01The Kundara Vilambaram
By 1805 a subsidiary treaty bound Travancore to pay for a Company force it did not want, and the Resident, Colin Macaulay, pressed the arrears hard. Velu Thampi, who had risen from Thalakulam to become Dalawa, chose war. After the attack on Macaulay at Kochi in December 1808, he issued the Kundara proclamation, the Kundara Vilambaram, in January 1809. It warned that the English would seize the land, take over the temples and the people’s dharma, and called on everyone to take up arms. It is one of the earliest public calls to resist the Company in any Indian language.
02After the proclamation
Company troops moved in from the north and from Quilon, the Nair levies were beaten in a series of fights, and the Maharaja’s court made peace. Velu Thampi was hunted through the hills and died by his own hand at the Mannadi temple in March 1809. A memorial to the proclamation stands at Kundara today; the town is better known now for its ceramics and its old industrial works.
The life of this place
- 11 January 1809Velu Thampi issues the Kundara proclamation.
- March 1809Velu Thampi dies at Mannadi; the rising ends.
