Paravas
Encyclopedia
Parava or Paravar also known as Parathavar (Paradavar) (பரதவர்), Bharathar (பரதர்), Bharathakula Pandyar (பரதகுல பாண்டியர்) or Bharathakula Kshathriyar (பரதகுல சத்ரியர்) is a caste in southern India
that in ancient times were subordinate Tamil chiefs and coastal fishermen, as well as, according at least to one modern writer, "ferocious soldiers". There are many theories as to their origins but they have since ancient times been recorded in the area of Tamil Nadu
and Kerala
. As with the Chera Dynasty
and the related Naka Dynasty, they trace their mythical origins to the Lunar Dynasty (Chandravanshi).
In modern India, Paravars are concentrated along the coastal belt extending around the Gulf of Mannar
, from Kilakarai
through to Kanyakumari
(Cape Comorin) and then on almost as far as Trivandrum. and their 60 or so villages are solely occupied by caste members and are interspersed with villages occupied by Muslim
s. There are also Paravar settlements on the outskirts of inland Nadar
villages, and there has been a significant number among the population of Tuticorin, a major town, since the 1580s.
of 1837. These included them being:
Other theorised origins include that they are descendants of:
s. As an example, Iyengar refers to the Tamil belief that three supposedly royal lines - the Cholas, Cheras
and Pandyas - ruled the area from the very beginning of the world and were descended from the Sun and the Moon when, in fact, academic studies prove that these were merely tribal names. Iyengar also casts doubt on the validity of detail contained in the Sangam literature
, pointing out that the bards would pander to the egos of their clients and that those clients were invariably, and inevitably, the wealthy rulers of the areas. The historical reliability is in doubt. Works in the Sangam literature which refer to the lives of the Paravars include Ettuthokai
, Pathupattu, Ahananuru, Maduraikkanci and Pattinappaalai
.
From the earliest recorded times the Paravars were fishers and seamen, specialising in seasonal harvesting of pearl oyster
s and chank, both of which were significant exports from southern India by the first century AD. (The pearl diving season usually lasted 20 – 30 days, around March). The community was also involved in sea salt
production, which was a relatively easy task on the Indian coast as the hot temperatures evaporated the water without the need for firewood. Diving for pearls and chank, as well as fishing, were thought of as being "low and ritually polluting occupations."
The Pandyan emperors allowed the Paravars to manage and operate the pearl fisheries because of their already ancient skills in that activity, which required specialist seamanship abilities, knowledge of how to tend the oysterbeds and also knowledge of their location. The emperors exempted the Paravars from taxation and allowed them to govern themselves in return for being paid tribute
from the produce extracted. Cave engravings from the third century BC, found in 2003, reinforce this view as they suggest that the Paravars were the chieftans of the coastal region during this period, ruling as subordinates of the Pandyas. Previously, in the 1920s, Iyengar had noted that the caste name was used in ancient scripts to mean both boatmen and chiefs of the Madurai
country. A report written in 1669 made it clear that in so far as they were kings, they were only kings of their own people and not of any wider constituency; furthermore, that these "kings" were referred to as such only by the Paravars.
The 1901 Madras Census noted that the Tamil-speaking Paravars "claim" to be kshatriyas (warriors) serving under the Pandyan kings, the word used suggesting some official doubt regarding the issue.
Little is known about the Paravas during the middle ages
. Indeed, Donkin has argued that with one exception, "there are no native literary works with a developed sense of chronology, or indeed much sense of place, before the thirteenth century", and that any historical observations have to be made using Arab, European and Chinese accounts. Southern India came under the control of the Cholas in the ninth century but reverted to Pandyan control around the mid-1200s following a series of battles. They maintained control, despite several challenges, until the 16th century.
The Arab Muslim invasion began in 712 at the Sindh Valley
and by around 1300 they had taken over the entire of northern India. However, even prior to the invasion there were Arabs in southern areas such as Calicut
, Quilon
and Malabar
, chiefly traders interested in the spices, pearls, precious stones and cottons which were available there. Another advantage of the location was that it was on a major sea trade route running through south-east Asia
and on to China
. Some of these Arabs were also pearl divers, having gained their experience in the waters of the Persian Gulf
.
The descendants of these Muslim people became known as the Lebbais and their main settlement was the town of Kayal, a presence which was noted by Vasco da Gama
and Duarte Barbosa
by the early sixteenth century. There is some ambiguity regarding this town: there was a harbour on the Tamraparani River
in Pandyan times which was known as Korkai
and when the river at this point became too silted to use (it is situated approximately 8 km inland nowadays), it was replaced by a port called Kayal, thought to be situated variously either at the mouth of the river or at the village of Palayakayal which was 4 km downstream of Korkai but is itself nowadays about 3 km inland. Marco Polo
described Kayal as a bustling port and the centre of the pearl trade in 1292 but by the mid-16th century this too had probably ceased to operate and was replaced by another port, Punnaikayal
(new Kayal) under the influence of the Portuguese
colonists. Punnaikayal was again at the mouth of the river, which as part of an estuary was under constant change, around 4 km from Palayakayal. It is difficult to determine with any consistency which of these locations is being referred to at various times by various authors but what does appear to be a common factor is that this was until modern times a major port for the pearl trade. Kayal is the Tamil word for a backwater.
The 1901 Madras Census noted three groups who called themselves Paravars. It speculated that their common root were the mostly Christian Tamil-speaking Paravars, The other groups were the Canarese-speaking Paravars, who were umbrella
makers and devil-dancers; and the Malayalam-speaking Paravars, who were lime burners, gymnasts, midwives and shell collectors. It has been further speculated that the splitting of the latter two groups from the first may have been as a consequence of a desire to move away from the ancient tribal area when faced with the arrival of Muslims.
There are differences of opinion regarding events up to the early 1500s. Donkin and Ray believe that the Muslims gained influence over the Paravars to the point that the latter became at best hired labour and at worst enslaved, and Neill has claimed that there was a belief among Paravars that the Muslims sought completely to exterminate them following various squabbles. However, Mannar and Chandrasekaran have said that up to the 16th century the Paravars had held almost a monopoly of the rights to exploit the pearl fisheries, having negotiated with successive kings to achieve this.
By this time, Maynard has claimed, the south Indian coastal areas around Kanyakumari were "the greatest pearl fishery in the world", and that the Hindu people who fished for oysters there " ... were known as the Paravas, a caste sufficiently low, although not of the very lowest." He says that the Hindus were essentially peaceful in nature and temperamentally unsuited to counter physical threat, although Frykenberg has described them as a "... proud and venturesome seafaring folk engaged in fishing, pearl diving, trading, and piracy." Hastings has pointed out that the piracy (and some smuggling) was only an occasional activity and that their more normal occupations demanded courage, strength and stamina, which made them "hardened adventurers".
From 1527 the Paravars were being threatened by Arab fleets offshore, headed by the Muslim-supporting Zamorin of Calicut, and also by an onshore campaign of the Rajah of Madura
to wrest control of Tirunelveli
and the Fishery Coast from the hands of the Rajah of Travancore
. This continuing situation, and the desire to be relieved of the rivalry from Lebbai divers, caused the Paravars to seek the protection of Portuguese explorers
who had moved into the area. A delegation led by Vikirama Aditha Pandya visited Goa
to seek talks to this end in 1532.There are discrepancies regarding the identity of Vikirama Aditha Pandya. Bayly believes him "apparently" to have been a headman or senior caste elder (p. 326), as does Kaufmann (p. 208); however, Neill is very specific in saying that he was "a Cheti of the merchant caste resident in Calicut, who in 1513 had been sent to Portugal as an emissary of the zamorin, and while there had been baptised and taken a Portuguese name [John da Cruz]." Neill is also of the opinion that the agreement with the Portuguese arose in 1535 rather than 1532. (p. 142) Hastings broadly agrees with Neill regarding the identity (p. 167). The protection was granted on the condition that the leaders were immediately baptised
as Christians
and that they would encourage their people also to convert to Christianity; the Portuguese would also gain a strategic foothold and control of the pearl fisheries. The deal was agreed and some months later 20,000 Paravars were baptised en masse, and became subjects of Portugal, during the visit of Peter Gonsalves, Vicar
of Cochin. By the end of 1537 the entire community had declared itself to be Christian, according to Hastings, and the Portuguese proceeded to destroy the Arab fleet when they met fortuitously at Vedalai
on 27 June 1538. From that point the Paravar people as a whole enjoyed renewed prosperity. Their declaration of acceptance of the Christian faith did not prevent them from continuing to worship in the manner which they had done previously because there were no translators to spread the Christian message and also because the conversion was seen by the Paravar people as being merely a convenient arrangement to obtain protection, not a statement of belief. Bayly describes the situation as being "... really a declaration of tactical alliance rather than religious conversions as the term is usually understood."
Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, had been working in Goa prior to his journey to Kanyakumari, where he arrived in October 1542. He took with him some interpreters with the intention of spreading the Gospel
and bringing about further religious conversions among what Frykenberg has called "the lowest, most polluting segments of Tamil society". Maynard claims that a further 10,000 Paravars were baptised during the first month of his mission, and 30,000 in total by its end; and that "His conversion of the Paravas, as is pointed out by Père Lhande, is the only instance of an entire caste being brought into the Church." More modest figures have been proposed, such as 15,000 people including re-baptisms. Xavier also brought about the conversion of members of other castes living in the area, for example Mukkuvar
s and Paraiyar
s. His methods of conversion were sometimes forceful; for example, it is recorded that he burned down a hut which had been used to house non-Christian religious symbols.
Xavier appointed catechists in the Paravar villages up and down the 100 miles of coastline in order to spread and reinforce his teachings, the method for much of which was to recite repetitively (and in poorly translated Tamil) rhythmic phrases of the Creed
, Pater Noster
and other standard Catholic
teachings regardless of whether the content was actually understood. These appointments necessitated that he obtained funds with which to pay them, the primary source being money granted to him by the Queen of Portugal.
Violence been not been completely removed from Paravar society, despite the Portuguese intervention. There were a series of bloody skirmishes involving the Badage (Vadakar, Vadagar) tribe, raiding from the neighbouring area of Madura in the ongoing struggle between the rajahs. Some of the Portuguese protectors themselves were involved in duplicitous dealings with such tribes, or simply took advantage of the mayhem to make personal gains. There were also instances of the protectors raping Paravar women. Xavier intervened on several occasions in an attempt to right these wrongs and in March 1544 wrote a letter stating that the behaviour of the Portuguese was in fact the biggest hurdle he faced in promoting the Christian message. In 1545 he wrote that "I have never ceased wondering at the number of new inflexions they have added to the conjugation of the verb to rob." He left India some time in the late 1540s or early 1550s but the precise year is disputed. There is at least one source who believes that he briefly visited again in 1548, when he was paraded through Tuticorin by the Paravars. It has been suggested that his status among the Paravars was one of "cult worship". There is a shrine
to him, in a cave, which is still worshipped today and which is believed by the Paravars to have been his principal residence during his time in the area.
Vikirama Aditha Pandya was rewarded by the Portuguese for his actions of 1532, when as part of the arrangement for protection he had offered to manage the pearl diving on behalf of the Portuguese. He became known as Senhor dos Senhores ("first among notables") Dom Joao da Cruz (but see Note 1) and was recognised as headman and official intermediary by the Portuguese from 1543 until 1553. (1543 was the year that the Portuguese first settled in Tuticorin, and the point from which that port began to expand until it eventually became the hub of the pearl fishery). His title of jati thalavan (head of the caste) was passed down through 21 other members of his family. Caste elders in the various villages were also among the early beneficiaries of Portuguese recognition, perhaps because they were the first to be converted. The consequence was that a formal system of hierarchical control, based on religious authority and economic standing and extending from the jati thalavan through to the elders and then to the villagers, became established in the eyes of Paravars and non-Paravars alike. It remained in existence until the 1920s, with the elders extracting payments from villagers which were then passed on to the jati thalavan, and the latter in return managing affairs (including the fishery operations) and adjudicating in both internal and external disputes involving the community. Kaufmann has commented that these "highly organised caste institutions" including hereditary headmen and councils of elders holding sway, was a rare thing in the agrarian economy of southern India and both lasted longer and was more elaborate than most equivalent Hindu systems of the area. Another writer has said that " ... by the beginning of the eighteenth century the Tamil Paravas had emerged as one of south India's most highly organised specialist caste groups", and adds that the hierarchical system had its origins in times prior to the Portuguese intervention.
Their conversion may have enabled them to participate more significantly in religious ceremonies than was the case when they were Hindus, this being because their "unclean" occupations (that is, the taking of life) would have prevented any central contribution in Hindu religious ritual. This was certainly the outcome following Pope Clement XIV's
dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1773, which resulted in a dearth of Catholic misisonaries and priests in the area, enabling the jati thalavan and his fellow caste notables to assume the role of solemniser for rituals such as marriage.
Paravar Christianity, with its own identity based on a mixture of Christian religious belief and Hindu caste culture, remains a defining part of the Paravar life today, the early work of missionaries and in the 1540s having being reinforced by others who succeeded them and by the jati thalavan, the latter also being known as the "little king". Kaufmann explains this Christianity as being "in effect a 'caste lifestyle' for the Paravas", whilst Zupanov gives an example of how the missionaries modified Catholic teaching to suit the Paravars by citing the example of Henrique Henriques
, who told them that "in the beginning there were no Muslims, only Jews and Tamils".
Control of the fisheries passed from the Portuguese to the Dutch
from 1658, along with sovereignty over the Paravars. The new rulers, who were Protestant, tried unsuccessfully to convert the Paravars to their own faith. One example of this attempt was the banning of the feast of Our Lady of Snows
as a consequence of the Dutch taking over all the Catholic churches, many of which were turned into warehouses. This event had originated when a wood statuette of the Virgin Mary was moved by the Portuguese to the church of Our Lady of Mercy at Tuticorin in 1582, its installation being celebrated with a nine day feast which was subsequently repeated annually and much enjoyed by the Paravars. The feast halted with the Dutch takeover but was reinstated from 1709, and three years later permission was granted for the building of a new church. It was the right of the jati thalavan always to make the first tug of the rope which was attached to a chariot containing the statuette and which marked the start of the festival. The veneration of the statuette has been called a "cult" and continues into modern times, although few outside the caste have such regard for it.
During the period of Catholic repression the Dutch East India Company
also expelled all Catholic priests and outlawed Catholic baptisms and other rituals. Indeed, there are no surviving records to suggest that there was any evangelism at all, although they did build Tuticorin's first Protestant church in 1750.
During their period of control the Dutch also established a cloth factory in Tuticorin and this was a much appreciated venture - at some point the Paravars had also become traders in cloth.
took over control in 1796, after a period of gradual usurpation of Dutch authority along the coast and elsewhere by the East India Company
. They had seized Tuticorin in 1785. Both sides had attempted to influence the Paravars, seeking to have their support in order to exploit the riches of the fishery waters. The new government continued to recognise the Paravar's hierarchical social structure, as the Dutch and Portuguese had done before them. However, until 1813 the Company did not officially allow Christian missionaries to operate in the areas under its control, bowing only then due to pressure from religious organisations in Britain. The Company was suspicious of any potential political undertones spread by the missionaries and was eager to keep trade running smoothly by operating a policy of non-interventionist conservatism in matters religious and cultural.
