A scatter of coral islands 200 to 400 kilometres off the Malabar coast: Kavaratti, Amini, Androth, Kadmat, Kiltan and the southern atoll of Minicoy (Maliku, whose language and customs are Maldivian).
Wikipedia (Kolathunadu) reports that the Mushika king Vallabha II annexed the Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi islands (undated). The islanders live by fishing, coconut and coir; they are within reach of Arab and Malabar ships. Who holds them on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.
Who holds it
- Name
- The Kolathiri by the Mushika tradition; the islanders' own headmen
- Title
- lord or governor
- Confidence
- low
Lord in 1200
The Kolathiri by the Mushika tradition; the islanders' own headmen
How things stand that morning
A distant island group; the sea is the road.
Places of note
- Lakshadweep (the Laccadives and Minicoy): coral atolls and islands west of the Malabar coast
- Amini: island of the Amindivi group
- Androth: island, the largest of the group by land area
- Kadmat: narrow northern island
- Minicoy (Maliku): the southern atoll, Maldivian in speech
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The annexation tradition is undated; Minicoy's Maldivian link is cultural.
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
Sources and studies
- Kolathunadu, Wikipedia (read for this sheet)
- OMNIA board notes for the place (a lead, checked against the other sources)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.