Kadathanadu

Kadathanadu, also rendered Kadathanad, Katattanad, and, academically, Kaṭattanāṭǔ; alternately known as Vatakara or Badagara, was a kingdom in North Malabar just north of the Korappuzha River, ruled by the Porlathiri dynasty after their dispossession from their native realm of Calicut and Polanad.

[1] The establishment of the kingdom dates to the flight of the Porlathiri, fleeing the Zamorin's conquest of Calicut, to seek asylum in Kolathiri territory; where a chance lakeside encounter led to a Kolathiri prince of the Southern Regency scandalously espousing the Porlathiri heiress, who traditionally would only have hypergamously contracted sambandham with a Nambudiripad Brahmin.

The dynamics of the marriage led to significant carveouts from the Southern Regency, with the hereditary governance matrilineally vested in the line of the Porlathiri princess and her Kolathiri groom.

[2] Geographically, Kadathanadu is situated to the south of Thalassery and north of Koyilandy on the Malabar coast, beside the historical Kottakkal river.

A small army of 2000 Kadathanadu Nairs resisted the invasion from a fortress in Kuttipuram near Nadapuram for a few weeks.