Note 77 — P (Continued) (continued 2)

Concerning the history of the Paravas, and their connection with the pearl-fisheries on the Indian side of the Gulf of Manaar, much information is given by Mr. J. Hornell,77 from whose account the following extracts are taken. “When the Portuguese rounded Cape Comorin, they found the pearl fisheries of the Gulf of Manaar in the hands of the Paravas, whom tradition shows to have had control of this industry from time immemorial. Of the origin of these people we know extremely little. We know, however, that in the old days, from 600 B.C. and for 1,500 years or more thereafter, the country now comprehended in the districts of Madura and Tinnevelly formed the great Tamil kingdom of Pāndya. And, in the old Tamil work called the Kalveddu, the position of the pearl-fishing caste to this monarchy is incidentally mentioned in the following extract: ‘Vidanarayanen Cheddi and the Paravu men who fished pearls by paying tribute to Alliyarasani, daughter of Pandya, king of Madura, who went on a voyage, experienced bad weather in the sea, and were driven to the shores of Lanka, where they founded Karainerkai and Kutiraimalai. Vidanarayanen Cheddi had the treasures of his ship stored there by the Paravas, and established pearl fisheries at Kadalihilapam and Kallachihilapam, and introduced the trees which change iron into gold.’ In the Maduraik-kanchi the Paravas are described as being most powerful in the country round Korkai. ‘Well fed on fish and armed with bows, their hordes terrified their enemies by their dashing valour.’ The Maduraik-kanchi describes Korkai as the chief town in the country of Parathavar and the seat of the pearl fishery, with a population consisting chiefly of pearl divers and chank cutters.78 When the Pandyan kingdom was powerful, the Paravas had grants of certain rights from the monarchy, paying tribute from the produce of the fisheries, and receiving protection and immunity from taxation in return. The conditions under which the Paravas lived at the opening of the sixteenth century are graphically set forth in a report, dated 19th December, 1669, written by Van Reede and Laurens Pyh, respectively Commandant of the coast of Malabar and Canara and senior merchant and Chief of the sea-ports of Madura. Under the protection of those Rājas there lived a people, which had come to these parts from other countries79—they are called Paravas—they lived a seafaring life, gaining their bread by fishing and by diving for pearls; they had purchased from the petty Rājas small streaks of the shore, along which they settled and built villages, and they divided themselves as their numbers progressively increased. In these purchased lands they lived under the rule of their own headmen, paying to the Rājas only an annual present, free from all other taxes which bore upon the natives so heavily, looked upon as strangers, exempt from tribute or subjection to the Rājas, having a chief of their own election, whose descendants are still called kings of the Paravas, and who drew a revenue from the whole people, which in process of time has spread itself from Quilon to Bengal. Their importance and power have not been reduced by this dispersion, for they are seen at every pearl fishery (on which occasions the Paravas assemble together) surpassing in distinction, dignity and outward honours all other persons there. The pearl fishery was the principal resource and expedient from which the Paravas obtained a livelihood, but as from their residence so near the sea they had no manner of disposing of their pearls, they made an agreement with the Rājas that a market day should be proclaimed throughout their dominions, when merchants might securely come from all parts of India, and at which the divers and sutlers necessary to furnish provisions for the multitude might also meet; and, as this assemblage would consist of two different races, namely, the Paravas and subjects of the Rājas, as well as strangers and travellers, two kinds of guards and tribunals were to be established to prevent all disputes and quarrels arising during this open market, every man being subject to his own judge, and his case being decided by him; all payments were then also divided among the headmen of the Paravas, who were the owners of that fishery, and who hence became rich and powerful; they had weapons and soldiers of their own, with which they were able to defend themselves against the violence of the Rājas or their subjects. The Moors who had spread themselves over India, and principally along the coasts of Madura, were strengthened by the natives professing Muhammadanism, and by the Arabs, Saracens, and the privateers of the Sammoryn,80 and they began also to take to pearl-diving as an occupation, but being led away by ill-feeling and hope of gain, they often attempted to outreach the Paravas, some of whom even they gained to their party and to their religion, by which means they obtained so much importance, that the Rājas joined themselves to the Moors, anticipating great advantages from the trade which they carried on, and from their power at sea; and thus the Paravas were oppressed, although they frequently rose against their adversaries, but they always got the worst of it, until at last in a pearl fishery at Tutucoryn, having purposely raised a dispute, they fell upon the Moors, and killed some thousands of them, burnt their vessels, and remained masters of the country, though much in fear that the Moors, joined by the pirates of Calicut, would rise against them in revenge. The Portuguese arrived about this time with one ship at Tutucoryn; the Paravas requested them for assistance, and obtained a promise of it, on conditions that they should become Christians; this they generally agreed to, and, having sent Commissioners with some of the Portuguese to Goa, they were received under the protection of that nation, and their Commissioners returned with priests, and a naval force conveying troops, on which all the Paravas of the seven ports were baptized, accepted as subjects of the King of Portugal, and they dwindled thus from having their own chiefs and their own laws into subordination to priests and Portuguese, who however settled the rights and privileges of the Paravas so firmly that the Rājas no longer dared interfere with them, or attempt to impede or abridge their prerogative; on the contrary they were compelled to admit of separate laws for the Paravas from those which bound their own subjects. The Portuguese kept for themselves the command at sea, the pearl fisheries, the sovereignty over the Paravas, their villages and harbours, whilst the Naick of Madura, who was a subject of the King of the Carnatic, made himself master at this time of the lands about Madura, and in a short time afterwards of all the lower countries from Cape Comoryn to Tanjore, expelling and rooting out all the princes and land proprietors, who were living and reigning there; but, on obtaining the sovereignty of all these countries, he wished to subject the Paravas to his authority, in which attempt he was opposed by the Portuguese, who often, not being powerful enough effectually to resist, left the land with the priests and Paravas, and went to the islands of Manaar and Jaffnapatam, from whence they sent coasting vessels along the Madura shores, and caused so much disquiet that the revenue was ruined, trade circumscribed, and almost annihilated, for which reasons the Naick himself was obliged to solicit the Portuguese to come back again. The Political Government of India, perceiving the great benefit of the pearl fishery, appointed in the name of the King of Portugal military chiefs and captains to superintend it, leaving the churches and their administration to the priests. Those captains obtained from the fisheries each time a profit of 6,000 rix-dollars for the king, leaving the remainder of the income from them for the Paravas; but, seeing they could not retain their superiority in that manner over the people, which was becoming rich, luxurious, drunken, with prosperity, and with the help of the priests, who protected them, threatening the captains, which often occasioned great disorders, the latter determined to build a fort for the king at Tutucoryn, which was the chief place of all the villages; but the priests who feared by this to lose much of their consequence as well as of their revenue, insisted that, if such a measure was proceeded with, they would all be ruined, on which account they urged on the people to commit irregularities, and made the Paravas fear that the step was a preliminary one to the making all of them slaves; and they therefore raised such hindrances to the work that it never could be completed.