- Lived:
- 1706–1758 · born in the small matrilineal kingdom of Venad at the tip of India → died at Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), capital of the Travancore he built out of it
- Field:
- kingship and state-building — founder of modern Travancore, victor of Colachel (1741), author of the Trippadidānam of 1750
- The Big Idea:
- A hunted heir turned a broken little kingdom into a state that destroyed a Dutch East India Company force in battle, hired the defeated commander to build its army, ran itself on a royal pepper monopoly — and then was deeded, whole, to a temple deity so that no heir could ever divide it.
- In their words:
- "I have been considering an invasion of Europe with my fishermen." — the retort tradition puts in his mouth when a Dutch governor threatened to invade Travancore, c. 1739 (the exchange is a cherished tradition; the wording varies with the teller)
- If you remember one thing:
- On 10 August 1741, at Colachel, an Indian king inflicted the first decisive battlefield defeat a European colonial power suffered in India — and then, instead of executing the captured Dutch commander, gave him a job. The Dutchman served Travancore for thirty-six years and lies buried in its earth.