Fast Forward Calicut: East hill & West hill: Located at East Hill, the Pazhassirajah Museum, run by the State Archaeological Dept., displays ancient mural paintings, antique bronzes and old coins as well as models of temples, megalithic monuments like dolmonoid cysts and the umbrella stones . Adjacent to the museum is the Art Gallery which exhibits an excellent collection of paintings by Raja Ravi Verma and Raja Raja Verma. West hill has many educational institutions and FCI warehouses.
- 1524 – Vasco Da Gama was sent by King of Portugal to make war on Samoothiri but he could not accomplish much.
- 1524, December 24 – Gama died at Kochi.
- 1525, February 26 – Menezes, Gama’s successor made a devastating raid on Ponnani. But Samoothiri won the war in the end with the help of Tinayancheri and Kurumliyapatri by land, and Kunjali Marakkar by sea. Kunjali Marakkar became famous for his valour and skill in these wars against the Portuguese. Captain Kutti Ali entered Kochi port and burned all Portuguese ships he found there.
- 1525, November 4 – Portuguese abandoned their fort and blew it up by setting fire to a train of gun powder.
- The war dragged on.
- The Portuguese entered into a successful intrigue with Vettath Raja (one of the Samoothiri’s unwilling feudatories), to make a fort near Bharathappuzha, in the opposite bank of Ponnani. However the Portuguese were not successful as the ships were destroyed when trying to cross the dangerous river mouth.
- Formation of Chalium fort by Portuguese – Vettath Raja enabled the Portuguese to erect a fort at Chalium at the mouth of the Beypore river. Chalium was a strategic site, for it was only 10 kms south of Kozhikkode. Chalium Raja also helped the Portuguese.
- 1538 – Samoothiri retaliated by attacking Vettathunad and Chalium. The Raja of Chalium made unconditional peace with Samoothiri. Vettath Raja, after a protracted fight, was compelled to surrender all his lands near Ponnani and his island near Chalium. But Portuguese fort could not be destroyed.
- 1540 – Samoothiri entered into an agreement with the Portuguese and stopped the war. But the skirmishes continued in the seas by Muslim navigators based at Ponnani.
