Koyilandy (;A Survey of Kerala History, A. Shreedhara Menon)is a major town

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and a

taluk A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administrative ...

in Kozhikode district,

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

on the

Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

. The historical town is located right in the middle of the coast of Kozhikode district, between

Kozhikode Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

and Kannur, on National Highway 66. The independence activist K. Kelappan, popularly known as ''Kerala Gandhi'', was born in a nearby village, Muchukunnu.

Etymology

Pandalayani is described by different authors, all the way from Europe to Arabia to China, in different names. According to the Malabar Manual written by William Logan in 1887, Panthalayani was called by the names:

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

describes the place as ''Patale''. The Odoric of Pordenone called Pandalayani as ''Flandarina''. The medieval Moroccan traveller

Ibn Battuta Ibn Battuta (; 24 February 13041368/1369), was a Maghrebi traveller, explorer and scholar. Over a period of 30 years from 1325 to 1354, he visited much of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Iberian Peninsula. Near the end of his life, Ibn ...

called it ''Fandaraina''. The Portuguese writers called Pandalayani as ''Pandarani''. The medieval historic chronicle '' Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen'' written by the Zainuddin Makhdoom II of

Ponnani Ponnani () is a Nagar Palika (Municipality), municipality in Ponnani Taluk, Malappuram District, in the state of Kerala, India. It serves as the administrative center of the Taluk and Block Panchayat of the same name. It is situated at the est ...

calls the port town as ''Fundreeah''.

History

Ancient era

Koyilandy, formerly known as Panthalayani Kollam, is one of the oldest ports in South India and is often identified with the port of Tyndis by some of the historians, which was a satellite feeding port to

Muziris ''Muciṟi'' (, ), commonly anglicized as Muziris (, Malayalam, Old Malayalam: ''Muciṟi'' or ''Muciṟipaṭṭaṇam'', possibly identical with the medieval ''Muyiṟikkōṭŭ'') was an ancient harbour and urban centre on India's Malabar C ...

, according to the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea. Tyndis was a major center of trade, next only to Muziris, between the Cheras and the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

(1st century CE) states that the port of '' Tyndis'' was located at the northwestern border of ''Keprobotos'' ( Chera dynasty).Gurukkal, R., & Whittaker, D. (2001). In search of Muziris. ''Journal of Roman Archaeology,'' ''14'', 334-350. The North Malabar region, which lies north of the port at '' Tyndis'', was ruled by the kingdom of Ezhimala during

Sangam period The Sangam literature ( Tamil: சங்க இலக்கியம், ''caṅka ilakkiyam''), historically known as 'the poetry of the noble ones' ( Tamil: சான்றோர் செய்யுள், ''Cāṉṟōr ceyyuḷ''), connote ...

. According to the ''

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and Roman commerce, trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports lik ...

'', a region known as '' Limyrike'' began at '' Naura'' and '' Tyndis''. However the

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

mentions only '' Tyndis'' as the '' Limyrikes starting point. The region probably ended at Kanyakumari; it thus roughly corresponds to the present-day

. The value of Rome's annual trade with the region was estimated at around 50,000,000 sesterces.

mentioned that '' Limyrike'' was prone by pirates. The Cosmas Indicopleustes mentioned that the '' Limyrike'' was a source of peppers. The medieval Moroccan traveller

describes Pandalayani Kollam as "A beautiful and large place, abounding with gardens and markets".

Early Middle Ages

According to Kerala Muslim tradition, Koyilandy was home to one of the oldest mosques in the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

. According to the Legend of Cheraman Perumals, the first Indian mosque was built in 624 AD at Kodungallur with the mandate of the last the ruler (the Cheraman Perumal) of Chera dynasty, who left from Dharmadom to

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

and converted to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

during the lifetime of

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

(c. 570–632). According to the legend, the ''Masjid'' at Pandalayani (Koyilandy) was built by Malik Dinar, and he appointed one of his ten sons as the ''Quazi'' in the ''Masjid''. According to '' Qissat Shakarwati Farmad'', the ''Masjids'' at Kodungallur,

Kollam Kollam (;), is an ancient seaport and the List of cities and towns in Kerala, fourth largest city in the Indian state of Kerala. Located on the southern tip of the Malabar Coast of the Arabian Sea, the city is on the banks of Ashtamudi Lake ...

