Pandyan Dynasty
Kolathunadu (Kingdom of Kannur) was one of the 4 most powerful kingdoms on the Malabar Coast during the arrival of Portuguese Armadas to India, the others being Zamorin, Kingdom of Cochin and Quilon. Kolattunādu had its capital at Ezhimala and was ruled by Kolattiri Royal Family and roughly comprised the North Malabar region of Kerala state in India. Traditionally, Kolattunādu is described as the land lying between Perumba river in the north and Putupattanam river in the south. The ruling house of Kolathunādu, also known as the Kolathiris, were descendants of the Mushaka Royal Family, (which was 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. The Kolathiris trace their ancestry back to the ancient Mushika kingdom (Ezhimala kingdom, Eli-nadu) of the Tamil Sangam Age. 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.