to reduce them under his authority. These permauls or
viceroys were for a long while changed every twelve years; till at length
one of them, named Sheo-Ram, Cheruma Perumal, or Shermanoo Permaloo, the
Sarana-perimal of Castaneda, became so popular that he set his master
_Kishen Rao_, the rajah of Chaldesh, at defiance, and established his own
authority in Malabar. An army was sent into Malabar to reduce the country
again to obedience, but it was defeated, and from this event, which is
said to have happened 1000 years ago, all the rajahs, chief _nayres_, and
other lords of Malabar, date the sovereignty and independence of their
ancestors in that country."

"After some time, Shermanoo-Permaloo, either became weary of his
situation, or from attachment to the Mahometan religion, resolved to make
a division of Malabar among his dependents, from whom the present
chieftains are descended. Such is the current story among the inhabitants
of Malabar; yet it is more probable that his dependent chieftains,
disgusted with his conversion to the religion of Mahomet, revolted from
his authority, and contrived this story of his voluntary surrender and
division of his dominions, to justify their own assumptions. After this
division of his kingdom, it is said that an _erary_, or person of the
cast of cow-herds, originally from the banks of the Cavery, near Errode
in the Carnatic, who had been a chief instrument of the success of
Shermanoo-Permaloo in the war against rajah Kishen Rao, made application
to Shermanoo for some support. Having very little left to give away,
Shermanoo made him a grant of his own place of abode at Calicut, and gave
him his sword; ankle-rings, and other insignia of command, and presented
him with water and flowers, the ancient symbols of a transfer of property.
It is said that this cowherd rajah was ordained principal sovereign over
the other petty princes among whom Malabar was divided, with the title of
Zamorin, and was authorized by Shermanoo to extend his dominion over all
the other chieftains by force of arms. His descendants have ever since
endeavoured, on all occasions, to enforce this pretended grant, which
they pretend to hold by the tenure of possessing the sword of Shermanoo
Permaloo, and which they carefully preserve as a precious relic."

"From the period of the abdication of Shermanoo, to that of the arrival
of the Portuguese at Calicut, the Mahomedan religion had made
considerable progress in Malaba