Cheraman Perumal, the last King of Kerala and his Arabian Connection

Although this story has a lot of mythological elements, a lot of historical support also there to hold the story as a true incident. It is better to say that this is a history blended with myths. Kerala, the southernmost state of Kerala has been ruled by the Cheran Dynasty. Being the land of Cheras, it used to be called “Cheralam” and later it became Keralam or Kerala. Another legend behind the name Kerala is that the land is rich with coconut trees and in the local language Malayalam, the coconut tree is also known as Kera. Thus the name has come.

Whatever may be the reason for the name, it is a historical fact that it was under the rule of the Chera Dynasty and at the time the kingdom was covering almost all parts of present Kerala. The kings of this dynasty used to be called Perumal and the last Perumal has divided the country and handed over it to his four subordinates, who were his relatives too. In real, Perumal has married one woman each from these four families whom he has entrusted as the kings to rule different parts of his kingdom. “Kolathu” was the family entrusted thus by the Perumal to rule the northern parts of Kerala. The Head of the family is known as Kolathiri and Perumal has married the sister of then Kolathiri.

Perumal used to visit each of his wives at regular intervals. The sister of Kolathiri was a lusty lady. Perumal could not satisfy her physically and the gap between each visit was too long. At that time, There was a person called Padavila Nair, who has been appointed as a minister by Perumal to take care of that region. Perumal’s wife fell for him as he was young handsome and with a masculine body. She tried her level best to allure him, but somehow he did not fall in the trap. Angry with this, the queen decided to teach him a lesson. Next time when Perumal visited her, she did not come out of her room to receive him. Quite astonished with this, Perumal went inside her room and enquired about the reason. Then she told him that Padavila Nair was a morally weak person and he tried to allure her several times. She also told the king that his minister hugged her tightly once.

Angry with this, the king asked his army men to bring the minister in front of him. Although Nair pleaded his innocence, King went with the words of his wife and asked his army men to behead Nair. Before getting beheaded, Nair cursed the king that he will have to leave the country soon as he is ordering the killing of an innocent man.

Cheraman Juma Masjid

After a few days of spending with his wife, Perumal left for the capital city, which was at the present-day Kodungalloor. There he started a strange uneasiness and could not sleep well, eat well. Whenever he sleeps, Padavila Nair appeared in his dreams with the curse. Worried with this, the king decided to check whether the words of his wife was true or not. He sent a young and handsome person who was very loyal to the king to Kolathiri in the disguise of a job searcher. Seeing such a person, the queen immediately appointed him as her personal bodyguard. After a few days, the queen started her tricks to allure this young man. He kept on escaping each time and sent the information to the king from time to time. Thus the king realized that he had killed an innocent man believing the words of a woman who is quite immoral.

Guilty feelings started haunting the king and he decided that he should go to some new places leaving everything behind here. He was sure that then only he will get peace of mind. It was at that time that the first batch of Islamic merchants who came to Kerala for trading. He met their leader and went along with them to Arabia in their ship. When the king’s relatives got the information, they followed the Arabian ship in another ship and had an encounter near the shores of Dharmmapattanam. However, the Arabians fought with them and took the king to Arabia as per his wish. Finally the king, Perumal landed at the Sahir Mukkalhai port and went to Jiddah. It is believed that there he met Prophet Mohammed and got converted to Islam. There he married the daughter of an Arabian King and lived for quite some time.

Relics of Cheraman Perumal

Although he was quite happy there, the memories of Kodungalloor, his old capital city was haunting him. One day he came back to Kodungalloor. There he constructed a mosque which is known as “Cheraman Mosque” is one of the oldest mosques in India. Spending about a year or two, he planned to go back to Arabia as he loved his Arabian wife so much. However, destiny was something different. He died at Kodungalloor and got buried inside the mosque compound.