The Vengalil family (Malayalam: വെങ്ങാലിൽ; Hindi: वेङ्ङालिल; also transliterated as Vengayil or Vengyalil) is an elite Malayali Nair dynasty from Malabar, powerful in India during much of the British Raj, and known as intimates of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

Background
Closely affiliated with the Dewanship of Travancore and related to the royal families of Cochin, Calicut,Travancore, Kadathanadu, Vallavunad, and Kollengore, the Vengalil numbered among the jenmi, or hereditary major landholders, and, indeed, ranked among India's greatest landowners until the rise of the communist government in Kerala, with estates in Malabar comprising some 200,000 acres, and encompassing thousands of acres of prized hardwood forest, including the hydroelectric power center of Kuttiyadi. Their traditional seat was Vengalil House, a 'palatial' and 'immense' pathinarukettu, or sixteen-halled dynastic palace, traditionally the preserve of royalty, in Panniyankara.

Origins and Genealogy

Their ultimate origins are shrouded in some mystery, although they are frequently linked to the Venganad Nampiti para-Brahmin Rajas of Kollengode. The most famous branch of the family originated through the marriage of Ankarath Raman Menon, Dewan Delawa of Travancore, serving Maharani Gowri Parvati Bayi (and previously the Maharaja of Cochin), and his wife, Narayani Amma. Raman Menon, a son of the Valluvanad royal family through the Kadannamanna kovilakam at Kadannamanna, distinguished himself in civil service under the tutelage of his later antagonist, John Munro. One of his daughters, Lakshmi Amma, married the reigning Zamorin of Calicut; another daughter, heiress to the Vengalil tharavad in the next generation, married Koothali Nair, whose 47,000+ acre estates ranked him among Kerala's premier landowners; their daughter and heiress, in turn, married Komath Krishna Kurup, heir to the Komath tharavadu through traditional matrilineal right, and additionally the son and partial heir of the Porlatiri Raja of Kadathanadu. The next generation featured the legendary V. K. Krishna Menon, whose sisters married the Maharaja of Cochin and a prince of the Zamorin's household. Their cousin, Thankam Nethiyar Ankarath, married Kerala Varma Kuttan Thampuran of the Cochin royal family, son of Muriath Neelakantan Nampoothiripad; their daughters, Thampurattis of the royal household, married Nambudiri Brahmins in turn. Another cousin, Vesha Nethiyar Ankarath, meanwhile married her sometime cousin Kunjunni Raja of the Kadannamanna Kovilakam at Mankada. 

In the next generation, Vengalil heiress J.A. Madhavi would marry to into the family of Madras Iyer and celebrated attorney and statesman, Sir. C.P. Ramaswami Iyer, who had served by appointment on the Madras High Court, like his brother-in-law Diwan Bahadur Sir. C.V. Kumaraswami Sastri and as Attorney-General for Madras before becoming the infamously effective regent for the then-underage Maharaja of Travancore. In contrast to traditional Malayali sambandham, J.A Madhavi married her Madras Iyer groom by Vedic rites, rending the children uncontroversially Vadadeśa Vadama Iyer Brahmins. Her children's cousins would go on to include C.R. Pattabhiraman and M.R. Srinvasan.

Members

Influential members include politician V. K. Krishna Menon, the author V.K. Nayanar, Paul Sudhakar Menon, Lakshmi Amma, consort to the reigning Zamorin Manivikraman,  author Janaki Ram,  as well as Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyar by marriage. Numerous members of the Vengalil family held titles equivalent to that of Thakur or Raja in north India, such as Menon, Manadiyar, Kurup, or Nayanar.

References
 Krishna Menon: A Biography by T. J. S. George (1965)
 V. K. Krishna Menon: a personal memoir by Janaki Ram (1997)

Colonial Kerala
Indian noble families