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About kerala
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Society And People
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With its 29
million people, Kerala is India's most advanced society in
terms of education, literacy and health. In fact, Kerala has
the highest physical Quality of Life Index too. The age old
wanderlust of the people of Kerala has taken them to
virtually every nation on the face of this earth.
The culture of Malayalis has a flavor of its own, though it
is a part of an Indian and the Dravidian culture. This has
been the product of the peculiar geographical feature of
Kerala. Bounded on the east by the Western Ghats and the
west by the Arabian sea, it had long periods of insular
existence. This has resulted in the distinctiveness of their
language, dress, culture and institutions.
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ORIGIN OF THE INHABITANTS
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, Mediterraneans and Negritoes. 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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History of
Kerala
