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 The history of Kerala is as colorful as the land is physically, politically and socially.The earliest inhabitants of Kerala are said to be hunters belonging to the Negrito tribe. During the time of Ashoka the Great (269-232 BC) of the Mauryan Empire in northern India, most of Kerala was ruled by the Cheras, or Keralaputras as mentioned in Ashoka’s records. Buddhist monks sent by Ashoka established monasteries here. Jainism had also reached the shores of Kerala.
The Sangam Age (AD 1-500) witnessed the rise of three kingdoms in Kerala, the Ays in the south (later Travancore), the Cheras in the center, and the Ezhimalas to the north. By AD 800, the Second Chera Empire inaugurated a reign of great kings that ended in AD 1102 following the death of Rama Varma Kulasekhara. From the ashes of the Chera Empire rose the Venad Kingdom, that crumbled by the 18th century before the rise of the Travancore dynasty in southern Kerala. Meanwhile, the Zamorins of Calicut had risen to prominence in northern Kerala (present-day Kozhikode).
The Portuguese had already established trade links with Kerala. Their monopoly was brought to an end by the Dutch and the British. The Dutch were eventually defeated by Marthanda Varma (1729-1758) of the Travancore dynasty at the Battle of Colachel. Following a spell of Mysore’s rule of Malabar, the British finally gained control of the entire region comprising present-day Kerala by 1806, bringing Malabar, Kochi and Travancore under the Madras Presidency. Following the Indian independence in 1947, the modern state of Kerala was formed on November 1, 1956. |
