the "Nareae, who are shut in by the Capitalis range, the highest of all the mountains in India". Fuller believes it probable that the Nareae referred to the Nairs and the Capitalis range is the Western Ghats. There are large gaps in the known early history of the Kerala region, which in the 1st-century AD is thought to have been governed by the Chera dynasty and which by the late 3rd-century AD had broken up, possibly as a consequence of a decline in trade with the Romans. There is no evidence of Nairs in the area during this period. Inscriptions on copper-plate regarding grants of land and rights to settlements of Jewish and Christian traders, dated approximately between the 7th- and 9th-centuries AD, refer to Nair chiefs and soldiers from the Eranad, Valluvanad, Venad (later known as Travancore) and Palghat areas. As these inscriptions show the Nairs as witnesses to the agreements between those traders and the successors to the Cheras, the Perumals, it is probable that by this time the Nairs were vassal chieftains. Certainly by the 13th-century, some Nairs were the rulers of small kingdoms and the Perumals had disappeared. Trade with China, which had declined for some time, began to increase once more in the 13th-century and it was during this period that two small Nair kingdoms were established. Both of these—at Kolattunad and at Vernad—contained major seaports, and they expanded by taking over the inland territory of neighbouring chieftains. Although trade with China once more went into decline in the 14th-century, it was replaced by trade with Muslim Arabs. These traders had been visiting the area for several hundred years but their activities increased to the point that a third Nair kingdom, based on the port of Calicut, became established. There were also small kingdoms at Walluvanad and Palghat, away from the coastline. This period was characterized by continuous war between these various kingdoms, and most able bodied Nair men were assigned to fight in these wars. The large influx of travelers and traders to Kerala had left many early accounts of the Nairs. These descriptions were initially idealized by Europeans for its martial society, productivity, spirituality, and for its marriage practices. Some early examples of these works being John Mandeville’s ‘’Travels’’ (1356), William Saxton’s ‘The mirrour of the wourld’ (1481), and Jean Boudin’s ‘Les sex livres de la republique’ (1576). The Nair men are described