Malabars is a term used for Indians originating from the Malabar region. The region includes the northern part of present state of Kerala in India, i.e. the southwestern coast of the country.[1]
Captain João Ribeiro in his History of Ceylon presented to the King of Portugal in 1685 mentions that Jaffnapatam (present-day Jaffna in Sri Lanka) is inhabited by Malabars.[2] This designation stemmed from the presence of Tamils in Jaffna, whose customs and religion closely resembled those of the Hindus on the Malabar Coast of India.[3]
Additionally, to European traders and scholars, Tamil was commonly known as the Malabar language. In the 18th century, J. P. Fabricius described his Tamil-English Dictionary as the "Dictionary of Malabar and English," wherein he explained words and phrases of the Tamil language, commonly referred to by Europeans as the Malabar language, in English.[4]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Sreedhara Menon, A. (2007). Kerala Charitram (in Malayalam). Kottayam: DC Books. ISBN 9788126415885.
- ^ Ribeiro, João (4 February 2024). "HISTORY OF CEYLON by João Ribeiro - Page 15".
- ^ M. D. Raghavan (1971). Tamil Culture in Ceylon. pp. 199–200.
- ^ Fabricius, Johann Philipp (1809). A Malabar and English dictionary. The Library of Congress. Vepery.