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 (''Haidar'alī''; ; 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 attention of Mysore's ...

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

Travancore The kingdom of Travancore (), also known as the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor () or later as Travancore State, was a kingdom that lasted from until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvanan ...

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 The kingdom of Kozhikode (Malayalam: ), also known as Calicut, was the kingdom of the Zamorin of Calicut, in the present-day Indian state of Kerala. Present-day Kozhikode is the second largest city in Kerala, as well as the headquarters of Ko ...

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 unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

. 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 (, , ''Sultan Fateh Ali Sahab Tipu''; 1 December 1751 – 4 May 1799) commonly referred to as Sher-e-Mysore or "Tiger of Mysore", was a ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore based in South India. He was a pioneer of rocket artillery ...

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