Diwan Bahadur Sir Veeraraghavapuram Nagam Aiya (c. 1850 December – 1917) was an Indian pioneer, historian, civil servant, and chronicler who served as the Dewan in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore.

Nagam Aiya was born in December 1850 at Veeraraghavapuram - a small village on the banks of the river Thambrapurni, in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.

According to traditional accounts which cover seven generations before him, the family which had originally belonged to "Boppudi," a village in the Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh had migrated to Nellore, Trichinopoly, Madura, Tirunelveli and finally Travancore.

Due to the poverty of his family he was forced to join the government service as a clerk on a meagre pay of Rs 7/- soon after his Matriculation examination.

Later his success as the first student to complete a full B.A program brought him to the notice of H.H Sri Ayilyam Tirunal and he was then appointed as the Asst.

The Dewan's Administrative Report for 1870 says "Only one candidate went up for the B.A degree in February 1870 and was successful, the first whom we can claim as a student entirely trained in the school.

One report of his earlier career says "Kottayam marvel at its 'Boy Tahsildar' whose official duties no more oppressed him than games do a school boy".

Travancore became the second most prosperous princely state in British India, with reputed achievements in education, political administration, public work and social reforms.

The Travancore Government took many progressive steps on the socio-economic front and during the reign of Maharajah Sri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma,[3][4] In 1903-1904 the total revenue of the state was Rs.1,02,01,900.

Diwan V. Nagam Aiya mentions that the idea had been ‘broached’ to him by Dewan T. Rama Row, C.I.E., some fourteen years earlier.

What came out was a books of ‘encyclopaedic nature spread over a space of more than 1820 pages of letter-press’ over 3 Volumes, which are in publication even to this day, and available on various sources including Amazon.

The works along with history also contains detailed study and examination of the physical features, geology, climate, rainfall, meteorology, flora, fauna, and archaeology of Travancore State at the time.

The manuals includes details such as the geographical location, boundaries, shape and area of the landscape, mountains, plateaus, mountain passes, rivers, canal and backwaters, coastline, ports, shipping facilities, economic geology of the place, climate, rainfall, meteorology, trees, and medicinal plants, flowering and ornamental plants, birds and animals etc., archaeology, architecture, sculpture, coins, inscriptions, forts and military works, ‘Archaeology’, ‘Fauna’, census and population, language, economic condition and various other things are dealt with, in a manner that should astound.

There are other details on items such as early missionaries, neighbouring kingdoms, accounts of travellers, Portuguese in Malabar and Travancore, Ettuvittial Pillamaar, Marthanda Varma, Zamorin, small kings and kingdoms north of Travancore, small-time rulers of Malabar, the attacks and occupation attempts by Sultan Tipu etc.

"[citation needed] "His favourite modes of punishment were: imprisonment, confiscation of property, public flogging, cutting off the palm of the hand, the ears or the nose, impalement or crucifying people by driving down nails on their chests to trees, and such like, too abhorrent to record here.

Diwan V. Nagam Aiya admitted in his works that his goal was to cover an expansive amount of information pertaining to the Kingdom, in ways that had never been undertaken in the past.

He wrote "In the writing of this book, my aim has been to present to an utter stranger to Travancore, such a picture of the land and its people, its natural peculiarities, its origin, its art, history and administration, its forests and animals, its conveniences for residence or travel, its agricultural, commercial, industrial, educational and economic activities, its ethnological, social and religious features in ways he may not himself be able to form or learn over a 30 years study or residence in it.

If this is a correct view of the objective of a manual, I trust that I may be permitted to entertain the hope that a fairly successful debut has been made, notwithstanding defects or shortcomings that may exist, especially as this is only a pioneer attempt in a novel direction".

LINK Physical reproduction copies of the various volumes can also be found online for those who are interested even to this day, as this work symbolizes the past of the 'Gods own country', also known as Kerala, named as one of the ten paradises of the world by National Geographic Traveler.