But They Afterwards Returned, Being Instructed To Propitiate
The Serpents By Worshipping Them."
"At first this country was divided into four _Tookrees_ or provinces,
these into _Naadhs_ or districts, and these again into _Khunds_ or small
precincts.
The Bramins established a kind of republican or aristocratical
government, under a few principal chiefs; but jealousies and disturbances
taking place, they procured a _Permaul_ or chief governor from the prince
of Chaldesh, a sovereignty in the southern Carnatic: Yet it is more
likely that this sovereign took advantage of the divisions among the
chiefs of Malabar, to reduce them under his authority. These permauls or
viceroys were for a long while changed every twelve years; till at length
one of them, named Sheo-Ram, Cheruma Perumal, or Shermanoo Permaloo, the
Sarana-perimal of Castaneda, became so popular that he set his master
_Kishen Rao_, the rajah of Chaldesh, at defiance, and established his own
authority in Malabar. An army was sent into Malabar to reduce the country
again to obedience, but it was defeated, and from this event, which is
said to have happened 1000 years ago, all the rajahs, chief _nayres_, and
other lords of Malabar, date the sovereignty and independence of their
ancestors in that country."
"After some time, Shermanoo-Permaloo, either became weary of his
situation, or from attachment to the Mahometan religion, resolved to make
a division of Malabar among his dependents, from whom the present
chieftains are descended. Such is the current story among the inhabitants
of Malabar; yet it is more probable that his dependent chieftains,
disgusted with his conversion to the religion of Mahomet, revolted from
his authority, and contrived this story of his voluntary surrender and
division of his dominions, to justify their own assumptions. After this
division of his kingdom, it is said that an _erary_, or person of the
cast of cow-herds, originally from the banks of the Cavery, near Errode
in the Carnatic, who had been a chief instrument of the success of
Shermanoo-Permaloo in the war against rajah Kishen Rao, made application
to Shermanoo for some support. Having very little left to give away,
Shermanoo made him a grant of his own place of abode at Calicut, and gave
him his sword; ankle-rings, and other insignia of command, and presented
him with water and flowers, the ancient symbols of a transfer of property.
It is said that this cowherd rajah was ordained principal sovereign over
the other petty princes among whom Malabar was divided, with the title of
Zamorin, and was authorized by Shermanoo to extend his dominion over all
the other chieftains by force of arms. His descendants have ever since
endeavoured, on all occasions, to enforce this pretended grant, which
they pretend to hold by the tenure of possessing the sword of Shermanoo
Permaloo, and which they carefully preserve as a precious relic."
"From the period of the abdication of Shermanoo, to that of the arrival
of the Portuguese at Calicut, the Mahomedan religion had made
considerable progress in Malabar; and the Arabian merchants received
every encouragement from the Samoories or Zamorins, as they made Calicut
the staple of their Indian trade, and brought large sums of money yearly
to that place, for the purchase of spiceries and other commodities. As
the rajahs of Cochin and other petty sovereignties on the coast, were
exceedingly jealous of the superior riches and power of the zamorins, and
of the monopoly of trade enjoyed by Calicut, they gave every
encouragement to the Portuguese to frequent their ports; from whence
arose a series of warfare by sea and land, which has finally reduced them
all under subjection to the Europeans."
"According to an Arabian author, _Zeirreddien Mukhdom_, who is supposed
to have been sent to assist the zamorins and the Mahomedans in India, in
their wars with the Portuguese, Malabar is then said to have been divided
among a multiplicity of independent princes or rajahs, whom he calls
_Hakims_, some of whom commanded over one or two hundred men, and others
one, ten, fifteen, or even as high as thirty, thousand, or upwards.
The three greatest powers at that time were, the _Colastrian_[53] rajah
to the north, the zamorin of Calicut in the centre, and a rajah in the
south, who ruled from Coulan, Kalum, or Coulim, to Cape Comorin,
comprehending the country now belonging to the rajah of Travancore."
"We now return from this digression, to follow the narrative of the
Portuguese Discovery and Conquest of India, as related by Castaneda."
So great was the trade and population of Calicut and the surrounding
country, and the revenues of its sovereign through these circumstances,
that he was able to raise a force of thirty thousand men in a single day,
and could even bring an hundred thousand men into the field, completely
equipt for war, in three days. This prince, in the language of the
country, was styled the Zamorin, or Samoryn, which signifies Emperor; as
he was supreme over the other two kings of Malabar, the king of Coulan
and the king of Cananor. There were indeed other princes in this country,
who were called kings, but were not so. This zamorin or king of Calicut
was a bramin, as his predecessors had been, the bramins being priests
among the Malabars. It is an ancient rule and custom among these people,
that all their kings must die in a pagoda[54], or temple of their idols;
and that there must always be a king resident in the principal pagoda, to
serve those idols: Wherefore, when the king that serves in the temple
comes to die, he who then reigns must leave his government of temporal
affairs to take his place in the temple; upon which another is elected to
take his place, and to succeed in ruling the kingdom. If the king who is
in possession of the temporal authority should refuse to retire to the
pagoda, on the death of the king who officiated in spirituals, he is
constrained to do so, however unwilling.
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