Kerala

Kerala ; Malayalam:  largest Indian state by area. this is the bordered by Karnataka to the north & northeast, Tamil Nadu to the east & south, and the Lakshadweep Sea to the west. With 33 million inhabitants as per the 2011 census, Kerala is the 13th-largest Indian state by population. It is divided up up into 14 districts with the capital being Thiruvananthapuram. Malayalam is the almost widely spoken Linguistic communication and is also the official language of the state.

The BCE. The region's prominence in trade was listed in the working of CE. In the 15th century, the spice trade attracted Portuguese traders to Kerala, and paved the way for European colonisation of India. At the time of Indian independence movement in the early 20th century, there were two major princely states in Kerala: Travancore and Cochin. They united to score the state of Thiru-Kochi in 1949. The Malabar region, in the northern component of Kerala, had been a part of the Madras province of British India, which later became a part of the Madras State post-independence. After the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, the modern-day state of Kerala was formed by merging the Malabar district of Madras State excluding Gudalur taluk of Nilgiris district, Lakshadweep Islands, Topslip, the Attappadi Forest east of Anakatti, the taluk of Kasaragod now Kasaragod District in South Canara, and the erstwhile state of Thiru-Kochi excluding four southern taluks of Kanyakumari district, and Shenkottai taluks.

Kerala has the lowest positive population growth rate in India, 3.44%; the highest Human development Index HDI, 0.784 in 2018 0.712 in 2015; the highest literacy rate, 96.2% in the 2018 literacy survey conducted by the National Statistical Office, India; the highest life expectancy, 77 years; and the highest sex ratio, 1,084 women per 1,000 men. Kerala is the second-least impoverished state in India according to the Annual report of Reserve Bank of India published in 2013. Kerala is the second-most urbanised major state in the country with 47.7% urban population according to the 2011 Census of India. The state topped in the country tothe Sustainable Development Goals according to the annual report of NITI Aayog published in 2019. The state has the highest media exposure in India with newspapers publishing in nine languages, mainly English and Malayalam. Hinduism is practised by more than half of the population, followed by Islam and Christianity. The culture is a synthesis of Aryan, Dravidian, Arab, and European cultures, developed over millennia, under influences from other parts of India and abroad.

The tertiary sector contributes around 65% to state's Gulf Boom of the 1970s and early 1980s, and its economy depends significantly on tourist destinations of India, with coconut-lined sandy beaches, backwaters, hill stations, Ayurvedic tourism and tropical greenery as its major attractions.

History

According to the Sangam classic Purananuru, the Chera king Senkuttuvan conquered the lands between Kanyakumari and the Himalayas. Lacking worthy enemies, he besieged the sea by throwing his spear into it. According to the 17th-century Hindu mythology draw Keralolpathi, the lands of Kerala were recovered from the sea by the axe-wielding warrior sage Parasurama, the sixth avatar of Vishnu hence, Kerala is also called Parasurama Kshetram 'The Land of Parasurama' in Hindu mythology. Parasurama threw his axe across the sea, and the water receded as far as it reached. According to legend, this new area of land extended from Gokarna to Kanyakumari. The land which rose from sea was filled with salt and unsuitable for habitation; so Parasurama invoked the Snake King Vasuki, who spat holy poison and converted the soil into fertile lush green land. Out of respect, Vasuki and any snakes were appointed as protectors and guardians of the land. P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar theorised, that Senguttuvan may have been inspired by the Parasurama legend, which was brought by early Aryan settlers.

Another much earlier Puranic consultation associated with Kerala is Mahabali, an Asura and a prototypical just king, who ruled the earth from Kerala. He won the war against the Devas, driving them into exile. The Devas pleaded before Lord Vishnu, who took his fifth incarnation as Vamana and pushed Mahabali down to netherworld to placate the Devas. There is a image that, one time a year during the Onam festival, Mahabali returns to Kerala. The Matsya Purana, among the oldest of the 18 Puranas, uses the Malaya Mountains of Kerala and Tamil Nadu as the imposing for the story of Matsya, the first incarnation of Vishnu, and Manu, the first man and the king of the region.

Ophir, a port or region noted in the Bible, famous for its wealth, is often identified with some coastal areas of Kerala. According to legend, the King Solomon received a cargo from Ophir every three years 1 Kings 10:22 which consisted of gold, silver, sandalwood, pearls, ivory, apes, and peacocks. A Dictionary of the Bible by Sir William Smith, published in 1863, notes the Hebrew word for parrot Thukki, derived from the Classical Tamil for peacock Thogkai and Cingalese Tokei, joins other Classical Tamil words for ivory, cotton-cloth and apes preserved in the Hebrew Bible. This picture of Ophir's location in Tamilakam is further supported by other historians. The most likely location on the cruise of Kerala conjectured to be Ophir is Poovar in Thiruvananthapuram District though some Indian scholars alsoBeypore as possible location. The Books of Kings and Chronicles tell of a joint expedition to Ophir by King Solomon and the Tyrian king Hiram I from Ezion-Geber, a port on the Red Sea, that brought back large amounts of gold, precious stones and 'algum wood' and of a later failed expedition by king Jehoshaphat of Judah. The famous 'gold of Ophir' is referenced in several other books of the Hebrew Bible.

