China’s Maritime Links with Medieval Kerala: An Examination of the Vadakkanpāttukal and Recovered Chinese Artefacts

ABSTRACT

This paper is an attempt to glean the meanings that the Malayalam literary source, the Vadakkanpāttukal carry, specifically in terms of the references therein to “China” (or objects and artefacts associated with China) along with an examination of recovered Chinese artefacts from the Kerala coast. The paper extends study into the historical maritime contacts between southern India and China by examining an academically hybrid category of objects and literary references situated in medieval Kerala. The effort is to gain insights from regional historiography in order to reveal the “subjective understandings” that shaped the relationships between “States” at an earlier point in history within a Constructivist International Relations paradigm. The study uniquely interrogates aspects of microhistory using autochthonous sources revealed through literary references, besides recovered archaeological artefacts connecting China with Kerala in order to bring to light hitherto less-known aspects of the cross-cultural encounters.

KEYWORDS:

• Maritime history
• Kerala
• China
• Constructivism
• Vadakkanpāttukal

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Vadakkanpāttukal (collection of songs; in plural) refers to a literary genre from the Northern Kerala coast that celebrates the “heroic” warriors who were part of the military culture of mediaeval Kerala.

2 Xinru Liu, Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious exchanges AD 1–600 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988); Xinru Liu, The Silk Road in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010); Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400 (US: Association for Asian Studies, 2003); Friedrich Hirth and W.W. Rockhill, ‘Introduction’, in Chau Ju Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (St Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1911), 1–39; Janet Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250–1350 (Oxford University Press, 1989). Southeast Asia, by the fifteenth century, with Melaka (Malacca) as the centre of trade passage, became a trading haven for diasporic communities from China and South Asia with an extended link with Muslim communities from the Middle East, for more details, see Kenneth R. Hall, ‘Muti-Dimensional Networking: Fifteenth Century Indian Ocean Maritime Diaspora in Southeast Asian Perspective’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49, no. 4 (2006): 454–81, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25165169 (accessed October 6, 2013).

3 Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade, 1–14.

4 Liu, The Silk Road in World History, 20–41.

5 George Hourani, Seafaring in the Indian Ocean in Ancient and Early Medieval Times (New York: Octagon Books, 1975), 3. According to Hourani (1975), in the pre-Islamic period the Arabic language speaking was confined within Arabia and after the expansion of Islam, it spread to other regions like Iran after the seventh century A D.

6 Ibid., 47–54.

7 Philip D. Curtin, ‘Asian Trade in Eastern Seas, 1000–1500’, in Cross-Cultural Trade in World History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 109–135, https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/crosscultural-trade-in-world-history/asian-trade-in-eastern-seas-10001500/0015DD126CB2625896EB1612A74435D4 (accessed August 17, 2018); Jung-Pang Lo, China as a Sea Power 1127–1368 (Singapore: NUS Press, 2012); Tansen Sen. ‘The Formation of Chinese Maritime Networks to Southern Asia, 1200–1450’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49, no. 4 (2006): 421–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25165168 (accessed October 3, 2022); Philippe Beaujard, ‘The Worlds of the Indian Ocean’, in Trade, Circulation, and Flow in the Indian Ocean World, ed. Michael Pearson (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 22–24; Robert Finlay, ‘The Voyages of Zheng He: Ideology, State Power, and Maritime Trade in Ming China’, Journal of The Historical Society 8, no. 3 (2008): 327–47, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5923.2008.00250.x (accessed December 17, 2019).

8 Da-Show Huang, ‘An Outline of China’s with South India in the Early Fifteenth Century’, in Proceedings of the Second International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies (Vol II), ed. R.E Asher (Madras: International Association of Tamil Research, January 1968), 365–68; Ruth Mostern, The Yellow River: A natural and unnatural History (London: Yale University Press, 2021); Roderich Ptak, ‘China and Calicut in the Early Ming Period: Envoys and Tribute Embassies’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 1 (1989): 81–113, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25212418 (accessed January 17, 2016), 1–15; Ralph Kauz, ‘The Postal Stations in Ming China (1368–1644)’, in Trade and Transfer Across the East Asian “Mediterranean”, ed. Angela Schottenhammer (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), 87; Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony, 241–2; Lo, China as a Sea Power 1127–1368, 111.

