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.

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