Kerala
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Kerala is truly the undiscovered India. It is God's own country and an enchantingly beautiful, emerald-green sliver of land. It is a tropical paradise far from the tourist trial at the southwestern peninsular tip, sandwiched between the tall mountains and the deep sea. Kerala is a long stretch of enchanting greenery. The tall exotic coconut palm dominates the landscape.
There is a persistent legend which says that Parasuram, the 6th incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Hindu Trinity, stood on a high place in the mountains, threw an axe far in to the sea, and commanded the sea to retreat. And the land that emerged all from the waters became Kerala, the land of plenty and prosperity.
Kerala is a 560-km long narrow stretch of land. At the widest, Kerala is a mere 120-km from the sea to the mountains. Gracing one side of Kerala, are the lofty mountains ranging high to kiss the sky. And on the other side the land is washed by the blue Arabian Sea waters. The land is covered with dense tropical forest, fertile plains, beautiful beaches, cliffs, rocky coasts, an intricate maze of backwaters, still bays and an astounding 44 glimmering rivers. Kerala's exotic spices have lured foreigners to her coast from time immemorial.
Earlier, Kerala was made up of three distinct areas. Malabar as far up the coast as Tellicherry, Cannanore and Kasargode with the tiny pocket-handkerchief French possession of Mahe nearby (it was returned to India in the early 1950 's and is now administratively part of Pondicherry). This area belonged to what was once called the Madras Presidency under the British. The middle section is formed by the princely State of Cochin; the third comprises Travancore, another princely State.
Early inhabitants of Kerala
Archaeologists believe that the first citizens of Kerala were the hunter-gatherers, the ting Negrito people. These people still inhabit the mountains of southern India today, consequently, they had a good knowledge of herbal medicine and were skilled in interpreting natural phenomena. The next race of people in Kerala were believed to be the Austriches. The Austric people of Kerala are of the same stock as the present-day Australian Aborigines. They were the people who laid the foundation of Indian civilizations and introduced the cultivation of rice and vegetables, which are still part of Kerala scene. They also introduced snake-worship in Kerala.
Traces of such worship and ancient rites have been found among the Aboriginal tribes of Australia. Austric features can still be seen fairly and clearly among the people of Kerala today. Then came the Dravidians (The Mediterranean people). Dravidian absorbed many of the beliefs of the Negrito and Austric people, but they were strongly inclined to the worship of the Mother Goddess in all her myriad forms: Protector, Avenger, Bestower of wealth, wisdom and arts.
The Dravidians migrated to the southwards, carrying their civilization with them, though leaving their considerable cultural input on their successors, the Aryans (indo - Iranians). But Kerala is still strongly influenced by the Dravidian culture: urbane, cash-crop and trade oriented, and with strong maternalistic biases. The Aryans have made a deep impression on Kerala in late proto-historic times.
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Climate: Equable Climate that varies from Season to Season
Major Factors affecting the Climate:The Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats Best time round the year:September to February Kerala, the land surrounded by the pristine waters of the Arabian Sea, has an equable climate that varies from season to season. The presence of the Western Ghats on the eastern side of the state and across the path of the southwest monsoon creates an important climatic zone with copious rainfall on the windward side and a dry belt on the lee side in the east. The Climate of Kerala can be clasified roughly into three categories. The summer in Kerala lasts from March to May and is followed by the southwest monsoon spell lasting until the middle of October. The northeast monsoons take over the relay around this time and linger on till the month of February.
Temperature
Even at the height of the monsoons, the temperature rarely dips below a pleasant 18 degrees c. It has a warm and pleasant tropical monsoon climate with seasonally excessive rainfall. The climate is pleasant from September to February, which is also the peak tourist season. The summer months are warm and humid with a mean max temperature of about 33 degree c. Temperature Winter Max: 21°C ; Min: 18°C Summer Max: 33°C ; Min: 27°C
Rain Fall
Kerala is blessed with plentiful rain, 54% to 85% of which is contributed by the monsoons. Monsoons bring to Kerala two rainy seasons-the southwest monsoon or the Edavappathi, bringing rains during June-September, and the north east monsoon or the Thulavarsham during October to December.
Kerala is directly exposed to the southwest monsoon but also receives rain from the reverse (northeast) monsoon. Rainfall averages about 118 inches (3,000 millimetres) annually statewide, with some slopes receiving more than 200 inches. The north east monsoon season begins from the middle of October and lasts upto the end of February, though the rain associated with it ceases by December. The total annual rainfall in the state varies from 380 cms over the extreme northern parts to about 180 cms to the south.
The amount of rainfall decreases towards the south almost in proportion with the decrease in altitude of the Western Ghats. July receives the maximum rainfall with all meterological centres recording about 25 rainy days. Neriyamangalam in Ernakulam district records the highest amount of rainfall 104 cms.
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Main Language : Malayalam
Malayalam is the official language of Kerala. It belongs to the Dravidian languages category. The language is rich in literature as many literary. The language has close resemblance to Tamil, another language of Dravidian origin. Tamil greatly influenced the early development of Malayalam. English stands only second to Sanskrit in its influence in Malayalam. Hundreds of individual lexical items and may idiomatic expressions in modern Malayalam are of English origin.
The Changing Trends of Malayalam
Malayalam literature takes a lazy and winding route till the end of the 18th century, after which the modern period begins. The Ramacharitam (1300AD) is the oldest Malayalam text. Writings of the first few centuries were in Mani-pravalam or the ‘high style’. This went on until Cherusseri Namboodiri turned his attention to pure Malayalam and wrote Krishna Gatha in early 15th century. This was again followed by a generation of campu compositions, a mixture of prose and verse with a liberal sprinkling of Sanskrit words. The themes were from the great Sanskrit epics and Puranas. As late as the 17th century, the first big Malayali poet, Tunchattu Ramanuja Ezhuttachchan adopted the Sanskrit alphabet in place of Malayalam’s incomplete one. A new literary type arose in the 18th century, the Tullal or dance drama, which again dipped into the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas for themes.
Kotungallur and Trivandrum -
The Major Centers of Literary Activities Kotungallur (in North Kerala) and Trivandrum (in South Kerala) became the two hectic centers of literary activity in the second half of the 19th century. Volumes of translations were being written – Valiya Koyil Tampuran’s Shakuntala (1881), Kunnikkuttan Tampuran’s Hamlet and Mahabharata, Vallattol Narayana Menon’s Ramayana (1878) and others.