history of kerala |
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There is no unanimity among historians about the history of ancient Kerala, since so little written accounts exist. Much of the history is cloaked in myths and conjectures. One such myth centres around the legend of Parasurama, the warrior-sage who is regarded as the incarnation of Vishnu . After destroying the Kshathriya kings, goes the legend, the warrior-sage asked an assembly of learned men a way of penance for his past misdeeds.
On being advised to hand over the lands he had conquered to the Brahmins to save his soul from eternal damnation, he readily agreed and sat in penance at Gokarnam, those days considered to be land's end.
There having got boons from Varuna, the God of the Oceans and Bhumidevi, the Goddess of earth, he proceeded to Kanya Kumari (Cape Comorin) and threw his battle axe northwards across the waters. The waters subsided and what was left over was called the land of Parasurama, that is today's Kerala.
Fiction Hardly so, since geologists have pointed out that the elevation of Kerala from the sea was the result of some seismic activity, either sudden or gradual. There is also another theory. The rivers of Kerala emptying into the Arabian seas bring down enormous quantities of silt from the hills. The ocean currents transport quantities of sand towards the shore. The coastal portions could well be due to the accumulation of this silt over thousands of years.
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