Kerala is a small, densely populated state in India. It occupies a long strip of land along the southwest coast of India. Kerala is relatively poor in natural resources but rich in scenic beauty. It has a long literary and artistic tradition.
Christopher Columbus found out America accidentally when he sailed in the year 1491 to find out a sea-route to Kerala, the land of spices. In Kerala varieties of spices grow abundantly. The Western world bought the spices from Kerala, which gave flavor to the foods of the west.
Kerala is one of the 25 States comprising the Indian Union, which is the largest Democratic Republic in the world. This is the southernmost state which is on the shores of the Arabian Sea. It has an area of 15,005 sq. miles or 38,863 sq. kms. with 30 million people, and it is divided into 14 districts. The language of Kerala is Malayalam, which had originated from Sanskrit and Tamil.
"Malabar" is a partially Arabicized form of the same word. The northern area of Kerala is still known as Malabar. The word Malabar corresponds to the vernacular "Malayalam".
Keram in vernacular means coconut tree. Coconut trees grow here in abundance. So some scholars think that the word Kerala is derived from keram, meaning land of coconut trees |
