- Malabar region
The Malabar region lies along the southwest coast of
India and forms the northern part of the present-day state ofKerala .Malayalam is the chief language of the region.Location
The Malabar region is in
southern India between theWestern Ghats and theArabian Sea , making up the northern half of the state ofKerala . Geographically the name is sometimes extended to the entire southwestern coast ofpeninsular India to the area called theMalabar Coast or the Malabari Coast . The land is tropical wet forests typical of southwestern India.History
The ancestors of today's Dravidian population have inhabited the Malabar region for centuries. The region formed part of the ancient kingdom of Chera. It became part of the
Hindu Vijayanagara empire in the 15th century. With the breakup of the empire in the mid-16th century, the Malabur region came under the rule of a number of local chieftains notably theKolathiris ofKannur ,Zamorins of Calicut, and theValluvokonathiris ofWalluvanad . In the 18th century, during theAnglo-Mysore Wars , the Malabar region came under British rule.When the Anglo-Mysore wars concluded, the Malabar region became part of a province of
British India known as theMadras Presidency . This province included the present-day Hosdurg Taluk of Kasaragode district,Kannur District ,Kozhikode District ,Wayanad District ,Malappuram District , most ofPalakkad District and a small part ofThrissur District .The administrative headquarters was in Calicut, known today asKozhikode .With India's independence, Madras Presidency was renamed
Madras State . It was subsequently split up along linguistic lines in 1953. Under theStates Reorganisation Act of 1956, the states ofKerala andMysore were carved out of the Madras state and the remaining part was renamedTamil Nadu .The Malabar region was included in Kerala state in the reorganisation.
References
*1911
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