Mayapott – Unique History

The history of cardamom goes back into antiquity; it was one of the spices for which India, and especially Malabar, were famed. Cardamom in those days, was gathered from the plants growing wild in the rain forest, perhaps by the tribal inhabitants. It was brought down to the great inland emporiums of ancient Kerala, situated upon the largest rivers coming up from the coast and its network of backwaters. These centers of trade usually found a place at the eastern extremity of the rivers' navigable waters, just before they climbed into the forested hills, where no trading boats could go. Our family, in fact, has its roots in just such a merchant town called Aruvithura (now commonly known as Erattupetta) which was the premier trading center for pepper, ginger, and other hill-produce.

The entire western ghats region, along with its foothills, was a dense, impenetrable swath of forest, accessible only to those well-versed in the lore of the forest. The higher slopes of the ghats generally, and especially the Idukki region, have historically been more accessible from the east, from Tamil Nadu, than from the lowlands of Kerala. From the plains of Tamil Nadu, it was only a short (but very steep) climb up the the top of the Ghats, whereas from the inhabited lowlands of Kerala, it was a long and arduous journey through the (then) thick rain-forests of the wide belt of foot-hills -- what we now call the midlands or the mid-ranges. Besides, the drier eastern slopes were less prone to malaria than the sweltering, leech-infested jungles of the humid foothills, and therefore more easily negotiated. The earliest settlements in the region, their ancient access-ways and interconnections, all originated on the eastern side of the Ghats. For example, the small tavalam (settlement) at Kanavakkuzhi, where we have our estate, was well connected by donkey paths to the town of Kambam, in Tamil Nadu. The old paths came straight up the mountain to Kambammed, on to Vandanmed, then down to Kanavakkuzhy via Maniyarampara and Mettukkuzhi. The connectivity to the west is but a relatively recent phenomenon.

Even in those days, the cardamom hills were already being exploited of cardamom and other exotic forest produce, but not in the way it is now. The growers (or more correctly, 'gatherers') were from the western hinterland of Tamil Nadu, from the villages and towns immediately at the foot of the ghats. The Tamil cultivators would ascend the ghats at the beginning of the picking season - probably sometime in August or September, bringing workers and provisions with them. Each one would stake out a section of forest for himself, in which he would harvest cardamom from the plants growing wild there. Initially no one had permanent claim to any section of forest -- the> first person to arrive could claim for himself wherever he wanted, as much as he could hold with the number of workers he had at his command.

Over time, the claims became more permanent, and almost tantamount to ownership. Only then did people begin to actually 'grow' cardamom. Even then, it was initially a matter of dividing a few cardamom clumps, and planting out the suckers to get a few more new plants for the following years. The cultivators would leave at the end of the picking season -- usually in November or early December, leaving the plants to themselves till they came back in the next season. The legacy of these beginnings is still evident in the customs of land ownership and demarcation of cardamom lands -- in traditional cardamom lands, there is no crime called trespassing: one can walk anywhere one pleases, including on any other person's land, just as in the days when it was all forest. [But of course, picking from someone else's plants is a strict no-no, as it must have been also in those days.

For safety in the wilderness, both from wild animals, as well as rival cultivators, the gatherers lived together in thavalams (base camp). The settlement of Kanavakkuzhi is one such. Every morning they would venture out to gather cardamom from the plants growing wild, and perhaps carry out some judicious management, but usually just picking and some transplanting to increase the plant population. They would return each evening and lay out the cardamom they had gathered to dry. Every few weeks, a small group would leave for civilization, to sell the cardamom they had collected and to buy provisions like rice, ghee, tobacco, salt and sugar. This was the pattern of life in the thavalams in the Cardamom hills, and this way of life lasted well into the days of Malayali settlement in the 50s.

Malayalees started moving here in large numbers only after the first world war, in the 1920s and after. The large scale immigration of people into the region, however, came with the "Grow more Food" program of the early 50s, when they would assign land to just about anyone who was willing to cultivate it, and pay tax on it. We've had the land at Kanavakkuzhi since my great-grandfather's time. We were a landed family, and my grandfather was young and looking to acquire more land. The east of the Periyar had just been clear-felled, and the coupe roads now made the forest beyond accessible. He set out along with many of his retainers to claim and farm some forest. (I don't know if they could be called retainers, because we didn't really employ them; I guess you could call them followers, or supporters, or whatever -- there really isn't an apt word in English; the malayalam would probably translate into something that implied 'dependents').

They were assigned 250 acres of land, which my grandfather alotted among his people. In addition, he staked claim to 35 acres of grassland, which he planted with coffee, and took 20 acres on permanent lease from the Sircar to grow cardamom In those days, farming in the hills meant either hill paddy or black pepper; I guess they must have been thinking ahead of their time to plant coffee and cardamom along with the (mandatory) hill paddy. These areas were then mostly owned by Rawthers, Labbais and Chettiars from Tamil Nadu. Much of the region used to belong to one Pulavar Rawther who had sold it to others, mostly from Tamil Nadu, but a few from Kerala as well. When the initial venture met with success, my grandfather purches a further 80 acres from Pappikkunju Ninan, one of the Malayali land owners who had purchased it from Pulavar Rawther. This was the start of our family's foray into cardamom cultivation.

My grandfather and his retinue initially camped in the thavalam called Kanavakkuzhi (since bastardized as Kadamakkuzhi). Every morning, large groups would go out to various sections of the vast extent they had claimed, to carry out whatever farming operations needed to be done. In the evening they would all return to the Thavalam. The Thavalam was a rocky knoll which the wild elephants couldn't easily get to; our first plantation house, however, was built just below this, where the elephants could. So I remember we had a huge ditch all around to keep the elephants out. My father lived here when he took charge of the plantation.

By then things were more civilized, and everyone didn't have to live all crammed up together. All the retainers had developed their own claims, and most of them moved out from the thavalam to live on or near their lands. The thavalam lost its importance, but it still has a few vestiges of its former glory in the few shops (even a tea-stall or two) that still survive. We used the old plantation house next to the thavalam until very recently, when the new one at Mayapott was completed. "plantation house" sounds very grand and brings to mind magnificent mansions with collonaded verandahs and the like, but this first one was really very basic accommodation. At the time it was built, though, it must have seemed like the lap of luxury to my grandfather, who was then living with his entire retinue in a very crowded (and I suspect, very dirty) camp.