Tattamangalam in Print (1897–1911): Publishers, Gazetteers, and the Cochin State Manual

Before highways and hashtags, Tattamangalam was already on India’s printed map. Three archival crumbs—an ad in Prabuddha Bharata (1897), an entry in the Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908), and a note in The Cochin State Manual (1911)—prove the village wasn’t just a dot. It was a small nerve-centre for books, trade, and public life. Neat, no?

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1897 — A publisher from Tattamangalam in Prabuddha Bharata

In April 1897, the journal founded by Swami Vivekananda carried an advert for T. S. Subramania & Co., Publishers & Booksellers, Tattamangalam, Palghat. They offered books in literature, science, mathematics and Hindu religion, took up printing & publishing, and even imported titles from England every fortnight. For a quiet Palghat village to run a house like that in the 1890s tells you the reading culture here wasn’t some afterthought.

Why it matters: This pinpoints Tattamangalam inside the national print circuit of the 1890s—well beyond big-city hubs like Madras or Calcutta. That’s serious cultural capital, not just nostalgia.

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1908 — Trade centre noted in the Imperial Gazetteer of India

The 1908 Gazetteer lists Tattamangalam (population 6,222 in 1901) as “a place of some trade,” with commercial activity largely in Muslim hands. In short: mixed community, working marketplace, regular movement of goods. Pragmatic, grounded, and very Palakkad.

Why it matters: The Gazetteer is the period’s dry, bureaucratic lens. If even that calls the village a trade point, you know commerce here wasn’t a one-off fair—it was habit.

 

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1911 — The Cochin State Manual puts Tattamangalam among chief towns

C. Achyuta Menon’s The Cochin State Manual (1911) lists the chief towns for administrative purposes—Tattamangalam appears right there with Ernakulam, Mattancheri, Trichur, Irinjalakuda, Kunnamkulam and Chittur. It repeats the population figure (6,222) and frames the urban network of the State in the early 20th century.

Why it matters: From “trade place” to “chief town” inside a short span—this is administrative recognition, not just sentiment. The arc from 1897 to 1911 shows a village embedded in print, trade and governance.

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What these three records together say

• Books & ideas travelled here: A village publisher advertising in a national spiritual-intellectual journal is no small thing.
• Trade wasn’t token: Gazetteer evidence confirms regular commerce and a mixed mercantile class.
• Official status followed: By 1911, the State Manual treats Tattamangalam as a chief town for administration—formal acknowledgement of its local weight.

Put simply: Tattamangalam punched above its size. It read, traded, and got itself counted. That’s the spine of a living town, not a sleepy pin on a colonial survey.

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References & Citations

• Prabuddha Bharata / The Awakened India, April 1897 — advertisement for T. S. Subramania & Co., Publishers, Tattamangalam (image clip).
• The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. XXIII, Govt. of India, 1908 — Tattamangalam entry noting trade and 1901 population (image clip).
• Menon, C. Achyuta. The Cochin State Manual, 1911 — section listing chief towns incl. Tattamangalam with population (image clip).

Image credits: Scanned excerpts cleaned for readability. Alt text embedded for accessiblity.

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Author: Prashanth Randadath  |  Tags: 

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