Malabar () is a region of southern
India, lying between the
Western Ghats and the
Arabian Sea. The name is thought to be derived from the
Malayalam word
Mala (Hill) and
Persian word
Bar (Kingdom) or
Bar (port) from Arabic language.
This part of India was a part of the
British East India company controlled Madras State,when it was designated as Malabar District .
It included the northern half of the state of
Kerala and some coastal regions of present day Karnataka. The area is predominantly
Hindu but the majority of Kerala's
Muslim population known as
Mappila also live in this area, as well as a sizable ancient
Christian population.
The name is sometimes extended to the entire southwestern coast of the peninsula, called the
Malabar Coast. Malabar is also used by ecologists to refer to the
tropical moist forests of southwestern India (present day Kerala).
Malabar region
The
Malabar region lies along the southwest coast of the
Indian
peninsula and forms the northern part of present-day
Kerala state.
Malayalam is the chief language of the region, and the ancestors of today's population have inhabited the region for centuries. The region formed part of the ancient kingdom of
Chera for centuries. It became part of the
Hindu Vijayanagara empire in the 15th century. with the breakup of the empire in the mid-16th century, the region came under the rule of a number of local
chieftains notably the
Kolathiris of
North Malabar,
Zamorins of
Calicut and the Valluvokonathiris of
Walluvanad. The region came under
British rule in the 18th century, during the
Anglo-Mysore Wars. During the British rules, the Malabar area was divided in to two categories as North and South.
North Malabar comprises : Present
Kasaragod and
Kannur Districts, Mananthavady Taluk of
Wayanad District and
Vadakara Taluk of
Kozhikode District. Left over area in South Malabar.
At the conclusion of the Anglo-Mysore wars, the region was organized into a district of
Madras Presidency. The British district included the present-day districts of
Kannur,
Kozhikode,
Wayanad,
Malappuram, much of
Palakkad and a small portion of
Thrissur. The administrative headquarters were at Calicut (Kozhikode). With India's independence, Madras presidency became
Madras State, which was divided along linguistic lines on 1 November 1956, when Malabar district was merged with the
Kasaragod district immediately to the north and the state of
Travancore-Cochin to the south to form the state of Kerala.
Malabar Coast
Backwaters in the Malabar, c.a. 1913
The
Malabar Coast, in historical contexts, refers to India's southwest coast, lying on the narrow coastal plain of
Karnataka and
Kerala states between the
Western Ghats range and the
Arabian Sea. The coast runs from south of
Goa to
Cape Comorin on India's southern tip.
The Malabar Coast is also sometimes used as an all encompassing term for the entire
Indian coast from the western coast of
Konkan to the tip of the subcontinent at
Cape Comorin. It is over 525 miles or 845 km long. It spans from the South - Western coast of
Maharashtra and goes along the coastal region of
Goa, through the entire western coast of
Karnataka and
Kerala and reaches till
Kanyakumari. It is flanked by the
Arabian Sea on the west and the
Western Ghats on the east. The Southern part of this narrow coast is the
South Western Ghats moist deciduous forests.
The Malabar Coast features a number of historic port cities, notably
Kozhikode (Calicut),
Cochin, and
Kannur, that have served as centers of the
Indian Ocean trade for centuries. Because of their orientation to the sea and to maritime commerce, the Malabar coast cities feel very cosmopolitan, and hosted some of the first groups of
Christians (now known as
Syrian Malabar Nasranis),
Jews (today called as
Cochin Jews), and
Muslims (at present known as
Mappilas) in India.
Geographically, the Malabar Coast, especially on its westward-facing mountain slopes, comprises the wettest region of southern India, as the
Western Ghats intercept the moisture-laden
monsoon rains.
European settlements in India
Malabar rainforests
The term
Malabar rainforests refers to one or more distinct
ecoregions recognized by
biogeographers:
- the Malabar Coast moist forests formerly occupied the coastal zone to the 250 meter elevation (but 95% of these forests no longer exist)
The
Monsooned Malabar coffee bean comes from this area.
See also
Team malabar
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