Travancore Sisters

Travancore Sisters refers to the trio of Padmini, Lalitha and Ragini who were actors, dancers and performers in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi films.

The Travancore sisters learned dancing under Guru Gopinath and Guru T. K. Mahalingam Pillai. Ragini died from cancer in 1976 and Lalitha in 1982. Padmini died in 2006. Few documents relating to them survived except for dozens of films and articles in Indian newspapers. The Travancore Sisters grew up in a joint family tharavadu 'Malaya Cottage' in Poojappura, Thiruvananthapuram. Uday Shankar called the sisters to Chennai (then Madras) to act in a film based on dance which he was planning to make . Padmini and her sisters were disciples of the noted Indian dancer Guru Gopinath .

The matriarchial head of the family was Karthiyayini Amma whose husband was PK Pillai (Palakunnathu Krishna Pillai of Cherthala) alias 'Penang Padmanabha Pillai'. PK Pillai had six sons of whom Satyapalan Nair (Baby) was a leading producer of many early Malayalam films. Another son, Raveendran Nair's daughter Latika Suresh, is a leading producer of Malayalam TV programs. They performed at the 1955 Filmfare Awards.

Travancore

The Kingdom of Travancore (/ˈtrævəŋkɔər/; [t̪iɾuʋit̪aːmkuːr])(Malayalam:തിരുവിതാംകൂർ) was an Indian kingdom from 1729 to 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. At its zenith, the kingdom covered most of modern-day central and southern Kerala, as well as Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu. The official flag of the state was red with a dextrally-coiled silver conch shell (Turbinella pyrum) at its center. In the early 19th century, the kingdom became a princely state of the British Empire, and the king was accorded a 21 gun-salute locally and a 19-gun salute outside the kingdom. The Travancore Government took many progressive steps on the socio-economic front and during the reign of Maharajah Sri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma, Travancore became the second most prosperous princely state in British India, with reputed achievements in education, political administration, public work and social reforms.

Name

When the region was once part of the Chera empire, it was known as Thiruvazhumkode (തിരുവാഴുംകോട്, tiruvāḻuṃkōṭŭ). It was contracted to Thiruvankode (തിരുവാങ്കോട്, tiruvāṅkōṭŭ), and anglicised by the English to Travancore.