. During recent years the financial condition of the state has
been flourishing. The principal products are rice, cocoanuts, timber,
cardamoms, pepper and a little coffee. Salt is manufactured along the
coast. The capital is Ernakulam, but the raja resides at Tripunthora.
The principal commercial centre is Mattancheri, adjoining the British
town of Cochin. The chief means of communication is by boat along the
backwaters; but in 1902 a metre-gauge line was constructed by the Madras
railway at the expense of the state to connect Ernakulam with Shoranur.

_History._--What is now the native state of Cochin formed, until about
the middle of the 9th century A.D., part of the ancient Chera or Kerala
kingdom (see KERALA). Its port of Kodungalur (Kranganur, the ancient
Muziris), at the mouth of the Periyar, was from early times one of the
chief centres for the trade between Europe and India; and it was at
Malankara, near Kodungalur, that the apostle Thomas is traditionally
said to have landed. The history of Cochin is, however, like that of the
Kerala kingdom generally, exceedingly obscure previous to the arrival of
the Portuguese. The rajas of Cochin, who are of pure Kshatriya blood,
claim descent from the Chera king Cheraman Perumal, the last of his race
to rule the vast tract from Gokarn in North Kanara to Cape Comorin.
About the middle of the 9th century this king, according to tradition,
resigned his kingdom, embraced Islam, and went on pilgrimage to Arabia,
where he died. Towards the end of the century the Chera kingdom was
overrun and dismembered by the Cholas. It was in 1498 that Vasco da Gama
reached the Malabar coast; and in 1502 the Portuguese were allowed to
settle in the town of Cochin, where they built a fort and began to
organize trade with the surrounding country. By the end of the century
their influence had become firmly established, largely owing to the
effective aid they had given to the rajas of Cochin in their wars with
the Zamorin of Calicut. The Syrian Christians, forming at that time a
large proportion of the population, now felt the weight of Portuguese
ascendancy; in 1599 Menezes, the archbishop of Goa, held a synod at
Udayamperur (Diamper), a village 12 m. south-east of Cochin, at which
their tenets were pronounced heretical and their service-books purged of
all Nestorian phrases. In 1663, however, Portuguese domination came to
an end with the capture of Cochin by the Dutch, whose ascendancy
continued