9 Lo, China as a Sea Power 1127–1368; Geoff Wade, ‘Chinese Engagement with the Indian Ocean during the Song, Yuan, and the Ming Dynasties (Tenth to Sixteenth Centuries)’, in Trade, Circulation and Flow in the Indian Ocean, ed. Michael Pearson (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 55–81; Haraprasad Ray, Socio-Econo-Political Relations between South India and China, AD 502–1620: With Emphasis on the Fifteenth Century, Vol. 5 of Chinese Sources of South Asian History in Translation (Kolkata: The Asiatic Society, 2018); Tansen Sen. ‘The Yuan Khanate and India: Cross-cultural Diplomacy in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’, Asia Major 19, no. 1/2 (2006), http://www.jstor.org/stable/41649921 (accessed April 1, 2021); Roderich Ptak, ‘Yuan and Early Ming Notices on the Kayal Area in South India’, Bulletin de l'Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient 80, no.1 (1993): 137–156, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43731719 (accessed November 8, 2019); Tansen Sen, ‘Maritime Contacts between China and the Cola Kingdom (A.D 850–1279)’, in Mariners, Merchants and Ocean: Studies in History (New Delhi: Manohar, 2022), 25–41; Finlay, ‘The Voyages of Zheng He’, 331–3.

10 P.C. Bagchi, India and China: A Thousand Years of Cultural Relations (Bombay: Hind Kitabs Limited, 1950), 25–7; Ptak, ‘Yuan and Early Ming Notices on the Kayal Area in South India’; Sen, ‘The Yuan Khanate and India’; Ray, Socio-Econo-Political Relations between South India and China, 21–36; Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade, 179.

11 Ray, Socio-Econo-Political Relations between South India and China; Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy and Trade; Ptak, ‘China and Calicut in the Early Ming Period: Envoys and Tribute Embassies’; Ajith Kumar et al., ‘Allusions and Artifacts of Chinese Trade from Kollam, South Kerala, India’, Journal of Indian Ocean Archaeology, no. 12 (2019), https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333602953_Allusions_and_Artifacts_of_Chinese_Trade_from_Kollam_South_Kerala_India/stats (accessed August 22, 2018); and M.R. Raghava Varrier, Keraleeyatha Charithramanangal (in Malayalam language) (Malappuram: Vallathol Vidyapeedaam, 2009), 14.

12 Edward Dreyer, Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty (US: Pearson Education Inc, 2007); J.J. Duyvendak, ‘The True Dates of the Chinese Maritime Expeditions in the Early Fifteenth Century’, T'oung Pao 34, no. 5 (1939): 341–413, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4527170 (accessed July 8, 2019); Wade, ‘Chinese Engagement with the Indian Ocean during the Song, Yuan, and the Ming Dynasties (Tenth to Sixteenth Centuries)’; Mingqing Yuan, ‘The Myth of Zheng He: Kenya-China Encounters in Yvonne Owuor's The Dragonfly Sea’, Afrika Focus 33, no. 2 (11 March 2020): 11–26. https://doi.org/10.1163/2031356X-03302004 (accessed September 2, 2022); Craig Clunas, Jessica Harrison-Hall, and Luk Yu-ping, eds., Ming China: Courts and Contacts (London: The British Musuem, 2016); Geoff Wade, ‘Ming China and Southeast Asia in the 15th Century: A Reappraisal’ (Working paper no. 28, Asia Research Institute, Singapore, July 2004); Mostern, The Yellow River; Xiang Da, 关于三宝太监郑和下西洋的几件事 [A Few Things about Zheng He’s Voyages to the West], Lecture (Department of History, Peking University, 1964), http://economy.guoxue.com; Carry on Civilization, Open to the World, for Peace and Development: Proceedings of International Academic Forum in Memory of the 600th Anniversary of Zheng He’s expedition (China: Social Science Academic Press, 2005).

