Kuttanad

This Malabar chiefdom was based at Ponnani, a Kerala port at the Bharatappuzha’s mouth. The area was the original home of the Perumpadappu Swaroopam, which later founded Cochin.

The dynasty moved south after the Zamorin of Kozhikode took the area; Ponnani became his military headquarters and a Muslim port. In 1507 Francisco de Almeida’s Portuguese fleet burned the port and its ships. The Portuguese began a fort in 1585, and a treaty of 1604 allowed the Dutch East India Company to open a factory. In 1766 Hyder Ali of Mysore established an outpost at Ponnani.