Quilon 1745

Kollam (;), is an ancient seaport and the 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 and is 71 kilometers (44 mi) northwest of the Thiruvananthapuram. Kollam is one of India's oldest continuously inhabited cities, with evidence of habitation stretching back to the megalithic; the city has also been a maritime entrepôt millennia, the earliest attestation of which dates back to the Phoenicians and Romans. It is the southern gateway to the Backwaters of Kerala, and is known for its cashew processing, coir manufacturing, and tourism industries.

Kollam has had a strong commercial reputation since ancient times. The Arabs, Phoenicians, Chinese, Ethiopians, Syrians, Jews, Chaldeans and Romans have all engaged in trade at the port of Kollam for millennia. As a result of Chinese trade, Kollam was mentioned by Ibn Battuta in the 14th century as one of the five Indian ports he had seen during the course of his twenty-four-year travels. Desinganadu's rajas exchanged embassies with Chinese rulers while there was a flourishing Chinese settlement at Kollam. In the ninth century, on his way to Canton, China, Persian merchant Sulaiman al-Tajir found Kollam to be the only port in India visited by huge Chinese junks. Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, who was in Chinese service under Kublai Khan in 1275, visited Kollam and other towns on the west coast, in his capacity as a Chinese mandarin. Kollam is also home to one of the seven churches that were established by St Thomas as well as one of the 10 oldest mosques believed to be found by Malik Deenar in Kerala. Roman Catholic Diocese of Quilon is the first diocese in India.

V. Nagam Aiya in his ''Travancore State Manual'' records that in 822 AD two East Syriac bishops Mar Sabor and Mar Proth, settled in Quilon with their followers. Two years later the Malabar Era began (824 AD) and Quilon became the premier city of the Malabar region ahead of Travancore and Cochin. Kollam Port was founded by Mar Sabor at Tangasseri in 825 as an alternative to reopening the inland seaport of Kore-ke-ni Kollam near Backare (Thevalakara), which was also known as Nelcynda and Tyndis to the Romans and Greeks and as Thondi to the Tamils.Aiyya, V.V Nagom, State Manual p. 244 Thambiran Vanakkam printed in Tamil language in 20 October 1578 at Kollam was the first book to be published in an Indian language.

Kollam city corporation received ISO 9001:2015 certification for municipal administration and services. As per the survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) based on urban area growth during January 2020, Kollam became the tenth fastest growing city in the world with a 31.1% urban growth between 2015 and 2020. It is a coastal city and on the banks of Ashtamudi Lake. The city hosts the administrative offices of Kollam district and is a prominent trading city for the state. The proportion of females to males in Kollam city is second highest among the 500 most populous cities in India. Kollam is one of the least polluted cities in India.

During the later stages of the rule of the Chera monarchy in Kerala, Kollam emerged as the focal point of trade and politics. Kollam continues to be a major business and commercial centre in Kerala. Four major trading centers around Kollam are Kottarakara, Punalur, Paravur, and Karunagapally. Kollam appeared as Palombe in Mandeville's '' Travels'', where he claimed it contained a Fountain of Youth.

Etymology

The popular theory is that the name "Kollam" is derived from the word ''koyillam'', which is a compound of '' kovilakam'' (meaning "Royal Palace") and ''illam'' (a traditional house of Nair nobles or Brahmins). Another theory posits that the name originates from the Sanskrit word ''kollam'', which means "pepper," as the region was historically a prominent center for the trade and export of pepper.

In 825 AD, the Malayalam calendar, or ''Kollavarsham'', was created in Kollam at meetings held in the city. The present Malayalam calendar is said to have begun with the re-founding of the town, which was rebuilt after its destruction by fire.

The city was known as ''Koolam'' in Arabic, ''Coulão'' in Portuguese, and ''Desinganadu'' in ancient Tamil literature.

History

As the ancient city of Quilon, Kollam was a flourishing port during the Pandya dynasty (c. 3rd century BC–12th century), and later became the capital of the independent Venad or the Kingdom of Quilon on its foundation in c. 825. Kollam was considered one of the four early entrepots in global sea trade during the 13th century, along with Alexandria and Cairo in Egypt, the Chinese city of Quanzhou, and Malacca in the Malaysian archipelago. It seems that trade at Kollam seems to have flourished right into the Medieval period as in 1280, there is instance of envoys of Yuan China coming to Kollam for establishing relations between the local ruler and China.

