Kerala attracted the notice of people in other parts of India even from time immemorial. It is evident from the many reference to the land of in ancient Sanskrit works. The Aitareya Aranyaka is the earliest Sanskrit work, which specifically mentions Kerala. The great Epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha show awareness of Kerala on the part of their authors. Katyayana (4^th century BC) and Pathanjali (2^nd Century BC) show their acquaintance with the geography of Kerala. Kautilya’s Arthasastra mentions Kerala. The puranas also mention Kerala.Kalidasa’s Raghuvamsa has given a beautiful description of Kerala.

Kerala looms large in the accounts of classical writes of Greece and Rome. The anonymous author of the Periplus (1^st century AD) and Ptolemy (2^nd century AD) are the most outstanding classical writes who give information about Kerala. Later foreign writes like Sulaiman (9^th Century AD), Masudi (10^th century AD) Al Kazwini (13^th century AD), Marco Polo (13^th century), John of Monte Corvino (13^th century), Friar Jordanus of Severic (14^th century) Ibn Batuta (14^th century), Ma Huan (15^th century), Nicolo Conti (15^th century) and Abdul Razzack (15^th century) are some of the other foreign travellers of the early period who give interesting glimpses of trade and other aspects of Kerala