Cheraman Perumal
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Cheraman Perumal was a Nayanar regal saint from Kerala.
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[edit] Life
He was a King of Chera dynasty in Kerala in the late 8th Century AD, He was a friend of Sundaramoorthy Nayanar.
[edit] History
The Chera power which was destroyed in Tamil Nadu was re-established in Kerala under Kulasekhara Varman about 800 A.D. The illustrious royal dynasty of the Kulasekharas ruled over Kerala from 800-1102 A.D. with their capital at Thiruvanchikkulam or Mahodayapuram. The Kulasekhara Empire is known as the Second Chera Empire as opposed to the First Chera Empire of the Sangam Age. It was only under the Kulasekharas in the ninth century that Kerala produced a civilization and became a unified and significant political power.
There were thirteen important Kulasekharas known to us from historical inscriptions which were recently discovered and interpreted. Kulasekhara Varman (800-820), the founder of the Second Chera Empire, was Kulasekhara Alwar, the famous Hindu Vaishnavite saint and author of the Tamil Perumal Thirumozhi and Mukundamala. His successor, Rajasekhara Varman (820-844), was a Saivite saint who introduced the Malayalam Era known as Kollam Era in 825 A.D. His successor Sthanu Ravi Varman (844-885) was the best known king of this dynasty; The Christians received the Tharisa Pally Copper Plate during his reign from the Venad ruler Ayyan Adigal Thuruvatikal. it was during Ayyan's reign that the Arab merchant Sulaiman (851 A.D.) came to Kerala and introduced Islam. It was also at this time that the great Christian priest-hero Kadamattathu Kathanar lived. It is the trio, Ayyan, Kadamattam, and Bavar, the Muslim colleague of Sulaiman, who are honored and worshipped at the ecumenical shrine of Sabarimala. Sthanu Ravi Varman is sometimes identified with Rajasekhara Varman who in turn is identified with Cheraman Perumal Nayanar. According to Keralolpathi, Cheraman Perumal was the last emperor; he divided the kingdom among his suzerains, embraced Islam, left Kerala for Mecca, married a Muslim princess, and finally died on the Arabian Coast. keralahistory
[edit] Oral Traditions
According to oral traditions of the Malabar Muslims, the story goes thus: A Chera king, Cheramanperumal of Kodungalloor, left for Makkah, embraced Islam, and accepted the name Thajudeen. He married the sister of then King of Jeddah. On his return trip, accompanied by many Islamic religious leaders, led by Malik-ibn-Dinar (RA), he fell sick and passed away. But he had given introductory letters for the team to proceed to ‘Musiris’ (Kodungallur, the Chera capital. The visitors came to Musiris and handed over the latter to the reigning king, who treated the guests with all respect and extended facilities to establish their faith in the land. The king also organised help for the artisans to build the first Mosque at Kodungallur, by converting Arathali temple into a Juma-Masjid. It was built in 629 A.C., and the area around it had been ear-marked for the team’s settlement.
He is also connected with the Sahaba Malik Ibn Dinar with this tradition:from kerala.com
Malik bin Deenar and 12 of his trade associates landed in Kerala, a state at the southern tip of India and continued the trade between India and Arabia. Their way of trading however was distinctly different from that of earlier Arab traders and the populace was wooed to Islam.
The King of the time, Cheraman Perumal, came to know of the surprising trade practices of these Arabs and had them brought to his palace. On enquiry, Malik Bin Deenar and his comrades related the reason for their honest trade practices to be their recent conversion to Islam.
Cheraman Perumal asked them what is this Islam which can so radically change the conduct of Arab thugs (who were so feared in Kerala that when an Arab ship downed anchor in port, people hid their women and buried their treasure) to so decent a nature that the populace was attracted to their trade and religion. The Arabs then described the tenets of Islam and talked about their Prophet. The king then wanted to know if there was any proof that this person is indeed a Prophet. The traders described the Mujizaat (supernatural deeds) of the Prophet, including the Shaqq Al Qamar or the Splitting of the moon into two.
Cheraman Perumal then summoned his Hindu Astrologers who consulted their almanacs and reported a similar phenomenon recorded by them. The King forthwith abdicated his throne and left with Malik Bin Deenar for Arabia where it is chronicled that he met the Prophet Muhammad, accepted Islam and performed the famous Last Hajj with him. On his journey back, he was drowned in a tempest which destroyed his ship and his body came ashore at Salalah, Oman where his grave is a famous landmark today.
[edit] Scepticism
A mention of the Cheraman Perumal legend appeared in the 16th century book Tuhafat Ul Mujahideen by Shaikh Zainuddin Makhdoom a noted Kerala historian, but he apparently did not believe in its historical authenticity. But later cut and paste historians seem to have forgotten to add his disclaimer.
Sreedhara Menon, a historian, states that Kerala never had a king called Cheraman Perumal and quotes Dr. Herman Gundert, the German who composed the first Malayalam-English dictionary (and the grandfather of Herman Hesse) for this. But there seems to have been a Cheraman Perumal, whose history is overlaid by legend. According to Saiva tradition, he had an association with a Sundaramurti, the last of the three hymnists of Devaram. This Cheraman Perumal is conjectured to have demised in 825 A.D. The myth of cheraman perumals
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