A small Indian kingdom defeated the Dutch at Colachel in the 1740s
In the war of 1739 to 1746, the forces of Travancore, a young kingdom at India's southern tip, beat the Dutch East India Company's troops at the Battle of Colachel. It is regarded as the earliest case of an organised Asian power overcoming European military technology and tactics.
The architect of that victory was Marthanda Varma, who took over the small feudal state of Venad in the 1720s and, using harsh methods, absorbed its many neighbouring principalities into Travancore. The kingdom lasted from about 1729 until 1949. Its rulers governed first from Padmanabhapuram and later from Thiruvananthapuram, and at its height the realm covered most of southern Kerala plus Kanyakumari district in modern Tamil Nadu.
The name has a long pedigree. It traces back to Thiruvithamcode, a royal seat in today's Kanyakumari district, known under the Cheras as Thiruvazhumkode, then shortened and anglicised by the English to Travancore. Europeans kept using the name even after the capital moved to Padmanabhapuram in 1601. Before that, the region belonged to the Ay dynasty, whose people spoke Middle Tamil; under the later Chera rulers based at Kollam the speech developed into Old Malayalam, and the Quilon copper plates of 849/850 CE are the oldest known inscription in it. A 9th-century Persian merchant recorded busy trade between Kollam and China.
Venad itself became independent when the Chera empire collapsed. After a Chola invasion destroyed Kollam in 1096 and took the Chera capital, the last Chera emperor moved to Kollam and probably founded the Venad royal house, which kept the Chera title Kulasekara.
Geography shaped the kingdom's identity. The Western Ghats running parallel to the coast cut the Malabar region off from the rest of the peninsula, which helps explain why its people and language differed from those in neighbouring regions. Travancore itself ranged from cool eastern highlands through rolling midlands to coastal plains. Its independence faded in stages: a treaty in 1788 accepted British dominance, a revised one in 1805 cut royal power further, and in 1949 the state was obliged to merge with independent India.
Source: Travancore
