Malayalam is the language of the south-west of the Madras Presidency. It is the third most important language of the Presidency, the first and the second being Tamil and Telugu respectively. It is spoken in Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore. Out of a total of 5,932,207 inhabitants of these parts, 5,409,350 persons are those who speak Malayalam. These countries, taken as a whole, are bounded on the north, by South Canara, on the east by the far-famed Malaya range of mountains, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the west by the Arabian Sea.