Mushika Kingdom
Encyclopedia
- This article is about a Sangam age kingdom in South India, for the medieval feudal state in the same geographical area, see KolathunaduKolathunaduKolathunādu was one of the three most powerful feudal kingdoms on the Malabar Coast during the arrival Portuguese Armadas to India along with Zamorin's Calicut and Venad. Kolathunād had its capital at Ezhimala and was ruled by Kolathiri royal family and roughly comprised the whole northern...
Mushika Kingdom (also called Ezhimalai Kingdom, Puzhinadu, Konkanam or Mushaka Rajya) was an ancient kingdom of the Tamil
Tamil people
Tamil people , also called Tamils or Tamilians, are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, India and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. Historic and post 15th century emigrant communities are also found across the world, notably Malaysia, Singapore, Mauritius, South Africa, Australia, Canada,...
Sangam age in present day northern Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ruled by the Royal dynasty of the same name. They ruled the strip of land between Mangaluru in the north and Vadagara in the south. It was one of the three kingdom of Sangam Age Kerala, along with the Chera kingdom
Chera dynasty
Chera Dynasty in South India is one of the most ancient ruling dynasties in India. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas, they formed the three principle warring Iron Age Tamil kingdoms in southern India...
and the Ay kingdom
Ay kingdom
The Ay was the earliest ruling dynasty of the southern parts of present-day Kerala, south India. The Ay kings claimed descent from Yadavas or Ayar....
. Ezhimalai Konkanam Nannan
Nannan
Ezhimalai Konkanam Nannan was a South Indian ruler of the Mushika kingdom and was a suspected contemporary of Mauryan emperor Bindusara, in the Sangam Period...
was the most powerful ruler of Ezhimalai, he expanded the kingdom to Wynad, Gudallore and to parts of Coimbatore
Coimbatore
Coimbatore , also known as Kovai , is the second largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is a major commercial centre in Tamil Nadu and is known as the "Manchester of South India"....
. With the death of Nannan in a battle against the Cheras, the kingdom dissolved in the Chera kingdom
Chera dynasty
Chera Dynasty in South India is one of the most ancient ruling dynasties in India. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas, they formed the three principle warring Iron Age Tamil kingdoms in southern India...
.
Mushika Kingdom has found mention of in the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
epic. Over the millennia, they have also been known as the Kulyas, Kolis and Kolwas as also the Velirs
Velirs
Velirs were a royal house of minor dynastic kings and aristocratic chieftains in Tamilakkam in the early historic period of South India. Extolled in Sangam literature for their charity and truthfulness, they were the ancestors and head of the modern Tamil Vellalar caste...
, Ezhimala (also spelled as Ezhimalai), and the Nannans. Later they were better known as the Kolathiri
Kolathiri
Kolathiri or Kolathiri Rājā was the title by which the senior most male along the matilinial line of the Mushika or Kolathunādu Royal Family was styled...
or the Chirakkal
Chirakkal
Chirakkal may refer to:* Chirakkal Royal Family* Chirrakkal Kingdom* Chirakkal, Kannur* Chirakkal, Thrissur...
Royal Family of Northern Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
. Their last and erstwhile capital was in the town of Chirakkal
Chirakkal
Chirakkal may refer to:* Chirakkal Royal Family* Chirrakkal Kingdom* Chirakkal, Kannur* Chirakkal, Thrissur...
to which they moved around 850 AD. The word 'Mushika' also means Mouse in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
. Ezhimala, where they had their capital earlier to Taliparamba
Taliparamba
Taliparamba is a city and a municipality in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala and spread over an area of 43.05 km2. It stretches from the coastal area of Ramanthali to Nuchiyard and Vayathur villages, touching the Karnataka border.Taliparamba is a big town of 67,000 people...
and Chirakkal
Chirakkal
Chirakkal may refer to:* Chirakkal Royal Family* Chirrakkal Kingdom* Chirakkal, Kannur* Chirakkal, Thrissur...
, literally means Rat Hill in the local Malayalam language as well as in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
.
The Mushika Royals who were later known as the Kolathiris and the Chirakkal
Chirakkal
Chirakkal may refer to:* Chirakkal Royal Family* Chirrakkal Kingdom* Chirakkal, Kannur* Chirakkal, Thrissur...
Royal Family, might have been the only one, or one of the twelve Velir Families of the Tamil Sangam Era fame. It is possible then that their royalty goes back to as far back as 1800 B.C. They, over the millennia intermarried very frequently with the Cheras
Chera dynasty
Chera Dynasty in South India is one of the most ancient ruling dynasties in India. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas, they formed the three principle warring Iron Age Tamil kingdoms in southern India...
, the Pandyas and the Cholas, and also might have given rise to the royalties of the Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep
Lakshadweep , formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Amindivi Islands, is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 km off the coast of the South West Indian state of Kerala...
