Sree Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma was born on March 22 1922, the younger son of Maharani Sethu Parvathi Bayi of Travancore and Ravi Varma, Koil Thamapuran of Kilimanoor. The royal house of Travancore is unusual in that succession is by matrilineal descent, whereby wealth and title pass from the incumbent Maharaja to the first-born male child of one of his sisters. His mother was not the then Maharaja’s sister, but was distantly related to the house of Travancore in the direct female line. In 1900, due to an absence of heirs, she had been adopted by her maternal great-aunt, the mother of the ruling Maharaja. Two years after Marthanda Varma’s birth, in 1924, on the death of his adoptive maternal uncle, his brother Rama Varma succeeded to the throne of Travancore under the regency of his maternal aunt.