Trivandrum (and off-road to Kanyakumari)
Sapir: “On the day before the Holy Sabbath, we came to the great city of Trivandrum. Most of the inhabitants of the city are idolaters [Hindus], and a few of them are Portuguese Christians and merchants of Britannia. And we rested here on the Sabbath day.”
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“I saw the Rajah on that day as he passed through the market, sitting in his little carriage harnessed to two decorated Arabian horses. Before him and after him, twenty soldiers from his personal guard rode on swift horses, but he alone sat in the wagon. … His clothes were of colorful silk extending below his knees, his head was shaven and covered by a small red turban inlaid with crown jewels of ruby, sapphire, and emerald with a wreath of gold inlaid around it.”
Some 19th-century kings of Travancore:
Swathi Thirunal Rama Varma |
the king whom Sapir saw: Uthradom Thirunalruled 1846 – Aug. 18, 1860 |
Ayilyam Thirunal |
the Puttan Malika (“horse palace”) |
 horse-shaped pillarssupporting the roof |
Sapir writing about palanquins: “The nobles and the great princes are driven in a wagon … or carried in a box called a “palqi” [palanquin] which is lifted on the shoulder of four human beings. . . . The one to be carried in it enters inside and sits or reclines as in his room and four Indians lift him on their shoulders and run like the running of horses. And traveling in this is more comfortable than in a wagon because he sits or rests in perfect peace without any shaking and he can do in it whatever he wishes, even reading and writing, and also by means of their running they bring puffs of wind inside it, for the one sitting in it in the heat of the day.”
Drawing of a palanquin at the Puttan Malika Palace |
Sapir: “And the other kinds of fruit of the tree and beans and vegetables are found here in plenty, and nothing like them has been seen or found in the lands of Europe. Also many varieties of all kinds of spices, cassia and cinnamon, clove and peppers according to their kinds, and muscat and betel nuts, are numerous in the land.”
| Connemara Market |  |
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Respite from Jacob’s Road: our detour to Kanyakumari (Oct. 8-10)
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Fishing village |
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