Kodungallur

Who holds it

Name

The Perumpadappu chief (the swarupam's Moopil, not named for 1200); the port bodies run their own affairs

Title

lord or governor

Confidence

low

Lord in 1200

The Perumpadappu chief (the swarupam's Moopil, not named for 1200); the port bodies run their own affairs

What the town holds

Capital of the Perumals; the Perumpadappu swarupam holds it after them.

Allies and rivals

The chiefs of Valluvanad and Eranad.

How things stand that morning

A declining but busy port in the shipping season; the Perumpadappu chief stands over it.

Charter

The privileges of the Jewish and Syrian Christian copper plates (the Joseph Rabban plates, about 1000 on the usual dating; not re-read)

Council

Guild headmen; the temple trustees

Communities

Jews, Syrian Christians, Muslims (the Cheraman mosque), Nambudiri Brahmins, Nair households

Fairs and markets

The Bharani festival at the Bhagavathy temple (spring; month not pinned for 1200)

Militia

The Nair levy of Perumpadappu; no numbers

Walls and castle

The old palace of the Perumals (state in 1200 not known); the temple precinct

Trade and crafts

Pepper and spice, rice, coir; shipping; temple services

Places of note

• Cheraman Juma Masjid: the early mosque, Wikipedia gives a tradition of the 7th century; position approximate

Where the sources disagree

• The flood of 1341 that wrecks the harbour is later.

Evidence: The port and its communities are firm; the 1200 chief and the port's own officers are not named.

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