Pooradam Thirunal Sethu Lakshmi Bayi (Malayalam: പൂരാടം തിരുനാൾ സേതു ലക്ഷ്മി ബായി; 5 November 1895 – 22 February 1985) was Senior Maharani of Travancore and the Attingal Mootha Thampuram from 1901 to 1985. She served as Maharani Regent of Travancore from 1924 to 1931 during the minority of her nephew, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma.
Sethu Lakshmi Bayi is mostly known for her progressive reforms during the regency of her nephew, during which she was treated with the full dignity and honours of a monarch, wielding absolute authority. Her major reforms are considered to be the abolishment of the Devadasi system and animal sacrifice, women being granted the right to vote and being able to join the Sri Mulam Popular Assembly, the elecrification of Thiruvananthapuram and the development of Cochin Harbour.
Early life Pooradam Thirunal Sethu Lakshmi Bayi was born at Utsavamadhom Palace, Mavelikkara, on the 19th of November 1895 to Ayilyam Nal Mahaprabha and Kerala Varma. Her mother belonged to the Utsavamadhom Palace branch of the Kolathunādu Royal Family. A house that used to reign the Kola Swarupam, the Kolathiri line descended from the same ancient dynasty of the Travancore Royal Family, and so they were adopted and installed as the Maharanis of Travancore when there was a shortage of females to continue the line of succession. The current Ranis of Travancore, Senior Maharani Bharani Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi, and Junior Maharani Bharani Thirunal Parvathi Bayi, who were also adopted from the Kolathiri line, did not have any female children.
In the prevalent matrilineal system of inheritance known as Marumakkathayam, the presence of females to continue the line of succession for the dynasty was crucial. With the death of the Junior Maharani, Bharani Thirunal Parvathi Bayi in 1893, followed by that of the eldest of her three sons in 1895, the royal family came to consist solely of Maharajah Moolam Thirunal, Rani Lakshmi Bayi and her two nephews.
Installation as Attingal Rani The Maharani now looked upon her nieces, the children of her youngest sister by the artist Raja Ravi Varma to bring forth girls who could be adopted into the ruling line. In 1895, the Rani's elder niece, Mahaprabha gave birth to a daughter, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, and the next year, her younger niece, Thiruvadira Nal Kochukunji Thampuran gave birth to Sethu Parvathi Bayi. In 1900 the Rani officially petitioned her adoptive brother, Maharajah Moolam Thirunal to allow her to adopt the two girls. Sethu Lakshmi Bayi became the Junior Maharani of Travancore, and Sethu Parvathi Bayi became the First Princess of Attingal. Within a year of the adoption of the princesses in 1900, the two Princes, Chathayam Thirunal and Aswathi Thirunal died, followed by Maharani Lakshmi Bayi herself in 1901. Therefore, at the age of six, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi became the Senior Maharani of Travancore and the Attingal Mootha Thampuran, while Sethu Parvathi Bayi became Junior Maharani of Travancore and Attingal Elaya Thampuran. Kerala Varma, the previous Vailya Koil Thampuram, and the widower of Rani Lakshmi Bayi, was appointed the guardian of the two maharanis.
Marriage The Maharaja had requisitioned nominees from all of the ten royal houses in Travancore, to be potential bridegrooms to the two maharanis. Their caretaker, Kerala Varma, was granted the privilege of recommending spouses for them.
His recommendations were his two great-nephews, Rajaraja Varma, and his younger brother, Rama Varma. Their mother was Kochukunji Thampuratti, a member of the Haripad Ananthapuram Palace of the Parappanad Royal Family, of which Kerala Verma was a member of. Rajaraja was a well accomplished and mature man who had posed for Raja Ravi Varma's painting, Sri Varma Vanquishing the Sea (1906). Sethu Lakshmi Bayi chose Rama Varma, the younger brother, which was unexpected because Rajaraja Varma was considered to be the obvious choice for the Senior Maharani.
On 12 February 1909, she consumated her marriage with her husband. Unfortunately, on 18 December 1909, the 12yr old Maharani suffered a stillbirth. Almost three years after her stillbirth, her cousin, Sethu Parvathi Bayi, gave birth to a son, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, who was made Elayaraja.
Adulthood prior to the Regency On the event of her 18th birthday on 19 November 1913, the Maharaja granted her absolute control over the Sripadam Estate, and the income produced from 15,000 acres of land was accrued on the Senior Maharani. Meanwhile, the Junior Maharani used her status as the mother of the Elayaraja to secure the Vadakkay Kottaram as her residence by the end of November.
Soon after, the Maharaja granted her a 27 acre property in Poojappura, and Rs. 10,000 to construct a palace there. After more than 5yrs, the palace, which would be known as Satelmond Palace, was complete, and it would become her primary residence.. Just a few days after settling in the palace, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi's 46yr old mother, Mahaprabha, died on 8 January 1919, presumably from heart failure.
