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History of Idukki and Kadamakuzhy
The region today known as ‘Idukki’, of which the cardamom hills form a part, was in the kingdom of the Cheras, who ruled on both sides of todays state border. The Chera kings of the Sangam age practiced koottuvazhccha, where the several branches of the royal family had equal rights to the throne, with the oldest male member among all of the several branches reigning over the kingdom, from wherever his branch had its seat. Thus the capital changed from place to place, with each change in the monarchy, and one of such capitals of the Chera kingdom during that age - Kuzhumoor - is believed to be the present-day town of Kumili, at the eastern edge of the ghats, where it drops off steeply to the flat lands of Tamil Nadu. Within memory, the region was under the Thekkumkoor rajahs, who were since subjugated by Marthanda Varma of Travancore. The Travancore kings granted the fief to their vassal, the tamburan (lord) of Poonjar, who controlled much of the region at the end of the 19th century.This was the heyday of Empire, and the British were everywhere making inroads into the hills. They bought or leased the rights to the land from the feudal lords or from the princely state, to log the vast stretches of hardwood forests, and set up plantations of tea, coffee, rubber and spices.
This sparked interest in the hitherto unnoticed forest 'wastelands' as a source of revenue to the state coffers, and the princely state of Travancore took an active part in the opening up of the region. Several dams, and all of their ensuing infrastructural netwrok - roads, electricity and the like came into the district at the beginning of the twentieth century. The story goes that while Maharaja Sri Mulam Tirunal of the Travancore royal family came to Kumili to personally supervise the construction of the dam on Mullaperiyar river. One day while he was there, he felt thirsty and a shepherd called Ankur Rawthar gave him milk hot from the udder of the sheep. The delighted Maharaja gave him title over extensive forest land which his descendants in time sold to other land owners in Tamil Nadu. This was probably the beginning of formal title and land records in the Cardamom Hills area.
When introducing you to this special destination a brief look back into the past is a must as we pay tribute to the pioneers who set foot and transformed this hostile forest into plantations with sheer self reliance fighting all odds on the way for a better living to us which is today a 100 acre plantation of cardamom as main crop.
Pottamkulam family in Kadamakuzhy as compiled by RAJESH AND HIS FAMILY with authentic materials collected by old time settlers still in the hills.
Our family, in fact, has its roots in just such a merchant town called Aruvithura (now commonly known as Erattupetta) which was the premier trading center for pepper, ginger, and other hill-produce.
Malayalees started moving to the hills in large numbers only after the first world war, in the 1920s and after. The large scale immigration of people into the region, however, came with the "Grow more Food" program of the early 50s, when they would assign land to just about anyone who was willing to cultivate it, and pay tax on it. We've had the land at Kanavakkuzhi since my great-grandfather's time. We were a landed family, and my grandfather was young and looking to acquire more land. The east of the Periyar had just been clear-felled, and the coupe roads now made the forest beyond accessible. He set out along with many of his retainers to claim and farm some forest. (I don't know if they could be called retainers, because we didn't really employ them; I guess you could call them followers, or supporters, or whatever -- there really isn't an apt word in English; the malayalam would probably translate into something that implied 'dependents').
They were assigned 250 acres of land, which my grandfather alotted among his people. In addition, he staked claim to 35 acres of grassland, which he planted with coffee, and took 20 acres on permanent lease from the Sircar to grow cardamom In those days, farming in the hills meant either hill paddy or black pepper; I guess they must have been thinking ahead of their time to plant coffee and cardamom along with the (mandatory) hill paddy. These areas were then mostly owned by Rawthers, Labbais and Chettiars from Tamil Nadu. Much of the region used to belong to one Pulavar Rawther who had sold it to others, mostly from Tamil Nadu, but a few from Kerala as well. When the initial venture met with success, my grandfather purches a further 80 acres from Pappikkunju Ninan, one of the Malayali land owners who had purchased it from Pulavar Rawther. This was the start of our family's foray into cardamom cultivation.
My grandfather and his retinue initially camped in the thavalam called Kanavakkuzhi (since bastardized as Kadamakkuzhi). Every morning, large groups would go out to various sections of the vast extent they had claimed, to carry out whatever farming operations needed to be done. In the evening they would all return to the Thavalam. The Thavalam was a rocky knoll which the wild elephants couldn't easily get to; our first plantation house, however, was built just below this, where the elephants could. So I remember we had a huge ditch all around to keep the elephants out. My father lived here when he took charge of the plantation.
By then things were more civilized, and everyone didn't have to live all crammed up together. All the retainers had developed their own claims, and most of them moved out from the thavalam to live on or near their lands. The thavalam lost its importance, but it still has a few vestiges of its former glory in the few shops (even a tea-stall or two) that still survive. We used the old plantation house next to the thavalam until very recently, when the new one at Mayapott was completed. "Plantation house" sounds very grand and brings to mind magnificent mansions with collonaded verandahs and the like, but this first one was really very basic accommodation. At the time it was built, though, it must have seemed like the lap of luxury to my grandfather, who was then living with his entire retinue in a very crowded (and I suspect, very dirty) camp.
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