The Birth of Kerala

The legend says..

There is a persistent legend which says that Parasurama, the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the Preserver of the Hindu Trinity, stood on a high place in the mountains of the Western Ghats, threw his axe far into the sea, and commanded the sea to retreat. It did. And the land that emerged dripping from the waters became Kerala. Myths and legends in India often conceal scientific truths.

Now for the 'real deal' ! The Geologists say -

Geologists believe that the triangular Indian peninsula was part of a massive landmass called Gondwanaland, which consisted of Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India. In the course of time, as the great continental plates began to move due to the internal currents in the molten rock on which they float, Gondwanaland broke apart and the smaller continents went their separate ways. The wedge that would become India set off on a lonely journey to the northeast in the direction of Eurasia. On the way it crossed a hotspot on the earth and lava seeped through cracks and fissures in the triangular island of India. These solidified in steps and helped create the fertile black mass of the south-central Deccan plateau. But Kerala had not been born even then. The floating wedge of India, nudged against Eurasia, pushed up the highest and youngest mountains in the world, our Himalayas, and created the fertile Indo-Gangetic valley in the crease between the young Himalayas and the Aravallis.

In fact it is quite possible that the birth of Kerala, which must have been a rather long process in human terms, though lightning-quick in geological terms, could have been witnessed by the first human beings wandering in the forested highlands of the Western Ghats.