Bayly has examined why it was that some among the low-ranking Paravars were able to rise to work in occupations that were both more prestigious and more financially rewarding than had been the case before the conversion to Christianity, She points out that the Paravars held much the same rank as the Mukkavars, who were also a maritime caste of the area and were converted but did not demonstrate the same subsequent socio-economic mobility. (It has, however, been argued that the Mukkavars were "a sub-class of the Parava[r] community" and formed the largest group of those converted to Christianity during Xavier's time). Robinson has said
When the Jesuit missionaries returned in the 1830s, following the revival of their Society, they were shocked at the lapse in formal religious observance and in general Christian morality, as well as the opulent lifestyle being led by the Paravar elite which contrasted with the dilapidated state of the churches. Around that time the elite, along with some other groups such as Nadar traders, were making significant amounts of money from a surge in export demand for processed cotton, using their existing wealth from the pearl fisheries as a means to expand their interests into this booming sector. By 1845 Tuticorin was the location of the main cotton export activities in southern India and by the end of the century it was the fifth largest port in the entire of India.
The Jesuits decided in 1841 to attempt to re-assert their authority over the elite by supporting the aspirations of a rising group of lesser Paravars who had also managed to gain from the boom and had hopes of validating their success with an appropriate rank in the hierarchy. These people were traders, often spending long periods of time away from home in such places as Goa and Sri Lanka. Even lower down the ranks, the rise in ship and cargo movements, the continued development of Tuticorin harbour and town, and similar consequences of the boom (including the requirement for food by those who had moved away from working directly in fishing or on the land) was providing increasingly profitable work. The Paravar elite continued their traditional role, organising this labour as they had done for the pearl fisheries. They also absorbed into their ranks those members of the caste who had profited from independent trading, this being achieved by requiring the newcomers to pay a fee and swear allegiance to the jati thalivan. However, there were people who had been cast aside from the elite as a consequence of falling out with the jati, and others who wanted recognition more quickly than the system allowed. These disaffected people were the target of the Jesuit actions, which consisted primarily of providing them with status symbols such as the offer of additional Te Deum
s and bells at marriage ceremonies. The end result of this attempt to foment a new hierarchy, however, was a riot and a successful move by the jati to replace the Jesuits with Goan Padroado
s as ministers to his people and officiators at the church of Our Lady of Snows. The Jesuits continued trying to split the caste for a further thirty years but rarely had more than temporary successes: the ranks of the disaffected were swollen by new arrivals but also diminished by those who left as a consequence of having obtained satisfaction from the elite.
The Jesuits had gone so far as to establish an alternative cathedral, the Sacred Heart, in the hope of drawing worshippers from Our Lady of Snows. That, too, failed in its purpose. There were also several instances where the disputes - often relating to rights in regard to religious buildings and their precincts - were taken through the court system, and also more occasions when riots between the factions occurred.
The death of the jati thalavan in 1889 without a male heir gave rise to a power vacuum and so presented a new opportunity for the Jesuits. Combined with this was another boom in maritime trading, this time involving the plantations of Ceylon, which served to swell the ranks of those aspiring for recognition as members of the elite. The Jesuits employed various measures intended to drive a wedge between the two groups and to limit the subservience displayed towards the jati and other senior caste members which, the Jesuits believed, infringed on the true worship of God because offerings of money and goods were made to those people as part of Paravan church rituals. They went so far as to attempt to install an alternative jati and the battle for control continued for several years.
The Jesuits were not helped in their aim by the British government, who in 1891 renegotiated the arrangements for sharing the fishery catches with the new, non-Jesuit appointed jati thalavan. This deal, in which it was agreed that the jati should receive the output of one boat for that of every thirty which went to the government, once again confirmed the support of the ruling power for the caste hierarchy. The new jati was himself controversial among the Paravars: his appointment to the role, being the son of the previous headman's daughter, was thought by some to be invalid because the succession had passed through the female line.
In the late nineteenth century the Paravar elite tried to reconcile with the Muslim seafarers in their area, seeking to claim kinship. This went as far as the then jati thalivan declaring that the elite among these Marakkar
Muslims, from towns such as Kilakarai, were in fact related to him by blood as they shared common antecedents. There was a tactical purpose to these decisions as by these actions he wanted to assert that he had authority over them. Furthermore, it was it the economic interests of the Paravars to foster these relationships because under British rule it was often the Marakkar who were granted the licences to operate the fisheries. Simultaneously, the Paravars were attempting to dissociate themselves from other Christian castes, whom they thought to be of a lower standing than themselves, such as the Nadars. The Nadars had been enthusiastic in their conversion to Christianity but did so much later than the Paravars, with surges of conversion - both to Catholicism and Protestantism - taking place in 1802-1803, the 1840s and the late 1870s/early 1880s. Dyron Daughrity has said that the conversions were "largely because of the increase in social status that could be effected" but adds that
However, the combination of Jesuit pressure and then also that of the Goan Padroados, who came to agree that the ritual role of the jati was detrimental to belief, caused the gradual erosion of the jati's powers of patronage and organisation. This situation was assisted by the growing number of people aspiring to be members of the elite and those who disputed the validity of the succession as a consequence of the female lineage. The ceremonial role of the jati in religious observance and ceremony was gradually reduced, including the removal of status symbols such as the special seat that he occupied for Mass
, and with these actions went much of his influence over the caste. By 1900 there were strikes taking place among the pearl and chank divers, often for frivolous reasons; the jati was unable to impose the discipline upon them which once had been a primary role.
As the caste hierarchy disintegrated, becoming a range of groups each seeking to assert their position, the role of the jati thalavan became more and more impossible and was eventually abandoned, the last occupant of the post having been installed in 1926. The introduction of new technologies in the post-World War II
era significantly affected the entire notion of an elite, as developments such as nylon fishing nets, refrigeration and motorisation made fishing more lucrative as an occupation in its own right and removed the economic differences between those who laboured and those who either traded or lived off the organisation of labour. There is still a ritual element today surrounding certain events at Our Lady of Snows but the caste system which existed for centuries has gone.
In 2009 the government of Tamil Nadu issued an order designating Christian Paravars within its jurisdiction as being of the Most Backward Classes (MBC), a designation regarding their socio-economic status which entitles them to various assistance measures, primarily in the form of positive discrimination, if they should require it. Prior to that decision, some Paravars in the jurisdiction had been in the Scheduled caste group, although others were already MBC. These designations are flexible and subject to change at various times, according to determined need.
It is known that during the visit of Francis Xavier the Paravars were using two different types of boat for net fishing, which he called the vallam and the toni. The latter was also used for trips to other coastal settlements and for trading journeys as far away as the Maldives
. They were both large, open vessels with masts as well as oars; the sails were made with cotton, stiffened by boiling with roots and cow dung, and the fishing nets were made from coconut
fibre. However, Iyengar believes that the toni was a hide-covered wicker basket similar to a coracle
.
There is uncertainty regarding whether or not the present boats called vallam are similar to the ones described 500 years ago. Hornell's report of 1920 described the single-masted vallam in use around that time at being about 9 metres (29.5 ft) long and with a cargo capacity of around 2 tons. In 1914 he had described a larger three-masted boat, called the dhoni, which was used for pearl fishing and ferrying between anchored ships and Tuticorin harbour, as well as coastal journeys. The dhoni may owe its origin to Arab designs but could equally be indigenous. Simon Casie Chitty also referred to the dhoni in 1837.
The Paravars also used boats similar to catamaran
s and, indeed, that word comes from the Tamil katturmaran (tied tree). It would seem that the design was developed independently of those used in Polynesia
. An 1895 traveller describes them as a hollowed-out tree trunk up to 20 feet (6.1 m) long which is connected to a smaller trunk acting as an outrigger
using lashes and two arched lengths of bamboo
. The voyager and explorer William Dampier
had described seeing them in 1699.
