Kerala's Origin - Related To Mythological Stories And Historical Evidences

Keralam – known as Kerala across the world. There are so many myths and legends telling about the origin of Kerala. The most popular one is related to Dasavathara of Lord Vishnu and his 6^th avatar - Parasurama. The popular tale is that Parasurama after killing Kshetriyas, felt guilty for killing so many people. So as insisted by Lord Varuna and Mother Earth, he threw his axe from Kanya Kumari to north Gokarnam and the sea in between moved back giving birth to Kerala. He gave that place to Brahmins and completed his avatar. There are evidences of sea creature fossils in some parts of Kerala, proving that Kerala was once a part of seas.

As per legends of Onam, Kerala was ruled by a great emperor Mahabali. He was pushed to Pathala by Vamana, incarnation of Lord Vishnu and he visits his subjects every year on Thiruvonam day of first month – Chingam. But if Vamana was the 5^th incarnation of Lord Vishnu, how could 6^th Avatar Parasurama create Kerala? This puzzle is yet unsolved, but tells us that all these are fairy tales told by our ancestors and passed over from one generation to another, though its origin can’t be located. So, when was Kerala originated? What do our historians say? Let us check.

Gokarnam to Kanyakumari – there existed a small region since centuries with Malayalam speaking people. Most recently Malayalam attained classic language status, similar to other south Indian languages, proving that Malayalam was spoken by people many centuries ago. As per historians, human life started here only 6000 years ago!

In Kannada language, all ‘Cha’ kaarams are pronounced as ‘Ka’ Kaarams. If so, Cheralam is the real name which was later pronounced as ‘Keralam’ by its inhabitants – says Herman Gundert. Malayalam originated from Moola Dravida language and became an independent language in the 9^th century when Koothu and Koodiyattam – the folk forms originated. Though remains of Stone Age were obtained from different parts of India, no such evidences have been obtained from Kerala till now. So it’s concluded that during Stone Age, Kerala was dense forests and after the invention of weapons people reached here and settled. Strong evidences like metal weapons and different types of stones have been obtained from different parts of Kerala, enough to prove it.