, Madayi, Barkur,

Mangalore Mangaluru (), formerly called Mangalore ( ), is a major industrial port city in the Indian state of Karnataka and on the west coast of India. It is located between the Laccadive Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bengaluru, the st ...

, Kasaragod, Kannur,

Dharmadam Dharmadom or Dharmadam is a census town, census village in Thalassery City in Kannur district in the state of Kerala, India. This town is located in between Anjarakandi River and Ummanchira River, and Palayad town and Arabian Sea. It is known f ...

, Panthalayani (Koyilandy), and Chaliyam, were built during the era of Malik Dinar, and they are among the oldest ''Masjid''s in the

. It is believed that Malik Dinar died at Thalangara in Kasaragod town.Pg 58, Cultural heritage of

: an introduction, A. Sreedhara Menon, East-West Publications, 1978 The Koyilandy Jumu'ah Mosque contains an Old Malayalam inscription written in a mixture of '' Vatteluttu'' and Grantha scripts which dates back to the 10th century CE.Aiyer, K. V. Subrahmanya (ed.), ''South Indian Inscriptions.'' VIII, no. 162, Madras: Govt of India, Central Publication Branch, Calcutta, 1932. p. 69. It is a rare surviving document recording patronage by a

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

king (Bhaskara Ravi) to the

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

s of Kerala. Several Old Malayalam inscriptions, those date back to the 11th century CE, have found from Pandalayani Kollam.Narayanan, M. G. S. ''Perumāḷs of Kerala.'' Thrissur (Kerala): CosmoBooks, 2013. 475-76.

Portuguese era

Initially, Koyilandy was an important port town of Kolathunadu (Kingdom of Kannur) in the early medieval period. Later the Zamorin of Calicut annexed the port town to establish supremacy over the North Malabar region. The Kollam Raja of Payanad had made his capital at Pandalayani Kollam and the Zamorin, his conquerrer, had a palace here. The few remnants of the Chinese trade can be seen in and around the present city of Koyilandy. This include a Silk Street, Chinese Fort ("Chinakotta"), Chinese Settlement ("Chinachery" in Kappad), and Chinese Mosque ("Chinapalli" in Koyilandy).Subairath C.T. "CALICUT: A CENTRI-PETAL FORCE IN THE CHINESE AND ARAB TRADE (1200–1500)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. Vol. 72, PART-II (2011), pp. 1082-1089Michael Keevak. ''Embassies to China: Diplomacy and Cultural Encounters Before the Opium Wars''. Springer (2017) The Portuguese navigator

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

visited Koyilandy in 1498, opening the sailing route directly from

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

, during the

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (), also known as the Age of Exploration, was part of the early modern period and overlapped with the Age of Sail. It was a period from approximately the 15th to the 17th century, during which Seamanship, seafarers fro ...

.Eila M.J. Campbell, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, "Vasco da Gama." Encyclopædia Britannica Onlin

/ref> It eventually led to the European colonisation of

. In March 1505, a large Muslim fleet at Koyilandy was destroyed by Portuguese. It had assembled there to take back a large number of Muslims to

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world. Geographically, the ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, who were leaving the kingdom of Calicut disappointed at the trade losses caused to them recently. Duarte de Menezes captured 17 vessels and killed 2,000 men. In February–March 1525, A Portuguese navy led by new Viceroy Henry Menezes raided

and Koyilandy, and burned both of the towns. Koyilandy was defended by a combined army of 20,000 Nairs and

s. On reaching Calicut, he earlier found that the place had been attacked by the Calicut forces. The Nairs of the chief of Kurumbranad and Calicut forces invested Fort Calicut (Siege of Calicut).K. K. N. Kurup, ed., ''India's Naval Traditions''. Northern Book Centre, New Delhi, 1997 They were helped by a band of

s under the command of a European engineer. The Kutti Ali's ( Kunjali Marakkar) ships blockaded the port. Captain Lima, with 300 men, defended the fort. In 1550, the Portuguese made descents on the coastal towns of Calicut, particularly on Koyilandy, destroying mosques and houses, and killing one-third of the inhabitants. According to historian M. G. Raghava Varier, at the peak of their reign, the Zamorin of Calicut ruled over a region from

in south to Koyilandy in north.Varier, M. R. Raghava. "Documents of Investiture Ceremonies" in K. K. N. Kurup, Edit., "India's Naval Traditions". Northern Book Centre, New Delhi, 1997Sanjay Subrahmanyam. "The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India 1500–1650". Cambridge University Press, 2002V. V., Haridas. ''"King court and culture in medieval Kerala – The Zamorins of Calicut (AD 1200 to AD 1767)"''

