Zamorin


The Samoothiri was the title of the erstwhile ruler and monarch of the Calicut kingdom in the South Malabar region of India. Originating from the former feudal kingdom of Nediyiruppu Swaroopam, the Samoothiris and their vassal kings from Nilambur Kovilakam established Calicut as one of the most important trading ports on the southwest coast of India. At the peak of their reign, they ruled over a region extending from Kozhikode Kollam to the forested borders of Panthalayini Kollam. The Samoothiris belonged to the Eradi subcaste of the Samantan community of colonial Kerala, and were originally the ruling chiefs of Eranad. The final Zamorin of Calicut committed suicide by setting fire to his palace and burning himself alive inside it, upon learning that Hyder Ali had captured the neighboring country of Chirakkal in Kannur.

Etymology

The title zamorin first appears in the writings of Ibn Battuta in 1342. In the Portuguese Book of Duarte Barbosa, the title of the ruler of Calicut is given as çamidre or zomodri, derived from the local Malayalam sāmūtiri. In Tuhfat Ul Mujahideen written by Zainuddin Makhdoom II in the 16th century CE, the word is pronounced as Sāmuri. This was once thought to be derived from Sanskrit samudra and have the meaning "lord of the sea". In fact, the term derives from Sanskrit svami and sri, which Krishna Iyer glosses as "emperor". He gives the complete title as Svami Tiri Tirumulapad.
The Zamorins used the title Punturakkon or Punthurakon in inscriptions from c. 1100, in palace records known as the Granthavaris, and in official treaties with the English and the Dutch. No records indicate the actual personal name of the ruler. Punthura may be the place of their origin, or a battle-field, or a port of great fame. The title "Kunnalakkon" and its Sanskrit form "Shailabdhishvara" are mostly found in later literary works.

Seats of power

Thrikkavil Kovilakam in Ponnani served as a second home for the Zamorins of Calicut. Other secondary seats of the Zamorin of Calicut, all established at a much later time, were Trichur and Cranganore. The 147th Samoothiri Raja, Sree Manavedan Raja, who was married to Bharathy Thamburatty from Nilambur Kovilakam, became the last Zamorin in the dynasty's 682 year history to hold power over the Guruvayur Temple.
The chief Kerala ports under control of the Zamorins in the late 15th century were Panthalayini Kollam, and Calicut. The Zamorin of Calicut derived a greater part of his revenues by taxing the spice trade through his ports. Smaller ports in the kingdom were Puthuppattanam, Parappanangadi, Tanur, Ponnani, Chetuva and Kodungallur. The port of Beypore served as a ship building center.

Calicut

  • The port at Calicut held the superior economic and political position in Kerala, while Kollam, Kochi and Kannur were commercially confined to secondary roles. Travellers have called the city by different names – variations of the Malayalam name. The travellers from Middle-East called it "Kalikooth", Tamils called the city "Kallikkottai", for the Chinese it was "Kalifo" or "Quli".
  • In the Middle Ages, Calicut was dubbed the "City of Spices" for its role as the major trading point of Asian spices. The Chinese and Middle-Eastern interests in Malabar, the political ambition of the newly emergent rulers, i.e., the Zamorins, and the decline of port Kodungallur, etc. boosted the prosperity of the port. The rise of Calicut, both the port and the state, seems to have taken place only after the 13th century.
  • Calicut, despite being located at a geographically inconvenient spot, owed much of its prosperity to the economic policies of the Zamorins of Calicut.
  • Trade at port Calicut was managed by the Muslim port commissioner known as the Shah Bandar Koya. The port commissioner supervised the customs on the behalf of the king, fixed the prices of the commodities and collected the share to the Calicut treasury.
  • The name of the famous fine variety of cotton cloth called calico is also thought to have derived from Calicut.

    Panthalayini Kollam

  • Also known as "Fandarina", and "Shaojunan".
  • Located north of Calicut, close to a bay. The geographical location is ideal for the wintering of ships during the annual monsoon rains.
  • Presence of Chetti, Arab and Jewish merchants among others.

