The Kunisseri Mamamkam
The Kummatti at Kunisseri Nestling between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea is the rice bowl of Malabar, todays Palakkad. Its strategic location and rich agricultural tradition was a cause for...
View ArticleThe Moplah Rifles (1902-1907)
A Short Lived experiment Many have asked me why I continue to use the word Moplah, and not the word Mappila. I have no real answer to that, perhaps it is because it is more often used in historical...
View ArticleHari Singh, Haider Ali and the Zamorin
A Punjabi adventurer and Calicut 1756-58 It is certainly a point of interest to note that a Punjabi adventurer in the employment of Devarajaiya the ruler of Mysore had something substantial to do with...
View ArticleOttoman links to Medieval Calicut
Pre Khilafat Turkiye Malabar Connections, ante 1919 Some years ago, I had touched on the connections between Malabar and Turkey in relation to the Khilafat movement of the 1920’s and how and why it...
View ArticleChina Kuttiali Marakkar
Chinna or China? The exact identities of the various Marakkars have continued to confuse me throughout my Malabar studies. We all know Kunhali IV and his story, especially the final stages when the...
View ArticleThe Kora Puzha custom
A Cultural or political boundary? I think most of us will recall that in the past, some of the strict rules when it came to marriages. People from Malabar would not marry from families down South or...
View ArticleThe tragic story of Pulicat Ratnavelu Chetty - ICS – Palghat 1879-1881
The first covenanted ICS officer of the Madras Presidency This story was lying in my drafts folder for a long time, as I was not able to establish the identity of the character involved. It was only...
View ArticleThe Malabar European Club – Calicut
A long time ago…. Some 500 years or so into the past, Calicut was not quite mired in obscurity. It was as one intrepid traveler wrote, ‘on the way to everywhere’. Traders and travelers vied to make...
View ArticleThe Umbrella Riots
Out at the islands, long ago - Lakshadweep Many years ago, a peculiar series of revolts took place in the lovely islands off to the west of Malabar, called the Lakshadweep (100,000 islands), which...
View ArticlePooku Moosa Marakkar
And his involvement in Travancore affairs - Marthanda Varma’s reign This is yet another interesting medieval trader who made his name and lost it after a lifetime of high-risk balancing acts between...
View ArticleWootz Steel and Malabar
The Outhaals of Nellumboor and the Wootz steel 'One blow of a Damascus sword would cleave a European helmet without turning the edge or cut through a silk handkerchief drawn across it' that was how...
View ArticleTipu Sultan’s delegation to Istanbul
The Embassy headed by Ghulam Ali As the 8th decade of the 18th century was drawing to a close, Fateh Ali, a.k.a. Tipu Sultan was left in a quandary. The Maratha wars had been raging and things were...
View ArticleVariyan Kunnath Kunahmad Haji - An Eranad Warlord
There is a furor these days about this 1921 Eranad rebel warlord and many expert opinions are being voiced. I was a bit intrigued as I had encountered VKH often in my Malabar Rebellion studies, but I...
View ArticleRama Nilayam, Trichur - A look back
An outhouse, a palace, the British residency and now a guest house On the town hall road, in front of the Kerala Sangeet Natak academy and adjoining the Sakthan Thampuran palace in Trichur is the...
View ArticleMenon and Menoki – a little study
Some time ago, we talked about the Nair caste and the various sub castes related to it, as well as their characteristics. Medieval Malabar, Cochin and Travancore had many castes, classifications, do...
View ArticleThe Strategic Wedge
The Checkered Story of Naduvattam, Palghat Most inhabitants of Palghat would not know about this principality, right in the middle of the Palghat district. In fact, it is the very area I come from,...
View ArticleGuruvayur, Hydrose and the Dutch
Clearing up some cobwebs The temple is well known to most people in South India. It is very popular, quite crowded these days with thousands of devotees lining to get a peek of Unnikrishnan or...
View ArticleThe Mutts of Trichur and Tirunavaya – Seats of Vedic learning in Kerala
Bhramaswom MadhomsSometimes you despair at how the Englishman corrupted the transliteration of a Malayalam or Sanskrit word, in this case, Mutt which actually stands for Madhom or Matha, a monastic...
View ArticleZamorin – An etymological discussion
Malabar’s history recounted in the Keralolpathi, a Malayalam work (presumably penned by Tunchath Ezhutatchan) from the 17th century or later starts with the Parasurama epoch where he reclaims the land...
View ArticleThe Samiri and Taj-al Din at Dhofar
Continuing with the Cheraman Perumal myths… The Keralolpathi, the Zainuddin Makkhdum’s call for a jihad against the accursed Franks, the Fath ul mubiyn, they all mention of a King from the Hind who...
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