King, Kinglessness and an Oral Poem
Political Authority and Its Discontents in Early Modern Malabar
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.25.2023.02.03Keywords:
Early Modern, Malabar, Hindu Kingship, Vaṭakkan-Pāṭṭǔ, Landlords, English East India CompanyAbstract
The essay discusses an oral poem from north Malabar detailing an 18th-century event of political conflict, manifested between a native king and a local landlord. The story of conflict centres around the idea of bhēdam or difference that the king wanted to project as the secret of his earthly right to rule. The king’s opponent, the local landlord, rejects this idea and claims that they are equals, and there exists no hierarchy of relation between them. The essay explores certain features of the late 18th century political transition along the Coast of Malabar which culminated in the Mysore and British rule, and argues that the landlord’s denial of king’s authority was firmly rooted in this context, and had futurist intentions. In this way, the essay also tries to present a critique of the neo-Hocartian idea of “little-kingdom” and the Proppian proposal for “pattern morphology”. It indicates that the early modern Malabar presents an interesting case of ‘hollowing’ the crown from inside, and its oral poems—as a genre of history—document this process in modes that are deemed appropriate to their times.
PlumX Metrics of this article
References
Aitchison, C. U. 1876. A Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sunnuds Relating to India and Neighbouring Countries. Vol. 5. Calcutta: Foreign Office Press.
Anonymous. 1928 [1093 M.E.]. Kavaḷappārē Grandhavari. Maṅgalōdayam, 10: 320–321.
Antony, P. (ed.). 2000. Payyannūṛ Pāṭṭǔ: Pāṭhavuṃ Paṭhanavum. Chenganasserry: Kēraḷa Pāṭhana Kēndṛam.
Antony, P. (ed.). 1994. Taccōḷi Pāṭṭukal. Changanassery/Kottayam: Centre for Kerala Studies and DC Books: 70–97.
Ayyar, K. V. K. (ed.). 1909. Raṇṭu Cāvēṛ Pāṭṭukaĺ. Calicut: Norman Printing Bureau.
Brown, Mr [Murdoch]. 1820. Ceremonies Observed at the Coronation of a Hindu Raja. In Asiatic Researches of Transitions of a Society Instituted in Bengal, 13: 311–316.
Brown, Ch. Ph. 1849. Memoirs of Hyder and Tippoo, Rulers of Seringapatam, Written in the Mahratta Language by Ram Chandra Rao Punganoory Who Was Long in Their Employ. Madras: Simkins and Co.
Deloche, J. 2013. Old Mahe 1721–1817, According to Eighteenth Century French Maps. Pondicherry: Department of Art & Culture, Government of Pondicherry.
Freeman, J. R. 1991. Purity and Violence: Sacred Power in the Teyyam Worship of Malabar. Unpublished PhD Dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.
Frenz, A. 1994. Dr Hermann Gundert and Folk Literature. In: P. Antony (ed.). Taccōḷi Pāṭṭukal. Changanassery/Kottayam: Centre for Kerala Studies and DC Books: xxvii–xlii.
Frenz, M. 2003. Virtual Relations: Little Kings in Malabar. In: M. Frenz and G. Berkemer (eds). Sharing Sovereignty: The Little Kingdom in South Asia. Berlin: Schwarz Verlag: 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783112402696-007.
Frenz, M. 2003a. From Contact to Conquest: Transition to British Rule in Malabar, 1790–1805. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Frohnmeyer, L. J. 1889. A Progressive Grammar of the Malayalam Language for Europeans. Mangalore: Basel Mission Book and Tract Repository.
Gordon, S. N. 1977. The Slow Conquest: Administrative Integration of Malwa into Maratha Empire, 1720–1760. In: Modern Asian Studies, 11: 1–40. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X00013202.
Gough, K. 1961. Nayar; Central Kerala. In: D. M. Schneider and K. Gough (eds). Matrilineal Kinship. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press: 298–384.
Gundert, H. 1872. A Malayalam and English Dictionary. Mangalore: C. Stolz, Basel Mission Book and Tract Depository.
Gundert, H. 1991a. ‘Der junge Tschandu von Njalikara’ [Aus dem Nayerleben]. In: A. Frenz (ed.). Hermann Gundert: Quellen zu Seinem Leben und Werk. Ulm: Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft: 466–471.
Gundert, H. 1991. ‘Kelappen vom Garten’ [Aus dem Nayerleben]. In: A. Frenz (ed.). Hermann Gundert: Quellen zu Seinem Leben und Werk. Ulm: Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft: 478–484.
Hameed, K. P. S. 1966. Structural Analysis and Pattern Description of a Primitive Legend of the West Coast of South India. In: Proceedings of the First International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies. Vol. 2: 208–223. Kaula Lampur: International Association of Tamil Research.
Kurup, K. K. N. 1973. The Cult of Theyyam and Hero Worship in Kerala. Calcutta: Indian Publications.
Logan, W. 1951. Malabar. Vol. 1. Madras: Superintendent of Government Press.
Ludden, D. 1990. Word Economy and Village India, 1600–1900: Exploring the Agrarian History of Capitalism. In: S. Bose (ed.). South Asia and World Capitalism. Delhi: Oxford University Press: 159–177.
Ludden, D. 1985. Peasant History in South India. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Malayil, A. 2015. Credit and Worth: Country-Merchants, Commodity Frontiers, and the Land Regime in Late Eighteenth-Century North Malabar. In: Indian History, 2: 87–142.
Martineau, A. 1917. Les Origines de Mahe de Malabar. Paris: Edouard Champion and Emilie Larose.
