Cochin

Cochin , former princely state, 1,493 sq mi (3,867 sq km), SW India, on the Arabian Sea. Now part of Kerala state, the region of Cochin has one of the highest population densities in India. Agriculture is the chief economic activity. Ernakulam was the former capital and Kochi, formerly Cochin (1991 pop. 1,140,605), the chief port. The finest port S of Mumbai, Kochi, with its naval base and shipbuilding industry, is the primary training center for the Indian Navy. After Vasco da Gama visited Kochi (1502), the Portuguese established a settlement. The Dutch captured it in 1663 and the British in 1795. In adjoining Mattancheri there is a small community of descendants of Jews expelled from Portugal in the 16th cent., thought to be the oldest Jewish enclave in India.

Cochin (Kochi), Kerala/India A former princely state and now an important port, the name may come from a Tamil word koncam or a Malayalam word kochchī, both meaning ‘small’ or a ‘small place’, a reference to the size of the original fishing village from which it developed. To the Portuguese, who first arrived in 1500 and retained possession until the Dutch drove them out in 1633, it became Cochin.