LAND AND PEOPLE

From as early as 3000 BC, Kerala had established itself as the major spice trade centre of the world. A 3rd-century-BC rock inscription by emperor Asoka the Great attests to a Keralaputra. Around 1 BC the region was ruled by the Chera Dynasty, which traded with the Greeks, Romans and Arabs. The Tamil Chera dynasty, Ays and the Pandyan Empire were the traditional rulers of Kerala whose patriarchal dynasties ruled until the 14th century.The Cheras collapsed after repeated attacks from the neighboring Chola and Rashtrakuta kingdoms. FeudalNamboothiri Brahmin and Nair city-states subsequently gained control of the region. Contact with Europeans after the arrival of Vasco Da Gama in 1498 gave way to struggles between colonial and native interests. By early 16th century, the Portuguese established their domination. They were defeated by the Dutch in 1663, who in turn were forced out of the land by the British East India Company in 1795, bringing the area under British dominion. After independence, the state of Kerala was created in 1956 from the former state of Travancore-Cochin, theMalabar district of Madras State, and the Kasaragod taluk of Dakshina Kannada.

Kerala is a popular tourist destination famous for its backwaters, Ayurvedic treatments and tropical greenery. Kerala has a higher Human Development Indexthan all other states in India. The state has a literacy rate of 94.59 percent, the highest in India. A survey conducted in 2005 by Transparency Internationalranked Kerala as the least corrupt state in the country. Kerala has witnessed significant migration of its people, especially to the Persian Gulf countries during the Kerala Gulf boom, and is heavily dependent on remittancesfrom its large Malayali expatriate community

Though physically and culturally Kerala is part of India, it is one of the distinctive regions of the area. Historically it has been isolated from the rest of the Peninsula. It is hard for many Keralites to admit that once Kerala was more caste-divided than any other area; it was only here that "untouchability" developed into "unapproachability" and "unseeability"; on the other hand, today it is one of the least caste-conscious and communally tranquil areas of India. Many young Keralites even do not know that the Nair gentry with its matrilinear organization (Marumakkathayam) once practiced polygamy and polyandry, Kerala has a high percentage (22%) of Christians whose traditions go back to St. Thomas the Apostle. The "white Jews" of Cochin are another cultural rarity. The first democratically elected Communist Party came to power in Kerala for the first time in the whole world.

The people of Kerala have always considered themselves Indians first, not only when they live outside India but also when they reside in Kerala. In this case they are significantly different from the other Dravidians like the Tamils who seem to consider themselves Tamils first and Indians next. There are, of course, many reasons for this unique phenomenon of Kerala: one with the larger Indian culture and yet distinct from the mainstream, while receiving much from the rest of India and contributing much to it. The main reason for it is that this once distinct ethnic Munda-Dravidian group of Keralites becameAryanized or Sanskritized to such a degree that they became culturally and racially very Aryan and less distinctly Dravidian like the Tamils who remain more Dravidian and less Aryan. The evidence for this can be easily seen in the physical features of Keralites and particularly in the Malayalam.

The word Malabar used first by Al-Biruni (973-1048 A.D.) and the Arab writers seems to be derived from mala (hill) --Cosmas Indicopleustus (6th century) refers to the Kerala Coast as male-- and varam (country); medieval Tamil writers called the land malainadu (the land of hills). The term Malayalam,which is the language of Malabar, is the indigenous word for denoting the country; it is composed of mala (hill) and alam (land). The word Keralam is found in the Ashoka inscriptions of the third century B.C. The word is formed from Chera (the Kera/Chera people) and alam (land) meaning "the land of Cheras." The second rock-edict of Ashoka (circa 273-236 B.C.) refers to "Keralaputra" along with the Cholas, Pandyas, and Satyaputra as the border kingdoms of the Maurya Empire. In the first century A.D., the Roman historian Pliny refers to Caelobrothas and the author of Periplus of the Erithryan Sea mentions it as Cerobothra; the second-century geographer Ptolemy calls the land Kerobothro.

Man came late to Kerala even though Kerala today is the most heavily over-populated region of India --4% of all Indians live on 1% of India's land. It seems that Stone-Age people deliberately avoided the forests of Kerala infested by Malaria-bearing mosquitoes and man-eating tigers. No relic of the Stone Age, not a single authentic Neolithic implement, has been discovered in any parts of Kerala. Mankind appeared on Kerala soil as an Iron-Age builder of megaliths.

Megaliths or huge burial stones carved by iron implements are scattered all along the ghats of Wynad in the north to Trivandrum in the south. My research shows a pattern of distribution for these stones extending all the way from Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh along the Nepal Valley down through the Vindhya Mountains to Tamil Nadu and the High Ranges of Kerala. This pattern indicates that Kerala'searly people were originally from the Northwest of India.

