Kerala

“ According to ancient tradition the kingdoms of the south were three—Pandya, Chola and Chera. Pandya occupied the The Kingdoms of the South. extremity of the peninsula, south of Pudukottai, Chola extended northwards to Nellore, and Chera lay to the west, including Malabar, and is identified with the Kerala of Asoka. All three kingdoms were occupied by races speaking Dravidian languages. The authentic history of the south does not begin until the 9th and 10th centuries A.D., though the kingdoms are known to have existed in Asoka’s time. ”

“ Salt is manufactured along the coast. The capital is Ernakulam, but the raja resides at Tripunthora. The principal commercial centre is Mattancheri, adjoining the British town of Cochin. The chief means of communication is by boat along the backwaters; but in 1902 a metre-gauge line was constructed by the Madras railway at the expense of the state to connect Ernakulam with Shoranur.
History.—What is now the native state of Cochin formed, until about the middle of the 9th century A.D., part of the ancient Chera or Kerala kingdom (see Kerala) . ”

“ Thomas the Apostle—McCrindle’s Ptolemy p. 51. ↑ Yule conjectured that Bakarei must have been between Kanetti and Kollam poilon) in Travancore. McCrindle’s Ptolemy. p. 134. ↑ Puram, Stanzas 127 to 136. ↑ “Karonra” says Caldwell “is mentioned in Tamil traditions as the ancient capital of the Chera, Kera or Kerala kings, and is generally identified with Karur, an important town in the Coimbatore District, originally included in the Chera kingdom. It is situated on the left bank of the river Amarâvati, a tributary of the Kaviri near a large fort now in ruins—” (Introd., pp. 96, 97) . ”

“ Correspondingly, the Bants of the northern parts of Canara still answer to the territorial name of Nad Bants, or warriors of the nad or territory. It is necessary to explain that, in both ancient Keralam and Tulu, the functions of the great military and dominant classes were so distributed that only certain classes were bound to render military service to the ruling prince. The rest were lairds or squires, or gentleman farmers, or the labourers and artisans of their particular community, though all of them cultivated a love of manly sports. ”

“ The following Kingdoms and towns, outside Tamilakam are alluded to by Tamil poets :—The Kingdom of Magadha and the town of Kapilai which was the birthplace of Buddha [7] : the Kingdom of Mâlava and its capital Avanti: the Kingdom of Vajra: [8] the seaport Gangai on the banks of the Ganges, which was in the territory of the Kannar: [9] Vâranavâsi, the modern Benares: Thuvarai or Dwaraka in Guzerat, the capital of the deified hero Krishna. [10] Ceylon was known as Lanka-dvipa or Ratna-dvipa: the highest mountain in the island was Samanoli [11] (now called Adam’s Peak) ”

“ Koli covers a multitude of tribes—not yet fully embraced in the Hindu caste system—whose unity of name and manifold distinction in fact forms one of the most difficult of the unexplained problems of Indian ethnology. A century ago most of their tribes were freebooters, cattle-lifters, caterans. Many Koli families won themselves little principalities, and some have got themselves recognized among the Rajput clans. Others are peaceful cultivators, and there are many who live as labourers by the sweat of their brow. ”

“ Free drinking of toddy at the expense of one of the parties accompanies every caste assembly. It is the aggrieved party who gives notice for assembly of the kulam. The disputants join hands, thereby indicating to the kulam that their dispute should be decided by them. Each pays one rupee. The kulam may decide the dispute at once, or adjourn for further consideration at any time. The next meeting is called the second joining of hands, when each pays one rupee, as before, to be spent in toddy. A man who fails to attend when the kulam has been convened loses his caste absolutely. ”

“ The island of Ceylon, perhaps the most beautiful tropical country in the world, lies near the end of the Indian peninsula but a little to the east. At one point a chain of smaller islands and rocks said to have been built by Rama as a passage for his army of monkeys leads to the mainland. It is therefore natural that the population should have relations with southern India. Sinhalese art, religion and language show traces of Tamil influence but it is somewhat surprising to find that in these and in all departments of civilization the influence of northern India is stronger. ”

