History of Kizhakke Covilakam (Malabar king Zamorin’s palace in Kottakkal)

History of Kizhakke Covilakam (Malabar king Zamorin’s palace in Kottakkal)

The story of Kizhakke Covilakam dates back to the fourteenth century when the Zamorin decided to set up separate palaces for two female members of the family. The first of them  Kizhakke Covilakam came up close to the Zamorin’s palace and the second, Puthiya Covilakam is not far from it to the west of the Tali tank.

To know more about Zamorins or Samuthiris, the kings who ruled the Malabar area of Kerala, established the most prominent trade ports in India and where Vasco da Gama landed in 1498 please click here

Then in 1704,  the perpetuation of the family became a big concern and the Zamorin decided to adopt two girls, one for each Covilakam. Their sister came over in 1706 for the Mamamkam and opted to be a member of the Zamorin family. She was given all the privileges of a member and a palace to the west of the temple, the Padinjare Covilakam.

Thus for a few centuries, Kizhakke Covilakam was located in Kozhikode. The members of that Covilakam shifted to Kottakkal much later.

Kottakkal or Venkatakotta (the White Fort), as it was known was part of the kingdom of the  Valluvathiris till the Zamorin captured it in the 14th  century. It was an outlandish, border police outpost, looked after by Kuruvarur Mossad, one of Valluvathiri’s powerful ministers. When the  Zamorin sent a  messenger, Moossad locked him into combat and killed him. Angered by this, the Zamorin sent the Moonalpad, who was from Kizhakke Covilakam, to avenge the assassination.  The Moossad was killed and  Kottakkal was taken. Pleased with the outcome the Zamorin gifted half the newly conquered territory to the Moonalpad and this included  Kottakkal and the outlying villages.

Kottakkal remained a remote village hardly used by the family until after the Mysorean invasions. When the Mysoreans (under Tipu Sultan) overran Kozhikode in 1774,  the members of the three Covilakams fled,  Padinjare and Puthiya Covilakam to Punathur and  Kizhakke Covilakam to Travancore. That Covilakam consisted of a 14-year girl named Manorama and her brother.

They stayed in Ennekkatt near Alapuzha in a palace specially provided for them by the Maharaja of Travancore, till 1798 when Tipu ceded Malabar to the British.

Thus the story of Kizhakke Covilakam at Kottakkal started around 1799 when Manorama Thampuratty is said to have come to Kottakkal. Strangely, it is also a story that begins with the end of the Zamorin empire which had ruled Malabar for more than 7 centuries.

Kottakkal had fallen to Tipu Sultan without a fight and therefore the Kotta remained intact. Tipu’s gunroads passed through Kottakkal and thus the village graduated from narrow footpaths to a road that permitted the movement of carriages. And Tipu’s extensive road network connected Kottakkal to the principal places in Kerala.

The growth of Kottakkal from then till the early part of the twentieth century is synonymous with the growth of the Covilakam.

For the Zamorin family, 1799 was an inflection point:  it marked the formal end of an empire; a transition from centuries of war to a new mode of living in peacetime.;  the retention of a royal lifestyle, without the powers of royalty; and ownership of huge estates spread all over Malabar. Each of the branches had to take care of these estates and find their way to prosperity by managing them efficiently.

The grand matriarch of Kizhakke Covilakam was Manorama Thampuratty. She began life as a child prodigy who recited and explained at the age of 12  the whole of Bhattoji Dikshita’s double volume grammar work Praudha Manorama. This perhaps earned her the name Manorama. By the time she came to Kottakkal, at the age of 38,  she had grown from a prodigy to a literary genius engaging herself in discussions with the best Sanskrit scholars in Kerala. Her publications were known in literary circles. And with her, Kottakkal too began to surface on the map of Kerala.

