Venad

Venad was a principality at India's southwestern tip, ruled from the spice port of Kollam. It became independent under the Kulasekhara dynasty in the twelfth century; as Pandya power collapsed in the early fourteenth century, Ravi Varma Kulasekhara campaigned in the Tamil country.

In the sixteenth century its rajas acknowledged Vijayanagara overlordship and later paid tribute to Madurai's Nayaks. The English East India Company opened a factory at Vizhinjam in 1664 and built Fort Anjengo in 1695. Marthanda Varma later transformed Venad into the centralised kingdom of Travancore.