page_title: Venad
section_title: Venad in late medieval period
hierarchical_section_title: Venad / Political history / Venad in late medieval period
caption_attribution_description: English: Attack on Kollam (Quilon), Kerala, Indien, in December 1661
context_page_description: Venad was a medieval kingdom lying between the Western Ghat mountains and the Arabian Sea on the south-western tip of India with its headquarters at the port city of Kollam/Quilon. It was one of the major principalities of Kerala, along with kingdoms of Kannur, Kozhikode and Kochi in medieval and early modern period.
  Rulers of Venad trace their ancestry to both Chera/Perumals and Vel chieftains related to the Ay lineage of the early historic south India. Venad – ruled by hereditary "Venad Adikal" – appears as an autonomous chiefdom in the kingdom of the Chera/Perumals of Kodungallur from around 8th – 9th century CE. It came to occupy a position of pre-eminent importance in the structuring of the Perumal kingdom. The country was intermittently and partially subject to the Pandya kingdom and the Chola empire among others in the medieval period.
  Venad dynasty are descendants of Chera/Perumal kingdom, gradually developed as an independent principality, known as the Chera kingdom, and grew later into modern Travancore. Ravi Varma Kulasekhara, most ambitious ruler of Venad, carried out a successful military expedition to Pandya and Chola lands in the early 14th century CE.
context_section_description: The prosecution of the Pandya-Chola wars necessitated long residence of Chera/Perumal king of Kodungallur Rama Kulasekhara at Kollam. There is a tradition that Vira Kerala, a ruler of Kollam in early 12th century, was a son of the last Chera king. 
  After the dissolution of the Chera/Perumal kingdom (c. 12th century), Venad survived, and emerged as a powerful principality in southern India, as result of the wars of conquest and well as the Indian Ocean spice trade. Venad, now known as the kingdom of the Cheras or the Kulasekharas, was intermittently subject to the Pandyas during this period. Possibly with the decline of Chola power after Kulothunga, Venad Cheras gradually extended their control over the present Kanyakumari district. In the early 14th century, "Sangramadhira" Ravi Varma carried out military raids to northern edges of south India (1312–1316). His inscriptions can be found as north as Poonamallee, a suburb of Chennai.
  In Venad royal family, like most of other royal houses in Kerala, law of succession followed was based on matrilineal inheritance. The eldest son of the sister of the ruling king, not his own son, had the legal right to ascend the throne after the death of the king.
  Aditya Varma (1376–83) seems to have resisted some "Muslim invaders" on the borders of Venad. His successor Chera Udaya Marthanda Varma (1383–1444) is credited for the extent of the rule of Venad into interior Tirunelveli region. Vira Udaya Marthanda Varma (1516–1535) acknowledged the supremacy of the Vijayanagara rulers. Minor battles with Vijayanagara forces in the subsequent period are also recorded.
  Well into the modern period, Venad remained one of the chief monarchies of Kerala, along with Kingdoms of Kannur (Kolathunadu), Kozhikode (Zamorin) and Kochi (Perumpadappu). Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum was the major temple in the region. In the 17th century, the rulers of Venad paid an annual tribute to the Nayaks of Madurai. By this time, the old state of Venad was divided into several autonomous collateral branches such as Trippappoor, Elayadathu, (Kottarakara), Desinganad (Kallada, Kollam), and Peraka Thavazhi (Nedumangad).
  During the "regency" of Umayamma (1677–1864), southern Venad was famously overrun by a Muslim adventurer. English East India Company established a factory at Vizhinjam in 1664 and a fort was built at Ajengo in 1695. Around 150 Company men from the Anjengo Factory, proceeding for an audience with the queen-mother, were lynched by a mob in "the Attingal Outbreak" of 1721. Ravi Varma, ruling from 1721 to 1729, entered into formal agreements with the Company and the Nayaks of Madurai. The primary objective of the submission was to strengthen the position of the king against the regional nobles (such as "the Ettuvittil Pillamar") and other "hostile elements" in Venad.
caption: Kollam, capital of the Venad rulers, in 17th century CE
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