KERALA

Kerala is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act, and it combined various Malayalam speaking regions.
The state has an area of 38,863 km2 (15,005 sq mi) and is bordered by Karnataka to the north and northeast, Tamil Nadu to the south and southeast and the Arrabian Sea[note] towards the west. Thiruvananthapuram is the capital city. Kochi and Kozhikode are other major cities. As per a survey by The Economic Times, five out of ten best cities to live in India are located in Kerala. Kerala is a popular tourist destination for its backwaters, yoga, Ayurvedic treatments and tropical greenery.
Kerala has the highest Human Development Index in India, comparable with that of first world nations but with a much lower per capita income. The state has the highest literacy rate in India with 94.59 percent. The state recently became and is currently the only one to have banking facility in every village. A survey conducted in 2005 by Transparency International ranked Kerala as the least corrupt state in the country. Kerala has witnessed significant migration of its people, especially to the Persian Gulf countries during the Kerala Gulf boom, and is heavily dependent onremittances from its large Malayali expatriate community.







Kerala's culture is derived from both a Tamil-heritage region known as Tamilakam and southern coastal Karnataka. Later, Kerala's culture was elaborated upon through centuries of contact with neighboring and overseas cultures. Native performing arts include koodiyattom (a 2000-year-old Sanskrit theatre tradition,officially recognised by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, kathakali—from katha ("story") and kali("performance")—and its offshoot Kerala natanam, Kaliyattam -(North Malabar special), koothu (akin to stand-up comedy), mohiniaattam ("dance of the enchantress"), Theyyam, thullal NS padayani. Kathakali and Mohiniattam are widely recognized Indian Classical Dance traditions from Kerala.






HISTORY


Kerala was a major spice-exporter as early as 3,000 BCE, according to Sumerian Records.


Kerala and Tamil Nadu once shared a common language and culture, within an area known as Tamilakam. In the 1st century BCE, Tamil-speaking Dravidian Villavars[clarification needed] established the Chera Dynasty that ruled northern Kerala from a capital at Vanchi. Southern Kerala was ruled by the Pandyan Kingdom, with a trading port variously identified by ancient Western sources as "Nelcynda" and "Neacyndi" The Cheras had trading links with China, West Asia, Egypt and the Roman Empire. The value of Rome's annual trade with India as a whole was estimated at no less than 50,000,000 sesterces; contemporary Sangam literature describes Roman ships coming to Muziris in Kerala, laden with gold to exchange for pepper. One of the earliest western traders to use the monsoon winds to reach Kerala may have been Eudoxus of Cyzicus, around 118 or 166 BCE, under the patronage of Ptolemy VIII, king of the Hellenistic Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt. Kerala is identified on the Tabula Peutingeriana, the only known surviving map of the Roman cursus publicus.


The Chera kings' dependence on trade meant that merchants from West Asia and Southern Europe established coastal posts and settlements in Kerala.:192–195, 303–307 The west asian-semitic Jewish, Christian, and Muslim immigrants established Juda Mappila, Nasrani Mappila, andMuslim Mappila communities respectively. The Jews first arrived in Kerala in 573 BC. According to local Syriac Nasrani Christian tradition as well as the works of scholars and Eastern Christian writings Thomas the Apostle visited Muziris in Kerala circa 52 CE to proselytize amongst Kerala's Jewish settlements. The first mosque, synagogue, and church in India were built in Kerala.


A later Chera Kingdom was established c. 800–1102, with the help of Arab spice merchants. This is also called the Kulasekhara dynasty, as it was founded by Kulasekhara Varman, a Vaishnavaite saint. Ay kings ruled southern Kerala, but by the 10th century the Ay kingdom declined and became a part of the Chera Kingdom. A Keralite identity, distinct from the Tamils became linguistically separate during this period.The Kulasekhara dynasty came to an end by twelfth century, weakened by the invasions of Pandyas and Cholas. In the absence of a strong central power, the state fractured into small principalities governed by Nair Cheftains. From these, the kingdoms of Kochi, Venad, Kolathiri and Kozhikode Samuthiri emerged.






TRADITIONS OF KARELA







The oldest of the surviving Hindu Puranas, the Matsya Purana, sets the story of the first of the incarnations of Lord Vishnu, the Matsya Avatar, and King Manu(King Satyavrata, mankind's ancestor), among Kerala's Malaya Mountains.


The earliest Sanskrit text to mention Kerala by name is the Aitareya Aranyaka.


The legendary king Mahabali is said to have ruled from Kerala in a reign of universal happiness and prosperity. On his passing away he was appointed ruler of the netherworld (Patalam) by Vamana, the fifth avatar of Lord Vishnu. Once a year, during the Onam festival, he returns to Kerala.








