A Malayali needs to read “The Ivory throne: “The chronicles of the house of Travancore”?
A young historian, promising writer Manu S Pillai’s debut work “The Ivory throne: The chronicles of the house of Travancore” is a non-fictional historical play which critically narrates the story of Travancore, which is very much connected with the history of Kerala
Even though the work is mainly focusing on the last Regent Rani Sethu Lakshmi Bai the author is able to present the censorial history of Travancore dynasty from the famous Marthanda Varma to Sri Chithira Thirual.
The protagonist Rani Sethu Lakshmi Bai — the granddaughter of famous painter Raja Raja Varma was born in Kilimanoor Palace. She along with her first cousin Sethu ParvathiBai was adopted to Travancore palace, as it was following “Marumakkathayam”, at the age of five ad four respectively.
The play is concentrating on the history’ the author had taken the effort to portrait the Regent Rani Sethu Lakshmi Bai.
She became the ruler of Travancore, after the death of Sree Moolam Thirunal Maharaja and was able to perform her duties well during her succession. After her period of being the Maharani of Travancore, she had to quit from there due to the conspiracy evolved in her royal family. She had shifted to Bangalore and never came back till her death. Along with the history, the author tries to bring the emotional feeling of Regent Sethu Lakshmi Bai.
Along with the so-called history, the author tries to present the unknown history, which he had collected through his research, which he had done in Indian as well as England archaeological museums.
The author had taken a long period of five years to complete this lengthy work contains 700 pages.
In this play, the author had presented the history of Travancore in an unbiased manner. Along with the history, the author is presenting a lady with extra will power and abilities to lead and light. The author had employed the technique of keeping the interest of the reader until the last page.
Originally published at https://www.learnerscorner.biz.