, the Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. They have also had matrimonial alliances with the Chedis
Chedi Kingdom
Chedi kingdom was one among the many kingdoms ruled during early periods by Paurava kings and later by Yaduvanshi Rajput kings in the central and western India. It falls roughly in the Bundelkhand division of Madhya Pradesh regions to the south of river Yamuna and along river Betwa or Vetravati...
, the Somas
Somàs
Sornàs is a village in Andorra, located in the parish of Ordino....
, and the Yadavas
Yadu
Yadu is one of the five Indo-Aryan tribes mentioned in the Rig Veda . The Mahabharata, the Harivamsha and the Puranas mention Yadu as the eldest son of king Yayati and his queen Devayani. The prince of King Yayati, Yadu was a self-respecting and a very established ruler...
. The Arakkal and the Nileshwaram Royal Families are both branches of this Royal Family, having branched out from them, over the centuries. A Southern branch of this family ruled over erstwhile Venad
Venad
Venad Swarupam was one of the three prominent late medieval Hindu feudal kingdoms on Malabar Coast, south India, along with Kingdom of Calicut and Kingdom of Cannanore. In the early 14th century, Venad ruler Ravi Varma Kulasekhara had established a short-lived supremacy over southern India...
and was better known as the Thiruvithamkoor or Travancore
Travancore
Kingdom of Travancore was a former Hindu feudal kingdom and Indian Princely State with its capital at Padmanabhapuram or Trivandrum ruled by the Travancore Royal Family. The Kingdom of Travancore comprised most of modern day southern Kerala, Kanyakumari district, and the southernmost parts of...
Royal Family. The Mushika Royal Family has found mention in surviving ancient Indian texts like the Vishnu Purana
Vishnu Purana
The Vishnu Purana is a religious Hindu text and one of the eighteen Mahapuranas. It is considered one of the most important Puranas and has been given the name Puranaratna...
and also in Greek accounts like that of Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...
.
Over the millennia, their kingdom roughly covered present-day Kasaragod
Kasaragod district
Kasaragod District is one of the districts of the Indian state of Kerala. Kasaragod District was organised as a separate district on 24 May 1984...
and Kannur
Kannur
Kannur , also known as Cannanore, is a city in Kannur district in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the District of Kannur and 518km north of state capital Trivandrum. During British rule in India, Kannur was known by its old name Cannanore, which is still in...
districts in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
, South India
South India
South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...
, along with some adjoining areas of Northern Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
and Tulunadu, and in some periods parts of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
, Kodagu
Kodagu
Kodagu , also known by its anglicised former name of Coorg, is an administrative district in Karnataka, India. It occupies an area of in the Western Ghats of southwestern Karnataka. As of 2001, the population was 548,561, 13.74% of which resided in the district's urban centres, making it the least...
and Mysore as well.
The most famous king in the recorded history of this dynasty and kingdom was Udayan Venmon Nannan also known as Nannan or Nandan. Documented records of the rule of 118 kings till Srikanta at the start of the 11th Century CE have been compiled in the Sanskrit text known as Mushikavamsa, in reality a poem composed by the poet and historian Atula, who was one of Srikanta's courtiers. The territories they ruled over were known as Kolathunadu or Kolathirinadu. The Kovilakam
Kovilakam
Kovilakam is a term that denotes to the principal manor/estate/palace of a princely lineages of Kerala, India. This is the residence, where all who have not succeeded to get Rajaship remain under the management of the eldest resident male or female member of that particular branch of the family...
(meaning Palace in the local Malayalam language) of the Kolathiris was located in Chirakkal
Chirakkal
Chirakkal may refer to:* Chirakkal Royal Family* Chirrakkal Kingdom* Chirakkal, Kannur* Chirakkal, Thrissur...
where it still stands. The Mushika Royals were responsible for building many of the existing ancient temples of Northern Kerala and adjoining areas, besides forts like those at Bekal Fort
Bekal
-References:* *...
, and major ports like those at Valapattam. The Arakkal and Nileshwaram Royal Families are both branches of the Kolathiri or Chirakkal Royal Family. The southern branch of this Family ruled over Venad
Venad
Venad Swarupam was one of the three prominent late medieval Hindu feudal kingdoms on Malabar Coast, south India, along with Kingdom of Calicut and Kingdom of Cannanore. In the early 14th century, Venad ruler Ravi Varma Kulasekhara had established a short-lived supremacy over southern India...
and is today known as the Travancore
Travancore
Kingdom of Travancore was a former Hindu feudal kingdom and Indian Princely State with its capital at Padmanabhapuram or Trivandrum ruled by the Travancore Royal Family. The Kingdom of Travancore comprised most of modern day southern Kerala, Kanyakumari district, and the southernmost parts of...
Royal Family.