“ Ceylon is the first place where we have a record of the introduction of Indian civilization and its entry there illustrates all the phenomena mentioned above, infiltration, colonization and propaganda. The island is close to the continent and communication with the Tamil country easy, but though there has long been a large Tamil population with its own language, religion and temples, the fundamental civilization is not Tamil. A Hindu called Vijaya who apparently started from the region of Broach about 500 B.C. led an expedition to Ceylon and introduced a western Hindu language. ”

“ Karaiyān.—A name for Tamil sea-fishermen, who live on the coast (karai) . The fishing section of the Palles is known as Palle Kariyālu. See Pattanavan.
Kārālan.—In the Census Report, 1891, the Kārālans (rulers of clouds) are returned as a tribe of hunters and cultivators found in the hills of Salem and South Arcot. In the Report, 1901, Kārālan is given as a synonym for Vellāla in Malabar, and also as a name for Malayālis. At the census, 1901, many of the Malayālis of the Shevaroy hills in the Salem district returned themselves as Vellālas and Kārālans. ”

“ Nor has one to go so very far from the heart of Calcutta to be reminded that the "premier city" of modern India derives its name from Kali, the most sinister of Indian goddesses. She was the tutelary deity of Kali-Kata, one of the three villages to which Job Charnock removed the first British settlement in Bengal when he abandoned Hugli in 1690, and her shrine has grown in wealth and fame with the growth of Calcutta. Kali-Kata is to-day only a suburb of the modern city, but in entering it one passes into another world—the world of popular Hinduism. ”

“ In every branch of the public services open to Indians and in all the liberal professions, as well as in the civic and political life of their country, the Bengalees have played a leading part, not restricted even to their own province, and in the very distinguished person of Lord Sinha, Bengal has just provided for the first time an Indian to represent the King-Emperor as governor of a province—the neighbouring province of Behar and Orissa. Nor have the women of Bengal been left behind as in so many other parts of India. ”

“ I fancy Kôla, a name for pepper in Sanskrit, may be derived from the name of the country Kôlam, North Malabar, which is much more celebrated for its pepper than the country around Quilon. This Kôlam, though resembling Kollam, is really a separate word, and never confounded with the latter by the natives. The prince of Kôlam (North Malabar) is called Kolastri or Kolattiri [A] . Compare also Kôlagiri, the name of a hill in the Sanskrit dictionaries, called also the Kôlla giri. The only possible derivations for the Tamil and Malayalim name of Quilon that I am acquainted with are these: (1.) ”

“ As the result of this movement, the southwest district is to-day occupied mainly by Sinhalese, who form two-thirds of the native population, while the northern part is peopled by Tamils who belong in language, race and religion to Southern India. The Chinese, who for many centuries traded with Ceylon and at one time conquered it and carried away the reigning king, have left no traces ”

“ The next tribe of Tamil invaders was the Thirayer o “Sea Kings.” They were a great seafaring race, whose home appears to have been Lower Bengal and who travelled by sea to Burmah, Cochin, China, Ceylon and Southern India. A King of this tribe named Thirayan who reigned at Kanchi, the modern Kanchi-puram contemporary with Karikal-Chola, claimed to be a descendant of the god Vishnu, whose bed is on the ocean, according to Hindu Mythology [32] It was on this account perhaps that the Chola Kings who belonged to this tribe, boasted of being descendants of the solar race. ”

“ Kiladi, now a petty village in the north-west of Mysore, was the homestead of two brothers who, about the year 1560, having found a treasure, and duly sacrificed a human victim, according to the barbarous practice of the time, received from the Rájá, of Vijayanagar a grant for the territory which their wealth enabled them to overrun. ”

“ These have hitherto been confused with the Kori caste. The Koris or weavers are also known as Koli, but in Nimār they have the designation of Khangār Koli to distinguish them from the tribe of the same name. The Kolis proper are found in the Burhānpur tahsīl, where most villages are said to possess one or two families, and on the southern Satpūra hills adjoining Berār. They are usually village servants, their duties being to wait on Government officers, cleaning their cooking-vessels and collecting carts and provisions. ”