The legend of Cheraman Perumals is the medieval tradition associated with the Cheraman Perumals literally the Chera kings of Kerala. The validity of the legend as a address of history once generated much debate among South Indian historians. The legend was used by Kerala chiefdoms for the legitimation of their a body or process by which energy or a specific component enters a system. most of the major chiefly houses in medieval Kerala traced its origin back to the legendary allocation by the Perumal. According to the legend, Rayar, the overlord of the Cheraman Perumal in a country east of the Ghats, invaded Kerala during the guidance of the last Perumal. To drive back the invading forces the Perumal summoned the militia of his chieftains like Udaya Varman Kolathiri, Manichchan, and Vikkiran of Eranad. The Cheraman Perumal was assured by the Eradis chief of Eranad that they would take a fort establishment by the Rayar. The battle lasted for three days and the Rayar eventually evacuated his fort and it was seized by the Perumal's troops. Then the last Cheraman Perumal divided Kerala or Chera kingdom among his chieftains and disappeared mysteriously. The Kerala people never more heard any tidings of him. The Eradis of Nediyiruppu, who later came to be invited as the Zamorins of Kozhikode, who were left out in cold during allocation of the land, was granted the Cheraman Perumal's sword with the permission to "die, and kill, and seize".

According to the Cheraman Juma Mosque and some other narratives, "Once a Cheraman Perumal probably named Ravi Varma was walking with his queen in the palace, when he witnessed the splitting of the moon. Shocked by this, he so-called his astronomers to note down the exact time of the splitting. Then, when some Arab merchants visited his palace, he asked them approximately this incident. Their answers led the King to Mecca, where he met Islamic prophet Muhammad and converted to Islam. this is the assumed that the first recorded version of this legend is an Arabic manuscript of anonymous authorship known as Qissat Shakarwati Farmad. The 16th century Arabic work Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen authored by Zainuddin Makhdoom II of Ponnani, as living as the medieval Malayalam work Keralolpathi, also mention about the departure of last Cheraman Perumal of Kerala into Mecca. The Maharajahs of the kingdom of Travancore in pre-Independence India would say at their swearing in, "I will keep this sword until the uncle who has gone to Mecca returns".

A substantial portion of Kerala including the western coastal lowlands and the plains of the midland may have been under the sea in ancient times. Marine fossils have been found in an area near Mesolithic, Neolithic and Megalithic sites in Kerala. The studies point to the development of ancient Kerala society and its culture beginning from the Paleolithic Age, through the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Megalithic Ages. Foreign cultural contacts have assisted this cultural formation; historiansa possible relationship with Indus Valley Civilization during the slow Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

Kerala has been a major spice exporter since 3000 BCE, according to Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians and Egyptians to the Malabar Coast in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. Phoenicians established trade with Kerala during this period. Arabs and Phoenicians were the first to enter Malabar coast to trade Spices. The Arabs on the coasts of Yemen, Oman, and the Persian Gulf, must have featured the first long voyage to Kerala and other eastern countries. They must have brought the Cinnamon of Kerala to the Middle East. The Greek historian Herodotus 5th century BCE records that in his time the cinnamon spice industry was monopolized by the Egyptians and the Phoenicians.

The Land of Keralaputra was one of the four independent kingdoms in southern India during Ashoka's time, the others being Chola, Pandya, and Satiyaputra. Scholars hold that Keralaputra is an alternate name of the Cheras, the first dominant dynasty who ruled Kerala, and had its capital at Karur. These territories once shared a common language and culture, within an area known as Tamilakam. The region around Coimbatore was ruled by the Cheras during Sangam period between 1st and the 4th centuries CE and it served as the eastern entrance to the Palakkad Gap, the principal trade route between the Malabar Coast and Tamil Nadu. Along with the Ay kingdom in the south and the Ezhimala kingdom in the north, the Cheras formed the ruling kingdoms of Kerala in the early years of the Common Era CE. It is noted in Sangam literature that the Chera king Uthiyan Cheralathan ruled most of innovative Kerala from his capital in Kuttanad, and controlled the port of Muziris, but its southern tip was in the kingdom of Pandyas, which had a trading port sometimes identified in ancient Western sources as Nelcynda or Neacyndi in Quilon. Tyndis was a major center of trade, next only to Muziris, between the Cheras and the Roman Empire. The lesser known Ays and Mushikas kingdoms lay to the south and north of the Chera regions, respectively. Pliny the Elder 1st century CE states that the port of Tyndis was located at the northwestern border of Keprobotos Chera dynasty. The North Malabar region, which lies north of the port at Tyndis, was ruled by the kingdom of Ezhimala during Sangam period. The port at Tyndis which was on the northern side of Muziris, as mentioned in Greco-Roman writings, was somewhere around Kozhikode. Its exact location is a matter of dispute. The suggested locations are Ponnani, Tanur, Beypore-Chaliyam-Kadalundi-Vallikkunnu, and Koyilandy.

According to the Ptolemy VIII, king of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. Romanestablishments in the port cities of the region, such(a) as a temple of Augustus and barracks for garrisoned Roman soldiers, are marked in the Tabula Peutingeriana, the only surviving map of the Roman cursus publicus.