Chitty grouped the Paravar occupations in 1837 into thirteen categories, these being:
society until the arrival of the Portuguese, marrying only within their own caste and so keeping the tribal ties strong. Subsequently they became exogamous
and from this came the use of names based on Portuguese origin. Family names such as Fernando, Costa, da Cruz and Roche are a direct consequence of these marriages, and familiar names, such as Susai (a Tamil translation of Joseph), reflect both the marriages and the general Portuguese influence. Robinson offers a different thesis, claiming that they remained endogamous even after conversion, that these family ties strengthened their ability to ascend socially and that the use of Christian family names was in fact a privilege granted to them by the Portuguese and deemed to be a sign of their superiority over other castes such as the Mukkavars.
There are four family names of non-Christian origin still in common use, these being Kalingarayan, Villavarayan, Poobalarayan and Rayan. These names are thought possibly to have their origin in arayan, which was used by Tamil fishing groups as a caste title. Arayan is claimed by some modern descendants of the Paravars to be itself derived from rayya (rajah, king).
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
that in ancient times were subordinate Tamil chiefs and coastal fishermen, as well as, according at least to one modern writer, "ferocious soldiers". There are many theories as to their origins but they have since ancient times been recorded in the area of Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
and Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
. As with the Chera Dynasty
Chera dynasty
Chera Dynasty in South India is one of the most ancient ruling dynasties in India. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas, they formed the three principle warring Iron Age Tamil kingdoms in southern India...
and the related Naka Dynasty, they trace their mythical origins to the Lunar Dynasty (Chandravanshi).
In modern India, Paravars are concentrated along the coastal belt extending around the Gulf of Mannar
Gulf of Mannar
The Gulf of Mannar is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean. It lies between the southeastern tip of India and the west coast of Sri Lanka. A chain of low islands and reefs known as Adam's Bridge, also called Ramsethu, which includes Mannar Island, separates the...
, from Kilakarai
Kilakarai
-About:Kilakarai, Kilakkarai or Keelakarai is a municipality in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.Kilakarai is an ancient coastal town and a port, located in the southern Tamil Nadu. It was a flourishing sea port and a gateway to places as far as Madurai till the early 20th...
through to Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari
Kanyakumari is a town in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. It is also sometimes referred to as Cape Comorin. Located at the southernmost tip of the Indian Peninsula, it is the geographical end of the Indian mainland. The district in Tamil Nadu where the town is located is called Kanyakumari...
(Cape Comorin) and then on almost as far as Trivandrum. and their 60 or so villages are solely occupied by caste members and are interspersed with villages occupied by Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s. There are also Paravar settlements on the outskirts of inland Nadar
Nadar (caste)
Nadar is one of the prominent castes of Tamil Nadu, South India. The term, Nadar, in Tamil literally means one who rules the land. The Nadars are also commonly called as Annachi . Nadars are an entrepreneurial south Indian caste and constitute 12% of Tamil Nadu's population...
villages, and there has been a significant number among the population of Tuticorin, a major town, since the 1580s.
Origins
A number of theories have been proposed regarding the origins of the Paravas. Writing in 1909, Thurston named examples given by Simon Casie Chitty in volume 4 of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic SocietyJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society
The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society is an academic journal which publishes articles on the history, archaeology, literature, language, religion and art of South Asia, the Middle East , Central Asia, East Asia and South-East Asia...
of 1837. These included them being:
- related to the Parvaims, people who traded gold with IsraelIsraelThe State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
during the SolomonSolomonSolomon , according to the Book of Kings and the Book of Chronicles, a King of Israel and according to the Talmud one of the 48 prophets, is identified as the son of David, also called Jedidiah in 2 Samuel 12:25, and is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, and the final king before...
ic era. Thurston attributes this theory as arising from the Tamil language Historia Ecclesiastica published in 1735 and discounts it as having no "solid foundation". He does not make more clear as to which of the many worksHistoria EcclesiasticaHistoria Ecclesiastica is the name of many different works, documenting the history of Christianity.These include books by:*Alexander Natalis*Bartholomew of Lucca, Historia Ecclesiastica Nova...
titled as such he is referring. - from the country of Oudh, near to the river of YamunaYamunaThe Yamuna is the largest tributary river of the Ganges in northern India...
. This is explained, but not elaborated upon, by Thurston as being the "general belief" of the Paravars. - descendants of a relationship between a BrahmanBrahmanIn Hinduism, Brahman is the one supreme, universal Spirit that is the origin and support of the phenomenal universe. Brahman is sometimes referred to as the Absolute or Godhead which is the Divine Ground of all being...
and a SudraShudraShudra is the fourth Varna, as prescribed in the Purusha Sukta of the Rig veda, which constitutes society into four varnas or Chaturvarna. The other three varnas are Brahmans - priests, Kshatriya - those with governing functions, Vaishya - agriculturalists, cattle rearers and traders...
woman, as described in some of the TantrasTantrasTantras refers to numerous and varied scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Although Buddhist and Hindu Tantra have many similarities from the outside, they do have some clear distinctions. The rest of this article deals with Hindu...
. - illegitimate descendants of a relationship between a Kurava and a woman from the Chetty tribe, as described in the Jatibedi Null.
- descendants of VarunaVarunaIn Vedic religion, Varuna is a god of the sky, of water and of the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law and of the underworld...
, the god of the sea, which is dismissed by Thurston as a myth.
Other theorised origins include that they are descendants of:
- the DravidianDravidian peoplesDravidian peoples is a term used to refer to the diverse groups of people who natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. Populations of speakers of around 220 million are found mostly in Southern India. Other Dravidian people are found in parts of central India, Sri Lanka,...
origins, ancient inhabitants of the coastal areas. - the Naga fishermen who settled in the coastal areas prior to its invasion by the Tamils. This proposition, quoted by Thurston, was advanced by James HornellJames HornellJames Hornell was an English zoologist and seafaring ethnographer. He was a cousin of Edward Atkinson Hornel, a Scottish painter.-Career:...
in his 1905 work, Report on the Indian pearl fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar. - the Indus ValleyIndus Valley CivilizationThe Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization that was located in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, consisting of what is now mainly modern-day Pakistan and northwest India...
people.
Pandyan dynasty
Commentators have explained that much of the early history of southern India cannot be substantiated as it is derived from myth, often passed on by word-of-mouth by ancient bardBard
In medieval Gaelic and British culture a bard was a professional poet, employed by a patron, such as a monarch or nobleman, to commemorate the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.Originally a specific class of poet, contrasting with another class known as fili in Ireland...
s. As an example, Iyengar refers to the Tamil belief that three supposedly royal lines - the Cholas, Cheras
Chera dynasty
Chera Dynasty in South India is one of the most ancient ruling dynasties in India. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas, they formed the three principle warring Iron Age Tamil kingdoms in southern India...
and Pandyas - ruled the area from the very beginning of the world and were descended from the Sun and the Moon when, in fact, academic studies prove that these were merely tribal names. Iyengar also casts doubt on the validity of detail contained in the Sangam literature
Sangam literature
Sangam literature refers to a body of classical Tamil literature created between the years c. 600 BCE to 300 CE. This collection contains 2381 poems composed by 473 poets, some 102 of whom remain anonymous The period during which these poems were composed is commonly referred to as the Sangam...
, pointing out that the bards would pander to the egos of their clients and that those clients were invariably, and inevitably, the wealthy rulers of the areas. The historical reliability is in doubt. Works in the Sangam literature which refer to the lives of the Paravars include Ettuthokai
Ettuthokai
Ettuthokai– 'The Eight Anthologies' - Classical Tamil poetic work - form part of the Pathinenmaelkanakku anthology series of the Sangam Literature...
, Pathupattu, Ahananuru, Maduraikkanci and Pattinappaalai
Pattinappaalai
Paṭṭiṉappālai, is a Tamil poetic work in the Pathinenmaelkanakku anthology of Tamil literature, belonging to the Sangam period corresponding to between 100 BCE – 100 CE. Pattinappaalai is part of the Pattupattu collection, which is the oldest available collection of long poems in Tamil literature....
