Zamorin

Zamorin (Samoothiri; Malayalam: സാമൂതിരി, Portuguese: Samorim, Dutch: Samorijn) of Calicut is the hereditary royal title used by the Hindu rulers of the medieval Kingdom of Calicut on Malabar Coast. The Zamorins ruled for almost six centuries, between c. 12th and 18th century AD based at the city of Calicut, the one of most important trading centre in South India. At the zenith in the 15th century, the kingdom covered almost all of present day northern and central regions of Kerala state.

It was after the disintegration of the Later Chera Kingdom in early 12th century, the Zamorins (originally Eradis of Nediyirippu Swarūpam) became completely independent and became a powerful economic and naval force. The relative absence of intra-family quarrels and splits like other Nair royalties was one of the factors in the dramatic success of the Zamorins. They had good trade relations with the Muslim-Arabs and Chinese, the primary spice traders on the Malabar Coast in the Middle Ages. The Kunhali Marakkars, the famous Muslim admirals, were the naval chiefs of the Zamorins. The Zamorins held most of the other important trading ports on the across Malabar Coast. The control over these ports provided the Zamorin a vast income of foreign money. They fought numerous battles with their local neighbors, prominently with Valluvanad, Palghat, Cannanore and Cochin, for supremacy over the ports and the fertile banks of the River Nila. The wars with an alliance of Valluvanad and Cochin is related to the famous Mamankam festivals.

The Portuguese trader and navigator Vasco da Gama visited the Calicut in 1498, opening the sailing route directly from Europe to India. But later in the history, the Zamorins turned out to be the worst rivals of the Portuguese on the Malabar coast. By 18th century all the petty states of Kerala had been absorbed or subordinated by the three big states of Calicut, Travancore and Cochin. In 1766 Kingdom of Mysore under the leadership of Hyder Ali defeated the Zamorin and annexed the Calicut.

The government at Calicut was an autocracy, limited by the power of the semi-independent vassal chiefs, perpetually in revolt, and by the priestly power of the Nambudiris. The Saamoothiri initiated the annual Revathi Pattathanam at the Tali Siva temple in Calicut. The present head of Zamorin family is His Highness P. K. S. Raja of Puthiya Kovilakam (Thiruvannur).