Kola Swarupam Kolathunadu | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c. 6th century BCE (conventional dating)–Modern Era | |||||||||
 Ezhimala, early historic headquarters of Kola Swaroopam. | |||||||||
| Capital | Ezhimala, Valapattanam, Chirakkal and various other capitals | ||||||||
| Common languages | Malayalam | ||||||||
| Religion | Hinduism | ||||||||
| Government | Absolute Monarchy | ||||||||
| Kolattiri | |||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Established | c. 6th century BCE (conventional dating) | ||||||||
• Disestablished | Modern Era | ||||||||
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| Part of a series on the |
| History of Kerala |
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Kolattunādu (Kola Swarupam, as Kingdom of Cannanore in foreign accounts, Chirakkal (Chericul) in later times) was one of the four most powerful kingdoms on the Malabar Coast during the arrival of the Portuguese Armadas in India, along with Zamorin, the Kingdom of Cochin and Quilon. Kolattunādu had its capital at Ezhimala and was ruled by the Kolattiri royal family and roughly comprised the North Malabar region of Kerala state in India. Traditionally, Kolattunādu is described as the land lying between the Chandragiri river in the north and the Korappuzha river in the south.[1] The Kolathunadu (Kannur) Kingdom at the peak of its power, reportedly extended from the Netravati River (Mangalore) in the north to Korapuzha (Kozhikode) in the south with the Arabian Sea on the west and Kodagu hills on the eastern boundary, also including the isolated islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.[2]
The ruling house of Kolathunādu, known as the Kolathiris, were descendants of the Mushaka royal family, an ancient dynasty of Kerala, and rose to become one of the major political powers in the Kerala region, after the disappearance of the Cheras of Mahodayapuram and the Pandyan Dynasty in the 12th century AD.[3][4]
The Kolathiris trace their ancestry back to the ancient Mushika kingdom (Ezhimala kingdom, Eli-nadu) of the Tamil Sangam age. After King Nannan of the Mushika dynasty was killed in a battle against the Cheras, the chronicled history of the dynasty is obscure, except for a few indirect references here and there. However, it is generally agreed among conventional scholars that the Kolathiris are descendants of King Nannan, and later literary works point towards kings such as Vikramaraman, Jayamani, Valabhan and Srikandan of the Mushika Dynasty. The Indian anthropologist Ayinapalli Aiyappan states that a powerful and warlike clan of the Bunt community of Tulu Nadu was called Kola Bari and the Kolathiri Raja of Kolathunadu was a descendant of this clan.[5] The more famous Travancore royal family is a close cousin dynasty of the Kolathiris.[6][7][8]
Though the Kolattiris were generally credited with superior political authority over the zone between the kingdoms of Canara and Zamorin's Calicut, their political influence was more or less confined to Kolattunādu.[9][10]
Ezhimala, their ancient capital, was one of the most important trading centres on the Malabar coast along with Quilon and Calicut, and found mention in the writings of Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo and Wang Ta-Yuan. In the course of time, their territories were divided into a number of petty vassal principalities, chief among them Cannanore and Laccadives, Cotiote and Wynad, Cartinad (Badagara), Irvenaad, and Randaterra. The so-called "Five Friendly Northern Rulers" (Nilesvaram, Kumbla, Vitalh, Bangor, and Chowtwara) were contiguous to Kolattnad, north of the Kavvayi river. They engaged in frequent rivalry with their powerful neighbors in the south, the Zamorins of Calicut—a permanent feature of Kerala history. The caste restrictions and Korapuzha boundary between North Malabar and the Zamorin's kingdom were established after their rivalry. Some historical accounts also suggest that the Kolathunad kingdom was friendly with the Travancore Kingdom and the Tulu kingdom.[11]
Cherusseri Namboothiri (c. 1375-1475 AD), the author of Krishna Gatha, a landmark in the development of Malayalam literature, lived in the court of Udayavarman Kolattiri, one of the kings of the Kolathiri Dynasty.
- ^ Keralolpatti Granthavari: The Kolattunad Traditions (Malayalam) (Kozhikode: Calicut University, 1984) M. R. Raghava Varier (ed.)
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Kola Swaroopamwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sreedhara Menon, A. (4 March 2011). Kerala History and its Makers. D C Books. ISBN 9788126437825.
- ^ Perumal of Kerala by M. G. S. Narayanan (Kozhikode: Private Circulation, 1996)
- ^ Ayinapalli, Aiyappan (1982). The Personality of Kerala. Department of Publications, University of Kerala. p. 162. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
A very powerful and warlike section of the Bants of Tulunad was known as Kola bari. It is reasonable to suggest that the Kola dynasty was part of the Kola lineages of Tulunad.
- ^ Singh, Anjana (2010). Fort Cochin in Kerala, 1750-1830: The Social Condition of a Dutch Community in an Indian Milieu. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004168169.
- ^ Induchudan, V. T. (1971). The Golden Tower: A Historical Study of the Tirukkulasekharapuram and Other Temples. Cochin Devaswom Board. p. 164.
- ^ de Lannoy, Mark (1997). The Kulasekhara Perumals of Travancore: History and State Formation in Travancore from 1671 to 1758. Leiden University. p. 20. ISBN 978-90-73782-92-1.
- ^ Duarte Barbosa, The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants, II, ed. M. L Dames (repr., London: Hakluyt Society, 1921)
- ^ The Dutch in Malabar: Selection from the Records of the Madras Government, No. 13 (Madras: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Press, 1911), 143.
- ^ British Indian Government of Madras (1891). Malabar Marriage Commission Report.
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