13 Haraprasad Ray, ‘The Southern Silk Route from China to India—An Approach from India’. China Report 31, no. 2 (May 1995): 177–96, https://doi.org/10.1177/000944559503100201 (accessed July 15, 2020).

14 Manusmriti, Ramayana and Mahabharata are three different historical texts in India. Manusmriti or Laws of Manu is a social text of laws or codes whereas Mahabharata and Ramayana are epic religious texts.

15 Sen, ‘The Southern Silk Route from China to India—An Approach from India’.

16 Tansen Sen, ‘In Search of Longevity and Good Karma: Chinese Diplomatic Missions to Middle India in the Seventh Century’, Journal of World History 12, no. 1 (2001): 1–28, https://doi.org/10.1353/jwh.2001.0025 (accessed February 23, 2021).

17 M.R. Raghava Varrier, ‘Trade Relations between Kerala and China’, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 51 (1990): 690–8 (693), https://www.jstor.org/stable/44148316 (accessed August 12, 2018).

18 Chelnat Achyuta Menon, ed., Ballads of North Malabar (Vol I) (in Malayalam language) (Tamil Nadu: University of Madras, 1956); Chelnat Achyuta Menon and S.K. Nayar, eds., Ballads of North Malabar (Vol II) (in Malayalam language) (Tamil Nadu: University of Madras, 1955); S.K. Nayar, ed., Ballads of North Malabar (Vol III) (in Malayalam language) (Tamil Nadu: University of Madras, 1957); Chelnat Achyuta Menon, ed., Puthariyankam (in Malayalam language) (Kottayam: National Book, 1935).

19 Menon, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol. I), 57–82.

20 Ibid, 19–136.

21 M.R. Raghava Varrier and Rajan Gurukkal, Kerala History, Part I (in Malayalam language) (Sukapuram: Vallathol Vidyapeetham, 2017), 199. “Cheraman Perumal” was the common title given to the rulers Cheras of Kodungallur (ninth century to twelfth century AD).

22 Ray, Chinese Sources of South Asian History in Translation; Ptak, ‘China and Calicut in the Early Ming Period’; George Phillips, Ma Huan’s account of Cochin, Calicut and Aden (United Kingdom: University of Wisconsin, 1896); Varrier, Keraleeyatha Charithramanangal.

23 John Dardess, ‘China Among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbours, 10th–14th Centuries’, Ming Studies, no. 2 (1983): 23–25, 10.1179/014703783788755403 (accessed July 2, 2016). Dardess (1983) defines traditional tributary system as “a normative, ritual ideology of inequality, a set of explicit rules that at times actually governed some of the international relations of whatever states formed up on China's landscape”.

24 Ray, Chinese Sources of South Asian History in Translation; Ptak, ‘China and Calicut in the Early Ming Period’; Tansen Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth: The Yongle Emperor and Ming China’s South Asian Frontier’, in Ming China Courts and Contacts 1400–1450, eds. Craig Clunas, Jessica Harrison, and Luk-Yu Ping (London: The British Museum, 2016), 26–36.

25 Hirth and Rockhill, trans., Chau Ju-kua:On the Chinese and the Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1911); Roderich Ptak, ‘Wang Dayuan on Kerala’, in Explorations in the History of South Asia, eds. George Berkemer, Tilman Frasch, Herman Kulke, and Jurgen Lütt (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2001), 39–51; Ma Huan, Ying-Yai Sheng-Lan (The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shore), tran. Feng Ch’eng-Chün (Cambridge University Press, 1970).

26 The nature of the available local literary sources used in this study restricts the relevance of the study mostly to the northern coastal area (present-day Kannur, Kozhikode and Malappuram).

27 David Armstrong, Theo Farrell, and Hélène Lambert, ‘Three lenses: Realism, liberalism, constructivism’, in International Law and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 69–11 (100), 10.1017/CBO9780511808753.004; Halvard Leira and Benjamin de Carvalho, ‘Constructing Time Again’, European Review of International Studies 3, no. 3 (2016): 99–111 (100), https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26583590 (accessed June 6, 2019).

