Alongside the initiative of foreign scholars in the country’s archaeology, native scholars, too, had conducted their own investigations, a majority of them exploring ancient inscriptions and manuscripts. It was Maharaja Vishakham Thirunal of Travancore who set the ball rolling. He wrote an article in the Indian Antiquary, linking the inscriptions in Sanskrit on the white metal bell (vellottumani) installed by the king of Venad, Sarvanganatha Adithyavarma, in the Thirukurunkudi temple in Tamil Nadu, as well as certain records in the Sucheendram Temple.
Sundaram Pillai, professor of philosophy at the Maharaja’s College in Thiruvanantapuram, had opened an institution to make copies of rock inscriptions. The then Maharaja, Sree Moolam Thirunal Rama Varma, gave a grant of Rs 50 a month for a year in 1891 for this purpose. What Sundaram Pillai sought to achieve with the grant was trace the history of the kings of Travancore, who ruled for two centuries before 1335 C.E., which was missing in royal records.
Sundaram Pillai did indeed trace and record several royal inscriptions, such as on the temples at Rajendracholeswaram, Thiruvallom, Puravari-Chaturvedimangalam, and Kotar. He published a brief history of the sovereigns of Travancore in the 12th and 13th centuries, entitled ‘Some Early Sovereigns of Travancore’. It was Sundaram Pillai’s investigations that facilitated the institution of a full-fledged archaeology Department in Travancore. Sundaram Pillai was appointed the honorary archaeologist of Travancore in 1896.
After Sundaram Pillai’s death in 1902, T.A. Gopinatha Rao from Maratha provenance was appointed the superintending archaeologist of the reorganized Department. Gopinatha Rao introduced systematic ways of identifying, gathering, copying, and interpreting ancient inscriptions. He brought to light several unknown documents. The acclaimed Travancore Archaeological Series (TAS) is a notable achievement of Gopinatha Rao’s efforts.
The Huzur Kachery Plates of Ko Karunandadukkan, Paliyam Plates, the Vazhapally copper plate of Rajasekhara, Tharissapalli Plates of Sthanu Ravi, the copper plates of Bhaskara Ravi, Thiruvalla Plates, etc., are among the invaluable basic documents featured in Gopinatha Rao’s TAS in two volumes. He followed a rigorous discipline in presenting his findings, such as an introduction followed by the text in Tamil, its English translation and its interpretation, followed by an estampage of the text. Besides deciphering the inscriptions, Rao also wrote about the Buddhist and Jain cultures prevailing then. He described in detail the Buddhist icons found at Karumady, Bharanikkavu, Pallikkal, Mavelikkara and Maruthoorkulangara, as well as the Jain cultural relics at Thirucharanathumala (Chitharal). His ‘Elements of Hindu Iconography’ is considered the Magnum Opus of Hindu iconography.
Gopinatha Rao was succeeded by K.V. Subrahmanya Iyer, A.S. Ramanatha Iyer and others as archaeological superintendents. R. Vasudeva Poduval, who was named superintendent in 1928, was later elevated as director. All of them pursued the study of epigraphs started by Gopinatha Rao and Poduval brought out two significant publications: ‘A Lexicon of Travancore Inscriptions’, which was useful in deciphering the inscriptions and ‘A Topographical List of Travancore Inscriptions', which helped in identifying the location of the inscriptions. Poduval’s deep scholarship of art, architecture and Vastusastra was of immense value in archaeological studies.
The Travancore Government enacted the Travancore Ancient Monuments Preservation Act in 1937 (Act 1 of 1112 ME) on the lines of the Archaeological Survey of India enactment of 1904.
One of the notable achievements of the Travancore Archaeological Department has been the protection of the Padmanabhapuram Palace at Thakkalay in Kanyakumari District. Padmanabhapuram was the seat of the Travancore royal house until 1800, when the headquarters was shifted to Thiruvanantapuram. The Padmanabhapuram palace complex has remained unattended ever since. The royal government’s adviser on art, J.H.Cousins, took the initiative to get the complex declared a protected monument and the public works Department to renovate the complex. The mural paintings on the upper-storey walls of the Uparika Malika and on the eastern wall of the mural pagoda that had been destroyed in lightning strikes were restored with the help of Iranian mural artist Iris Katachurian, who had restored the murals in the Ajanta Caves. An archaeological museum was set up in the palace after the restoration. The relics on display are those collected by epigraphy expert V.R. Parameswaran Pillai from Padmanabhapuram, and the rest are loaned from the Napier Museum at Thiruvananthapuram.
