OP MALABAR. 



173 



The word Malayalam is derived from the two words Mala, 

 a mountain, and dZam, a district. The country is hilly which 

 fact corroborates the meaning of the word. 



The origin of the country is thus given in the Kerala 

 Mahatmya, a Sanscrit work on Kerala. Sri Parasurama, one 

 of the ten incarnations of Vishnu, gave " the whole earth " to 

 the rishis as an atonement for his having destroyed 21 

 dynasties of Kshatriya kings. ( 3 ) Finding then that he had 

 no place to live in, he, with the permission of Yaruna, the 

 god of the waters, reclaimed from the sea the land of Kerala. ( 4 ) 

 He divided this land for the purposes of administration into 

 4 Rajyams. They were — (1), the Tulu Rajyam extending 

 from G-okarnam to Perumpolai near Mangalore ; (2), the 

 Kuva Rajyam extending from Perumpolai to Putupattanam 

 near Nilesvaram (the Nilacunda of Ptolomy) in South Canara ; 

 (3), the Kerala Rajyam extending from Putupattanam to 

 Kannetti near Quilon ; and (4), Mushika Rajyam extending 

 from Kannetti to Comorin. 



The whole country was at the same time divided into two 

 gramas for the Brahmins to live in, called the Tulu Grama 

 and the Malayala Grama, the boundary being the river 

 Chandragiri in lat. 10 ° 30'. ( 5 ) Each of these gramas was 

 divided into 32 sub-divisions ( 6 ) : — 



The 64 gramas were- 



(1) . Gokarnam. 



(2) . Gdmakutam. 



(3) . Karavalji. 



(4) . Mallore. 



(5) . Eppanore. 



(6) . Cheppanore. 



(7) . Katalore. 



(8) . Kalanore. 



(9). Kariachira. 



(10) . Paiachira. 



(11) . Trikkani. 



(12) . Trikkata. 



(3) For an account of this contest between Parasurama and the Kshatriyas,, 

 see Wilson's Vishnu Purana, Bk. II, Ch. VII ; Muller's Ancient Sanscrit 

 Literature, p. 17. 



(4) Kerala Mahatmya, 7th Adhyaya. 



(5) The language of the country south of the Chandragiri is Malayalam ; 

 that of the north is Tulu. See Wilks' Mysore, Ed. 2, Vol. II, p. 5. 



(6) For the legendary origin and other accounts given here, see the Kerala 

 Mahatmya, the Keralotpatti, &c. 