.
From the earliest recorded times the Paravars were fishers and seamen, specialising in seasonal harvesting of pearl oyster
Pearl oyster
Pearl oysters are saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs of the genus Pinctada in the family Pteriidae. They have a strong inner shell layer composed of nacre, also known as "mother of pearl"....
s and chank, both of which were significant exports from southern India by the first century AD. (The pearl diving season usually lasted 20 – 30 days, around March). The community was also involved in sea salt
Sea salt
Sea salt, salt obtained by the evaporation of seawater, is used in cooking and cosmetics. It is historically called bay salt or solar salt...
production, which was a relatively easy task on the Indian coast as the hot temperatures evaporated the water without the need for firewood. Diving for pearls and chank, as well as fishing, were thought of as being "low and ritually polluting occupations."
The Pandyan emperors allowed the Paravars to manage and operate the pearl fisheries because of their already ancient skills in that activity, which required specialist seamanship abilities, knowledge of how to tend the oysterbeds and also knowledge of their location. The emperors exempted the Paravars from taxation and allowed them to govern themselves in return for being paid tribute
Tribute
A tribute is wealth, often in kind, that one party gives to another as a sign of respect or, as was often the case in historical contexts, of submission or allegiance. Various ancient states, which could be called suzerains, exacted tribute from areas they had conquered or threatened to conquer...
from the produce extracted. Cave engravings from the third century BC, found in 2003, reinforce this view as they suggest that the Paravars were the chieftans of the coastal region during this period, ruling as subordinates of the Pandyas. Previously, in the 1920s, Iyengar had noted that the caste name was used in ancient scripts to mean both boatmen and chiefs of the Madurai
Madurai
Madurai is the third largest city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It served as the capital city of the Pandyan Kingdom. It is the administrative headquarters of Madurai District and is famous for its temples built by Pandyan and...
country. A report written in 1669 made it clear that in so far as they were kings, they were only kings of their own people and not of any wider constituency; furthermore, that these "kings" were referred to as such only by the Paravars.
The 1901 Madras Census noted that the Tamil-speaking Paravars "claim" to be kshatriyas (warriors) serving under the Pandyan kings, the word used suggesting some official doubt regarding the issue.
Little is known about the Paravas during the middle ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. Indeed, Donkin has argued that with one exception, "there are no native literary works with a developed sense of chronology, or indeed much sense of place, before the thirteenth century", and that any historical observations have to be made using Arab, European and Chinese accounts. Southern India came under the control of the Cholas in the ninth century but reverted to Pandyan control around the mid-1200s following a series of battles. They maintained control, despite several challenges, until the 16th century.
Influx of Arabs
Regardless of any doubt regarding their claims to be warriors under the liege of Pandyan emperors, the Paravars certainly did have armies at a later time, these being created to protect the fisheries and their people from attack.The Arab Muslim invasion began in 712 at the Sindh Valley
Sindh valley
The Sindh Valley, is a valley within a mountain range situated to the north of Srinagar, Kashmir. The valley begin from Gandarbal and ends near Baltal at the base of the Zojila Pass. Sindh Valley is the chief trade route between Kashmir and Central Asia....
and by around 1300 they had taken over the entire of northern India. However, even prior to the invasion there were Arabs in southern areas such as Calicut
History of Kozhikode
Kozhikode , also known as Calicut, is a city in the southern Indian state of Kerala. It is the third largest city in Kerala and the headquarters of Kozhikode district....
, Quilon
Quilon
Quilon may refer to,* Venad, a former state on Malabar Coast, India* Kollam , Kerala state, India* Kollam district, Kerala state...
and Malabar
Chera dynasty
Chera Dynasty in South India is one of the most ancient ruling dynasties in India. Together with the Cholas and the Pandyas, they formed the three principle warring Iron Age Tamil kingdoms in southern India...
, chiefly traders interested in the spices, pearls, precious stones and cottons which were available there. Another advantage of the location was that it was on a major sea trade route running through south-east Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and on to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Some of these Arabs were also pearl divers, having gained their experience in the waters of the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...
.
The descendants of these Muslim people became known as the Lebbais and their main settlement was the town of Kayal, a presence which was noted by Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama
Vasco da Gama, 1st Count of Vidigueira was a Portuguese explorer, one of the most successful in the Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India...
and Duarte Barbosa
Duarte Barbosa
Duarte Barbosa was a Portuguese writer and Portuguese India officer between 1500 and 1516–17, with the post of scrivener in Cannanore factory and sometimes interpreter of the local language...
by the early sixteenth century. There is some ambiguity regarding this town: there was a harbour on the Tamraparani River
Thamirabarani River
The Thamirabarani River originates from the famous Agastyarkoodam peak in the hills of the Western Ghats above Papanasam in the Ambasamudram taluk and flows through Tirunelveli & Tuticorin districts of the Tamil Nadu state of southern India...
in Pandyan times which was known as Korkai
Korkai
Korkai is a small village in the Srivaikuntam taluk of Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, India. It is situated about 3 km north of the Thamirabarani River and about 6 km from the shore of Bay of Bengal. Korkai was the capital, principal center of trade and important port of the Early Pandyan...
and when the river at this point became too silted to use (it is situated approximately 8 km inland nowadays), it was replaced by a port called Kayal, thought to be situated variously either at the mouth of the river or at the village of Palayakayal which was 4 km downstream of Korkai but is itself nowadays about 3 km inland. Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
described Kayal as a bustling port and the centre of the pearl trade in 1292 but by the mid-16th century this too had probably ceased to operate and was replaced by another port, Punnaikayal
Punnaikayal
Punnaikayal , anciently Punicale for the Portuguese, is a harbour city in Tamil Nadu, India.Punnaikayal seems to have been the main Portuguese possession on the southern Coast of India for a period of 50 years after their arrival from 1551, when they established 2 hospitals, a seminary, and the...
(new Kayal) under the influence of the Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
colonists. Punnaikayal was again at the mouth of the river, which as part of an estuary was under constant change, around 4 km from Palayakayal. It is difficult to determine with any consistency which of these locations is being referred to at various times by various authors but what does appear to be a common factor is that this was until modern times a major port for the pearl trade. Kayal is the Tamil word for a backwater.
The 1901 Madras Census noted three groups who called themselves Paravars. It speculated that their common root were the mostly Christian Tamil-speaking Paravars, The other groups were the Canarese-speaking Paravars, who were umbrella
Umbrella
An umbrella or parasol is a canopy designed to protect against rain or sunlight. The term parasol usually refers to an item designed to protect from the sun; umbrella refers to a device more suited to protect from rain...
makers and devil-dancers; and the Malayalam-speaking Paravars, who were lime burners, gymnasts, midwives and shell collectors. It has been further speculated that the splitting of the latter two groups from the first may have been as a consequence of a desire to move away from the ancient tribal area when faced with the arrival of Muslims.
Arrival of the Portuguese and Christianity
By this time, Maynard has claimed, the south Indian coastal areas around Kanyakumari were "the greatest pearl fishery in the world", and that the Hindu people who fished for oysters there " ... were known as the Paravas, a caste sufficiently low, although not of the very lowest." He says that the Hindus were essentially peaceful in nature and temperamentally unsuited to counter physical threat, although Frykenberg has described them as a "... proud and venturesome seafaring folk engaged in fishing, pearl diving, trading, and piracy." Hastings has pointed out that the piracy (and some smuggling) was only an occasional activity and that their more normal occupations demanded courage, strength and stamina, which made them "hardened adventurers".