Pandya rule

The ancient political and cultural history of Kollam was almost entirely independent from that of the rest of Kerala. The Chera dynasty governed the area of Malabar Coast between Alappuzha in the south to Kasaragod in the north. This included Palakkad Gap, Coimbatore, Salem, and Kolli Hills. The region around Coimbatore was ruled by the Cheras during Sangam period between c. first and the fourth centuries CE and it served as the eastern entrance to the Palakkad Gap, the principal trade route between the Malabar Coast and Tamil Nadu. However the southern region of present-day Kerala state (The coastal belt between Thiruvananthapuram and Alappuzha) was under Ay dynasty, who was more related to the Pandya dynasty of Madurai than Cheras.

Along with (Muziris and Tyndis), Quilon was an ancient seaport on the Malabar Coast of India from the early centuries before the Christian era. Kollam served as a major port city for Pandya dynasty on the western coast while Kulasekharapatnam served Pandyas on the eastern coast. The city had a high commercial reputation from the days of the Phoenicians and Ancient Romans. Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) mentions Greek ships anchored at Muziris and Nelcynda. There was also a land route over the Western Ghats. Spices, pearls, diamonds, and silk were exported to Egypt and Rome from these ports. Pearls and diamonds came to the Chera Kingdom from Ceylon and the southeastern coast of India, then known as the Pandyan Kingdom.

Cosmas Indicopleustes, a Greek Nestorian sailor, in his book the Christian Topography who visited the Malabar Coast in 550, mentions an enclave of Christian believers in ''Male'' (Malabar Coast). He writes, "In the island of Tabropane (Ceylon), there is a church of Christians, and clerics and faithful. Likewise at Male, where the pepper grows, and in the farming community of Kalliana (Kalliankal at Nillackal) there is also a bishop consecrated in Persia in accordance with the Nicea Sunnahadose of 325 AD." The Nestorian Patriarch Jesujabus, who died in 660 AD, mentions Kollam in his letter to Simon, Metropolitan of Persia.

Kollam is also home to one of the oldest mosques in Indian subcontinent. 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 and converted to Islam during the lifetime of Muhammad (c. 570–632). According to ''Qissat Shakarwati Farmad'', the ''Masjids'' at Kodungallur, Kollam, Madayi, Barkur, Mangalore, Kasaragod, Kannur, Dharmadam, Panthalayini, and Chaliyam, were built during the era of Malik Dinar, and they are among the oldest ''Masjid''s in Indian subcontinent. It is believed that Malik Dinar died at Thalangara in Kasaragod town.Pg 58, Cultural heritage of Kerala: an introduction, A. Sreedhara Menon, East-West Publications, 1978

Capital of Venad (9th to 12th centuries)

The port at Kollam, then known as Quilon, was founded in 825 by the Nestorian Christians Mar Sabor and Mar Proth with sanction from Ayyanadikal Thiruvadikal, the king of the independent Venad or the State of Quilon, a feudatory under the Chera kingdom.V. Nagam Aiya (1906), Travancore State Manual, page 244

It is believed that Mar Sapor Iso also proposed that the Chera king create a new seaport near Kollam in lieu of his request that he rebuild the almost vanished inland seaport at Kollam (kore-ke-ni) near Backare (Thevalakara), also known as Nelcynda and Tyndis to the Romans and Greeks and as Thondi to the Tamils, which had been without trade for several centuries because the Cheras were overrun by the Pallavas in the sixth century, ending the spice trade from the Malabar coast. This allowed the Nestorians to stay in the Chera kingdom for several decades and introduce the Christian faith among the Nampoothiri Vaishnavites and Nair sub-castes in the St. Thomas tradition, with the Syrian liturgy as a basis for the Doctrine of the Trinity, without replacing the Sanskrit and Vedic prayers. The Tharisapalli plates presented to Maruvan Sapor Iso by Ayyanadikal Thiruvadikal granted the Christians the privilege of overseeing foreign trade in the city as well as control over its weights and measures in a move designed to increase Quilon's trade and wealth. The two Christians were also instrumental in founding Christian churches with Syrian liturgy along the Malabar coast, distinct from the ancient Vedic Advaitam propounded by Adi Shankara in the early ninth century among the Nampoothiri Vaishnavites and Nair Sub Castes, as Malayalam was not accepted as a liturgical language until the early 18th century.