Manorama Thampuratty died in 1828 at the age of 68. She had three sons and three daughters. From the three daughters has grown today’s family size of 186 members. Not much is known of the eldest son ( 1788-1832) who passed away at Guruvayur and is referred to in family records as “ Guruvayur Theepetta Thampuran”.  The second son, Kuttunni, (d1856) who went on to become the Zamorin, continued to bring scholars to Kottakkal and started organizing the family estates,  introducing systems and procedures in revenue collection. He was also responsible for restarting the great cultural festival Revathipattathanam at Tali.  The youngest brother was known to have been a scholar and administrator and before he died ( 1845, eleven years ahead of his elder brother) did much to make Kottakkal a more habitable place. It was however left to their nephew, Jesthan Raja (1823-1879) to build on the groundwork of the frontiersmen to make an enduring impact. He had a fairly long tenure as a Sthani and was Eralpad for some years. He brought in traders from neighboring regions, set apart a place for the weekly fair ( Chanda), had a traveler’s bungalow set up for visiting officials, built the walls and gopurams of the Shiva temple, and planned public amenities that would benefit the community at large.

Palace entrance

The Eralpad was a visionary. Recognizing the need to bring to the family the benefits of modern education, he hired an English teacher, Venkata Subbiah from Kumbhakonam, to stay in Kottakkal and teach English to the family members.  The first recruits of Venkatasubbiah were Veerarayan and Manavedan. Before he died in 1879, the Eralpad had also taken several initiatives in education; he started a primary school in Kottakkal; worked with the then Zamorin Kuttyettan Raja, a great visionary himself (1869-1892), to start an English school in 1877 with an Oxford-educated Englishman, C M Barrow as its Principal. This became the Kerala Vidyashala in 1878 and the Zamorin’s college in 1900.  

At Kottakkal, others soon followed these two stalwarts:  Zamorin Cheriakunhunny Raja ( d 1900) in creating and expanding public amenities like renovating the flooring of the two temples and creating a usable public tank, Arattukulam;  Zamorin, KunhiAnujan (d1912) in providing to the Covilakam members better housing inside the Covilakam complex and extending this facility outside the Covilakam to the spouses of the male members; and of course, Manavedan Raja who, in the early 1920s, took over the administration when collections were falling and the estates were being badly managed. He streamlined the management of the Covilakam estates, vastly improved revenue collection, and moved the Covilakam into an era of prosperity.

Among the disciples of Venkata Subbiah,  Manavedan Raja was perhaps the first to put his knowledge of English to good use. Indeed, he had many firsts: the first to learn English: the first from the family to earn a graduate degree; the first member to enter government service;  and the first to become in 1920’s the District Collector and then a Judge. Having benefitted from a liberal education, Manavedan wanted the family to follow suit. He started the Raja’s high School in Kottakkal in 1921, and to sustain its growth created an endowment, financed to a sizeable extent by his contributions. He became the Zamorin in 1932 and did much to develop the Zamorin’s College at Calicut.

As the family progressed and grew in size, Kottakkal too grew - in terms of trade and commerce, education, and the social mix. The Covilakam’s administrative infrastructure, temple management, and welfare programs in education and health generated employment and income in the village.  This was reflected in the relatively rapid increase in population and the migration of Tamil brahmins,  Mangaloreans, Muslims, traders, craftsmen, artisans, artists, educationists,  retail traders, and estate managers. The Covilakam was by then the largest creator of jobs in Kottakal and a Grand Protector.

The  Grand Protector was soon put to test in one of the most violent revolts in Malabar – the Moplah Rebellion of 1921 that was motivated partly by political, partly communal, and partly economic concerns. Large numbers of families flocked and took shelter inside the Covilakam till the rebellion subsided. The Grand Protector did not fail them. Supplies of essentials including food grains were maintained through the intervention of the District Collector. And the entire expenses were met from the Covilakam funds.

It is perhaps not known to many that during the riots, the Covilakam was guarded by loyal Moplas under the leadership of  Kunhahmedkutty Musaliyar and Valiya Koyamu whose men kept vigil day and night.

The period of stability and relative prosperity, achieved in the 1920s was perhaps too good to last. The Great Depression of the 30’s affected the family as much as it did the country. Prices of agricultural products plummeted and the family’s fortunes were hit by falling revenues. Soon the Second World War broke out (1939-45) causing sharp price rises, supply shortages, and rationing of essential items including rice, sugar, and kerosene, the last hitting us badly as kerosene lamps were the main lighting medium, and even children studied by the lamp side. The children of that period, like this writer, recall the austere life that we were suddenly forced into.

