Tribes in Ancient India c49.2

c49.2

The Keralaputra (Ketalaputra or Chera) is ‘the country south of Kūpaka (or Satya), extending down to Kanneti in Central Travancore (Karunagapalli Taluk). South of it lay the political division of Mūshika’. It was watered by the river Periyār on the banks of which stood its capital Vañji (near Cochin) and at its mouth the seaport of Muziris (Kranganur).¹ According to L. D. Barnett ² the Chera or Kerala territory comprised Travancore, Cochin and the Malabar District; the Koṅgu-deśa (corresponding to the Coimbatore District and the southern part of Salem District), which at one time was separate from it and later annexed to it. Its capital was originally Vañji (now Tiru-Karūr, on the Periyār river, near Cochin), but later Tiru-Vañjikkalam (near the mouth of the Periyār). It had important trading centres on the western coast at Tondi on the Agalappulai, about five miles north of Quilāndi, Muchiri (near the mouth of the Periyār), Paḷaiyūr (near Chowghāṭ), and Vaikkarai (close to Kottayam).