Malabar

Malabar ('Mala' - mountain in Malayalam', 'bar' - could be from 'vaaram' - valley in Malayalam) was the name that was used to refer to the northern part of Kerala, by traders lured to the place by the timber of its lush thick forests. Malabar was one of the three 'princely states' of Kerala (the other two being Travancore and Cochin), ruled by the Samuthiri (Zamorins), when Vasco da Gama makes his landing near Calicut (Kozhikode), the seat of the Samuthiri, in 1498, opening up a direct sea route to the East from Europe. In the power tussles that follow, Malabar gradually comes under the control of the British, as does the rest of India, and becomes a district of the Madras Presidency during the British regime.