Travancore State Manual was a publication of the erstwhile Travancore kingdom, written and published under the statutory command of the king of Travancore. The Travancore kingdom was located at the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent, on its western side. Travancore State Manual was written by V. Nagam Aiya, who was then working as the Dewan Peishcar in Travancore government service.
The section on the Fauna of Travancore was contributed by Harold S. Ferguson, Esq. (F. L. N., F. Z. S), who Nagam Aiya describes in the following words: "a subject upon which he is an authority having spent nearly the whole of his life in the country, first as a Planter for several years on the Travancore Hills, then as the Guardian of the Princes, then as Commandant of one of the battalions in the Travancore army (Nayar Brigade), and lastly as the Director of the Government Museum and the Public Gardens at Trivandrum."