Wikipedia
Kolattunādu (Kola Swarupam, as Kingdom of Cannanore in foreign accounts, Chirakkal (Chericul) in later times) was one of the three most powerful feudal kingdoms on the Malabar Coast during the arrival Portuguese Armadas to India, the others being Zamorin's Calicut and Quilon. Kolattunādu had its capital at Ezhimala and was ruled by Kolattiri Royal Family and roughly comprised the whole northern districts of Kerala state and parts of Karnataka in India. Traditionally, Kolattunādu is described as the land lying between Perumba river in the north and Putupattanam river in the south.
The ruling house of Kolathunādu, also known as the Kolathiris, were descendants of the Mushaka Royal Family, and rose to become one of the major political powers in the Kerala region, after the disappearance of the Cheras of Mahodayapuram and the Pandyan Dynasty in the 12th century AD. The Kolathiris trace their ancestry back to the ancient Mushika kingdom (Ezhimala kingdom, Eli-nadu) of the Tamil Sangam Age. The Mushika Family came to be known as Kolathiri over the centuries, and were directly related to, and descended from the Cheras, Pandyas, Cholas and the Ay (subsequently known later as the Venad and much later the 'Thiruvithamkur' Royal Family) originating in the Thiruvananthapuram area. The Kolathiri would have started out as a branch of the Cheras and the Ay in the period it was known as Mushika. After King Nannan of Mushika dynasty was killed in a battle against the Cheras, the chronicled history of the dynasty is obscure, except for a few indirect references here and there. However, it is generally agreed among conventional scholars that the Kolathiris are descendants of King Nannan, and later literary works point towards kings such as Vikramaraman, Jayamani, Valabhan and Srikandan from the Mushika Dynasty. Kolathunad was the northernmost province of the Later Chera kingdom and had considerable autonomy during the 12th century. The more famous Travancore Royal Family a close cousin dynasty of the Kolathiri Family. Both descend directly from the Mushika Dynasty originating in the Thiruvananthapuram area, having been known over the millennia under various names like Ay, Venad, Nannan, Mushika and finally Kolathiri and 'Thiruvithamkur' respectively.
Though the rulers of this house (popularly known as Kolattiris) were generally credited with a superior political authority over the geographical zone lying between the kingdoms of Canara and Zamorin's Calicut, their political influence was more or less confined to Kolattunādu. Ezhimala, the ancient capital of the kingdom, was one of the most important trading centres on Malabar along with Quilon and Calicut, and has found mention in the writings of Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo and Wang Ta-Yuan and several other explorers. In the course of time, their territories were divided into a number of petty vassal principalities, chief among them Cannanore and Laccadives, Cotiote and Wynad, Cartinad (Badagara), Irvenaad, and Randaterra. The so-called "Five Friendly Northern Rulers" (Nilesvaram, Kumbla, Vitalh, Bangor, and Chowtwara) were contiguous to Kolattnad, north of the Kavvayi river. They engaged in frequent rivalry with their powerful neighbors in the south, the Zamorins of Calicut—a permanent feature of Kerala history.
Cherusseri Namboothiri (c. 1375-1475 AD), the author Krshna Gatha, a landmark in the development of Malayalam literature, lived in the court of Udayavarman Kolattiri, one of the kings of the Kolathiri Dynasty.