The earliest Sanskrit text to mention Kerala as "Cherapadha" is the late Vedic text Aitareya Aranyaka. Kerala is also mentioned in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the two Hindu epics. The "Skanda Purana" mentions the ecclesiastical office of the Thachudaya Kaimal who is referred to as , synonymous with the deity of the Koodalmanikyam temple. may stem from the Classical Tamil 'declivity of a hill or a mountain slope' or 'land of the Cheras'. The Greco-Roman trade map "Periplus Maris Erythraei" refers to Kerala as "Celobotra".