Into this scenario came a dreadful disease that took a toll on many young lives in the family. Female members, some soon after, and some before, their marriage fell prey to tuberculosis which was considered incurable; streptomycin had not been discovered and there was no known remedy. In the late thirties and during the war years 1939-1945, one saw several young lives ebbing away to a  tragic end.

By the time the Covilakam lost its prime position, another giant had arisen in Kottakkal- the Aryavaidyasala under the leadership of P S Varier. Started in 1906 as a small village clinic, the  Vaidyasala became the new center of gravity, the new provider of jobs, the new protector. It went further. The foresight and vision of P S Varier saw the establishment of a sound ayurvedic health care system that encompassed hospitals, nursing homes, and a medical college. The Vaidyasala attracted celebrities from all parts of the country who came for treatment including the President of India. Kottakkal became nationally known.

Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala

The management of the Kizhakke Covilakam estates had taken a big hit during the war period and by the mid-1940s the family had become too huge and unwieldy to live under one roof as a  joint family. Dissensions grew and by 1945 the inevitability of partition was in the air. It finally materialized in the 1950s, signaling the formal transition from one of the most orthodox joint families of Kerala to a large number of nuclear families,  scattered all over the State.

Looking back, this seems to have been a blessing in disguise. It forced the members, particularly the younger generation, out of an illusion of prosperity and safety into a new lifestyle and new aspirations based on education, and intellectual achievement. It released the dormant energies of members, male and female, drove them to seek fresh pastures and not rest on past family achievements. 

A powerful aid of far-reaching consequence was the decision of the Karanavars in 1941 to let the girls go past the  5th standard into high school and beyond. This was almost a revolutionary measure then, but one that empowered them and turned them into high achievers. Among the members today, there are scientists, chartered accountants, engineers, software specialists, doctors, teachers ( at school, graduate and postgraduate levels) musicians and artists, civil servants. And the female members are as much at ease in these professions as the males.

( Based on several sources including The Zamorins of Calicut by K V Krishna Iyer:   Calicut: The City of Truth   by M G S Narayan; Samoothirinadu by N M Nambudiri; Logan’s The Malabar Manual; and notes on the family by K C Kuttiettan Raja)

The author of this article, Mr. K C Ramachandran Raja (Valiyathamburan) is
the senior-most member of Kizhakke Kovilakam. He was the Former Director at K J Somaiya Institute of Management and Former Founder Director at Garware Institute, Mumbai University, Kalina Campus. He along with the Kovilakam trustees are responsible for the management of 14 temples which include Tirumandhamkunnu Temple, Kottakkal Siva temple, Pandamangalam temple, Indianoor Ganapathy temple etc.

He wrote this article for his family tree/directory. His wife is an aunt of mine and when he shared his experiences about creating the family tree with me, I asked permission from him to share the article as this is new information for many.

I have tremendous respect for the Covilakam. My maternal family (along with many others) were refugees at the Covilakam compound during Mapila Lahala in 1921 ( a bitter part of Malabar history that lasted around 6 months. It started as a resistance against British Colonial rule in India but culminated in a Hindu genocide with a "convert or die" policy) and from the account that my grandmother told me, they were treated extremely well by the members of the friendly royal family who provided food and accommodation for free to the hundreds who were staying there as refugees for many months. Lest God knows what would have happened and if my grandmother would even be alive to tell me the story.

A footnote he added in the directory for Kozhakke Kovilakam family members:

There is a new urge to go back to the roots, explore the family’s moments of achievement and forge new relationships. In this, they are joined, as this Directory shows, by many sons and daughters of the male members to constitute a large, inclusive, extended family. The annual Family reunion at Kottakkal which, started 20 years ago, has been held every year except during the pandemic year of 2020. We now have a new digital meeting place, a new platform for social interaction, wherever we are and a new opportunity to strengthen the emotional bond that holds us together. That bond can grow in several directions: in developing a new sense of identity; in offering mutual help; in helping the young ones to prepare for an uncertain tomorrow.  That would be a happy ending to a long-drawn-out era, a happy ending to this story, and a happy beginning of a new age of hope and promise.