Short Essay on the History of Kerala

The last of the Cheras of whom we hear in the Sangam age was one Kanaikkal Irumporai who was defeated and taken prisoner at Kalumalam by Cholan Senganan. The Tamil Navalar Charitai tells us that the Kalabhra invader defeated simultaneously a Chera, a Chola and a Pandya.

The Chera dominion which came to an end at that time did not revive in strength thereafter in the sense that the Pandyas under a Kadungon in the early 7th century and the Cholas under Vijayalaya in the ninth century, staged a come back. The Chera country or the eastern and northern parts of it came under Pandyan or Chola hegemony while isolated and distant pockets in the extreme south-west like the land of the Ays perhaps remained independent, due to its relatively inaccessible location.

The Social Composition

The social history of Kerala during the period beginning from the Christian era down to the founding of Quilon (Kollam) is an appendix to the history of Tamilnad. The orthodox Christians hold that St. Thomas the apostle arrived at Cranganore in Malabar from Socotra in AD 52 and having founded some churches there left for Mylapore where he became a martyr to the cause of Christianity.

Cosmos Indicopleustes says that there was evidence of Christianity in Kerala in the sixth century AD. The spread of Christianity in Palestine and the sack of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 71, obliged many Jews to leave for distant parts of the world; many of them reached South India. The Moplah population now in Malabar was the product of Arab marriage with local Indian women.

The Perumals and the Kollam Era

The Kollam era beginning with AD 824-AD 825 is the Malayalam era and stands for either the founding of Quilon or the end of the dynasty of the Perumals. Cheraman Perumal of the Saiva tradition and a Kulasekhara (Kulasekharalvar) of the Vaishnava tradition belonged to Kerala. The former is said to be a contemporary of Sundaramurthy (9th century AD) and to have visited Madurai in his company.

There is a story of Cheraman Perumal’s conversion to Islam and his pilgrimage to Mecca. It is difficult to be positive about the authenticity of this tale. Sankaracharya who was born at Kaladi (8th century AD) in Kerala was the great founder of Smarthaism and the exponent of the Advaita doctrine.

The history of Kerala before the ninth century is even culturally and linguistically a part of the history of Tamilnad. Malayalam as a distinct language grew out of a form of Koduntamil (a local idiom of Tamil). The Unnunili Sandesam of the 14th century is the earliest extent Malayalam literary work and so its relative modernity can be understood.

We hear about many Kerala kings of the 9th century in inscriptions. Of these, Stanu Ravi, the contemporary of Aditya, was the most important. He ruled in the last quarter of the ninth century. The Syrian Christian Kottayam copper plates record the settlement of workmen on a church erected at Kollam by one Iso Tapir.

Stanu Ravi was succeeded by Vijayaragadeva, described as koil adikarikal (palace manager) in the Kottayam plates and as the Raja of Kerala in an epigraph in Tiruvorriyur. About the 11th century we hear of one Bhaskara Ravivarman who issued a charter of grant of lands to the Jew Joseph Rabban. In the early 14th century we hear of the invasion of the Tamil country by Ravivarman Kulasekhara, ruler of South Travancore. He took advantage of the confusion caused by Malik Kafur’s invasion and marched upto Vellore. But he was defeated by Muppidi Nayaka, the Kakatiya general and that was the last great event in Kerala history of those times.