raging on. Eventually, after the Battle of Colachel(10 Agust, 1741), where the Dutch Admiral Eustachius De Lannoy was captured and the Dutch force deteriorated. By 1757, with the help of British East India Company, they had conquered all of Suthern Kerala. Their kingdom extended from Kanyakumari in the south, to Edappaly(Currently in Ernakulam) in the north.
Marthanda Varma organized a perfect taxation system and started many irrigation systems and other aminities for the welfare of his people. In 1789, during the reign of Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma, who was known as Dharma Raja due to his strict values, the great Tipu Sultan attacked the Travancore Kingdom. But before breaching the Nedumkotta, they had to retreat because the British attacked Mysore and also, he was not able to cope up with the damp weather.
The kings would visit the temple daily and whenever they visit, they would gift something in gold to their diety. Also, these money were well accounted and stored in deep bunkers inside the temple. The kings said that the money belongs to Sree Padmanabha and not of the Royal Family. It is said that, before getting out of the temple, they took care to wash their legs because they didn't want to take out even a grain of sand from inside the temple.
The Kings of Travancore, unlike their counter-parts in the other Princely States of India, utilized only a small portion of their State's resources for their personal use. This was in sharp contrast with some of the North Indian Rajas. When contrasted with the examples of Rajas in the north-west of India who utilized more than half of their State's revenues for their own uses, the simplicity and frugality of the Rajas of Travancore, and their sincere devotion to their subjects, are highlighted. Since they spent most of the State's revenue for the benefit of the public, they were naturally much loved by their subjects. This was so even in the context of the high-handedness of some of their Dewans.The money which they didn't require was placed as gift to their Lord. This wealth has been accumulating in the temple for centuries.
In between, when the state faced a heavy draught and scarcity of money, some money was taken from this wealth as loan from their Lord and was given back with interest. All the transactions was accounted and well mainatined. Even the present heir of the Royal Family has insisted that, they have no right in Lord's wealth. All that money is Lord's and nothing is theirs.
Well, hope you people understood the source of the wealth. I would like to add something to this. And this is entirely different from the above context. In this part of the sub-continent, women were respected far more than any other place in the country at that time. In fact, in some of the families, only daughters succeeded their predecessor. I know that very well because I belong to such a family. Inspite of that, there was a very shameful incident about which even wikipedia has no clue.
This happened in the Travancore kingdom. During that time, low caste women were not allowed to cover their breasts when they go out. If they had to cover them, they had to pay a hefty tax known as "Mulakkaram"(Malayalam - മുലക്കരം when translated to English, it means Breast Tax). It was very high and varied according to the attractivness and size of their assets.
In Cherthala, there was a lady in her 30's. She was fair, attractive and was owner of pretty heavy assets. Her name was Nangeli and was the dream girl of every person in that locality. She was also intelligent and free. She used to cover her beautiful assets and used to roam freely and refused pay any tax for that. News spread and the village officer came to her house to collect the tax. At that time, her husband was also not at home. She asked him to wait. The custom was that the tax has to be placed on a plantain leaf in front of a lamp. She went inside and took a little time to come back. At last, she came and placed the tax on the leaf. When the officer looked into the leaf, he was shocked and was trembling with fear. It was her own breasts that she cut and placed as tax. the officer ran away. Later that night, Nangeli bid farewell to this world due to excessive blood loss. The very next day, the order abolishing the tax was made.
Though we remember many women on March 8, the International Women's Day, nobody seems to be caring about this brave young lady who sacrificed her life for protecting the modesty of women. Though, march 8 is a long way from now, I would like to take this opportunity to salute this woman.