The megalithic types of Kerala -- similar to those of Brittany and Cornwall--are isolated and multiple dolmens, port-hole cists, menhirs, kudakallus or umbrella stones, topikallus or cap stones, and rock-cut caves. In many caves archeologists have found, especially during the Varkala Tunnel construction, old pots of the "black-and-red-ware" variety and human bones. At some sites even terra cotta figurines have been discovered. Topikallu and kudakallu are sepulchral monuments under which are found burial urns in pits. The remarkable thing about the Kerala megaliths is that they are not as old as the Harappan culture (2500-1500 B.C.). According to Sir Mortimer Wheeler and many historians, the megalith culture was introduced into Kerala between 300 B.C. and 50 A.D. Megalithic evidence shows that the builders came originally from Northwestern India and entered Kerala's High Ranges around 200 B.C.

Though we are unable to identify these early inhabitants of Kerala with any certainty, we can be certain that their descendants are alive and well in Kerala today. These people, Keralites of Kerala and elsewhere, are, in the view of anthropologists, "an ethnological museum." Several racial strains are easily recognized in the racial composition of the Keralites of different communities. There are still a number of "white" or fair-skinned Brahmins of the Aryan stock; according to the Kannada tradition. King MayuraVarma sent Brahmin families to Kerala from Ahichatra in North India.

Some point out the Negrito element as representing the earliest inhabitants of Kerala; some members of the hill tribes of Kadar, Kanikkar, Uralis, and Paniyar have curly to frizzy hair, black skin, broad noses, thick lips, and round heads that are characteristic of the Negroes of the Andaman Islands, Malay Peninsula, and Africa. However, the Australoids also have similar features; the Australoid group is the major racial element in the Munda or Kolarian population of North and Central India and in the Dravidian population of South India. Some anthropologists even notice distinctive Mongoloid features in Kerala Dravidians.

It is a truism to say that to a greater or lesser extent mankind is a mixture of races. But it is true. Pure races do not exist in the human species. Everywhere racial mixing is taking place just as sex-mixing is taking place among different breeds of cows and dogs. All human races cross easily and produce normal, healthy progeny with generally improved physical and mental qualities.

Kerala is one of the smallest states in the Indian union. Its area 38.855 square kilometers is just 1.3 percent of the total area of India. The land of Indiabounded by the Western Ghats n the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. In the words of Sreedhara Menon “Its unique geographical position and peculiar physical features have invested Kerala with a distinct individuality.” Hence it has played a vital role in the commercial and cultural history of India.Kerala has been describes “as the favorite child of nature.” Like Kashmir in the north, Kerala in the south is famous for its breath-taking natural beauty.

With its evergreen mountains, dense forests stately palms, swift flowing rivers, extensive backwaters and blue lagoons, it looks like a fairyland. This atmosphere of beauty and peace has nurtured religion and art in Kerala and enabled her to become a precious gem in the necklace of Indian culture. Indian poets of eminence have showered their praises for the abundance of its peppers, the fragrance of its sandal and the wealth of its coconuts. No part of India is so widely known or has played so important a part in world history as Kerala.

Natural Divisions: Physical features demarcate the state into three natural divisions. They are the lowland adjoining the sea, the midland consisting of the undulating country east of the lowlands and the forest -clad highland on the extreme east. The lowland bordering the sea is dotted with innumerable coconut palms and the expansive stretches of paddy crops. The midland regions comprise valleys, punctuated here and there by isolated hills.

This rich and fertile region bears the largest extent of agricultural crops. The Western Ghats which range along the eastern border constitute the highland. They form a natural wall of protection to the state. Extensive tea and cardamom plantation dominate the higher elevations; while ginger, rubber, pepper, and turmeric flourish at the lower elevations. The hilly portion is broken up by long spurs, deep savines, dense forests and tangles jungles.

Geographical Isolation: The geographical position of Kerala as a narrow strip of land ensconced between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats has considerably influenced the course of its history. From the dawn of history it has created a kind of insularity. As a result, Kerala seldom felt the impact of many foreign invasions which had ravaged North India form time to time. Owing to this insularity, it took nearly two centuries for Buddhism to reach Kerala. She also evolved “its own way of life and social institutions unhampered by excessive interference from outside.

Long ago in the mists of time as it were, Lord Vishnu descended from the heavens in his incarnation of Parashuram. After slaying the evil kings 21 times over to repeal their force from earth, he did penance for waging the terrible war, and threw his axe into the sea. The area where the axe land- ed, from shaft to blade, rose from the sea as Kerala, a land of plenty and prosperity. Its geographical position has been responsible too for Kera- la's historic ebb and flow. The strip of land found a natural defense in the hills that sealed off one longitudinal section, leaving it open to access from the sea alone.

Sea trade started with the Phoenicians, and in 1000 BC Kerala was visited by King Solomon's ships that travelled to `Ophir' in all probability the modern Puvar, south of Trivandrum. Then followed the galleys of other far-off countries : Greece, Rome, Arabia, China. A fresh wave of trading history started with the Europeans : the Portuguese were forced out of the area. By 1795, however, the Dutch too had to move out, for the British traders had become the strongest power in India by that time. In all this period of prosperity and strife, the region's identity existed as the Malabar Coast and Cochin Travancore. It was only in 1956 that it gained recognition as an independent state, Kera- la.