Introduction

Home , Kayalpatnam, Madurai, Tirunelveli district

Introduction

The founding of a Dutch trading factory at Kayalpatnam in southeast India in 1645 initiated a period of almost a century of cross-cultural contacts between representatives of the Nayaka state of Madurai (c. 1520–1736), one of the ‘great Southern Nayakas’ and successor-states of the Vijayanagara ‘Empire’, and the Dutch East India Company (1602–1799), one of the great northern European chartered companies of the ‘age of mercantilism’. The Nayakas of Madurai were descendants of Telugu-speaking warrior chiefs, starting out as mere ‘agents’ (karttakals) of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 1520s, but gradually asserting themselves as ‘independent’ rulers in their own right. By the early seventeenth century, the militarily and economically most powerful of the three Nayakas, the state of Madurai was of far greater extent than its two northern neighbours Gingee (Senji) and Tanjore (Thanjavur), stretching from Tirunelveli into Kongunad and included much of modern-day Tiruchirappalli district as well, roughly covering the area east of the Western Ghats (Sahyadri Mountains) and south of the Coleroon (Kollidam) River. Madurai stretched for some 250 miles in north–south direction, from the Salem lowland to Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari), and over 200 miles in east–west direction in the north, narrowing to less than 60 miles in the south. In 1677, even with the recent loss of two entire provinces, Madurai reportedly still extended some 140 miles east to west and 420 miles south to north, or an area of about 58,800 square miles, more than four times the size of the land area of the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands or a little over 5 percent the size of the modern Republic of India.1 This region also encompassed the ‘little kingdom’ held by the Tevar of Ramnad (Ramanathapuram), the most powerful palaiyak- karar (holder of a palaiyam or fortified centre) and independent-minded tributary and ‘adopted son’ (kumara varkkam) of the Nayakas of Madurai. By 1650, the total population of Madurai (including Ramnad) may have been about 2–3 million, and Tirunelveli District, where most of the Dutch activities

1 See: M. Arokiaswami, The Kongu Country: Being the History of the Modern Districts of Coimbatore and Salem From the Earliest Times to the Coming of the British (Madras: Madras University Press, 1956), pp. 334–350; V.N. Rao, D. Shulman, and S. Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance: Court and State in Nayaka Period Tamilnadu (Delhi, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 43; F. Valentijn, Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën, 5 vols. (Dordrecht: J. van Braam, 1724–1726), V, p. 291; M.P.M. Vink, Mission to Madurai: Dutch Embassies to the Nayaka Court of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century, Dutch Sources on South Asia, c. 1600–1825 4 (New Delhi: Manohar, 2012), pp. 14, 303–304, and 352.

2 Introduction were concentrated, slightly over 400,000. In comparison, the population of India in 1650 may have amounted to 150 million (including 15 million in South India) and that of the Northern Netherlands or Dutch Republic 1.85–1.9 million (including 0.75 million in the province of Holland).2 The Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or voc after its Dutch initials) was the product of the forced merger of a number of ‘pre-companies’ in 1602 in order to reduce internal competition and create a powerful politico-commercial tool carrying the Dutch war of independence against the Spanish Habsburg state overseas. Its founding charter granted the Company the monopoly of trade from the Dutch Republic east of the Cape of Good Hope and via the Strait of Magellan. The charter also included delegated government rights, such as the right to construct forts and factories, appoint governors, recruit soldiers, administer justice, and conclude treaties and main- tain relations with indigenous rulers on behalf of the States General.3

2 For the Indian estimates, see the discussion on regional demographics in the beginning of Chapter 2. For the Dutch figures: J.A. Faber, H.K. Roessingh, B.H. Slicher von Bath, A.M. van der Woude, and H.J. van Xanten, ‘Population Changes and Economic Development in the Netherlands: A Historical Survey’, A.A.G. (Afdeling Agrarische Geschiedenis) Bijdragen 12 (1965), pp. 47–133, esp. p. 110. See: J. de Vries and A. van der Woude, The First Modern Economy: Success, Failure, and Perseverance of the Dutch Economy, 1500–1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 49–50, and 52; A.M. van der Woude, ‘Demografische Ontwikkelingen van de Noordelijke Nederlanden 1500–1800’, in: D.P. Blok, W. Prevenier, D.J. Roorda, J.A. van Houtte, H.F.J.M. van den Eerenbeemt, Th. Van Tijn, and H. Balthazar (eds), Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden (Haarlem: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1980), V, pp. 102–168: W. Frijhoff and M. Spies, 1650: Hard-Won Unity, Dutch Culture in a European Perspective 1 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). pp. 156–157; A. Maddison, The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective. Volume II: Historical Statistics (Paris: OECD Development Centre, 2003), Table B-10, pp. 241. 3 For the founding of the Dutch East India Company: M. Witteveen, Een Onderneming van Landsbelang: De Oprichting van de Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie in 1602 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press Salomé, 2002). The best general introduction on the history of the voc is: F.S. Gaastra, The Dutch East India Company: Expansion and Decline (Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 2003). See also: J.J.P. de Jong, De Waaier van Fortuin: van Handelscompagnie tot Koloniaal Imperium: De Nederlanders in Azië en de Indonesische Archipel 1595–1950 (The Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 1998); De Vries and Van der Woude, The First Modern Economy; J. van Goor, De Nederlandse Koloniën: Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse Expansie 1600–1975 (The Hague: Sdu Uitgevers, 1994); J.I. Israel, Dutch Primacy in World Trade, 1585–1740 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989); E. van den Boogaart and M.A.P. Meilink-Roelofsz (eds), Overzee: Nederlandse Koloniale Geschiedenis 1590–1975 (Haarlem: Fibula-Van Dishoeck, 1982); C.R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire (London: Hutchinson, 1965).