Travancore

The Maharanis/'nieces' of Travancore. Sethu Parvathi Bayi (left) and Sethu Lakshmi Bayi (right), the grand daughters of Raja Ravi Varma, the famous artist. 

Travancore (now central and Southern Kerala, India). c. 1905. They were adopted by the Maharaja some five years earlier as his 'nieces'. That was the way that the wife of the king was to be addressed. These two girls were adopted since the Maharaja's sisters did not have any son. It was the sister's son who would have succeeded to the throne according to the tradition: uncle to nephew. At the age of 10 the girls were presented with a set of boys from the aristocracy, one of whom was selected as the consort (not 'husband'). The consort lived in a different palace and could not sit in the presence of the royal maharani. Their marriage was consummated when they reached teenage and the stars were just right for such an auspicious happening. The senior Maharani, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, ruled over the state in the 1920s. She was credited with making Travancore a reformist state. She spent about 20% of her revenue on education, constructed roads, laid down electricity and telephone lines, appointed hundreds of women in government service, thousands of women teachers and nurses, the first Dalit and Muslim judges in the state, a Christian as the prime minister.  

By the end of 1931, the senior maharani handed over power to the son of the junior maharani. This allowed the junior maharani to become the arbiter of the destiny of the state. 

After independence and Travancore joining the Indian Union, the senior Maharani retired to Bengaluru. In 1957 she formally gave up her royal past and from ‘Her Highness Sri Padmanabha Sevini Vanchi Dharma Vardhini Raja Rajeshwari Maharani Pooradam Tirunal Sethu Lakshmi Bayi Maharajah, Companion of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India and Senior Maharani of Travancore,’ she became simply‘Smt Sethu Lakshmi Bayi’. Her summer palace in Travancore was converted into a college of Agriculture. The beach resort was handed over to the ITDC. Her official residence became a medical college. In 1983, the junior maharani died in Kerala and was accorded a state funeral. In 1985, the senior maharani died in Bengaluru. She was cremated in the electric crematorium like any normal citizen of India, surrounded by friends and family. Many years ago she had written: ‘I have emerged a wiser woman learning that often in this world one gets kicks for honest selfless work, while the canting self-seeker wins half pence.’

Information and pic taken from the book by Manu S Pillai, ‘The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore’.

- India history 

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கே.எஸ்.இராதாகிருஷ்ணன்

06-09-2017