01. Babbles Of An Old Dog

2026 October 11th

There are small lagoons attached to Beypore River which is also glorynamed Chaliyar. ചാലിയാർ. That is the vernacular word. Glorification is magnification. Politicians magnify, because they are the continuation of Old Chiefs and Kings and Chieftains. Priests glorify and they originated from Old monks.

In fact Kings and Priests were a two-in-one system. Take translation of Chaliyar back to vernacular and it is 

ചളിയാർ. And our lexicon ശബ്ദതാരാവലി of Sreekanteswaram G. Padmanabha Pilla says us that ലളയോരഭേദം. [ Page 1768] It does not give any illustration. In fact, I find the change in the letter presents opposite ideas or objects.  Take the examples. നില cannot be നിള; വള cannot be വല; കല cannot be കള; again കലം cannot be കളം; and the precious മുല cannot be മുള. It is our way. Magnifying everything - From GDP to PDP. But I found the maxim true in പുലിമുട്ട്, It can be പുളിമുട്ട് too. But I do not see any tiger or tamarind to break the water; instead large boulders are brought in and stacked at both sides of the mouth of the river, stretching 500 metres into sea. The river is known as Chulika (ചുളിക), down Kanthanpara Water Falls, and it originates at Elambalari Hills.  William Logan calls it Beypore River in his Malabar Manual. And the rail station on the southern bank of the river was called Beypore Terminus.  We also called it Beypore Puzha in our childhood days.

Beypore was Vepur in Kozhikodan Grandhavari of Zamorin. The land put by sea. Following either Kannada or Arab style some people called it Bepur; and the British called it Beypore. Hitherto no illusion or hallucination came to us to change it. Zamorin's occasional entourage starting from Ponnani to Putthur for collecting money from chiefdoms took place whenever he was in need of money.

In Chieftains' land records Kozhikode was known as Kokkazheekode, or the beak shaped estuary. Our local historians stretch the history of Beypore back to 5000 years and to the time of Cleopatra. But the unknown navigator of Periplus Maris Erythraea does not mention it. First he sees the sea and a coast illuminated by some bioluminescence in the sea. Certain marine organisms emit blue-green light when disturbed by waves or movement of a vessel. A ship's wake can appear to sparkle in the darkness. 

Fires, and lamps of human habitation could have been visible from the see in the moonlight reflecting from clouds, water, or wet shorelines. A report circulated in July1985 quoted some U.S. Researchers observing bioluminescence signals in the waters of Western coast during the period of south-west monsoon. The unknown navigator of Periplus Maris Erythraea, simply named it, in his Koinee Greek, Naura meaning light.

Greek and Roman ships used to come to Malabar coast prior to monsoon. Left and right our glorifiers guessed it to be Cannanore.