The Samoothiri Anglicised as Zamorin; was the hereditary Nair monarch and ruler of the Kingdom of Kozhikode (Calicut) in the South Malabar region of India. Calicut was one of the most important trading ports on the South-Western coast of India. At the peak of their reign, the Zamorins ruled over a region extending from Kollam (Quilon) to Panthalayini Kollam (Koyilandy). It was after the dissolution of the kingdom of Cheras of Kodungallur in the early 12th century that the Samanthan Nair Eradis of Nediyiruppu (originally autonomous chiefs of Eranadu) demonstrated their political independence under the title of Zamorin. The Zamorins maintained elaborate trade relations with the Muslim Middle-Eastern sailors in the Indian Ocean, the primary spice traders on the Malabar Coast during the Middle Ages. Calicut was then an important entrepôt in South-Western India where Chinese and West Asian trade collaborated.
The port at Kozhikode held the superior economic and political position along the medieval Kerala coastline, while Kannur, Kollam, and Kochi, were commercially important secondary ports, where traders from various parts of the world would gather. The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama visited Quilandy in 1498, opening the sailing route directly from Europe to South Asia. The port at Kozhikode acted as the gateway to medieval South Indian coast for the Arabs, the Chinese, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and finally the British. The Portuguese efforts to lay the foundations to Estado da Índia, and to take complete control over the commerce was repeatedly hampered by the forces of Zamorin of Calicut. The Kunjali Marakkars, the famous Muslim warriors, were the admiral of the fleet of Calicut. By the end of the 16th century the Portuguese – now commanding the spice traffic on the Malabar Coast – had succeeded in replacing the Muslim merchants in the Arabian Sea. The Dutch supplanted the Portuguese in the 17th century, who in turn were supplanted by the British.
Travancore became the most dominant state in Kerala by defeating the powerful Zamorin of Kozhikode in the battle of Purakkad in 1755. In 1766, Haider Ali of Mysore defeated the Zamorin of Calicut and absorbed Calicut to his state. After the Third Anglo-Mysore War (1790–1792), Malabar District including Zamorin's former territories were placed under the control of the East India Company. Eventually, the status of the Zamorin was reduced to that of a pensioner of the company (1806). The title zamorin first appears in the writings of Ibn Battuta in 1342. In the Portuguese Book of Duarte Barbosa (c. 1516), the title of the ruler of Calicut is given as çamidre or zomodri, derived from the local Malayalam sāmūtiri. In Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen written by Zainuddin Makhdoom II in 16th century CE, the word is pronounced as Sāmuri. This was once thought to be derived from Sanskrit samudra ("sea") and have the meaning "lord of the sea". In fact, the term derives from Sanskrit svami and sri (which in combined form becomes tiri), which Krishna Iyer glosses as "emperor". He gives the complete title as Svami Tiri Tirumulapad ("august emperor"). The Zamorins used the title Punturakkon or Punthurakon (Victor/Lord of Punthura) in inscriptions from c. 1100, in palace records known as the Granthavaris, and in official treaties with the English and the Dutch. No records indicate the actual personal name of the ruler. Punthura may be the place of their origin, or a battle-field, or a port of great fame. The title "Kunnalakkon" ("Lord of Hills and Waves") and its Sanskrit form "Shailabdhishvara" are mostly found in later literary works (such as Manipravalam and Sanskrit poems).
History
Brahmanic legends such as the Keralolpathi (compiled in its final form c. 17th – 18 century) and the Calicut Granthavari recount the events leading to establishment of the state of Calicut. There were two brothers belonging to the Eradi ruling family at Nediyiruppu.
The brothers Manichan and Vikraman were the most trusted warriors in the militia of the Kodungallur Cheras.They distinguished themselves in the battles against the foreigners. However, during the partition of Chera kingdom, the Chera monarch failed to allocate any land to Nediyiruppu. Filled with guilt, the king later gave an unwanted piece of marshy tract of land called Kozhikode to the younger brother Vikraman (the elder brother died in the battle). The king also gifted his personal sword and his favourite prayer conch – both broken – to him and told him to occupy as much as land as he could with all his might. So the Eradis conquered neighbouring kingdoms and created a large state for themselves. As a token of their respect to the Chera king, they adopted the logo of two crossed swords, with a broken conch in the middle and a lighted lamp above it.
Durate Barbosa, in the early 16th century, mentions the Cheraman sword among the three swords and other royal emblems of the Zamorin usually taken out in ceremonial processions. The sword was worshipped by the Zamorins in their private temple everyday and especially at the time of the coronation. The Cheraman sword was burnt in a surprise attack by the Dutch at Kodungallur (1670) while the Zamorin was residing with Velutha Nambiyar. A new sword was made in 1672 out of the fragments of the old. The broken parts of the 1672 sword, kept in a fully sealed copper sheath, are still worshipped daily in the Bhagavathi temple attached to the palace of the Zamorins at Thiruvachira.
Relation With Portuguese
The landing of Vasco da Gama in Calicut in 1498 has often been considered as the beginning of a new phase in Asian history during which the control of the Indian Ocean spice trade passed into the hands of the Europeans from Middle Eastern Muslims. The strong colony of foreign merchants settled in Calicut was hostile, but Zamorin welcomed the Portuguese and allowed them to take spices on board. In Portugal, the goods brought by da Gama from India were computed at "sixty times the cost of the entire Asia expedition".
The Portuguese initially entered into hostile conflicts with the Zamorin of Calicut and the Middle Eastern (Paradesi) merchants in Calicut. Within the next few decades, the Estado da Índia also found themselves fighting with several leading Mappila trading families of Kerala (esp. the Kannur Mappilas, led by Mammali and the Marakkars of the Pearl Fishery Coast). Kingdom of Calicut, whose shipping was increasingly looted by the Portuguese, evolved into a centre of resistance. The Portuguese maintained patrolling squadrons off the Kerala ports and continued their raids on departing native fleets. Mappila and Marakkar traders actively worked in the kingdoms of Malabar Coast and Ceylon to oppose the Portuguese. Naval battles broke out across Konkan, Malabar Coast, southern Tamil Nadu, and western Sri Lanka. Marakkars transformed as the admirals of Calicut and organised an effective collection of vessels to fight the Portuguese.
The Kunjali Marakkars are credited with organizing the first naval defense of the Indian coast. Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen written by Zainuddin Makhdoom II (born around 1532) of Ponnani in 16th-century is the first-ever known book fully based on the history of Kerala to be authored by a Keralite. It is written in Arabic and contains pieces of information about the resistance put up by the navy of Kunjali Marakkar alongside the Zamorin of Calicut from 1498 to 1583 against Portuguese attempts to colonize Malabar coast. It was first printed and published in Lisbon. A copy of this edition has been preserved in the library of Al-Azhar University, Cairo. Francisco de Almeida (1505–1509) and Afonso de Albuquerque (1509–1515), who followed da Gama to India, were instrumental in establishing the Império Colonial Português in Asia. By the mid-16th century, the Portuguese managed to curtail the vital trade between Calicut and the Middle East. In the end of the century, Kochi was the dominant seaport in Kerala, having surpassed both Kannur and Calicut. The Portuguese set about breaking the monopoly which Venetians and the Egyptians had so long enjoyed in the trade with Asia. The Egyptians and the Ottoman Turks realised the danger, but internal complications between them gave the Portuguese an opportunity. Ponnani Muhammed Kunjali Marakkar was eventually executed by the combined effects of the Kingdom of Calicut and the Portuguese state in 1600.
Reference:
wikipedia.org
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