Thus began the Malayalam Era, known as Kolla Varsham after the city, indicating the importance of Kollam in the ninth century. The Persian merchant Soleyman of Siraf visited Malabar in the ninth century and found Quilon to be the only port in India used by the huge Chinese ships as their transshipment hub for goods on their way from China to the Persian Gulf. The rulers of Kollam (formerly called 'Desinganadu') had trade relations with China and exchanged embassies. According to the records of the Tang dynasty (618–913), Quilon was their chief port of call before the seventh century. The Chinese trade decreased about 600 and was again revived in the 13th century. ''Mirabilia Descripta'' by Bishop Catalani gives a description of life in Kollam, which he saw as the Catholic bishop-designate to Kollam, the oldest Catholic diocese in India. He also gives true and imaginary descriptions of life in 'India the Major' in the period before Marco Polo visited the city. Sulaiman al-Tajir, a Persian merchant who visited Kerala during the reign of Sthanu Ravi Varma (9th century CE), records that there was extensive trade between Kerala and China at that time, based at the port of Kollam.

Kollam as "Colombo" in the Catalan Atlas (1375)

In the 13th century CE, Maravarman Kulasekara Pandyan I, a Pandya ruler fought a war in Venad and captured the city of Kollam. The city appears on the Catalan Atlas of 1375 CE as Columbo and Colobo. The map marks this city as a Christian city, ruled by a Christian ruler.

The text above the picture of the king says:

The city was much frequented by the Genoese merchants during the 13th-14th centuries CE, followed by the Dominican and Franciscan friars from Europe. The Genoese merchants called the city Colõbo/Colombo.

The city was founded in 825 by Maruvān Sapir Iso, a Persian East Syriac Christian merchant, and was also Christianized early by the Saint Thomas Christians. In 1329 CE Pope John XXII established Kollam / Columbo as the first and only Roman Catholic bishopric on the Indian subcontinent, and appointed Jordan of Catalonia, a Dominican friar, as the diocese's first bishop of the Latin sect. The Pope's Latin scribes assigned the name "Columbum" to Columbo.

According to a book authored by Ilarius Augustus, published April, 2021 (Christopher Columbus: Buried deep in Latin the Indian origin of the great explorer from Genoa'''), the words Columbum, Columbus and Columbo appear for the first time in a notarial deed (lease contract) of a certain Mousso in Genoa in 1329 CE. These words appear in the form of a toponym. The author then shows, through the Latin text of several other notarial deeds and the documents on church history, how Christopher Columbus - also carrying the same toponym.- was part of Mousso's family, and hence of the Indian lineage (although born in Genoa).

Portuguese, Dutch and British Trade and Influences (16th to 18th centuries)

The Portuguese arrived at Kappad Kozhikode in 1498 during the Age of Discovery, thus opening a direct sea route from Europe to India. They were the first Europeans to establish a trading center in Tangasseri, Kollam in 1502, which became the centre of their trade in pepper. In the wars with the Moors/Arabs that followed, the ancient church (temple) of St Thomas Tradition at Thevalakara was destroyed. In 1517, the Portuguese built the St. Thomas Fort in Thangasseri, which was destroyed in the subsequent wars with the Dutch. In 1661, the Dutch East India Company took possession of the city. The remnants of the old Portuguese Fort, later renovated by the Dutch, can be found at Thangasseri. In the 18th century, Travancore conquered Kollam, followed by the British in 1795. Thangasseri remains today as an Anglo-Indian settlement, though few Anglo-Indians remain. The Infant Jesus Church in Thangasseri, an old Portuguese-built church, remains as a memento of the Portuguese rule of the area.

File:Quilon 1505 verbessert.jpg, Kollam in the 1500s
File:Quilon 1670 verbessert.jpg, Capture of Kollam in 1661
File:A view of Coylang Wellcome L0038178.jpg, Kollam in the 1700s

Battle of Quilon

The Battle of Quilon was fought in 1809 between a troop of the Indian kingdom of Travancore led by the then Dalawa (prime minister) of Travancore, Velu Thampi Dalawa and the British East India Company led by Colonel Chalmers at Cantonment Maidan in Quilon. The battle lasted for only six hours and was the result of the East India Company's invasion of Quilon and their garrison situated near the Cantonment Maidan. The company forces won the battle while all the insurrectionist who participated in the war were court-martialed and subsequently hanged at the maidan.

Travancore Rule

In the early 18th century CE, the Travancore royal family adopted some members from the royal family of Kolathunadu based at Kannur, and Parappanad based in present-day Malappuram district. Later, Venad Kingdom was completely merged with the Kingdom of Travancore during the reign of Marthanda Varma and Kollam remained as the capital of Travancore Kingdom. Later on, the capital of Travancore was relocated to Thiruvananthapuram.

Travancore became the most dominant state in Kerala by defeating the powerful Zamorin of Kozhikode in the battle of Purakkad

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases