Historical Geography of Ancient India c7.266

c7.266

*Keralaputra* (variant Ketalaputo).—It is the Kerala country in South India. Patañjali in his *Mahābhāṣya* (IV, I, 4th āhnika) mentions Kerala (or Malabar). Keralaputra was situated at the south of Kupāka (or Satya), extending down to Kannati in Central Travancore (Karunagapalli taluk). South of it lay the political division of Mūṣika (J.R.A.S., 1923, 413). It was watered by the river Periyār on the bank of which stood its capital Vañji near Cochin and at its mouth there was the seaport of Muchiri (C.H.I., I, 595). The Chera or Kerala country comprised Travancore, Cochin and the Malabar district. The Koṅgudeśa (corresponding to the Coimbatore district and the southern part of Salem district) was annexed to it. Its original capital was Vañji, now Tiru-Karur on the Periyār river near Cochin; but its later capital was Tiru-Vañjikkalam near the mouth of the Periyār. It had important trading centres on the western coast at Toṇḍi on the Agalappulai about five miles north of Quilāndi, Muchiri near the mouth of the Periyār, Palaiyūr Chowghāṭ and Vaikkari close to Koṭṭayam.