28 Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley, Re-constructing Archaeology: Theory and Practice (London & New York: Routledge, 1992).

29 Friedrich Hirth and W.W. Rockhill, trans., Chau Ju Kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (St Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1911); Ma Huan, Ying-Yai- Sheng-Lan (The Overall Survey of the Ocean’s Shore).

30 Michael Pearson, ‘Maritime History Theory and Empirical Testing’, Asian Studies Association of Australia Review 11, no. 1 (1987): 23–31, 10.1080/03147538708712479 (accessed December 18, 2018). Wallerstein, in his world-system theory, discusses trade in “luxury” and “necessity” and argues that the exchange in “necessities” make a “world- economy”.

31 Sreedhara Menon, A Survey of Kerala History (Kottayam: DC Books, 2007), 13–22.

32 M.D. Raghavan, India in Ceylonese History: Society and Culture (New Delhi: Asia Publishing House, 1964); Friedrich Hirth and W.W. Rockhill, ‘Introduction’, 1–39.

33 M.G.S. Narayanan, Cultural Symbiosis in Kerala (Trivandrum: Kerala Historical Society, 1972), xi.

34 Menon, A Survey of Kerala History, 57–64; O.K. Nambiar, Our Seafaring in the Indian Ocean (Bangalore: Jeevan Publication, 1975), 20–48. Romans had trade contacts with Barygaza (present-day Broach) and Muziris (present-day Kodungallur) on the western coast and Poduke (present-day Puducherry/Pondichery) on the eastern Coromondal coast, and further extended this connection towards the Southeast Asia till the port of Funan (present-day Cambodia), see, Noboru Karashima, ‘Roman Trade and Contacts with Southeast Asia’, in A Concise History of South India, ed. Noboru Karashima (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), 70–80.

35 Menon, A Survey of Kerala History. “Tamilakam” refers to a larger regional unit into which Kerala belonged during the first five centuries of Common Era which was ruled by three powers- the Ays in the south (from Nagercoil to Thiruvalla), rulers of Ezhimala in the north (between Kannur/ Cannanore and Mangalore) and the Cheras in the region lying between.

36 Varrier, Keraleeyatha Charithramanangal, 10.

37 Ibid., 14; Menon, A Survey of Kerala History, 61–63.

38 M.G.S. Narayanan, Kēraḷacaritrattile 10 kaḷḷakkathakaḷ (in Malayalam language) (Kottayam: DC Books, 2019).

39 M.G.S. Narayanan, Perumals of Kerala: Political and Social Conditions of Kerala Under the Cēra Perumals of Makotai (Thrissur: Current Books, 1996), 19.

40 Ibid., 316.

41 Nagam Aiya, The Travancore State Manual (Trivandrum: Travancore Government Press, 1906), 245.

42 Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and Quest for the Buddha's Tooth’, 26–36. Yuan court sent seven missions to Kollam and six to Ma’abar (coromandel coast) between 1280 and 1296 AD; Ptak, ‘Yuan and Early Ming Notices on the Kayal Area in South India’, 139–40; W.W. Rockhill, ‘Notes on the Relations and Trade of China with the Eastern Archipelago and the Coast of the Indian Ocean during the Fourteenth Century: Part I’, T’oung Pao 15, no. 3 (1914): 419–47, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4526419. (accessed October 2, 2022).

43 Early form of Malayalam language found in manuscripts of South India.

44 Ilamkulam Kunjanpilla, Bhashayum Sahithyavum Nootandukalil (in Malayalam language) (Kottayam: Sahithya Pravarthaka, 1958), 55.

45 N. Gopinathan Nair, Unniyadicharitham (in Malayalam language) (Kerala, India: Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society Ltd, 2016), 106.

46 Roderich Ptak, ‘Images of Maritime Asia in Two Yuan Texts: “Daoyi zhilue” and “Yiyu zhi”’, Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, no. 25 (1995), http://www.jstor.org/stable/23495837 (accessed June 12, 2014). According to Ptak, Xiyang refers to the “Western ocean” whereas “Eastern Ocean” known as Dongyang, the straits of Singapore being the dividing line.

