Native Life in Travancore

Numerous books have been written about the history of Kerala by many non-Indian scholars. From ancient times, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, Arabs, Turks, Persians, Portuguese, British, etc., have written extensively about the history and region of Kerala. The book is an attempt to write the history of Travancore State. It is a 25-year-old study based on classified documents written in Malayalam, Tamil, and English. It covers reports like Abstracts of Castes and Ceremonies and Statistical Topics of Legislation and Judicial Administration, Land Tenure, Taxation, and Revenue, etc., from where all the socioeconomic history is taken from.

The book is an anthropological survey of southern Kerala, i.e. Travancore State, where castes of lower and upper origins, such as Pulayas, Ezhavas, Shanars, Nambudiris, and Royal Family of Travancore, are discussed in great detail. Also, it describes the practices and lives of Muslims and followers of Syriac Christianity. The author covers the lives of women, the role of missionaries in evangelizing the region, the economy, laws, and regulations. It also discusses the kinds of cash crops, followed by fisheries, music, and customs, the issue of slavery, the role of Christian missions, and Hindu customs and practices followed in the region. This book covers the cultural, regional, and socio-economic aspects of the Travancore region, which was a Princely state.

Table of Contents

• Chapter I The Century Descriptive 1
• Chapter II The People and their Classification 24
• Chapter III The Pulayars 33
• Chapter VI Vedars 60
• Chapter V Kuravars 61
• Chapter VI The Hill Tribes 63
• Chapter VII Pariahs 82
• Chapter VIII Ilavars 83
• Chapter IX Shanars 99
• Chapter X Potters 108
• Chapter XI Pandarams 110
• Chapter XII Malaya, Sudras 111
• Chapter XIII The Royal Family 115
• Chapter XIV Naburi Brahmans 143
• Chapter XV Muhammadans 146
• Chapter XVI The Syrians Christians 158
• Chapter XVII Nepotism 169
• Chapter XVIII The Kudumi or Hindu Tuft of Hair 188
• Chapter XIX Female Life 200
• Chapter XX Agriculture 216
• Chapter XXI Coffee Cultivation 225
• Chapter XXII Cotton Manufacture 239
• Chapter XXIII Cocoanut Fibre and manufactures 243
• Chapter XXIV Boats and Fishing 246
• Chapter XXV Indian Music 254
• Chapter XXVI Music Instruments 272
• Chapter XXVII Distillation and Excise 278
• Chapter XXVIII Political and Social Condition in Former Times 287
• Chapter XXIX Slavery 297
• Chapter XXX Christian Work among the Slave Castes 312
• Chapter XXXI Serpent Worship 319
• Chapter XXXII Hindu Caste and Pollution 330
• Chapter XXXIII Recent Measures of Reform 353
• Chapter XXXIV Further Reform Needed 363
• Chapter XXXV History of Travancore 378
• Chapter XXXVI Educated Natives 396
• Chapter XXXVII Mission Work 414
• Chapter XXXVIII Appendix Indian Tunes 426
• Chapter XXXIX Glossary 429

Samuel Mateer (1835-1893) was a Belfast-based British missionary. He was educated in Christian theology at Bedford Theological College. He left for India in 1858 and was in-charge of the Parassala Mission till he led Trivandrum Mission, where a church under his name, Mateer Memorial Church was established by the Mission.