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Rh The etymology of the term ‘Malayalam' which properly applies to the territory and not language, seems obscure. It does not occur either in early or mediaval Tamil literature. The people of the West Coast call their home-speech as Malayazhina or Malayayma. These are compounds of two Malayalam or rather Tamil words mala, a ‘mountain' and alam or álma, 'government. The latter are verbal nouns formed by postfixing the noun terminations am (அம்) and ma or mai (மை) to the verb ál (ஆள்) to rule. 'Azhma' may be a mistake for "alma'. It is not right to accept the meaning that Malayalam is a 'deep (ஆழம்) mountainous region'.

The Chera or Kerala country, called also the Malainadu and Malai-mandalam in Tamil and Malayalam works, was known to the early Greeks as Diinurike or Tamilakam and ‘Kerobothros' or the Chera country, and to the mediæval nations as 'Malabar' (Skt. Malavar, Ar. Mala-barr) or the 'region of mountains.' From about the beginning of the sixteenth up to the early years of the last century, Tamil was known to Europeans as the 'Malabar' language. But it has been considered by Western scholars as an instance of misapplication of the term 'Malabar' to Tamil. However, I am inclined to think otherwise, though with reference to the present condition of the Malayalam language it might be an undue extension of its signification. When the term 'Malabar' was first applied to Tamil by the early European travellers or missionaries there was not, as will be shown hereafter,