47 Hirth & Rockhill, Introduction to Chau Ju-kua, On the Chinese and the Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, 8.

48 Jia Dan was an official and geographer at the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD) court.

49 “li” (里) – unit of length in traditional China which equal to 500 metres.

50 Hirth and Rockhill, Introduction to Chau Ju-kua, 12. Shizi (獅子) is a translation of the Sanskrit name “Singhala” referring to Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

51 Jia Dan’s account explores sea-route from Canton to Persian Gulf passing through the Malacca strait that was familiar to the Arab ships, see Ibid., 9–12.

52 Ibid., 12. Hirth & Rockhill identify “Polomun” (婆羅門) as “the whole of the West coast of India”.

53 Noboru Karashima and Tansen Sen, ‘Chinese Texts describing or Referring to the Cōla kingdom as Zhu- nian (注輦)’, in Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwip: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia, eds. Hermann Kulke, K. Kesavapany, and Vijay Sakhuja (Singapore: Institute of SouthAsian Studies, 2009), 292–315. Zhou Qufei served as a deputy governor of Guilin in southern China and compiled his work based on the information gathered from foreign sailors and merchants.

54 Hirth & Rockhill, Introduction to Chau Ju-kua, 15 (footnote).

55 Zhao Rukua or Chau Ju-Kua was the Inspector of Foreign Trade/ Shi-po-si (市舶司)in Fu-kien (Fujian) during the Song dynasty.

56 Ibid., 87–92. Hirth & Rockhill identifies Nan-pi as “Malabar” which extended from Nellore to Cambay and Ku-lin (Kollam) as a dependency of Nan-pi.

57 Ibid., 88–9.

58 Wang Da Yuan’s account is based on first-hand information collected from the port of Quangzhou and also, by travelling abroad with merchants duinrg the first half of the fourteenth century. He recorded around 200 places within Asia, Africa and Australia. See Ptak, ‘Images of Maritime Asia in Two Yuan Texts: “Daoyi zhilue” and “Yiyu zhi”’; Qin Dashu, ‘Ming Ceramics Discovered in Kenya and Some Related Issues’, in Ming China Courts and Contacts 1400–1450, ed. Craig Clunas, Jessica Harrison-Hall, and Luk-Yu-ping (London: The British Museum, 2016), 252.

59 Ptak, ‘Wang Dayuan on Kerala’, 39–51.

60 Abu-Lughod, Before European Hegemony, 274; Noboru Karashima, ‘Maritime Trade and Merchant Activities’, in A Concise History of South India, ed. Noboru Karashima (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), 139–43; R. Champalakshmi, Trade Ideology and Urbanisation: South India 300 BC to AD 1300 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996).

61 Wade, ‘Chinese Engagement with the Indian Ocean during the Song, Yuan, and the Ming Dynasties (Tenth to Sixteenth Centuries)’.

62 Ibid., 59; and K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (London: Oxford University Press, 1958), 174–83.

63 Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth … ’, 27.

64 Hugh Murray, The Travels of Marco Polo (Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1844), 309–12.

65 H.A.R. Gibb and C.F. Beckingham, eds., The Travels of Ibn Battuta, AD 1325–1354 (Vol IV) (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1994), 813–6.

66 Ibid.

67 Sooranadu Kunjan Pillai, Unnuneelisandesham (in Malayalam language) (Kollam: V V Press, 1955), 140; Naduvattam Gopalakrishnan, Keralacharitradharakal (in Malayalam language) (Trivandrum: Harishree Printers, 1989), 18.

68 Ray, Chinese Sources of South Asian History in Translation; and Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth … ’, 26–36.

69 Ibid.; Mukai Masaki, Contacts between Empires and Entrepôts and the Role of Supra-regional Network: Song-Yuan-Ming Transition of the Maritime Asia, 960–1405 (Japan: Osaka University, 2010), 20–1.

