Experiments in modernity: How a 19th century Kerala prince personally vaccinated all of his palace establishment

Excerpt from 'False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma'

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS R Long before the tricycle-riding Prince Asvathi Tirunal memorialized himself in Ravi Varma’s art, there had sat on the throne of Travancore a man called Uthram Tirunal (1814–60). He was in every sense a fascinating character, negotiating a world of orthodoxy alongside the attractions of Western modernity. Born, it would seem, with a curious bent of mind, flattering reviews had piled up around him for decades before he became king. Aged six, at a reception for some British dignitaries, for instance, Uthram Tirunal unselfconsciously took possession of a military man’s knee, demanding to know how ‘all the gentlemen’ in the East India Company’s southern headquarters of Madras were doing. As heir apparent, he met a reverend who left a rapturous recollection: his ‘eagle eye’ and ‘dark, shining, intelligent countenance’, John Abbs wrote, at once conveyed that ‘you stood in the presence of royalty’. But ‘when, after placing his hands on his forehead, he held it out and addressed you in English, you were instantly charmed by his benignant gracefulness’. In the years while his brother was in power, Uthram Tirunal had all the time in the world to pursue interests outside of the typical routine imagined for conservative Hindu princes. He decided, for example, to channel his energies into the study of medicine, taking lessons from a British surgeon. Not long afterwards, he opened a dispensary in the capital, Trivandrum, giving orders to procure hereon any ‘new medicine discovered and advertised in the newspapers’. The public implications of an amateur royal doctor were interesting; as a court chronicler put it,

The Numboory Brahmans, who would not even touch English medicines, under the idea that most of the liquid substances contained spirits, began to take freely from His Highness’ dispensary. His Highness would explain to them the good effects of European medicines and how speedily diseases could be cured by their means. Several of the Hindu gentry came from great distances, not only for the cure of ailments, but also for the purpose of having an opportunity of seeing His Highness while they were under treatment. Trevandrum is seldom without a religious ceremony of some kind being performed there, and the noted men among Numboory Brahmans who constantly resorted to the place, had spread throughout Malabar, among their community, reports regarding His Highness’ medical knowledge and the virtues and efficacy of European medicines.