In 1741, an expedition was sent to Travancore under a Flemish officer Captain Eustance De Lenoy to gain a trading centre there. He assembled his forces at Colachel, a small but important seaport town to invade Travancore. Marthanda Varma, the Maharaja of Travancore and his forces, the present 9th Battalion of the Madras Regiment, met the invading army. In the fierce battle that ensued Marthanda Varma defeated the superior Dutch forces. Captain De Lenoy was captured. It is said that the Maharaja made him kneel before him as he petitioned for his life. The stamp however, does not portray that. It shows him standing before the majestic figure of the maharaja seated under a ceremonial umbrella with his sword close at hand. A ship riding the waves in the background shows that it is a seaport. The Maharaja agreed to spare the Dutch captain's life on condition that he joined his army and trained his soldiers on modern lines. He did that. The Travancore army was organised as the first battalion of Colonel Daly's Carnatic Brigade in 1749 and was successful in the annexation of various small principalities thereafter.

The Travancore army was not disbanded although it was reorganised several times in the intervening years and was redesignated as the first Battalion, Travancore Nayar Brigade. But times changed. It was the 1930s, the British Crown ruled directly most of the rest of India. They entered into loose alliances with many of the states in India by which they maintained a residency in them. Travancore was one such state. This meant that the army could be modernised. Under the Indian state forces Scheme, the army was merged with the state forces and renamed the First Travancore Nayar Infantry.