From 1527 the Paravars were being threatened by Arab fleets offshore, headed by the Muslim-supporting Zamorin of Calicut, and also by an onshore campaign of the Rajah of Madura
Madura
Madura is an Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java. The island comprises an area of approximately 4,250 km². Madura is administered as part of the East Java province. It is separated from Java by the narrow Strait of Madura.-History:...
to wrest control of Tirunelveli
Tirunelveli
Tirunelveli , also known as Nellai , and historically as Tinnevelly, is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the headquarters of the Tirunelveli District and the sixth biggest city in Tamil Nadu...
and the Fishery Coast from the hands of the Rajah of Travancore
Travancore
Kingdom of Travancore was a former Hindu feudal kingdom and Indian Princely State with its capital at Padmanabhapuram or Trivandrum ruled by the Travancore Royal Family. The Kingdom of Travancore comprised most of modern day southern Kerala, Kanyakumari district, and the southernmost parts of...
. This continuing situation, and the desire to be relieved of the rivalry from Lebbai divers, caused the Paravars to seek the protection of Portuguese explorers
Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
who had moved into the area. A delegation led by Vikirama Aditha Pandya visited Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
to seek talks to this end in 1532.There are discrepancies regarding the identity of Vikirama Aditha Pandya. Bayly believes him "apparently" to have been a headman or senior caste elder (p. 326), as does Kaufmann (p. 208); however, Neill is very specific in saying that he was "a Cheti of the merchant caste resident in Calicut, who in 1513 had been sent to Portugal as an emissary of the zamorin, and while there had been baptised and taken a Portuguese name [John da Cruz]." Neill is also of the opinion that the agreement with the Portuguese arose in 1535 rather than 1532. (p. 142) Hastings broadly agrees with Neill regarding the identity (p. 167). The protection was granted on the condition that the leaders were immediately baptised
Baptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
as Christians
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and that they would encourage their people also to convert to Christianity; the Portuguese would also gain a strategic foothold and control of the pearl fisheries. The deal was agreed and some months later 20,000 Paravars were baptised en masse, and became subjects of Portugal, during the visit of Peter Gonsalves, Vicar
Vicar
In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...
of Cochin. By the end of 1537 the entire community had declared itself to be Christian, according to Hastings, and the Portuguese proceeded to destroy the Arab fleet when they met fortuitously at Vedalai
Vedalai
Vedalai is a village near Mandapam in the Ramanathapuram district, Tamil Nadu, India....
on 27 June 1538. From that point the Paravar people as a whole enjoyed renewed prosperity. Their declaration of acceptance of the Christian faith did not prevent them from continuing to worship in the manner which they had done previously because there were no translators to spread the Christian message and also because the conversion was seen by the Paravar people as being merely a convenient arrangement to obtain protection, not a statement of belief. Bayly describes the situation as being "... really a declaration of tactical alliance rather than religious conversions as the term is usually understood."
Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, had been working in Goa prior to his journey to Kanyakumari, where he arrived in October 1542. He took with him some interpreters with the intention of spreading the Gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
and bringing about further religious conversions among what Frykenberg has called "the lowest, most polluting segments of Tamil society". Maynard claims that a further 10,000 Paravars were baptised during the first month of his mission, and 30,000 in total by its end; and that "His conversion of the Paravas, as is pointed out by Père Lhande, is the only instance of an entire caste being brought into the Church." More modest figures have been proposed, such as 15,000 people including re-baptisms. Xavier also brought about the conversion of members of other castes living in the area, for example Mukkuvar
Mukkuvar
Mukkuvar also Mukkuva are a social group or caste primarily a fishing community, living in the coastal districts of Kerala, south Tamil Nadu in India and also in Sri Lanka. It is a community that has differing ethnic identities based on the state or country of domicile...
s and Paraiyar
Paraiyar
Paraiyar, Parayar, and Sambavar, anglicised by Europeans as Pariah are a social group found in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and in Sri Lanka . In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, though they have been enumerated under three different caste names, they have generally been referred to as...
s. His methods of conversion were sometimes forceful; for example, it is recorded that he burned down a hut which had been used to house non-Christian religious symbols.
Xavier appointed catechists in the Paravar villages up and down the 100 miles of coastline in order to spread and reinforce his teachings, the method for much of which was to recite repetitively (and in poorly translated Tamil) rhythmic phrases of the Creed
Creed
A creed is a statement of belief—usually a statement of faith that describes the beliefs shared by a religious community—and is often recited as part of a religious service. When the statement of faith is longer and polemical, as well as didactic, it is not called a creed but a Confession of faith...
, Pater Noster
Pater Noster
Pater Noster is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity.Pater Noster or Paternoster may also refer to:* Paternoster, a passenger elevator which consists of a chain of open compartments that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building* Paternoster, Western Cape, South Africa* Pierres...
and other standard Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
teachings regardless of whether the content was actually understood. These appointments necessitated that he obtained funds with which to pay them, the primary source being money granted to him by the Queen of Portugal.
Violence been not been completely removed from Paravar society, despite the Portuguese intervention. There were a series of bloody skirmishes involving the Badage (Vadakar, Vadagar) tribe, raiding from the neighbouring area of Madura in the ongoing struggle between the rajahs. Some of the Portuguese protectors themselves were involved in duplicitous dealings with such tribes, or simply took advantage of the mayhem to make personal gains. There were also instances of the protectors raping Paravar women. Xavier intervened on several occasions in an attempt to right these wrongs and in March 1544 wrote a letter stating that the behaviour of the Portuguese was in fact the biggest hurdle he faced in promoting the Christian message. In 1545 he wrote that "I have never ceased wondering at the number of new inflexions they have added to the conjugation of the verb to rob." He left India some time in the late 1540s or early 1550s but the precise year is disputed. There is at least one source who believes that he briefly visited again in 1548, when he was paraded through Tuticorin by the Paravars. It has been suggested that his status among the Paravars was one of "cult worship". There is a shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
to him, in a cave, which is still worshipped today and which is believed by the Paravars to have been his principal residence during his time in the area.
Vikirama Aditha Pandya was rewarded by the Portuguese for his actions of 1532, when as part of the arrangement for protection he had offered to manage the pearl diving on behalf of the Portuguese. He became known as Senhor dos Senhores ("first among notables") Dom Joao da Cruz (but see Note 1) and was recognised as headman and official intermediary by the Portuguese from 1543 until 1553. (1543 was the year that the Portuguese first settled in Tuticorin, and the point from which that port began to expand until it eventually became the hub of the pearl fishery). His title of jati thalavan (head of the caste) was passed down through 21 other members of his family. Caste elders in the various villages were also among the early beneficiaries of Portuguese recognition, perhaps because they were the first to be converted. The consequence was that a formal system of hierarchical control, based on religious authority and economic standing and extending from the jati thalavan through to the elders and then to the villagers, became established in the eyes of Paravars and non-Paravars alike. It remained in existence until the 1920s, with the elders extracting payments from villagers which were then passed on to the jati thalavan, and the latter in return managing affairs (including the fishery operations) and adjudicating in both internal and external disputes involving the community. Kaufmann has commented that these "highly organised caste institutions" including hereditary headmen and councils of elders holding sway, was a rare thing in the agrarian economy of southern India and both lasted longer and was more elaborate than most equivalent Hindu systems of the area. Another writer has said that " ... by the beginning of the eighteenth century the Tamil Paravas had emerged as one of south India's most highly organised specialist caste groups", and adds that the hierarchical system had its origins in times prior to the Portuguese intervention.
Their conversion may have enabled them to participate more significantly in religious ceremonies than was the case when they were Hindus, this being because their "unclean" occupations (that is, the taking of life) would have prevented any central contribution in Hindu religious ritual. This was certainly the outcome following Pope Clement XIV's
Pope Clement XIV
Pope Clement XIV , born Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, was Pope from 1769 to 1774. At the time of his election, he was the only Franciscan friar in the College of Cardinals.-Early life:...
dissolution of the Society of Jesus in 1773, which resulted in a dearth of Catholic misisonaries and priests in the area, enabling the jati thalavan and his fellow caste notables to assume the role of solemniser for rituals such as marriage.
