Venad

Venad

Venad Swarupam (Kingdom of Quilon) (Vēṇāṭ, Malayalam: വേണാട്, Tamil: வேநாடு) was one of the three prominent late medieval Hindu feudal kingdoms on Malabar Coast, south India, along with Kingdom of Calicut and Kingdom of Cannanore.

The rulers of Quilon (called Venattadi Kulasekharas) traces their relations back to the Ay kingdom and the Later Cheras (Kulasekharas). The last ruler of the Later Chera Kingdom, Rama Varma Kulashekhara, was the first ruler of an independent state of Quilon. In the early 14th century, King Ravi Varma established a short-lived supremacy over southern India. But after his death, Quilon only included most of modern day Kollam, Thiruvananthapuram districts of Kerala state, and Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. Marco Polo claimed to have visited his capital at Quilon, a centre of commerce and trade with China and the Levant. Europeans were attracted to the region during the late fifteenth century, primarily in pursuit of the then rare commodity, black pepper. Quilon was the forerunner to the Kingdom of Travancore.

A new calendar was established by Quilon rulers called 'Kolla Varsham' (Malayalam calendar). The calendar started in AD 825 with the reopening the capital Quilon.