THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: By the time a dynasty peters out, its high and mighty would have become legends. It’s not often that a last ruler is remembered in his own rights. Sree Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, the Travancore State’s last reigning King, who has several landmark reforms to his credit, is one such. When his 99th birth anniversary, which falls on November 7, is being commemorated in the State capital, the one major influence which shaped his perspectives deserves special invocation - that of his mother Sethu Parvathi Bayi. The Queen Mother, fondly referred to as Amma Maharani, is overshadowed in the annals of history by her cousin Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, owing to the latter’s status as regent until Chithira Thirunal ascended the throne in 1931. Yet, she had obviously come into her own even before her son became the King. The ‘Junior Maharani’ had presided over the All-India Women’s Social Conference of 1928 held in Calcutta and was the first member of the royal family to have broken the taboo of crossing the seas by embarking on an extensive European tour in 1932. The souvenir brought out in 1996 by the Kowdiar Palace to mark the birth centenary of Amma Maharani is a valuable documentation of her role as the driving force behind the progressive policies that guided Chithira Thirunal’s reign. The transcription of the speech she delivered at the Women’s Conference testifies to the visionary qualities in her. The young Queen makes a studied analysis of the status of women in the West and the East, crediting the traditional system in India with a more democratic outlook. She also treads on controversial ground to debate how the rights of women laid down by the Islamic tenets have been misinterpreted over the years and even ventures to suggest that the “system has outlived its usefulness and is today a great handicap in every way to the woman’s cause”. She goes on to declare with evident pride, “It is a fortunate circumstance that in my State, and the country of Kerala, generally not only is the pardah system practically unknown, but women have a freedom of movement which is perhaps unique in India.” Her historical European tour in the company of her daughter Karthika Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi is also commemorated in the souvenir. A felicitation address, read out at the grand reception organised for the Junior Maharani and the Princess at a specially-constructed arch near the Railway Overbridge, opens the compilation and hails their “bold departure from the ‘mamool’. The compilation has many insightful articles which shed light on her enigmatic personality. Penned by the likes of legendary Carnatic vocalist M S Subbulakshmi and her husband T Sadasivam, M S Valiathan, and violin maestro Semmangudi R Sreenivasa Iyer, the souvenir in itself is a historic compilation. The younger granddaughter of Amma Maharani and author, Aswathi Thirunal Gowri Laskhmi Bayi, says, “It is not clear to us how Grandmother had been invited to preside over the Women’s Conference since it was evidently during the regency. Her personal stature as a learned person who was in correspondence with eminent women all over the country must have led to her participation in the event.”C R R Varma, married to the elder princess Pooyam Thirunal Gowri Parvathy Bayi, had recently unearthed the single remaining copy of the souvenir among the hordes of documents in the Palace. “I have asked copies to be made and have personally supervised the measures to preserve the original,” he says.
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