Paravar Christianity, with its own identity based on a mixture of Christian religious belief and Hindu caste culture, remains a defining part of the Paravar life today, the early work of missionaries and in the 1540s having being reinforced by others who succeeded them and by the jati thalavan, the latter also being known as the "little king". Kaufmann explains this Christianity as being "in effect a 'caste lifestyle' for the Paravas", whilst Zupanov gives an example of how the missionaries modified Catholic teaching to suit the Paravars by citing the example of Henrique Henriques
Henrique Henriques
Henrique Henriques , was Portuguese Jesuit priest and missionary who spent most of his life and missionary activities in South India. After initial years in Goa he moved to Tamil Nadu where he mastered Tamil and wrote several books including a dictionary...
, who told them that "in the beginning there were no Muslims, only Jews and Tamils".
Dutch control
A report written in 1622 stated that the fisheries had been moribund for many years due to the poverty of the Paravars; it is uncertain as to what period this refers or the cause of the poverty. Xavier had recorded that the oyster beds seemed to have an uneven cyclical pattern, with a few good years of production alternating with a rather longer period of poor production. Similarly, around 1490 Ahmad ibn Mājid wrote that the fisheries "flourish in some years, but appear dead in others." One contemporary explanation for these changes was that the beds became covered by the shifting sea sands. A study of the period 1666-1916 showed that while the good harvests did tend to alternate between the Indian and the Sri Lankan sides of the Gulf, the latter side was more than twice as productive.Control of the fisheries passed from the Portuguese to the Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
from 1658, along with sovereignty over the Paravars. The new rulers, who were Protestant, tried unsuccessfully to convert the Paravars to their own faith. One example of this attempt was the banning of the feast of Our Lady of Snows
Our Lady of Snows Basilica
Our Lady of Snows Shrine Basilica is located at Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the Catholic pilgrimage centres in India dedicated to the Virgin Mary.-History:...
as a consequence of the Dutch taking over all the Catholic churches, many of which were turned into warehouses. This event had originated when a wood statuette of the Virgin Mary was moved by the Portuguese to the church of Our Lady of Mercy at Tuticorin in 1582, its installation being celebrated with a nine day feast which was subsequently repeated annually and much enjoyed by the Paravars. The feast halted with the Dutch takeover but was reinstated from 1709, and three years later permission was granted for the building of a new church. It was the right of the jati thalavan always to make the first tug of the rope which was attached to a chariot containing the statuette and which marked the start of the festival. The veneration of the statuette has been called a "cult" and continues into modern times, although few outside the caste have such regard for it.
During the period of Catholic repression the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
also expelled all Catholic priests and outlawed Catholic baptisms and other rituals. Indeed, there are no surviving records to suggest that there was any evangelism at all, although they did build Tuticorin's first Protestant church in 1750.
During their period of control the Dutch also established a cloth factory in Tuticorin and this was a much appreciated venture - at some point the Paravars had also become traders in cloth.
British control
The BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
took over control in 1796, after a period of gradual usurpation of Dutch authority along the coast and elsewhere by the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
. They had seized Tuticorin in 1785. Both sides had attempted to influence the Paravars, seeking to have their support in order to exploit the riches of the fishery waters. The new government continued to recognise the Paravar's hierarchical social structure, as the Dutch and Portuguese had done before them. However, until 1813 the Company did not officially allow Christian missionaries to operate in the areas under its control, bowing only then due to pressure from religious organisations in Britain. The Company was suspicious of any potential political undertones spread by the missionaries and was eager to keep trade running smoothly by operating a policy of non-interventionist conservatism in matters religious and cultural.
Bayly has examined why it was that some among the low-ranking Paravars were able to rise to work in occupations that were both more prestigious and more financially rewarding than had been the case before the conversion to Christianity, She points out that the Paravars held much the same rank as the Mukkavars, who were also a maritime caste of the area and were converted but did not demonstrate the same subsequent socio-economic mobility. (It has, however, been argued that the Mukkavars were "a sub-class of the Parava[r] community" and formed the largest group of those converted to Christianity during Xavier's time). Robinson has said
When the Jesuit missionaries returned in the 1830s, following the revival of their Society, they were shocked at the lapse in formal religious observance and in general Christian morality, as well as the opulent lifestyle being led by the Paravar elite which contrasted with the dilapidated state of the churches. Around that time the elite, along with some other groups such as Nadar traders, were making significant amounts of money from a surge in export demand for processed cotton, using their existing wealth from the pearl fisheries as a means to expand their interests into this booming sector. By 1845 Tuticorin was the location of the main cotton export activities in southern India and by the end of the century it was the fifth largest port in the entire of India.
The Jesuits decided in 1841 to attempt to re-assert their authority over the elite by supporting the aspirations of a rising group of lesser Paravars who had also managed to gain from the boom and had hopes of validating their success with an appropriate rank in the hierarchy. These people were traders, often spending long periods of time away from home in such places as Goa and Sri Lanka. Even lower down the ranks, the rise in ship and cargo movements, the continued development of Tuticorin harbour and town, and similar consequences of the boom (including the requirement for food by those who had moved away from working directly in fishing or on the land) was providing increasingly profitable work. The Paravar elite continued their traditional role, organising this labour as they had done for the pearl fisheries. They also absorbed into their ranks those members of the caste who had profited from independent trading, this being achieved by requiring the newcomers to pay a fee and swear allegiance to the jati thalivan. However, there were people who had been cast aside from the elite as a consequence of falling out with the jati, and others who wanted recognition more quickly than the system allowed. These disaffected people were the target of the Jesuit actions, which consisted primarily of providing them with status symbols such as the offer of additional Te Deum
Te Deum
The Te Deum is an early Christian hymn of praise. The title is taken from its opening Latin words, Te Deum laudamus, rendered literally as "Thee, O God, we praise"....
s and bells at marriage ceremonies. The end result of this attempt to foment a new hierarchy, however, was a riot and a successful move by the jati to replace the Jesuits with Goan Padroado
Padroado
The Padroado , was an arrangement between the Holy See and the kingdom of Portugal, affirmed by a series of treaties, by which the Vatican delegated to the kings of Spain and Portugal the administration of the local Churches...
s as ministers to his people and officiators at the church of Our Lady of Snows. The Jesuits continued trying to split the caste for a further thirty years but rarely had more than temporary successes: the ranks of the disaffected were swollen by new arrivals but also diminished by those who left as a consequence of having obtained satisfaction from the elite.
The Jesuits had gone so far as to establish an alternative cathedral, the Sacred Heart, in the hope of drawing worshippers from Our Lady of Snows. That, too, failed in its purpose. There were also several instances where the disputes - often relating to rights in regard to religious buildings and their precincts - were taken through the court system, and also more occasions when riots between the factions occurred.
The death of the jati thalavan in 1889 without a male heir gave rise to a power vacuum and so presented a new opportunity for the Jesuits. Combined with this was another boom in maritime trading, this time involving the plantations of Ceylon, which served to swell the ranks of those aspiring for recognition as members of the elite. The Jesuits employed various measures intended to drive a wedge between the two groups and to limit the subservience displayed towards the jati and other senior caste members which, the Jesuits believed, infringed on the true worship of God because offerings of money and goods were made to those people as part of Paravan church rituals. They went so far as to attempt to install an alternative jati and the battle for control continued for several years.
The Jesuits were not helped in their aim by the British government, who in 1891 renegotiated the arrangements for sharing the fishery catches with the new, non-Jesuit appointed jati thalavan. This deal, in which it was agreed that the jati should receive the output of one boat for that of every thirty which went to the government, once again confirmed the support of the ruling power for the caste hierarchy. The new jati was himself controversial among the Paravars: his appointment to the role, being the son of the previous headman's daughter, was thought by some to be invalid because the succession had passed through the female line.