70 Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth’, 28; Phillips, Ma Huan’s Account of Cochin, Calicut and Aden; W.W. Rockhill ‘Notes on the Relations and Trade of China with the Eastern Archipelago and the Coast of the Indian Ocean during the Fourteenth Century. Part II’, T’oung Pao 16, no. 1 (1915): 61–159. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4526442.l, (accessed December 16, 2021); Ptak, ‘China and Calicut in the Early Ming Period’, 101–5.

71 Ma Huan, Ying-Yai Sheng Lan. Ying-Yai Sheng Lan also describe the coast of Bang-ke-la (榜葛剌),became prominent after the development of the Chittagong port, also visited by the Ming maritime missions by some of the envoys that accompanied Zheng He. Among which the visit led by Hu Xian in 1415 and 1420 were noteworthy, See Narayana Chandra Sen, ‘Accounts of Bengal in Extensive Records on Four Foreign Lands’, in Hawai‘i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture, eds. Victor H. Mair, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt and Paul R. Goldin (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005), 505–513, https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824852351-083; Mahmood Kooria, ‘Regimes of Diplomacy and Law: Bengal-China Encounters in the Early Fifteenth Century’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 64, no. 3 (2021): 217–50, https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341536.

72 Masaki, Contacts between Empires and Entrepôts and the Role of Supra-regional Network, 20–1.

73 Haraprasad Ray, ‘An Analysis of the Chinese Maritime Voyages into the Indian Ocean during Early Ming Dynasty and their Raison d’Etre’, China Report 23, no. 1 (1987): 65–87, https://doi.org/10.1177/000944558702300107 (accessed June 2, 2019).

74 The Liujiagang Inscription is at the Tianfei palace of Liujiagang, in Loudong, and Changle Inscription is at the Nanshan Pagoda Temple in Changle, Fujian.

75 Hsiao Hung -Te, ‘Fleet and Wall Ming China’s Strategic Options 1392–1449’ (PhD diss., The Australian National University, 2006), 301–4. Kozhikode and Kochi were mentioned as Guli guo (古里國) and Kezhi guo(柯枝國) respectively, in inscriptions from China. The term 國 (guo) in traditional China, also used to refer to China itself (Zhong Guo), referring to these regions within the Kerala coast says that Ming missions at least identified these regions as independent political entities.

76 Ibid., 299–300.

77 Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth’, 28–9.

78 Haraprasad Ray, ‘An Enquiry into the Presence of the Chinese in South and South-East Asia after the Voyages of Zheng He in Early Fifteenth Century’, in Mariners, Merchants and Oceans, Studies in Maritime History, ed. K.S. Mathew (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers and Distributors, 1995), 99; and Ray, ‘Chinese Sources of South Asian History in Translation’, 82–3.

79 Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth’; and Lo, China as a Sea Power 1127–1368, 337.

80 Ray, ‘An Enquiry into the Presence of the Chinese in South and South-East Asia after the Voyages of Zheng He in Early Fifteenth Century’, 99; and Ray, Chinese Sources of South Asian History in Translation, 82–3.

81 Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth’, 28.

82 V. Tomalin et al., ‘The Thaikkal-Kadakkarappally Boat: an Archaeological Example of Medieval Shipbuilding in the Western Indian Ocean’, International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 33, no. 2 (August 2004): 253–63 (257), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-9270.2004.00022.x (accessed September 8, 2020).

83 Ibid., 260.

84 Beena Sarasan, Chinese cash in “Ku-Lin": Vestiges of Kollam’s Maritime History (Marudhar Arts, 2014), 84; Kumar et al., ‘Allusions and Artifacts of Chinese Trade from Kollam’.

85 Varrier, Keraleeyatha Charithramanangal, 173–74.

86 Ibid., Sarasan, Chinese cash in “Ku-Lin”, 84.

87 Kumar et al., ‘Allusions and Artifacts of Chinese Trade from Kollam’, 5.

88 Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989), 167; and X. Jiang et al., ‘Early Globalized Industrial Chain Revealed by Residual Submicron Pigment Particles in Chinese Imperial Blue-and-white Porcelains’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 117, no. 12 (March 2020): 6446–52, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1916630117 (accessed October 15, 2022).

