The
Mushika Kingdom (
Mushaka Rajya, also called
Ezhimalai Rajya,
Puzhinadu,
Kolathunadu,
Chirakkal Rajya among the more common names) was an ancient kingdom of the
Tamil Sangam period in present day
Kerala, India, ruled by a royal dynasty of the same name. Its dominions, for most of its recorded history, covered the present-day regions of Northern Kerala,
Tulunadu and
Coorg, between the western slopes of the
Western Ghats in the East and the
Arabian Sea in the West. It was one of the five primary ruling dynasties in the ancient
Tamilakam of recorded history, and in the Tamil
Sangam Period, along with the
Cheras, the
Pandyas, the
Cholas and the
Ays.
Ezhimalai Nannan was the most powerful ruler of Ezhimalai. He expanded the kingdom to include
Gudalur and
Coimbatore in his lifetime. With the death of Nannan towards the close of the 5th century C.E, in a battle with the Cheras, the kingdom was absorbed by the Chera kingdom, though they had several periods of independence alternating with those of being vassals or tributaries of the Cheras, as well as of the Pandyas. Most mainstream scholars believe that the erstwhile
Kolathiri Dynasty (who had their last capital at
Chirakkal, Kannur) are descendants of Nannan and the Mushika Royal Family, which the Family itself believed, and a fact that has been upheld by the various Tamil, Sanskrit, and Malayalam texts surviving to this day.