In the late nineteenth century the Paravar elite tried to reconcile with the Muslim seafarers in their area, seeking to claim kinship. This went as far as the then jati thalivan declaring that the elite among these Marakkar
Marakkar
Marakkar or Maraikayar or Maraicayar or Maricar or Marican is a distinctive Tamil- and Malayalam-speaking Muslim people of the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu in India.Traditionally, the Maricars engaged in mercantile commerce...
Muslims, from towns such as Kilakarai, were in fact related to him by blood as they shared common antecedents. There was a tactical purpose to these decisions as by these actions he wanted to assert that he had authority over them. Furthermore, it was it the economic interests of the Paravars to foster these relationships because under British rule it was often the Marakkar who were granted the licences to operate the fisheries. Simultaneously, the Paravars were attempting to dissociate themselves from other Christian castes, whom they thought to be of a lower standing than themselves, such as the Nadars. The Nadars had been enthusiastic in their conversion to Christianity but did so much later than the Paravars, with surges of conversion - both to Catholicism and Protestantism - taking place in 1802-1803, the 1840s and the late 1870s/early 1880s. Dyron Daughrity has said that the conversions were "largely because of the increase in social status that could be effected" but adds that
However, the combination of Jesuit pressure and then also that of the Goan Padroados, who came to agree that the ritual role of the jati was detrimental to belief, caused the gradual erosion of the jati's powers of patronage and organisation. This situation was assisted by the growing number of people aspiring to be members of the elite and those who disputed the validity of the succession as a consequence of the female lineage. The ceremonial role of the jati in religious observance and ceremony was gradually reduced, including the removal of status symbols such as the special seat that he occupied for Mass
Mass (liturgy)
"Mass" is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church: others are "Eucharist", the "Lord's Supper", the "Breaking of Bread", the "Eucharistic assembly ", the "memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection", the "Holy Sacrifice", the "Holy and...
, and with these actions went much of his influence over the caste. By 1900 there were strikes taking place among the pearl and chank divers, often for frivolous reasons; the jati was unable to impose the discipline upon them which once had been a primary role.
As the caste hierarchy disintegrated, becoming a range of groups each seeking to assert their position, the role of the jati thalavan became more and more impossible and was eventually abandoned, the last occupant of the post having been installed in 1926. The introduction of new technologies in the post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
era significantly affected the entire notion of an elite, as developments such as nylon fishing nets, refrigeration and motorisation made fishing more lucrative as an occupation in its own right and removed the economic differences between those who laboured and those who either traded or lived off the organisation of labour. There is still a ritual element today surrounding certain events at Our Lady of Snows but the caste system which existed for centuries has gone.
Post-independence
In 1947, the fisheries became a monopoly of the new independent Indian government.In 2009 the government of Tamil Nadu issued an order designating Christian Paravars within its jurisdiction as being of the Most Backward Classes (MBC), a designation regarding their socio-economic status which entitles them to various assistance measures, primarily in the form of positive discrimination, if they should require it. Prior to that decision, some Paravars in the jurisdiction had been in the Scheduled caste group, although others were already MBC. These designations are flexible and subject to change at various times, according to determined need.
Occupations
Historically, the Paravars were involved in sea-related activities such as pearl diving, fishing, navigation, boatbuilding and the making of salt.It is known that during the visit of Francis Xavier the Paravars were using two different types of boat for net fishing, which he called the vallam and the toni. The latter was also used for trips to other coastal settlements and for trading journeys as far away as the Maldives
Maldives
The Maldives , , officially Republic of Maldives , also referred to as the Maldive Islands, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean formed by a double chain of twenty-six atolls oriented north-south off India's Lakshadweep islands, between Minicoy Island and...
. They were both large, open vessels with masts as well as oars; the sails were made with cotton, stiffened by boiling with roots and cow dung, and the fishing nets were made from coconut
Coconut
The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
fibre. However, Iyengar believes that the toni was a hide-covered wicker basket similar to a coracle
Coracle
The coracle is a small, lightweight boat of the sort traditionally used in Wales but also in parts of Western and South Western England, Ireland , and Scotland ; the word is also used of similar boats found in India, Vietnam, Iraq and Tibet...
.
There is uncertainty regarding whether or not the present boats called vallam are similar to the ones described 500 years ago. Hornell's report of 1920 described the single-masted vallam in use around that time at being about 9 metres (29.5 ft) long and with a cargo capacity of around 2 tons. In 1914 he had described a larger three-masted boat, called the dhoni, which was used for pearl fishing and ferrying between anchored ships and Tuticorin harbour, as well as coastal journeys. The dhoni may owe its origin to Arab designs but could equally be indigenous. Simon Casie Chitty also referred to the dhoni in 1837.
The Paravars also used boats similar to catamaran
Catamaran
A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas...
s and, indeed, that word comes from the Tamil katturmaran (tied tree). It would seem that the design was developed independently of those used in Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
. An 1895 traveller describes them as a hollowed-out tree trunk up to 20 feet (6.1 m) long which is connected to a smaller trunk acting as an outrigger
Outrigger
An outrigger is a part of a boat's rigging which is rigid and extends beyond the side or gunwale of a boat.In an outrigger canoe and in sailboats such as the proa, an outrigger is a thin, long, solid, hull used to stabilise an inherently unstable main hull. The outrigger is positioned rigidly and...
using lashes and two arched lengths of bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
. The voyager and explorer William Dampier
William Dampier
William Dampier was an English buccaneer, sea captain, author and scientific observer...
had described seeing them in 1699.
Chitty grouped the Paravar occupations in 1837 into thirteen categories, these being:
- headmen
- cloth dealers
- cloth packers
- coralCoralCorals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
divers - sailors
- pearl divers
- chank divers
- turtle fishers
- porpoisePorpoisePorpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin, especially by sailors and fishermen...
fishers - fishers for sharkSharkSharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
and other species - crab fishers
- palanquin bearers
- peonPeonThe words peon and peonage are derived from the Spanish peón . It has a range of meanings but its primary usage is to describe laborers with little control over their employment conditions.-English usage:...
s
Family names
The Paravars were probably a primarily endogamousEndogamy
Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific ethnic group, class, or social group, rejecting others on such basis as being unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. A Greek Orthodox Christian endogamist, for example, would require that a marriage be only with another...
society until the arrival of the Portuguese, marrying only within their own caste and so keeping the tribal ties strong. Subsequently they became exogamous
Exogamy
Exogamy is a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group. The social groups define the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. In social studies, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects:...
and from this came the use of names based on Portuguese origin. Family names such as Fernando, Costa, da Cruz and Roche are a direct consequence of these marriages, and familiar names, such as Susai (a Tamil translation of Joseph), reflect both the marriages and the general Portuguese influence. Robinson offers a different thesis, claiming that they remained endogamous even after conversion, that these family ties strengthened their ability to ascend socially and that the use of Christian family names was in fact a privilege granted to them by the Portuguese and deemed to be a sign of their superiority over other castes such as the Mukkavars.
There are four family names of non-Christian origin still in common use, these being Kalingarayan, Villavarayan, Poobalarayan and Rayan. These names are thought possibly to have their origin in arayan, which was used by Tamil fishing groups as a caste title. Arayan is claimed by some modern descendants of the Paravars to be itself derived from rayya (rajah, king).
Notable Paravars
- Chandra FernandoChandra FernandoReverend Chandra Fernando was a priest from the town of Baticaloa in minority Tamil-dominated eastern province of Sri Lanka. He was known for his human rights activism. He was assassinated by unknown men on June 6, 1988.-Biography:...
, Sri Lankan human rights activist. - Ambrose FernandoAmbrose FernandoAmbrose Fernando was an Indian businessman and politician.-Early life:Fernando was born in Kanyakumari. He went to Colombo at a young age to work. He returned to Kanyakumari in 1937 and married Mochammal Fernando...
, former Member of the state Legislative Assembly (MLA). - J. P. Chandrababu, a comedy actor.