Venadu kingdom

Venadu (Vēṇāṭŭ; Malayalam: വേണാട്, Tamil: வேணாடு), also romanised as Venad, was a medieval state located between the Western Ghat Mountains and the Arabian Sea, at the south-western tip of India, with its traditional capital at the port city of Kollam (Quilon). It was one of the major principalities of present-day Kerala, along with states of Kannur (Kolathunadu), Kozhikode (the Samoothiri), and Kochi (Perumpadappu) during the medieval and early modern periods.

Venadu, originally a chiefly territory within the medieval Chera state in Kerala, gradually developed into an independent principality ruled by the Kulasekhara dynasty (often referred to as the Chera kingdom). Ravi Varma Kulasekhara, the most ambitious ruler of Venadu, conducted a successful military expedition into the Pandya and Chola lands (the Tamil country) in the early 14th century CE.

Records state that the 16th-century rulers of Venadu acknowledged the supremacy of the Vijayanagara rulers. In the 17th century, the rulers of Venadu paid an annual tribute to the Nayaks of Madurai following an invasion by Tirumala Nayaka. The English East India Company established a factory at Vizhinjam in 1664, and a fort was built at Anjengo in 1695. Venadu later evolved into the modern state of Travancore in the 18th century CE, as feudal relations and medieval political authority were dismantled under Marthanda Varma (1729–1758), who is often credited as "the Maker of Travancore".