In the religious texts known as the Puranas, Kerala is Parasurama Kshetram ("The Land of Parasurama"). Parasurama was a warrior sage and an Avatar ofMahavishnu. When he threw his battle axe from Gokarna into the sea at Kanyakumari, the land of Kerala arose from the waters.Tradition says that Parasurama minted gold coins called Rasi, sowed some of them in Travancore and buried the surplus in cairns. Similar legends link Parasurama to thePandyan dynasty.






FLORA AND FAUNA













Much of Kerala's notable biodiversity is concentrated and protected in the Western Ghats. Almost a fourth of India's 10,000 plant species are found in the state. Among the almost 4,000 flowering plant species (1,272 of which are endemicto Kerala and 159 threatened) are 900 species of medicinal plants.


Its 9,400 km² of forests include tropical wet evergreen and semi-evergreen forests (lower and middle elevations—3,470 km²), tropical moist and dry deciduous forests (mid-elevations—4,100 km² and 100 km², respectively), and montane subtropical and temperate (shola) forests (highest elevations—100 km²). Altogether, 24% of Kerala is forested.:12 Two of the world’s Ramsar Convention listed wetlands—Lake Sasthamkotta and the Vembanad-Kol wetlands—are in Kerala, as well as 1455.4 km² of the vast Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Subjected to extensive clearing for cultivation in the 20th century,:6–7 much of the remaining forest cover is now protected from clearfelling. Kerala's fauna are notable for their diversity and high rates of endemism: 102 species of mammals (56 of which are endemic), 453 species of birds, 202 species of freshwater fishes, 169 species of reptiles (139 of them endemic), and 89 species of amphibians (86 endemic). These are threatened by extensive habitat destruction, including soil erosion, landslides, salinization, and resource extraction.

IMPORTANT CITIES IN KERALA
Thiruvananthapuram:









Thiruvananthapuram District is the southernmost district of the Indian state of Kerala. It came into existence in the year 1957. The headquarters is the city of Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) which is also the capital city of Kerala.


The district has an area of 2192 km², and a population of 3,307,284 (as per the 2011 census), the second most populous district in Kerala after Malappuram district. It is the densest district in Kerala with 1,509 people per square kilometer. It is divided into four taluks,Thiruvananthapuram, Chirayinkeezhu, Neyyattinkara, Nedumangadu. The urban bodies in the district are the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation,Varkala, Neyyattinkara, Attingal and Nedumangad municipalities.


Thiruvananthapuram district is situated between north latitudes 8º 17' and 8º 54' and east longitudes 76º 41' and 77º 17'. The southern most extremity, Kaliyikkavila, is 56 km away from Kanyakumari, the "land's end of India". The district is 33.75% urbanised.






Kazikode:







Kozhikode also known as Calicut, is a city in the northern part of the state of Kerala in southernIndia. Kozhikode is the headquarters of the Kozhikode district on the Malabar Coast.




Kozhikode has a metropolitan population of 1,015,681 as per 2011 census, making it the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala.




During Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, Calicut was dubbed the "City of Spices" for its role as the major trading point of eastern spicesKozhikode was once the capital of an independent kingdom of the same name and later of the erstwhile Malabar District.




According to data compiled by economics research firm Indicus Analytics on residences, earnings and investments, Kozhikode ranked as the second best city in India to reside in. Indicus considered six parameters – health, education, environment, safety, public facilities and entertainment.Kozhikode was ranked eleventh among Tier-II Indian cities in job creation by a study conducted by ASSOCHAM in 2007.





KOCHI








Kochi , formerly Cochin, is a major port city on the west coast of India by the Arabian Sea. Kochi is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. Kochi is often called by the name Ernakulam, which refers to the western part of the mainland Kochi. The civic body that governs the city is the Corporation of Cochin, which was constituted in the year 1967, and the statutory bodies that oversee its development are the Greater Cochin Development Authority and the Goshree Islands Development Authority.


The city of Kochi (pop. 601,574) is Kerala's second largest city and is part of an extended metropolitan region (pop. 1.35 million), which is the largesturban agglomeration in Kerala. It is the most densely populated city in the state. Kochi city is also a part of Greater Cochin region and is classified as a B-1 grade city by the Government of India, making it the highest graded city in the state. Kochi ranks first in the total number of international and domestic tourists in Kerala.


The city lies about 220 kilometres (137 mi) north of the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram and about 180 kilometres (112 mi) south of Kozhikode, the third largest city in Kerala.