OF MALABAR. 



177 



But I do not think that this last Perumal was the only one, 

 who was called Cheraman Perumal ; for we find a ' Cheraman 

 Keralan' as the name of one of his predecessors. The account 

 given in the vernacular may be correct for aught we know. 

 There might have been twenty-one kings who ruled for 252 

 years. But what became of the country after the death of 

 the last Perumal? Who ruled the country before these 

 twenty-one kings? These are questions which cannot be 

 satisfactorily answered with the scanty materials at our 

 disposal. But I venture to think that the ancient history of 

 Chera, Chola and Pandya might throw much light upon the 

 subject. As Malabar was a part of Chera, the ancient history 

 of this country will be quite sufficient to give us some know- 

 ledge of Malabar. 



Now coming from this digression we see that after the 

 great Cheraman Perumal's death the country was divided by 

 his chiefs into two or three parts. The capital of this last 

 Perumal was Tiruvanchikulam, a place near Cranganore. 



It is evident from the Sasanams found in the possession of 

 the Jews and Syrians of Cochin which are published in the 

 13th Vol. of the Madras Journal of Literature and Science, 

 and to which we have already referred, that at the time of 

 the " great Cheraman Perumal" there were other rulers in 

 Malabar, and that this Cheraman Perumal was not the sole 

 ruler of the country. In these Sasanams we see the names 

 of certain other chiefs mentioned as witnesses to the grant 

 made by Bhaskara Eavi Yarma. The statement of the 

 Keralotpatti, viz., that Cheraman Perumal divided < the whole 

 Malabar' among two or three of his chiefs is therefore 

 incorrect. 



According to the Jati Nirnaya, a work treating on the 

 various castes of Malabar and supposed to have been written 

 by Sankaracharya, there are 72 castes. But among these 

 72 the Kshatriyas are not included. There are only three 