“ In the interior below the ghats, Venkadam or the modern Tirupaty was the northern limit of the Tamil land. It is most remarkable that after the lapse of eighteen centuries, during which many, a kingdom rose and fell, and the Tamils, Telugus, Mahrattas, Musalmans, French and English successively rose to political power, the language boundary has remained unaltered on the eastern coast. The same cannot be said of the boundary of the Tamil land on the western coast, for, it has advanced there from Badagara to Kasaragod, a distance of about sixty miles. ”

“ There is good reason to believe from the names of places and from local tradition that the Munda tribes were once spread over Bihār and parts of the Ganges Valley; and if the Kolis are an offshoot of the Kols, as is supposed, they also penetrated across Central India to the sea in Gujarāt and the hills of the western Ghāts. ”

“ Of the Kolarians the foremost representatives are the Koles, the Koches, the Sunth [=a] ls, and the Sav [=a] ras (Sauras) , who are all regarded by Johnston as the yellow Dasyus, barbarians, of the earliest period; while he sees in the V [=a] içyas, or third caste of the Hindu political divisions, the result of a union of the Northwest and Northeast conquerors. ”

“ Mr. Colebrooke’s Digest Of Hindu Law, is indispensable; and I strongly recommend his Treatise on the Husbandry and Internal Commerce of Bengal. Sale’s Koran will supply the fullest information xiregarding the fundamental principles of the Mahomedan religion; and Reynell’s Memoirs, united with his Atlas, and Map, or Arrowsmith’s Map of India, on a larger scale, will prove the best guides in acquiring the geography, together with many local matters extremely interesting to persons travelling in any part of our territory, but especially in Bengal. ”

“ A town and district of Southern India, probably Tiru-nel-vēli, 'Sacred Rice-hedge.' [The Madras Gloss. gives 'Sacred Paddy-village.'] The district formed the southern part of the Madura territory, and first became a distinct district about 1744, when the Madura Kingdom was incorporated with the territories under the Nawāb of Arcot (Caldwell, H. of Tinnevelly) . ”

“ The Northern portion of the island of Ceylon, where the Tamils are settled for the last eight centuries, may also be now regarded as a part of the Tamil-land. Even within these narrow limits, the Tamils were many a time in danger of being overwhelmed by other races, but a merciful Providence appears to have arrested every invading force before it could completely overrun the country. ”

“ And, in the old Tamil work called the Kalveddu, the position of the pearl-fishing caste to this monarchy is incidentally mentioned in the following extract: 'Vidanarayanen Cheddi and the Paravu men who fished pearls by paying tribute to Alliyarasani, daughter of Pandya, king of Madura, who went on a voyage, experienced bad weather in the sea, and were driven to the shores of Lanka, where they founded Karainerkai and Kutiraimalai. ”

“ The province, now called Malabar, is part of the Kerula Rajya, the kingdom of Kerula, one of the fifty-six deshas, or regions, enumerated in ancient Hindoo history as forming the Bharata Khanda or Land of India. It is supposed to have been recovered from the sea by the sixth incarnation of Vishnu, who in expiation of a matricidal crime gave over to the Brahmans, particularly to those of the Moonsut tribe, the broad lands lying between Go-karna [71] and Kanya Kumari, or Cape Comorin. The country is also known by the names of Malayalim, the “mountain land;” ”

“ Lord Curzon, however, was determined to cut Bengal Proper and the Bengali-speaking community in two, giving 25,000,000 of the population to the new Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam with a new capital at Dacca, and 18,000,000 of the population to a Province still to be called Bengal, with the old capital of Calcutta, and bound up with the outlying districts of Behar, Chota Nagpur, and Orissa, all of which differ from Bengal in race, language, and civilization, as does Assam. ”

“ They were the Kareoi of Ptolemy. The correct form of the name in Tamil is Karaiyar or the “Coast men,” which is to this day the ordinary designation of the Parathavar tribe amongst the Tamils. Korkai, the chief town in the country of the Parathavar was the seat of the pearl fishery and the population of the town consisted mostly of pearl divers and chank-cutters. [59] The pearl
fishery was a source of such large revenue to the Pandyan kingdom, that the heir-apparent usually resided here. ”