Eradis of Nediyiruppu

Who he is

Name

not known for 1 January 1200

Title

Nediyiruppu Mutta Eradi, Ernad Utaiyar (lord of Eranad)

Since

not pinned

Born

not known

Family

The Eradis are a Nair subcaste of the Samantan section; the head of the house is the Nediyiruppu Mutta Eradi; the title Punthurakkon and the name Manavikrama run through the inscriptions

Confidence

medium

Wikipedia (Zamorin of Calicut): the Cochin Jewish plates (about 1000) are the earliest mention; Old Malayalam inscriptions name Manvepala Manaviyata (eleventh century); an inscription of 1102 at the Ramesvaram temple in Kollam names Punthurakkon Manavikrama, chief of Eranad, in council with the Chera king.

What it holds

• Nediyiruppu and the Eranad country
• militia of the Eradis
• claims on the Polanad shore (the future Kozhikode site)

How it was acquired

By the Chera partition; the legend of the broken sword and the shore at Calicut is not evidence.

Allies and rivals

Valluvanad (from which Eranad was cut) and the Porlathiri of Polanad.

How things stand that morning

Inland and ambitious.

Wealth

Rice and pepper country, the Chaliyar teak.

Military

Nair levy.

Threats

• None named

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1301 or later (after the thirteenth century; later)The Eradi seat moves down to the coast after they take the shore from the Polanad chief; the Zamorin title follows (first recorded in 1342, Wikipedia).Depends on: Eradi strength and the Polanad chief's weakness. Stopped by: A Valluvanad or Perumpadappu war.

Places of note

• Kozhikode site (Polanad shore): a beach and villages in 1200

Where the sources disagree

• The campaign board entry and Wikipedia agree: Calicut is thirteenth century and later; the Zamorin is not yet.

Evidence: The house is dated by two inscriptions and the plates; the head of 1200 is not named.

"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.

Primary sources for Kerala chiefdoms

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• South Indian Inscriptions (Archaeological Survey of India), Various (Chola, Pandya and other chanceries and temple scribes), edited by E. Hultzsch, V. Venkayya, H. Krishna Sastri and successors (inscriptions of the 7th to 17th centuries; the series ran from 1890). The temple inscriptions printed here are the primary record of the Tamil country in 1200. Read online
• Travancore Archaeological Series, Various (Kerala chiefs, temples and merchant guilds), edited by T. A. Gopinatha Rao, K. V. Subrahmanya Aiyer and A. S. Ramanatha Ayyar (inscriptions of the 9th to 18th centuries; the series ran from 1910 to 1938). The main corpus for the Kerala coast. Read online
• The Book of Roger (the Pleasure of Him who Longs to Cross the Horizons), Muhammad al-Idrisi (completed 1154 at Palermo). The nearest Arabic geography in time to 1200 for the Indian Ocean. Read online
• A Description of the Foreign Peoples (Records of Foreign Nations), Zhao Rukuo (Zhao Rugua) (1225 at Quanzhou). The best single text for the island world around 1200, written by the superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou from merchants' reports a generation after the date. Read online
• Description of the Foreign Peoples (Chau Ju-kua), Zhao Rukuo (趙汝适) (about 1225, while superintendent of maritime trade at Quanzhou). The Song customs officer's survey of the overseas world, compiled from merchants and from Zhou Qufei, a generation after 1200 but describing trade routes that were the same in 1200. Read online