Malabar region
Malabar ( Malayalam: മലബാര് Malabar ) is a region in India. Originally designated Malabar the entire territory of present-day state of Kerala on the southwest coast of India. Today is understood under the Malabar region in general only the northern part of Kerala, Malabar Coast during designated the entire stretch of coast between Cape Comorin and Mangalore.
Conceptual history
The name comes from the Malabar Arab and Persian sailors who engaged in trade to South India, and originally referred to the coastal region between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea in the south west of India which essentially corresponds to the present-day state of Kerala. The name component of mala is a Dravidian root word for "mountain" ( cf. Malayalam മല mala, Tamil மலை malai ). In Sanskrit, the derived therefrom is Malaya ( मलय ) has been around since the epics Mahabharata and Ramayana as a designation for the Western Ghats and the adjoining region. In the 7th century, the Chinese traveler Xuanzang mentions the Western Ghats under the name Molaye (秣 剌 耶). In a Tamil inscription in the temple of Thanjavur Brihadisvara from the 11th century, the region in question is Malaināḍu ( மலைநாடு; Nadu means "land " ) called. In the local language Malayalam Malayalam referred addition to the language and the region in which it is spoken, so today's Kerala.
The ending- bar in Malabar probably comes from the Persian ( بار bar). The etymology of the word is unclear, but it appears in the name of different coastal regions of the Indian Ocean (see Zanzibar, from Persian زنگبار Zangibār ). The name Malabar is the first time in the 12th century in the form Manībār ( منيبار ) occupied the Arab geographer al - Idrisi. In the 13th century the name appears in the form Malibar Zakariya Qazwini The European explorers took this name. Thus speak the late 13th century John of Montecorvino of minibar and Marco Polo from Melibar. When the Portuguese began in the 16th century to colonize the region, Malabar had prevailed as the label.
During the colonial period, the term Malabar was transferred to the living on the east coast in what is now the state of Tamil Nadu Tamils and their language, as Europeans, the differences between the Malayalam and Tamil closely related were not aware of themselves. The Portuguese Jesuit Anrique Anriquez wrote the late 16th century a grammar and a dictionary of Tamil, which he referred to as a lingua Malauar Tamul. The German missionary Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, who worked in Tranquebar early 18th century, the resident Tamils designated throughout as Malabar, their language as Malayalam. In this meaning, the word was used by Europeans until the early 19th century, but then came out of use.
Today's use
Originally Malabar as a geographical term for the entire territory of present-day Kerala. To date, Malabar Coast refers to the southern part of the west coast of India between the city of Mangalore and Cape Comorin, the southern tip of India, and thus includes the entire coastline of Kerala. Under the Malabar region but is now usually understood only the northern part of Kerala, ie the districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad and Malappuram. In this restricted meaning, the region is largely congruent with the district of Malabar, which the British had set up after they had brought the area under their control in 1792. As the Indian states were reorganized in 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by the language barrier, the district Malabar was combined with the former of the two princely states of Travancore and Cochin ( Kochi) incurred Federation Travancore -Cochin to Kerala. At the same time the district of Malabar lost its administrative significance, but to date is the division into the three regions of Kerala Malabar ( northern Kerala ), Kochi ( Zentralkerala ) and Travancore ( southern Kerala ) familiar.
The Malabar region of Kerala differs geographically from the rest of hardly any state, but has a number of cultural traits exhibit. Thus, the region is strongly influenced by Islam: The population of the five districts Nordkeralas make according to the 2001 census 48.7 percent Hindus and Muslims 44.5 percent of the population ( over Kerala: Hindu 56.2 percent, 24.7 percent Muslims ). The Christians, however, are (compared to 19.0 percent in Gesamtkerala ) significantly under-represented at 6.7 percent. Tourist the Malabar region is largely undeveloped despite appropriate beaches in contrast to the southern and central Kerala. So visited in 2010 only 6.3 percent of foreign tourists who came to Kerala, the Malabar region.