"Malayalam has a strong literary history, which is centuries old and is very rich in several genres of literature. The earliest known literary composition in the language is from the 13th century. Notably, the work Ramacharitam by Cheeraman is recognized by scholars as the first book in Malayalam. The first Malayalam grammar/literary treatise, Leelathilakam, was compiled in the 14th century. Malayalam also has a rich vocabulary, with around 90,000 words, listed in the dictionary ShabdathArAvalli."