Religion in Kerala
Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri was another religious figure who composed Narayaniyam, a collection of verses in praise of the Hindu God Krishna.
[13][14]: 79 Kerala's spices attracted ancient Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians and Egyptians to the Malabar Coast in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE.
[15] The Arabs on the coasts of Yemen, Oman, and the Persian Gulf, must have made the first long voyage to Kerala and other eastern countries.
[15] The Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BCE) records that in his time the cinnamon spice industry was monopolized by the Egyptians and the Phoenicians.
[15] Islam arrived in Kerala, a part of the larger Indian Ocean rim, via spice and silk traders from the Middle East.
[24] According to popular tradition, Islam was brought to Lakshadweep islands, situated just to the west of Malabar Coast, by Ubaidullah in 661 CE.
[26] The known earliest mention about Muslims of Kerala is in the Quilon Syrian copper plates of the 9th century CE, granted by the ruler of Kollam.
[33][26][31] The Muslims were a major financial power to be reckoned with in the old kingdoms of Kerala and had great political influence in the Hindu royal courts.
[34][35] Travellers have recorded the considerably huge presence of Muslim merchants and settlements of sojourning traders in most of the ports of Kerala.
[38][37] The Koyilandy Jumu'ah Mosque contains an Old Malayalam inscription written in a mixture of Vatteluttu and Grantha scripts which dates back to the 10th century CE.
[39] It is a rare surviving document recording patronage by a Hindu king (Bhaskara Ravi) to the Muslims of Kerala.
[40] The Moroccan traveller Ibn Battutah (14th century) has recorded the considerably huge presence of Muslim merchants and settlements of sojourning traders in most of the ports of Kerala.
[30] The arrival of the Portuguese traders in Malabar Coast in the late 15th century checked the then well-established and wealthy Muslim community's progress.
It is written in Arabic and contains pieces of information about the resistance put up by the navy of Kunjali Marakkar alongside the Zamorin of Calicut from 1498 to 1583 against Portuguese attempts to colonize Malabar coast.
[46][47][48] Tuhfatul Mujahideen also describes the history of Mappila Muslim community of Kerala as well as the general condition of Malabar Coast in the 16th century CE.
[30] By the mid-18th century the majority of the Muslims of Kerala became landless labourers, poor fishermen and petty traders, and the community was in "a psychological retreat".
[42] The subsequent partisan rule of English East India Company authorities brought the land-less Muslim peasants of Malabar District into a condition of destitution, and this led to a series of uprisings (against the Hindu landlords and British administration).
[42][11] A large number of Muslims of Kerala found extensive employment in the Persian Gulf countries in the following years (c. 1970s).
[56][57][58][59] According to traditional accounts, on the onset of an invasion Thomas is believed to have left northwest India traveled by vessel to the Malabar Coast, possibly visiting southeast Arabia and Socotra en route, and landing at the former flourishing port of Muziris (modern-day North Paravur and Kodungalloor).
[61] Modern scholars also support this point of view, and there is no evidence suggesting Thomas was ever in Kerala, or South India in general.
The communities arrival was recorded on the Thomas of Cana copper plates which existed in Kerala until the 17th century after which point they were taken to Portugal by the Franciscan Order.
Marthoma Nasranis remained as an independent group, and they got their bishops from Church of the East until the advent of Portuguese and British colonialists.
The first Roman Catholic Diocese in India was founded at Quilon in the year 1329 with the Catalan Dominican friar Jordanus Catalani as first Bishop.
[71] The arrival of Europeans in the 15th century and discontent with Portuguese interference in religious matters fomented schism into Catholic and Orthodox communities.
There has been a strong presence of other Protestant groups in southern Kerala such as the Church of South India and The Salvation Army that are typically based on Anglican beliefs and trace their origins to British rule.
The only verifiable historical evidence about the Kerala Jews goes back only to the Jewish Copper Plate Grant of Bhaskara Ravi Varman in 1000 AD.
[citation needed] Jainism, one of the three most ancient Indian religious traditions still in existence, has very small presence (0.01%) in Kerala, in south India.
Medieval Jain inscriptions are mostly found on the borders of Kerala proper, such Wynad in north-east, Alathur in the Palghat Gap and Chitharal in Kanyakumari district.
Epigraphical evidence suggests that the shrine at "Tirukkunavay", perhaps located near Cochin, was the major Jain temple in medieval Kerala (from c. 9th century AD).
The Paliyam Copper Plate of the Ay King, Varaguna (885–925 AD)[83] shows that the Buddhists benefited from royal patronage in the 10th century.
