01The last refuge
After the Kundara proclamation of January 1809 Velu Thampi’s levies were beaten in the field, and the Maharaja’s court, under pressure from the Resident, made peace and put a price on his head. He went into hiding in the hills and villages of the north, and reached the Bhagavathy temple at Mannadi with his brother Padmanabhan Thampi. When the soldiers closed in, in March 1809, he took his own life so as not to be captured alive. The Company had his body carried to Thiruvananthapuram and hung on a gibbet at Kannammoola, and his brother was hanged.
02Remembered at Mannadi
Velu Thampi was born in 1765 at Thalakulam in the south of Travancore and rose to be Dalawa, chief minister, in 1801. Kerala remembers him as one of the first to take up arms against the Company. The Kerala government has set up a memorial and a museum at Mannadi, with his statue, and the temple where he died is still a place of worship for the village.
The life of this place
- 11 January 1809The Kundara proclamation.
- March 1809Velu Thampi dies at the Mannadi temple.