Menon, D. 1999. Houses by Sea: State Formation Experiments in Malabar, 1760–1800. In: Economic and Political Weekly, 34: 1995–2003.
Menon, D. 1993. Intimations of Equality: Shrines and Politics in Malabar 1900–1923. In: P. Robb (ed.). Dalit Movements and Meaning of Labour in India. Delhi: Oxford University Press: 245–276.
Menon, K. P. P. 1929. How the Debts are Realized? In: K. P. P. Menon (ed.). History of Kerala: A History of Kerala Written in the Form of Notes on Visscher’s Letters from Malabar. Vol. 2: 252–255. Ernakulam: The Cochin Government Press.
Menon, K. P. P. 1989. Kocci Rājya Caritram. Kozhikode: Matrubhumi Printing and Publishing Company.
Menon, V. K. R. 1943. Perumpatappu Swarupam Grandhavari: Records in Oriental Languages: Cochin State Book, 1. Ernakulum: The Superintendent-Cochin Government Press.
Mukundan, M. P. 1949. Tarusvarūpam Rājākkanmāruṭe Katha. In: Bulletin of the Government Oriental Manuscript Library, 8: 90–91.
Munro, Th. n.d. A Report on the Revision of the Judicial System in the Province of Malabar. Dated 4th July 1817. Calicut: Collectorate Press.
Nambiar, M. C. A. 1960. Eṭaccērri-Tōṭṭattil Kuññikkēḷappan. In: M. C. A. Nambiar (ed.). Vaṭakkan Pāṭṭukaĺ. Kozhikode: Deshabhimani Printing and Publishing House, Limited: 66–84, 272–314.
Nair, K. M. 1972. Mattoru Tirunelli Paṭṭayam. Vijñānakairaḷi, 4: 294–297.
Rao, V. N., S. Subrahmanyam and D. Shulman. 2001. Textures of Time: Writing History in South India 1600–1800. Delhi: Permanent Black.
Pavitran, P. 1999. Ādhunīkaraṇavuṃ Kōḷanīkaraṇavuṃ Vaṭakkan-Pāṭṭukaḷil. In: V. J. Varughese and N. Vijayamohan Pilla (eds). 500 Vaṟṣatte Kēraḷaṃ Cila Arivaḍayāḷaṅṅaḷ. Changanassery/Kottayam: Association for Comparative Studies: 163–180.
Propp, V. 2009. Morphology of the Folktale. Transl. by L. Scott. Austin: University of Texas Press [Reprint of the 1968 American Folklore Society Bibliographical and Special Series Edition, ed. by Louis. A. Wagner].
Raghavan, M. D. 1932. A Ballad of Kerala [Valiya Ārōmar Chēkavar]. In: The Indian Antiquary, 61: 9–12, 72–77, 112–116, 150–154, 205–211.
Rajendran, N. 1978. Background of Mysorean Invasion of Malabar 1765–1766. In: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 38: 613–617.
Rajendran, N. 1979. Establishment of British Power in Malabar, 1664 to 1799. Allahabad: Chugh Publications.
Rejikumar, J. 2010. Graeme’s Report on the Revenue Administration of Malabar 1822 [Reprint. Originally Published as Graeme, H. S. 1889.
Report of the Revenue Administration of Malabar. Dated 14 January 1822. Calicut: Collectorate Press]. Thiruvananthapuram: Government of Kerala.
Sankarakurup, G. 1939 [1114 M.E.]. Māmāṅka Pāṭṭǔ. In: Samasta Kēraḷa Sāhitya Trimāsikam, 7: 450–461.
Skariah, J. (ed.). 2017a. Talaśśēry Rēkhakaĺ. Kottayam: Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-Operative Society.
Skariah, J. (ed.). 2017b. Palaśśi Rēkhakaĺ. Kottayam: Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-Operative Society.
Swai, B. 1985. From Kolattunad to Chirakkal: British Merchant Capital and the Hinterland of Tellicherry, 1694–1766. In: Studies in History, 1, n.s.: 92–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/025764308500100107.
Swai, B. 1974. The British in Malabar, 1792–1806. Unpublished PhD Thesis. University of Sussex.
The Joint Commission. 1862. Report of a Joint Commission from Bengal and Bombay Appointed to Inspect into the State and Condition of the Province of Malabar in the Years 1792 and 1793. Madras: Fort Saint George Gazette Press.
Varier, M. R. R. 1994. Pāṭṭukathā Pṛarūpaṅṅaĺ: Vaṭakkan Pāṭṭukaḷile Kathāghaṭna. In: M. R. R. Varier and K. R. Gurukkal (eds). Mittum Samūhavum. Perambra/Kozhikode: Jālakam Publishers: 146–172.
Varier, M. R. R. 1980. Folklore as Vehicle for Propaganda of Ideology: Literary Legends in Kerala. In: Dyotana, 1: 21–36.
Varier, M. R. R. 1982. Vaṭakkan Pāṭṭukaḷuṭe Paṇiyāla, Sukapuram: Vaḷḷattōĺ Vidhyā Pīṭham.
Wallace, R. G. 1823. Fifteen Years in India; or, Sketches of a Soldier’s Life: Being an Attempt to Describe Persons and Things in Various Parts of Hindostan, from the Journal of an Officer in His Majesty’s Service. London: Hurst, Orme, Rees and Brown.
Wigram, H. 1882. A Commentary on Malabar Law and Custom. Madras: Graves, Crookson and Co.
Wink, A. 1986. Land and Sovereignty in India: Agrarian Society and Politics under the Eighteenth Century Maratha Swarajya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
