Nair history-4 NAIR settlements in kerala became prosperous and maintained steady growth with the association of international traders.More and more PORT towns in “dharma pattanam”(dharmadam ,near Tellichery),kollam,purakkad,andMUSIRIS (Kodungalloor) had been established. the presence of traders from ROME,CHINA,LANKA and at a later stage ARABS.(ARABS took over the trade monopoly by 8thcentury onwards)gave cosmopolitan image to Kerala coastal towns. Romans latest business partners. At this time CHERA DYNASTY was hatching plans to expand their territory just from the other side of Western Ghats .They were based at “karur” near Trichy,in the Tamil heart land. Their port city was on the shores of bay of Bengal.The intelligent CHERA kings planned to expand to Kerala to create a new TRADE CORRIDOR THROUGH THE LAND .this corridor would make international traders and shipping agencies to cut the timing of the voyages .they could avoid the travel around the Indian peninsulaBy this way they could get an upperhand over the other major DYNASTIES like PALLAVAS,CHOLAS,AND PANDYAS in trading with the CHINESE,ROMAS,GREEK SHIPS.HOWEVER Cheras succeeded in controlling kerala for centuries .they even shifted their capital from KARUR to MAHODAYAPURAM(musiris) ,present day KODUNGALLOOR.INITIALLY IT WAS tiruvanchikulam.In the roman emire and Greece MUSIRIS WAS VERY FAMOUS AND CONSIDERS ONE OF THE BIGGEST TRADING PORTS OF THE WORLD.IT WAS MENTIONED IN ROMAN BOOKS OF PLEENI LIKE CONTEMPORARY HISTORIANS.But things were not that much smooth for CHERAS the other tamil dynasties were not sitting idle .SO THE CHERA RULERS WERE VERY KIND AND LIBERAL TOWARDS NAIRS.Nairs and their KALARIS were the main source of their regional brigade to defend the country.the water sorrunded and back water rich kerala was a tough war front for the tamil raiders of cholas in the centre and pandyas and pallavas in the southern kerala. Cheras was jainS and shaivaItes followers.ILANGO ADIGAL,THE CROWN PRINCE OF THE DYNASTY,A JAIN WROTE THE TAMIL CLASSIC AND EPIC :”CHILAPPATHIKARAM”( The story of KOVILAN andKANNAKI” )STAYING IN HIS POOLSIDE PALACE at TRIKKANA MATHILAKAM,near the present MATHILAKAM,near KODUNGALLOOR. SANGAM POETS in their literary works mention as saying “CHERA UN NAADU PON NAADU” seeing the prosperity and economic growth.aka400 and pura400 describes the social fabric ofg then chera and oter tamil kingdoms.NAIRS WERE FULLY INDEPENDANDAND PART OF THE GOVERNMENT AS BUEROUCRATS AND MILITARY DE3FENSE OF THIS REGION.THEY HAD ROYAL PRIVILAGES AND THEIR CULTURE AND WAY OF LIFE WAS NEVER GOT DISURBED BY THE RULERS.the smaller units of the state was independently administered by the NAIR ARISTOCRATS AND NOBLES WITH DIFFERENT TITLES SUCH AS KARTHAS,KAIMAL,UNNITHAN ,MENAVAN ETC; THE URBAN AREAS WERE PURELY COSMOPOLITAN WITH THE PRESENCE OF LARGE SCALE IMMIGRANT S FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES.JEWS,CHRISTIAN,AND LATER ISLAMIC PEOPLE HAD THEIR COLONIES OF RESIDENCES AND LIESURE CLUBS IN DIFFERENT PORT TOWNS . RULERS WERE VERY LIBERAL TO ALLOW WORSHIPPING ON THEIR RELIGIOUS STYLES AND CONSTRUCT SYNAGOUGES ,CHURCHES AND LATER MOSQUES. LARGE NUMBER OF SLAVES WERE TRADED AS COMMODITIES BY LANKAN AND ROMAN TRADERS .THESE SL;AVES WERE USED FOR THE WORKFORCE REQUIRED IN A STRICTLY CONTROLLED MANNER.Even governments owned large number of SLAVES and giventhem on a rental basis .
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 06:12:11 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015