    Caste and line of succession

According to K. V. Krishna Iyer, the court historian in Calicut, the members of the royal house of Zamorin belonged to the Eradi subcaste of the Samanthan section of Nair aristocracy. The Samantas claimed a status higher than the rest of the Nairs. The Hindu theological formula that the rulers must be of Kshatriya varna may have been a complication for the Samantas of the Kodungallur Chera monarch. So the Samantas – already crystallized as a distinctive social group, something of a "sub-caste" – began to style themselves as "Samantha Kshatriyas". The Samantas have birth, marriage and death customs identical to other Nair communities.
The Zamorin follows a matriarchal system where the present king's sister's son becomes the next king. The direct sisters of the Zamorin are always married to Nambudiri Brahmin men. Consequently, the Zamorin's King’s lineage was always half Zamorin and half Nambudiri Brahmin.
In the royal family, thalis of the princesses were usually tied by Kshatriyas from Kodungallur chief's family, which the Zamorin recognised as more ancient and therefore higher rank. The women's sambandham partners were Nambudiri Brahmins or Kshatriyas. Royal men married Samantan or other Nair women. Zamorin's consort was dignified by the title "Naittiyar".
The family of chieftains that ruled the polities in premodern Kerala was known as the swaroopam. The rulers of Calicut belonged to "Nediyirippu swaroopam" and followed matriliny system of inheritance. The eldest male member of Nediyirippu swaroopam became the Zamorin of Calicut. There was a set pattern of succession, indicated by sthanams in the royal line. Five sthanams were defined in Calicut. These positions were based on the chronological seniority of the incumbent in the different thavazhis of the swaroopam and constituted what is called in the records as "kuruvazhcha". Unlike in the case of Cochin, there was no rotation of position among the thavazhis. Thus no particular thavazhi enjoyed any privilege or precedence in the matter of succession, as the only criterion for succession was seniority of age.
Five sthanams existed in Calicut, each with its own separate property enjoyed in succession by the senior members of the three kovilakams of the family:
  • 1st sthanam: the Zamorin of Calicut
  • 2nd sthanam: Eranadu Ilamkur Nambiyathiri Thirumulpadu. Second in line successor to the throne. Eralppadu's seat was in Karimpuzha. This area of Malabar was annexed from Valluvanadu in the leadership of the then Eralppadu.
  • 3rd sthanam: Eranadu Moonnamkur Nambiyathiri Thirumulpad
  • 4th sthanam: Edattaranadu Nambiyathiri Thirumulpadu – mentioned in the Manjeri Pulapatta inscription as the overlord of the "Three Hundred" Nairs. The Etatralpadu used to reside in a palace at Edattara near Manjeri.
  • 5th sthanam: Nediyiruppu Mootta Eradi Thirumulpadu. Naduralpadu was the former head of the house.
The three thavazhis were:
  1. Kizhakke Kovilakam
  2. Padinhare Kovilakam
  3. Puthiya Kovilakam
The senior female member of the whole Zamorin family, the Valiya Thamburatti, also enjoyed a sthanam with separate property known as the Ambadi Kovilakam. Women were not allowed to be the ruler of Calicut. And so the oldest male member traced became the next Zamorin.

Historical overview

Brahmanic legends such as the Keralolpathi and the Calicut Granthavari recount the events leading to the establishment of the state of Calicut.
There were two brothers belonging to the Eradi ruling family at Nediyiruppu. The brothers Manichan and Vikraman were the most trusted warriors in the militia of the Kodungallur Cheras. They distinguished themselves in the battles against the foreigners. However, during the partition of Chera kingdom, the Chera monarch failed to allocate any land to Nediyiruppu. Filled with guilt, the king later gave an unwanted piece of marshy tract of land called Kozhikode to the younger brother Vikraman. The king also gifted his personal sword and his favourite prayer conch – both broken – to him and told him to occupy as much as land as he could with all his might. So the Eradis conquered neighbouring kingdoms and created a large state for themselves. As a token of their respect to the Chera king, they adopted the logo of two crossed swords, with a broken conch in the middle and a lighted lamp above it.
The port at Kozhikode held the superior economic and political position along the medieval Kerala coastline, while Kannur, Kollam, and Kochi, were commercially important secondary ports, where traders from various parts of the world would gather. The Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama visited Quilandy in 1498, opening the sailing route directly from Europe to South Asia. The port at Kozhikode acted as the gateway to medieval South Indian coast for the Arabs, the Chinese, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and finally the British. The Portuguese efforts to lay the foundations to Estado da Índia, and to take complete control over the commerce was repeatedly hampered by the forces of the Zamorin of Calicut. The Kunjali Marakkars, the famous Muslim warriors, were the admiral of the fleet of Calicut. By the end of the 16th century the Portuguese – now commanding the spice traffic on the Malabar Coast – had succeeded in replacing the Muslim merchants in the Arabian Sea. The Dutch supplanted the Portuguese in the 17th century, who in turn were supplanted by the British.
Travancore became the most dominant state in Kerala by defeating the powerful Zamorin of Calicut in a battle located in Purakkad in 1755. In 1766, Haider Ali of Mysore defeated the Zamorin of Calicut and absorbed Calicut to his state. After the Third Anglo-Mysore War, Malabar District including Zamorin's former territories were placed under the control of the East India Company. Eventually, the status of the Zamorin was reduced to that of a pensioner of the company by 1806.