Talk:Chirakkal Raja

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I was wondering why nobody has posted in this section yet. Is it for lack of interest or lack of information? In any case I thought I should be the first here, as also that this would be my first ever post in any Wikipedia forum.

Without exaggeration, I think the Mooshaka or Kolathiri or Chirakkal Royal Family should be the most ancient existing royal family, and perhaps even the oldest ever in recorded history. Without going into the as-of-now theoretical or unconventional realm of earlier world orders and civilizations pre - 3500 BC - 3100 BC, where the land of KumariKandam believed to be lying in the western half of the Indian Ocean might have been the cradle of the earliest cultures and the ancestors of the Dravida, Aryaa, Sumerian and Elamite cultures, and by a stretch even the Akkadian, Babylonian, Assyrian and East African peoples, I have come across various articles that are authenticated by "recorded history" and by "modern science", which do suggest an unparalleled antiquity for the Velirs, who later became the Mooshakas, Kolathiris and finally the Chirakkals. I shall be attaching some links that I have with me now, that pertain to this subject but there have been other articles in the past on the Net that are no longer available, which I am unable to refer to, and where there was a lot of information there too.

According to recorded history, the Ceras, Cholas and Pandyas date back to at least 300 BC, in fact, there are hints that the only recorded Sangam period might have commenced as much as a thousand years earlier than had been believed for most of the time. There has however been no earliest possible date given to the Ceras, Cholas and Pandyas with regard to their beginning, as in the Deep South, going back to even 300 BC (though that is a long stretch of time too) blurs our vision looking into the past still further.

One thing is for sure – that courtesy the Ceras, Cholas and Pandyas indirectly, and more directly by virtue of being the descendents of the Velirs, the fourth major power in the Deep South – Dravida as it was called, the Mooshaka or Kolathiri or Chirakkal Royal Family could claim an antiquity going back to at least 300 BC, and if the only known Sangam was indeed over a thousand years earlier, that could be stretched to even 1800 BC. One Udayan Venmon Nannan, also known as Nannan or Nandan was the most illustrious ruler in this dynasty more than 2000 years back.

One article that pertains to the pushing back of the antiquities of the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas and the Velirs - though it might appear a bit controversial to many is here, it makes a lot of sense: - http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/H/Ha/Hathigumpha.htm.

One that mentions the Velir chief Nannan is here:- http://www.coimbatore.com/kongunadu/home2.htm.

Though this article pertains to a different subject, it does make mention of Nannan as the direct ancestor of the Chirakkal Royal Family:- http://ernakulam.sancharnet.in/janvikas/kasaragodhistory.htm

Another article regarding the same, though this too is on something else, that also mentions today’s Mount Eli or Ezhimala or Ezhimalai as the capital of Nannan:-

There are many articles that mention the Kolathiris under some name or the other, but most seem to be articles on some other topic that only make a passing reference to them. The different names therefore that this Family seems to have had are the Velir, Mooshaka, Kolathiri and Chirakkal, the last being their present title, which they might have taken after moving their capital to the town of Chirakkal, which might have been in the beginning of the 9th century CE. Prior to that, they had their capitals at places like Madayi, Ezhimalai, Taliparamba (all in Kannur), and according to some accounts even in some place in Pudukottai District.

They also have given birth to the royal families of Nileshwaram, Arakkal, Thiruvithamkoor, and Lakshadweep (They have a kind of “higher society” there, though not a formal royal family) and of the Maldives, and at least one in present-day TN, as also one in the Palakkad region. Kolathiri was the first Nair lord took the vedic kshatriya title,he brought Tuluva Brahmins from Tulunadu to do "Hiraniyagarbha yaga" because Namputhiris objected it. Over the centuries, they also intermarried with non-Southern royals like the Chedis and the Somas of North-Central India besides of course the Ceras, Cholas and Pandyas, which was needless to say, a very frequent happening.

The region over which they ruled at some pint of time or the other, seem to stretch from at least Mangalapuram(Mangalore) and Kodagu(Coorg) in the South to Palakkad and Kovai(Coimbatore) in the North and to Dharmapuri and Mysore in the East, though for most of the time, their rule seems to have been concentrated in and around Kasargode and Kannur Districts.

Does anybody else know anything more about this family? I would really like it if something new would be posted here regarding this family. I cannot deny that I have been biased so as to being interested in this family’s history as my Maternal Grandmother is related two generations before her to one of the younger princesses of the Chirakkals, after which they branched out.

Anyway, finally I think they should have a single name like Velir or Mooshakam or Kolathiri instead of a bit awkward sounding one like “Chirakkal Raja” both for the Wiki article as well as for this discussion forum. I hope somebody would edit the same.

Hello again, I was the one who posted the previous opening post barely ten mins back. Just wish somebody could change the name of the article accordingly.

Raja was never a South Indian word. I am not being regionistic or parochial but Mooshakam or Kolathiri or even just Chirakkal or then Chirakkal Thamburan all sound better.

Chirakkal kings and Saliyas
I too have some connection with Chirakkal kings. But not so gratifying :-). In my community we have a folklore that our community was expelled from Kolathunadu region(upto Southern Kasaragod) by a Chirakkal king. I wonder if it's recorded in any of royal accounts. I hope some expert would read this and give me some inputs. Also any idea in what century or year this kingdom came to an end.

Manjunatha (24 Oct 2005)

After all what is youir community?

talk

Afterall what is your community?

Kjrajesh