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| Kadaltheeram Resort is located on the Malabar coast in Kerala. |
| The single biggest defining aspect of this narrow sliver of land in India 's south-west is the towering, almost unbroken chain of mountains that separate it from the rest of the mainland. The Western Ghats, as they are called, figure in the nomenclature of the land- both Malabar , the name by which the land was known to outsiders from ancient times and Malayalam , the local language, are derived from the term Mala , which means hill. |
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Today, Malabar is a term loosely applied to the six northern districts of the state of Kerala, while in ancient times it probably applied to the geographic continuum that includes the whole of Kerala and the coastal districts of the state of Karnataka. A more clear-cut definition arose during British rule, when Malabar was an administrative unit comprising of the central portion of this continuum. |
Traditionary history speaks of a demigod throwing his axe into the sea and causing the seabed to rise, creating the land of Kerala . There is indeed, some substance to this, for there is evidence to show that large tracts of Kerala were once below the sea. It is not surprising that seaports and trade were the crucial elements that influenced the fortunes of the numerous rulers of the land. The caprices of the Indian Ocean , in silting old ports and throwing up new ones, were instrumental in the rise and fall of empires.
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