Kadathanadu

Kadathanadu, also rendered Kadathanad, Katattanad, and, academically, Kaṭattanāṭǔ; alternately known as Vatakara or Badagara, was a kingdom in North Malabar just north of the Korappuzha River, ruled by the Porlathiri dynasty after their dispossession from their native realm of Calicut and Polanad. Its ruler was known as Vazhunnavar, often rendered 'Boyanore', until 1750, whereupon their prior titulature of Raja was resumed.^[1]

The establishment of the kingdom dates to the flight of the Porlathiri, fleeing the Zamorin's conquest of Calicut, to seek asylum in Kolathiri territory; where a chance lakeside encounter led to a Kolathiri prince of the Southern Regency scandalously espousing the Porlathiri heiress, who traditionally would only have hypergamously contracted sambandham with a Nambudiripad Brahmin. The dynamics of the marriage led to significant carveouts from the Southern Regency, with the hereditary governance matrilineally vested in the line of the Porlathiri princess and her Kolathiri groom.^[2]