The
origin of the inhabitants of Kerala is nearly lost
in the hoary past. It is beyond
doubt that the Malayali culture is the offshoot of
the Dravidian culture. There are striking similarities
in the languages, customs and other cultural aspects
to the Mediterranean civilization, civilization of
Egypt and Mesopotamia, to some extent the Indus Valley,
and that of Sri Lanka. Anthropologically, the Dravidas
are a mixture of Ptoto-Australoids, Mediterranean’s and Negritude’s. Tradition has it that the Dravidas
inhabited a land to the west of the Indian peninsula
and eventually made Madurai their capital. There
is a tradition in the ‘Vadakkan pattukal’ that
the Ezhavas arrived in Kerala by sea from Ezham,
which is interpreted to be the present day Sri Lanka.
However, it is interesting to note that the land
to the east of the Tigris in Iran, now called Khuzistan
was once known as Elam. A civilization flourished
there five thousand years ago with city states having
distinctive culture and language. Their language
is found similar to the Dravidian language. In any
case it appears that the ancestors of the present
inhabitants of south India had arrived here by sea
rather than by land from the north. It was only at
a much later stage that the region now constituting
Kerala developed its distinctive culture.
South India
was ruled mainly by the Cheras, the Cholas and
the Pandyas. The Cheras held their sway
over the whole of Kerala and to some extent to the
east of the Western Ghats. There were frequent clashes
between the Cheras and the Pandyas and eventually
the Cholas succeeded and ruled the whole of Kerala.
Gradually several local rulers came up and for a
few centuries there was little intercourse between
Keralites and outsiders. It is conjectured that Malayalam
started developing as a separate language during
this period. The influence of Sanskrit was tremendous
and Malayalam became a sort of a synthetic language
of Sanskrit and Tamil. During this period, Ayurveda
also took its roots in Kerala and even today it is
practiced mostly in Kerala with the speciality of ‘Panchakarma’ involving
medicated oil massages.
The influence of Adi Sankara who was born at Kalady
in Kerala during the seventh or eighth century was
also very strong. He revived the Brahminic religion
in the whole of India. He was the exponent of the
Advaita Philosophy.
Keralites have always been a maritime people. Kerala
perhaps had the strongest navy in India. Early overseas
trade started with the export of ivory, peacocks,
monkeys, teakwood, sandalwood etc. to the Middle
East from the time of King Solomon. Later on foreign
trade continued with Rome till the fall of the Roman
empire. During this period, Kodungallur was the commercial
and political capital of Kerala. With the fall of
the Cholas in the second and third centuries, the
navy became weak. Yet, Kunhali Marikkar was a terror
to the Portuguese in the 1500s. The Portuguese and
thereafter the Dutch and then the British came here
to rule the seas |