Unpublished PhD Thesis. Mangalore University

Location

Koyilandy is located at at an average elevation of .

Demographics

As of 2011 India

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, Koyilandy had a population of 71,873. Males constitute 46.78% of the population and females 53.22%. Literacy rate of Koyilandy is 95.11% (higher than Kerala average of 94.00%). Male literacy is around 97.38% while female literacy rate is 93.15%. In Koyilandy, around 10% of the population is under 6 years of age.India Census 2011
/ref> Economy of Koyilandy revolves around fishing, local businesses and remittance from the Persian Gulf. Around 70% of population follows Hinduism, and around 30% follows Islam in Koyilandy.

Koyilandy taluk

Koyilandy is the largest Taluk in Kozhikode district. It administers a population of 645,979 within an area of 642 square kilometre, as of the Census 2011. The position of the Koyilandy Taluk in Kozhikode district is given below: Koyilandy is the taluk headquarters of 34 Revenue Villages. They are Arikkulam, Atholy, Avitanallur, Balussery, Chakkittapara, Changaroth, Chemancheri, Chempanode, Chengottukavu, Cheruvannur, Eravattur, Iringal, Kayanna, Keezhariyur, Koorachundu, Koothali, Kottur, Kozhukkallur, Menhaniam, Meppayur, Moodadi, Naduvannur, Nochad, Palery, Panangad, Panthalayani, Payyoli, Perambra, Sivapuram, Thikkodi, Thurayur, Ulliyeri, Unnikulam, Uralloor, Viyyur and Muchukunnu.

Cuisine

Koyilandy has a wide variety of indigenous dishes. The centuries of maritime trade has given the Koyilandy a cosmopolitan cuisine. The cuisine is a blend of traditional

, Persian, Yemenese and

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

food culture. One of the main elements of this cuisine is '' Pathiri'', a pancake made of rice flour. Variants of ''Pathiri'' include ''Neypathiri'' (made with ghee), ''Poricha Pathiri'' (fried rather than baked), ''Meen Pathiri'' (stuffed with fish), and ''Irachi Pathiri'' (stuffed with beef). Spices like

Black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit (the peppercorn), which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in diameter ...

Cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...

, and

Clove Cloves are the aromatic flower buds of a tree in the family Myrtaceae, ''Syzygium aromaticum'' (). They are native to the Maluku Islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia, and are commonly used as a spice, flavoring, or Aroma compound, fragrance in fin ...

are widely used in the cuisine of Koyilandy. The main item used in the festivals is the Malabar style of Biryani. Sadhya is also seen in marriage and festival occasions. Snacks such as ''Arikadukka'', ''Chattipathiri'', ''Muttamala'', ''Pazham Nirachathu'', and ''Unnakkaya'' have their own style in Koyilandy. Besides these, other common food items of

are also seen in the cuisine of Koyilandy. The Malabar version of Biryani, popularly known as ''Kuzhi Mandi'' in

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

is another popular item, which has an influence from

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

Wards

The town is administered by Koyilandy Municipality, headed by a chairperson. For administrative purposes, the town is divided into 44 wards, from which the members of the municipal council are elected for a term of five years. The wards are:

Elected representatives

* MP - Shafi Parambil (

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

- UDF) * MLA - Kanathil Jameela ( CPIM- LDF) * Koyilandy municipal Chairman-

References

{{Geographic Location , title = Areas Of Calicut , Northwest = , North = Payyoli , Northeast = MUCHUKUNNU , West = Koyilandy Beach , Centre = Koyilandy Junction , East = Ulliyeri , Southwest = , South = Kappad , Southeast = Cities and towns in Kozhikode district Koyilandy area