North Malabar of native Hindus, native Mappila-Muslims, native Jains and migrant-Christian communities and is characterized by distinct socio-cultural customs and behavior. The people of North Malabar have striven to preserve their distinct and unique identity and heritage since ancient times, through colonial times into modern political India. From the seventeenth century onward, until the early twentieth century, there were cultural taboos among certain communities from North Malabar, which forbade their women marrying people of the same respective communities, from the southern territories. Even in modern times it is not uncommon to see "alliances from Malabar region preferred" in newspaper matrimonial announcements placed
St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Church, Palayoor Seven churches traditionally assigned to the time when Saint Thomas preached in Malabar. The wooden structure must undoubtedly have been very old, and constructed no doubt of teak, which formerly grew all over the country, even in comparatively recent times: at that early age the supply must have been very plentiful. In ‘Lingerings of light in a dark land: Researches into the Syrian church of Malabar’ published in 1873, Thomas Whitehouse quotes: "Of palur,little can be said having any special interest.It was the most northern of the seven ancient churches,as Quilon as the most southern.The village at present an unimportant