Krishna Varma Raja was Eralpad or eldest prince of Calicut. He was known as Kishen Varma, Kishen Raja and Prince of Karimpuzha in British records.

Life

Varma rose to power after

Hyder Ali Hyder Ali ( حیدر علی, ''Haidarālī''; 1720 – 7 December 1782) was the Sultan and ''de facto'' ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore in southern India. Born as Hyder Ali, he distinguished himself as a soldier, eventually drawing the at ...

's second conquest of Malabar in 1774. Manavikraman Raja of Calicut fled to

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. A ...

and thus his second-in-command Krishna Varma became ''de facto'' head of state.Iyyer, K. V. Krishna (1938). The Zamorins of Calicut: (from the earliest times down to AD 1806). Publ. Division, Univ. The oppressive Mysore rule pushed Malabar into a state of revolt that lasted throughout the Mysore period (1774 to 1791). The Kingdom of Calicut covered much of South Malabar. Varma and his nephews led resistance. Ravi Varma the Elder and Ravi Varma the Younger were most prominent. Krishna Varma operated from the traditional seat of Eralpad in Karimpuzha, present Palghat district, commanding a large resistance movement which took the form of

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run ...

. His nephew Ravi Varma the Elder acted as Commander In Chief of rebel military force. The rebels foiled all effort of Mysore government to set up a working administration in South Malabar.Buchanan, Francis (1807). A journey from Madras through the countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar. T. Cadell and W. Davies. Retrieved 2012-11-14. In 1788, Varma went in person to Calicut to negotiate peace with

Tipu Sultan Tipu Sultan (born Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu, 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799), also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery.Dalrymple, p. 243 He in ...

but eventually decided not to cooperate with Sultan. To escape from Tipu's camp, he agreed to all proposals of Sultan and took a large sum from Tipu as reward, but once he fled to safety of Karimpuzha, he broke his promise and renewed his revolt on a greater scale. He died in 1793.

Notes

References

Logan, William (1887). Malabar manual, Volume 1. Asian Educational Services. . Retrieved 2012-11-14. {{DEFAULTSORT:Varma, Krishna Year of birth missing 1793 deaths People from Kozhikode People from Palakkad district Military personnel from Kerala 18th-century Indian royalty