Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Travancore

TRAVANCORE, a native state in Madras presidency, India, between 8° 4′ and 10° 22′ N. lat. and between 76° 12′ and 77° 38′ E. long., with an area of 6730 square miles. It is bounded on the N. by the native state of Cochin, on the E. by the British districts of Madura and Tinnevelli, and on the S. and W. by the Indian Ocean. This state is described as one of the most picturesque portions of southern India. Its most marked physical feature is furnished by the Western Gháts, which rise to an elevation of 8000 feet and are clothed with magnificent primeval forest; they throw out spurs towards the coast, along which there is a belt of flat country of about 10 miles in width, covered with an almost unbroken mass of cocoanut and areca palms, which to a great extent constitute the wealth of the country. The whole surface is undulating, and presents a series of hills and valleys traversed from east to west by many rivers, the floods of which, arrested by the peculiar action of the Arabian Sea on the coast, spread themselves out into lagoons or backwaters, connected here and there by artificial canals, and forming an inland line of smooth-water communication for nearly the whole length of the coast. The chief river is the Periyar, which is navigable for 60 miles; other important rivers are the Pambai and its tributary the Achinkoil, the Kallada, and the Western Támbraparni. Iron is abundant. Elephants are numerous, and tigers, leopards, bears, bison, elk, and various kinds of deer abound in the forests. The state possesses some good roads, and, on the whole, internal communication is tolerably complete. Travancore has an abundant rainfall, with every variety of climate and temperature.

In 1881 the population of Travancore was found to number 2,401,158 (males 1,197,134, females 1,204,024), of whom 1,755,610 were Hindus, 146, 909 Mohammedans, and 498,542 Christians. The chief towns are Trivandrum (q.v.), the capital, Aleppi, the commercial centre and chief seaport of the state, and Quilon, another seaport and military headquarters. Among the principal articles which the state produces are rice, cocoa-nut palm, pepper, arecanut, cardamoms, tamarind, coffee, timber, &c. The manufactures comprise cocoa-nut, gingelly, lemon-grass, and laurel oils, jaggery and molasses, salt, arrack, cotton cloths and yarns, pottery, and coir yarn, rope, and matting. Its revenue in 1884-85 was estimated at 640,548. Travancore state is in subsidiary alliance with the British Government, to which it pays a tribute of 80,000 a year. It is one of the few states which have never turned against the British. Under the enlightened rule of the late maharajah the country made great progress, and it now stands very high among native states. It is free from debt, and has a surplus of revenue over expenditure. The sovereignty as well as the inheritance of property passes in the female line.