89 Ellen Huang, ‘China’s China: Jingdezhen Porcelain and the Production of Art in the Nineteenth Century’ (PhD diss., University of California, 2008), 209.

90 Ibid., 241.

91 Sen, ‘Diplomacy, Trade and the Quest for the Buddha’s Tooth’, 31.

92 Liu, The Silk Road in World History, 1.

93 Ibid., 3.

94 Owen Lattimore and Eleanor Lattimore, eds., Silks, Spices and Empire (United States: Delacorte Press, 1968), 10.

95 Zhang Xu-shan, ‘The Name of China and its Geography in Cosmas Indicopleustes’, Byzantion 74, no. 2 (2003): 452–62, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44172972 (accessed October 13, 2022).

96 Liu, Trade and Religious Exchange AD 1–600, 9.

97 Owen Lattimore and Eleanor Lattimore, Silks Spices and Empire, 17.

98 K.S. Mathew, ‘Introduction’, in Mariners Merchants and Oceans: Studies in Maritime History, 4.

99 Kautilya, also known as Chanakya, was an adviser to Chandragupta Maurya (reigned between 321 and 297 BC) of the Maurya dynasty (322-185 BC) in India.

100 Sen, ‘The Southern Silk Route from China to India—An Approach from India’, 184.

101 Herbert Franke, ‘Sung Embassies: Some General Observations’, in China Among Equals, ed. Morris Rossabi (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2020), 116–48.

102 Zhu fan Zhi also notes the flourishing seri-culture and silk production in Southeast Asia, importantly Java (Sho-po) producing “coloured brocaded silks”, see Chau Ju-kua, On the Chinese and the Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, 78–89.

103 Ma Huan, Ying-Yai- Sheng-Lan.

104 Ibid., 132.

105 The term Makkah in Malayalam refers to the holy place of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

106 The term Mappila here refers to as the Jonaka Muslim community in Northern Kerala.

107 Menon, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol I), 69.

108 Ibid., 32.

109 Pachola, literally some kind of leaves used to carry the dead.

110 Nayar, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol III), 87.

111 Herman Gundert, Keralolpathy (in Malayalam language) (Trivandrum: Balan Publications, 1961), ii–iii. Keralolpathy is a legend popular in Kerala about the origins of land of Kerala.

112 K.V. Krishna Iyer, The Zamorins of Calicut (Calicut: The Norman Printing Bureau, 1938), 20.

113 In Puthooram songs, Othenan is assigned with duties such as collecting lease payments and as messenger under local rulers.

114 Panam was coin of lower denomination used in mediaeval Kerala.

115 “Thampuran” is a title used to refer to the “elite” class or caste within mediaeval Kerala which includes landlords and regional heads.

116 Menon, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol I), 157.

117 Veeth in Malayalam means “broad” which here refer to the “width” of the silk cloth. Veerali-veeth denotes the broad silk-cloth worn as head-scarf.

118 Nayar, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol III), 144.

119 Muzham is a term used to measure length. One Muzham approximately equals 46 cm.

120 Menon, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol I), 157.

121 Iyer, Zamorins of Calicut, 24. Among the jewellery worn by Zamorin of Kozhikode there was a Nagapadam design.

122 Menon, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol I), 27.

123 Ibid., 1.

124 Ibid., 2.

125 A carriage used by a person of high status.

126 Ibid., 94.

127 Nayar, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol III), 3.

128 Ibid., 171.

129 Menon, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol I), 3.

130 Onam is celebrated every year in the Malayalam month of Chingam (August to September) in the sidereal solar calendar used in Kerala.

131 Ibid., 5.

132 Menon and Nayar, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol II), 74.

133 Ibid., 45.

134 Ma Huan, Ying-Yai- Sheng-Lan, 143.

135 Ibid., 140. The term Chetti refers to merchants, but the term “Wei-no-chi” is still disputed. Duyvendak suggests it as “Waligi chitty”.

