History of Kerala

History of Kerala or "land of spices" or "God;s own country":

I learnt and read Christopher Columbus found out America accidentally when he sailed in the year 1491 to find out a sea-route to Kerala, the land of spices( God’s Own Country). In Kerala varieties of spices grow abundantly. The Western world bought the spices from Kerala, that gave flavor to the foods of the west and is also famous for “Black Gold” i.e black pepper.

Kerala is one of the 28 States comprising the Indian Union, which is the largest Democratic Republic in the world. This is the southernmost state which is on the shores of the Arabian Sea. It has an area of 15,005 sq. miles or 38,863 sq. kms. with 30 million people, and it is divided into 14 districts.

The language of Kerala is Malayalam, which had originated from Sanskrit and Tamil.
There is no unanimous opinion among the scholars as regards the origin of the name "Kerala". The earliest name known of the tract was Chera associating with the kingdom of the Chera king who was known as "Keralaputra" at the time of the edicts of Asoka (257 B.C.). Malayalam, another name of the state, which is also the name of the language, is probably derived from mala (hill) and alam (dale) corresponding to the undulating physical feature of Kerala, the land of hills and valleys.

Kerala has three Malayalam speaking states (Cochin; Travancore and Malabar)

"Malabar" is a partially Arabicized form of the same word. The northern area of Kerala is still known as Malabar. The word Malabar corresponds to the vernacular "Malayalam". Keram in vernacular means coconut tree. Coconut trees grow here in abundance. So some scholars think that the word Kerala is derived from keram, meaning land of coconut trees. It was only in November of 1956 that the three Malayalam speaking states of Travancore, Cochin and Malabar were integrated into one political unit and given the name Kerala as one of the states of the Republic of India. The name more often used by the European writers was "Malabar."

Extensive trade relations existed between Malabar and the Mediterranean countries even before the Christian Era. The numerous golden coins of the Roman Empire which have been found all over the south, as well as many recent discoveries, offer abundant proof that Roman trade centers existed along the southern coasts of India. While King Solomon was ruling over the Israelites (B.C. 970-930), his warships brought back to his country valuable merchandise supposed to be from Muziris (Cranganore), a defunct international port of Malabar. While discussing the dealings of the Phoenicians with Muziris, the Roman historian Pliny (77 B.C.) complained that every year they were sending large sum of money to India for silk, pearls, gems and spices. He also remarked that the Malabar ships were visiting the Persian Gulf, Aden, the Red Sea and Egypt. Pliny (A.D. 23-79), Ptolemy (A.D. 100-160) and the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea give much detailed information about the trading centers of Malabar. Diplomatic relations between Malabar and Roman Empire existed even before the Christian era.