Draft:Koothali

The Koothali Mooppil Nair or Koothali Moothavar, most commonly known as the Koothali Nair and styled Vallabhan Chathan, is a historical principality and sthanam of North Malabar, whose holder, one of the preeminent Moopil Nairs, was named for his hereditary seat in Koothali. Towns and lands subject to the Koothali Moothavar's rule traditionally included Perambra, Changaroth, Cheruvannur, Kuttiady, and adjacent regions; temples subject to his maintenance, Its succession vested in the now-extinct Koothali Swaroopam, itself a branch of the Ayinhat swaroopam with whom, historically, the Koothali Nair, along with also the Paleri Nair, collectively ruled Payyormala, the trinity of autonomous Naduvazhis owing nominal allegiance to the kingdom of Kurumbranad, and, later, the Zamorins of Calicut. Under the British Raj the Koothali Nair was entitled to a malikhana, or Privy Purse corresponding to one-fifth of the revenues from territories over which he had been mediatized from sovereignty, and paid land revenues of approximately 12,000 rupees.

Following the death of Kunhiraman, the last Koothali Moothavar, in 1936, the voluminous jenmi landholdings of the sthanam were extensively litigated and ultimately escheated to the state, beginning in 1939, and accounting for some 47,000 acres of diversely forested and agrarian lands, which were supervised by an appointed special tehsildar. During 1940s-era agitation echoing the Mappila Rebellion of 1921, peasant demands of the Karshaka Thozhilali Party included the expropriation of at least 16,000 acres or 20,000 acres of cultivable land from the estate to be repurposed for their use.