Malayalam Calendar

Malayalam Calendar (also known as Malayalam Era or Kollavarsham or Kollam Era) is a solar and sidereal calendar used in Kerala, India. The origin of the calendar has been dated as 825 CE.

There are many theories about the origin of the calendar. It is generally agreed among the scholars that it was started with the reopening of the natural disaster destroyed city of Kollam on the Malabar coast by Mar Abo, an Assyrian saint who ruled a number of churches in Travancore with Syrian liturgy. Some argue that it was founded by the ruler of Venad Udaya Marttanda Varma (a feudatory with capital at Kollam) or by the Vedic philosopher Adi Shankara on the backdrop of the shivite revival among the vaishnavite Nambuthiri Community who are considered to be the ' Nampthali' lost Tribe of the Jews or simply it is a derivation of the Saptarshi Era