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Legend & History

Long ago, in the mists of time as it were, Lord Vishnu descended from the heavens in his incarnation of Parshuram. After slaying the evil kings 21 times over to repeal their force from earth, he did penance for waging the terrible war, and threw his axe into the sea. The area where the axe landed, from shaft to blade, rose from the sea as Kerala, a land of plenty and prosperity.

Its geographical position has been responsible too for Kerala's historic ebb and flow. The strip of land found a natural defense in the hills that sealed off one longitudinal section, leaving it open to access from the sea alone. Sea trade started with the Phoenicians, and in 1000 BC Kerala was visited by King Solomon's ships that traveled to 'Ophir', in all probability the modern Puvar, south of Trivandrum.

Then followed the galleys of other far-off countries: Greece, Rome, and Arabia, China. A fresh wave of trading history started with the Europeans: the Portuguese gained trading rights in 1516; the Dutch merchants a stronghold in 1602, and by 1663 the Portuguese were forced out of the area.

By 1795, however, the Dutch too had to move out, for the British traders had become the strongest power in India by that time. In all this period of prosperity and strife, the region's identity existed as the Malabar Coast and Cochin Travancore. It was only in 1956 that it gained recognition as an independent state, Kerala.




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