136 Menon, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol I), 73–4.

137 Ibid., 78.

138 Refers to Kozhikode.

139 Gibb and Beckingham, The Travels of Ibn Battuta Vol IV, 808. Bantar (ബെന്തർ) is the stop where the ship anchor. Ibn Battuta mention about “right of bantar”, a custom by which every ship passing by a town in Kerala coast need to halt there and give a present to the ruler.

140 Menon, Ballads of North Malabar (Vol I), 3.

141 Angela Schottenhammer, ‘China’s Gate to the Indian Ocean: Iranian and Arab Long Distance Traders’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 76, no. 1 & 2 (2016): 135–79, https://doi.org/10.1353/jas.2016.0006 (accessed October 12, 2022).

142 O.K. Nambiar, The Kunjalis: Admirals of Calicut (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1963), 14.

143 K.N. Ganesh, ‘Historical Geography of Natu in South India with Special Reference to Kerala’, Indian Historical Review 36, no.1 (June 2009): 3–21, https://doi.org/10.1177/037698360903600102 (accessed August 17, 2022). Kerala from the Perumal era was divided into smaller regional units known nadus - Kolathunadu, Purakilanadu/Polanadu, Kurumpurainadu, Eralanadu/Eranadu, Kilmalainadu, Kalkarainadu, Valluvanadu, Venadu  … etc.

144 M.G.S. Narayanan, Calicut: The City of Truth Revisited (Kozhikode: Mathrubhumi Books, 2006), 55–93; V.V. Haridas, ‘An Epigraphical Study of the Rise of Kozhikode under the Zamorins’, Science, Technology and Development IX, no. XI (November 2020): 100–6, http://journalstd.com/gallery/13-nov2020.pdf # (accessed June 12, 2022).

145 Narayanan, Calicut: The City of Truth Revisited, 15.

146 Iyer, Zamorins of Calicut, 41. Nayar was a hereditary title given to “commandant of a fortress or the commander of an army” which later became the highest caste in Kerala irrespective of their “original rank or occupation in society”.

147 A.V. Sreekrishna Pothuval, Mamamkam (in Malayalam language) (Kozhikode: V K brothers, 1957), 77–85.

148 Gibbs and Beckingham, The Travels of Ibn Battuta, 812.

149 Sastri, A History of South India, 19. fanams were coins of lower denomination weighing 5–6 grains (“grains”, also conforming to a coral-wood seed).

150 Iyer, Zamorins of Calicut, 103.

151 K.M. Panikkar, India and the Indian Ocean: An Essay on the Influence of Sea-power on Indian History (London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd, 1945), 28–31.

152 Sastri, A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar, 215; Iyer, Zamorins of Calicut, 52; T.D. Sadhashivan, Kollam Charitrathile Nazhikakkallukal (in Malayalam language) (Trivandrum: The State Institute of Languages, 2012), 27.

153 M.G.S. Narayanan, The Story of Kozhikode (Kozhikodinte Katha)(in Malayalam language) (Kozhikode: Mathrubhumi Books, 2017), 25–33.

154 Ma Huan, Ying-Yai- Sheng-Lan, 138.

155 Gibb and Beckingham, The Travels of Ibn Battuta, A.D 1325–1354, 812.

156 Menon, A Survey of Kerala History, 28.

157 Gundert, Keralolpathy, 97–100.

158 Hsu Yun-Ts'iao, ‘Notes Relating to Admiral Cheng Ho’s Expeditions’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 49, no. 1 (1976): 134–40 (137). The third mission reached Aden, Hormuz and Mecca which was followed by the succeeding missions.

159 Gong Zhen, Xi yang fan guozhi 1430–1434, ed. Xiang Da (Beijing: Zhonghua shu ju, 2000), 46 (quoted in Hsiao Hung Te, 218).

160 Ptak, ‘China and Calicut in the Early Ming Period’, 105–6.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Athira Anand

Athira Anand is a Doctoral Scholar at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

Joe Thomas Karackattu

Dr. Joe Thomas Karackattu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.