Kolathiri or Kolathiri Rājā (King of KolathunāduA. Shreedhara Menon (2007), ''A brief History of Kerala'', DC Books, Kottayam or King of

Cannanore Kannur (), formerly known in English as Cannanore, is a city and a municipal corporation in the state of Kerala, India. It is the administrative headquarters of the Kannur district and situated north of the major port city and commercial ...

in foreign accounts) was the title by which the senior-most male along the matrilineal line of the

Mushika Mushika dynasty, also spelled Mushaka, was a minor dynastic power that held sway over the region in and around Mount Ezhi (Ezhimala) in present-day North Malabar, Kerala, India. The country of the Mushikas, ruled by an ancient lineage of the He ...

or Kolathunādu Royal Family (Kolaswarũpam) based at

North Malabar North Malabar refers to the geographic area of southwest India covering the state of Kerala's present day Kasaragod, Kannur, and Wayanad districts, and the taluks of Vatakara, Koyilandy, and Thamarassery in the Kozhikode District of Keral ...

region was styled.Duarte Barbosa, The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An Account of the Countries Bordering on the Indian Ocean and their Inhabitants, II, ed.M. L Dames (repr., London: Hakluyt Society, 1921)The Dutch in Malabar: Selection from the Records of the Madras Government, No. 13 (Madras: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Press, 1911), 143. It's a descendent of the

Mushika dynasty Mushika dynasty, also spelled Mushaka, was a minor dynastic power that held sway over the region in and around Mount Ezhi (Ezhimala (hill, Kannur), Ezhimala) in present-day North Malabar, Kerala, India. The country of the Mushikas, ruled by an a ...

. The Indian anthropologist Ayinapalli Aiyappan states that a powerful and warlike clan of the Bunt community of

Tulu Nadu Tulunad or Tulu Nadu, also called Bermere sristi or Parashurama Srishti, is a region and a proposed state on the southwestern coast of India. The Tulu people, known as 'Tuluva' (plural 'Tuluver'), speakers of Tulu, a Dravidian language, ar ...

was called ''Kola Bari'' and the Kolathiri Raja of Kolathunadu was a descendant of this clan. The Kolathiri family and the Travancore family reciprocally adopted girl-children from each other for several centuries right into the 1990s.

Cultural depictions

Minister Kuruppu's Arabic letter to da Gama (1524)

"Kolathiri" appears as a character in a

Malayalam film Malayalam cinema is an Indian film industry of Malayalam-language motion pictures. It is based in Kochi, Kerala, India. The films produced in Malayalam cinema are known for their cinematography and story-driven plots. In 1982, '' Elippathaya ...

titled ''

Urumi Urumi (Malayalam: ''uṟumi''; Sinhalese: ''ethunu kaduwa''; Hindi: ''āra'') is a sword with a flexible, whip-like blade, originating in modern-day Kerala in the Indian subcontinent. It is thought to have existed from as early as the Sangam per ...

''. The film was loosely based on Portuguese interference in north Kerala and the misdeeds committed by

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira (; ; c. 1460s – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. His initial voyage to India by way of Cape of Good Hope (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

, who was hailed as a hero in the west but was actually a cold-hearted tyrant to other lands of the spice route; his entry into Kerala politics and manipulating the kingpins and a young Indian who tries to kill Vasco da Gama. The movie was released on 31 March 2011.

References

{{Template group , title = Kerala , list = {{Kozhikode district {{Wayanad district {{Kannur district {{Kasaragod district Dynasties of India History of Kerala Former monarchies of Asia Historical Indian regions