Kerala, the land of green magic, is a narrow, fertile strip on the south-west coast of India. Sandwiched between the Lakshadweep, Arabian sea and the Western Ghats. The landscape is dominated by rice fields, mango and cashew nut trees and, above all, coconut palms. The Western Ghats, with their dense tropical forests, misty peaks, extensive ridges and ravines, have sheltered Kerala from main land invaders and encouraged maritime contact with the outside world.

The origin of the inhabitants of Kerala is nearly lost in the hoary past. It is beyond doubt that the Malayalee's culture is the offshoot of Dravidian culture. There are striking similarities in the languages, customs and other cultural aspects to the Mediterranean civilization and Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and that of Sri Lanka. Anthropologically, the Dravidas are a mixture of Proto-Australoids, Mediterranean and Negritos. History 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. It is said that 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 both sea and land from the north. It was at a much later stage that a distinctive culture began to take shape.

Mainly the Cheras, the Cholas and the Pandyas ruled South India. 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 association 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 synthesized language of Sanskrit and Tamil. During this period, Ayurveda also took its roots in Kerala. Even today, it is practiced mostly in Kerala with the specialty of ‘Panchakarma’ involving medicated oil massages. The influence of Adi Sankara who was born at Kalady in Kerala during the seventh or eight century was also very strong. He, who was the exponent of the Advaita Philosophy, revived the Brahminic Hinduism in the whole of India.

 

MORE >>