Travancore Royal Family - The Royal Family

The Royal Family

The Royal family at present consists of the descendants of the two princesses adopted in 1900 from the Mavelikara royal family, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and Sethu Parvathi Bayi. Sethu Lakshmi Bayi was the last regent Maharani of Travancore. The oldest son of Sethu Patvathy Bayi was the last Maharajah, Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, who signed the instrument of accession and amalgamated the state into India in 1949. The Royal family consists, in the line of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi two daughters, Princesses Uthram Thirunal Lalithamba Bayi and Karthika Thirunal Indira Bayi and their families. In the line of the Junior Maharani, Sethu Parvati Bayi, are the last Maharajah (unmarried), his brother Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, present head of the royal family and the family of their late sister Princess Karthika Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi (who was married to Col. G.V. Raja of the Poonjar Royal Family). Princess Karthika Tirunal and Col. G. V. Raja had two daughters (Pooyam Tirunal and Ashwati Tirunal) and two sons (Avittam Tirunal and Moolam Tirunal). The present Head of the Family, Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma married Shrimati Radha Devi (the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Krishnan Gopinath Pandalai, MB, CM, FRCS, LRCP, late IMS, sometime Superintendent of the Government General Hospital, Madras), and has a son, Anantha Padmanabhan Thampi and a daughter, Parvati Devi. He resides at Pattom Palace, Trivandrum. Presently the senior most female in the Royal Family with the title of Attingal Mootha Thampuran is H.H. Karthika Thirunal Indira Bayi. She resides in Chennai. The Indian Constitutional Amendment of 1971 terminated the status of the royal families of the erstwhile princely states as rulers and abolished their rights to receive privy purses. However the other clauses of the agreements signed between the Government of India and the Princes in 1947 legally still hold. The Royal Family of Travancore has no administrative authority since 1971. Till 1956 Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma served as Rajpramukh of Thiru-Kochi. Later in 1971 while the family lost their privy purse and other privileges, the rights of the family in the Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple were respected and the head of the family still fulfills his duty towards the temple as the Maharajah of Travancore. The allowances of all the family members born prior to 1949 are also still paid by the Government of Kerala.

Some prominent members of the Travancore royal family today include artists Rukmini Varma (Princess Bharani Thirunal) and her son Jayagopal Varma, writers Shreekumar Varma (Prince Punardam Thirunal), Dr. Lakshmi Raghunandan (Princess Makham Thirunal) and Gowri Lakshmi Bayi (Princess Aswathy Thirunal), musician Aswathi Thirunal Rama Varma, Yathi Verma. After the Constitutional Amendment of 1971, the royal family and its properties and estates were partitioned and divided into two equal halves among the branches of HH Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi and HH Maharani Sethu Parvathi Bayi. However certain legal disputes with regard to the same continued among family members until as late as 1991.