Nileshwaram

Nileshwaram or Nileshwar or Neeleshwaram is a municipality and a major town in Kasaragod District, state of Kerala, India. It is one of the three municipalities in Kasaragod district; the others are Kasaragod and Kanhangad. Nileshwaram is located on the estuary of Kavvayi Backwaters and Neeleshwaram River. Nileshwaram is referred to as the cultural capital of Kasaragod, the northernmost district of Kerala. "The first Chief Minister of Kerala and communist leader E. M. S. Namboodiripad, Kamaran Nair had contested elections to the Assembly from the Neeleshwaram segment." Neeleswaram, or Nileswaram, is the abbreviated form of Neelakanteshweram. The Kolathiri Dominion emerged into independent 10 principalities in the late medieval period, i.e., Kadathanadu (Vadakara), Randathara or Poyanad (Dharmadom), Kottayam (Thalassery), Nileshwaram, Iruvazhinadu (Panoor), Kurumbranad etc., under separate royal chieftains due to the outcome of internal dissensions. Many portions of the present-day Hosdurg taluk (Kanhangad) and Vellarikundu were parts of the Nileshwaram dynasty, who were relatives to both Kolathunadu as well as Zamorin of Calicut, in the early medieval period. Nileshwaram was historically the seat of the Neeleswaram Rajahs, who belonged to the clans of the Kolathiri and Zamorins. The Nileshwar Rajahs and the Bednore Nayaks battled in this area.