Before that, on 22 September 1914, the Senior Maharani's former guardian, Kerala Varma, died from the first car accident related death in India while travelling to the Vaikom Mahadeva Temple in northern Travancore.
The Junior Maharani, Sethu Parvathi Bayi, gave birth to another son, Uthradam Thirunal Marthanda Varma Thampuran, on 22 March 1922. Almost two years following, on 30 December 1923, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi gave birth to a daughter, Uthram Thirunal Laithamba Thirunal, Second Princess of Travancore.
A month after the naming ceremony of Princess Laithamba, the Senior Maharani, her husband, and the 7 month old Princess Laithamba, went on holiday to Varkala. Meanwhile, in Thiruvananthapuram, the Maharaja had a decayed tooth that he refused to remove. By the end of July 1924, doctors identified sepsis, but it was too late to treat. On the night of 7 August 1924, the Maharaja died. His successor was Sethu Parvathi Bayi's son, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, but since he was 12 years old. As Sethu Lakshmi Bayi was the most senior female member of the Royal Family, she was made Maharani Regent.
The Regency
Reforms
Vaikom Satyagraha
At the time the regency commenced, Travancore was facing significant social agitation associated with the Vaikom Satyagraha, a protest movement that had begun earlier in 1924 against caste-based restrictions preventing lower-caste communities from using the public roads surrounding the Vaikom Mahadeva Temple.
In 1925, negotiations between the Regency government, reform activists, and conservative religious groups leaded to a compromise settlement that allowed members of all castes to use most of the public roads surrounding the temple except the ones immediately rejoining the temple.
Temple Administration The regency government introduced state supervision over temples managed by the Travancore Devasworm. Regulations were introduced to standardize temple administration, finances and ritual practices, aiming to prevent misuse of temple revenues, regulate priestly administration and ensure that there was consistent ritual standards across state-controlled temples.
Animal Sacrifice Also in 1925, animal sacrifice was prohibited in temples that were administrated by the Travancore Devasworm. This was formed part of broader attempts by the Travancore government to regulate temple practices and align them with evolving social reform movements in Southern India.
Devadasi System The regency government abolished the devadasi system in Travancore temples, ending the practice of dedicating women to temple service, preventing future temple dedications and removed the legal basis of the institution within the state. This reform was part of wider South Indian movements against practices viewed exploitative or socially backward.
Marumakkathayam System Legal reforms were introduced, affecting the matrilineal inheritance system, known as Marumakkathayam, in Travancore. These reforms allowed members of matrilineal families to claim individua shares of family property, weakened the joint-family taravad system, and faciitated the transition toward nuclear family structures.
After the Regency After the regency Sethu Lakshmi Bayi retired from active involvement in the affairs to the state. She continued to look after affairs of the Sreepadom estate for sometime after which in 1939 the Maharajah Sree Chithira Thirunal assumed control of the estate and placed it in a trust from which all the female members of the royal family would receive allowances.ATTINGAL RANIS: The following extract from pages 190 to 192 of Kerala District Gazetteers, Trivandrum by A. Sreedhara Menon will give a glimpse about the nature of property held by the Attingal Ranis:-
"Early in his reign Marthanda Varma assumed direct control over the so-called Attingal 'Queendom'. This was not an act of annexation or conquest, but Nagam Aiya has described the event as "the amalgamation of Travancore with Attingal". There has been some misunderstanding among contemporary and later writers in regard to the significance of this step taken by Marthanda Varma. This is the result of a general notion that Attingal was an independent State ruled by the Ranis and that the kings of Travancore never exercised any authority in the tract. Certain statements found in the memoirs, commentaries and State papers of the Portuguese, the Dutch and the English have only served to strengthen this wrong notion. The theory that the Ranis of Attingal exercised sovereign powers is, however, incorrect. The fact is that in political matters the Ranis of Attingal as such exercised no sovereign rights. Any grant of rights over immovable property by the Ranis of Attingal required the King's previous assent or subsequent confirmation for its validity. It may be noted that the so-called Queendom of Attingal had its origin in the 5th century Kollam Era when two princesses were adopted into the Venad family from Kolathunad and the revenues from certain estates in and around Attingal were assigned to them for their exclusive use. Since then the female members of the ruling family of Travancore had come to be known as Attingal Ranis. It was only the male children of these Tamburatties, either by birth or by adoption, who could inherit the throne. Thus Marthanda Varma and the heir-apparent Rama Varma were both sons of Attingal Tamburatties. This tended to invest the Attingal Ranis with a special dignity in the eyes of the people, native as well as foreign, and led to the notion that they had sovereign rights over Attingal. But in reality the Kingdom of Venad extended from Kanyakumari in the south as far as Kannetti in the north, and there was no kingdom or principality intervening within its limits.