KOZHIKODE: As the process of renaming Kerala as Keralam gains momentum, following the passing of a resolution by the Union cabinet, a renowned historian has questioned the rationale for such a change saying that neither was used by ordinary people to identify the region.
If the intention is to reclaim the original vernacular name, then it should be Malayalam and not Keralam because that was the name used by people in the region as attested by various Dutch, Portuguese and British documents and even local inscriptions, points out Abbas Panakkal, advisor at the Religious Life and Belief Centre, University of Surrey, and an Edward Cadbury Fellow at University of Birmingham.
He argues that names such as Malayam and Malayalam were widely used by people to denote the region currently known as Kerala.
According to Panakkal, Kerala was the Sanskrit name used to describe the area. Francis Buchanan, the Scottish scientist who visited the area in the 18th century, has said that ‘Kerala’ is a Sanskrit word and ‘Malayalam’ is the word used by common people. “It is clearly written by Buchanan that Malayala or Malayalam is a country extending along the west coast of the peninsula from Cape Comorin to the Chandragiri river and its people and language are called Kerala in Sanskrit”.
According to him, historian K P Padmanabha Menon has also written that Kerala is a Sanskrit name. Panakkal said even a communist leader like E M S Namboodiripad preferred to use the Sanskrit word Keralam.
In the first of the 12 volumes of Hortus Malabaricus, published in 1678, the name of the region is clearly mentioned as Malayalam. There are references in the book to a Malayam doctor and trees in Malayalam, Panakkal said.
“In fact, Keralam was only one of the four geographical regions of the land known as Malayalam,” he said. According to Panakkal, Francis Whyte Ellis, who was an Indian Civil Service officer, referred to the entire geographical area, now known as Kerala, as Malayalam.
In one of his written works, Ellis says that “the country of Malayalam, laying on the west coast of the Indian Peninsula, is according to the Ceralotpati, divided into four Chandam or provinces.” These are Gokarnam, Tulu Rajyam, Cupa Rajyam and Kerala Rajyam and Mooshika Rajyam. “The boundary of Kerala Rajyam was Nileshwaram in the north and Kollam in the south. Therefore, historically Keralam does not include the entire geographical stretch of the state,” Panakkal said.
“There are reports that a great amount of money will be required to implement the change. So, it would be ideal if we change it to Malayalam, the name originally used by the ordinary people of the region,” he said.