From: paulchem@tigger.cs.Colorado.EDU (Icarus)
Subject: Kerala -Excerpted Notes -- I      --Icarus.
Organization: The Net-Anarchists of SCI, Inc.
              Flaming Homer Division.
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 00:10:36 GMT

1] I intend to send in a rapid summary of Kerala history
   excerpted from a book: Marriage and Family in Kerala. [Puthenkulam 
   Joseph, 1977]

   Any comments on this posting will decide whether I 
   continue or not.

   Needless to say all spelling errors are mine. 

2] CAn anyone suggest the malayalam equivalent of Icarus ?
   Seriously. Any suggestions welcome.

3] 

  Ecological and Ethnographical Influence on Keralas Social Structure.
  --------------------------------------------------------------------

Kerala's geography provides a partial explanation of its social structure
and features. Cultural integrity is generally an effect of geographical 
isolation, when contact with foreign cultures is limited, or few and far
between. A nation on the high roads of migration or located in the gambit
of wars cannot escape social changes brought about by foreign impact. 
Keralas political and cultural developements are conditioned to a large extent
by these geographical and physical environments.

For centuries Kerala enjoyed an isolation guaranteed by nature. Situated in
the south-western corner of India, she was far out of the way of the great migrations 
and wars which affected the destinies of India.
Kerala is a very clearly defined geographical expression within India itself.
Hemmed in the east by the lofty mountains of the Western Ghats and girt by the
seas on the west and south, nature has clearly fashioned Kerala to be a isolated

natural unit. The western ghats always proved to be a obstacle for large scale 
invasions by foreign armies and migrations. Migrations did come, but in trickles
.

It is certain that the majority of the population is exotic to the land. They 
conquered the aboriginal inhabitants and established themselves in spite of
resistance. The pre-Dravida types like the kadars, Uralis, Pulayas, irulas, Kanikkars, Paniyans, Malapandarams, Malavetans, Tandupulayans, Mala-aryans etc
are the natives of the soil, whose descendants are still found in small numbers
in the forest regions of Kerala. Where did the immigrants come from ?
The greatest possibility is that thE Kerala people are from the east coast.

Caldwell seems to argue from linguistics towards  this conclusion.



It is possible that some of the immigrants Came from far off oceanic islands.
One of the traditions regarding the ezhavas was taht they came from 
Ezhathunadu, Ceylon.
The coconut which became the symbol of Kerala(Kera Vriksha means coconut)
seems to have been brought here by immigrants from Indonesia.
Some of the special customs prevalent among the sumatra people like 
matriliny are pointed out as evidence.
Chatterjee points out the common customs between the keralite people and the
people of Cambodia, such as ancestor worship combined with worship of the
gods.
The coiffure and the dress of their men and women are similar to those of
thE NayArs.

Whatever their origin - whether they were Nagas or Nayudus or nayakkars--
the consensus of opinion seems to be that the Nayars and the other castes
of Kerala must have originally migrated into Kerala from the eastern side
of the Ghats.

Pliny's reference to the Naeri helps to fix the period of their immigration
and settlement.

The Arabian Sea Board and Social Changes in Kerala
--------------------------------------------------

If the mountain ranges in the east were an isolaTing barrier against free
communication with teh rest of India, the sea-board on the west was a stronger
wall of protection from foreign invaders. At no time did any large scale
immigration come into Kerala, by way of Sea.

The Parasu rama story has however a significant reference to his bringing 
settlers and exotic plants from an far off island in the sea.

dr. caldwell remarks that neither Roman travellers nor Cosmos Indikopleustes 
(VI Century) refer to the coconut tree. There is a possibility that the ezhavas introduced this plant from Indonesia via Ceylon.

Though the 360 miles long sea coast kept at bay large scale immigration
and invasion for a long period of time, adventurous merchants and seA-farerS
were not altogether shut out. Greek, Roman, Syrian, Phoenician, Arabian,
and Chinese schooners frequented the Malabar coast and laid anchor at 
Muziris( the modern Cranganore ), which pliny called the emporium of thE east.
Roman Sailors traversed the important centers of Kerals, which is clear
from the exact geographical descriptions provided in their travelogues
and the Pentingerian maps.

With the epoch making discovery of the monsoon winds by Hippalus in 78 AD
commerce between Kerala and the West increased. Pliny complains of teh drain of
gold from Rome, due to the craze for Malabar spices among the roman matrons
to be used as Condiments.
Ships from Cambodia and China on their way to Arabia and Europe called at the
Kerala ports like Vizhinjam Kanthallur (Both south of Trivandrum),
Quilon, and cranganore.


The western writers designate Kerala with several names like
Calobotras(Pliny), Kerobotras(Ptolemy), Keprobotras(Periplus).
Both Kera and Kela are local abbreviations for Kerala.
Kerobotras is similar to thE AsokaN Keralaputra of the Garnier inscriptions.
The ancient sanskrit writers called her Kerala.
Gundert thinks that the term Kerala is teh Canarese dialetical form for
Chera. Kerala is the more ancient name than malabar, which the Arabs
popularized in the west.

COsmos Indikopleustes(meaning Indian traveller) circa 545 AD refers to Kerala
as Male, which means "whence pepper comes". He was the first foreigner to
use the local name in a corrupted form. The Arab name is a combination of the
local word along with the "bar" which means place in their language.

The Jews had been trading with the Tarshish(Kerala) as early as the reign of
king Solomon (1000 BC) when the Israelites were importing such monopoly
products of Malabar as Ahil(Blackwood), sandalwood, teakwood, spices, ivory,
peacock, and karpion(cinnamon).

Some of the hebrew words like tokie and karpion are used in a corrupted form
in malayalam, tokai, karuppa or karpu.

It has been the tradition of the church in malabar that St. Thomas(52. A.D.)
preached and converted many brahmins to christianity. The Syrian Church in 
malabar consists of teh descendants of these converts. This church came to be
called by the exotic name of syrian, because of its connection with a syrian
colony established in cranganore by Thomas of Cana, The syro-phoenician merchant
sometime in IV C. BC. The native converts followeD the customs and habits of the
higher castes in Kerala, up to the time of the Council of Diamper(1599) ,
when they were forced by the Portugese to give up these customs.

The arabs came to exert great influence in the political destinies of Kerala,
not only as traders, but also as sailors in the navy, and soldiers in the army
of teh Malabar kings.
Preeminently patriarchal in their native land, the arabs began to contract
marraiges called the muta, which is akin to the sambandham. The children of
these were born into the mothers lineage and so some say
called, mapilla, or mothers children.



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.    ~ ~                                                                     .
.    o o      signito ergo sum.              paul chemmanoor.                .
.     |    i sign therefore i am.            Computer Science department.    .
.     =                                      Univ. of Colorado, Boulder.     .
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