In medieval Kerala, they served as part of the jenmi, or allodially landed nobility, and were sworn to the service of the rajas of the area, first that of Palghat and then later that of Cochin.
Based at Kavalappara Desam in Karakkat, Valluvanada, their holdings extended to areas such as Kailiad and Panayur, ultimately compassing some 155,358 acres of jenmom estates, and ranking preeminent among the jenmimars of Malabar.
K. K. N. Kurup, a historian of the Malabar region, notes that absence of their name from highly detailed documents of the period indicates that they were no more than "dependent landed aristocracy", variously of the rajas of Palghat and of Cochin.
[6][7] During the period when clashes between the Zamorin of Calicut and the king of Cochin were common, which coincided with the arrival of Europeans in the area, the Kavalapparas were able to exploit the uncertainty and unrest to their advantage.
This residence took a form common to the royal family of Travancore and thus different from the kovilakam palaces that traditionally belied the status of Malabar rulers.
[9] The Kavalappara joined with Kesava Pillai and forces of the East India Company (EIC) in the Third Anglo-Mysore War, supplying both soldiers and grain.
Under this modified system, the janmis were granted leases on land and were responsible for collecting revenue — almost entirely based on a proportion of agricultural produce — on behalf of the EIC.
[8][a] Thus, in 1794, the EIC granted the Kavalappara family a quinquennial lease on lands but it also disbarred from the feudal privileges of collecting death taxes from the Mappilas and some festival offerings from the ryots.
Some feudal rights were retained, notably of control over some temples, but by the end of the nineteenth century the family estates were being administered by the Court of Wards and remained so until 1910.