Paravar

[4] Apart from Thoothukudi and Ramanathapuram, Paravars also live in many of the big cities and towns in South Tamilnadu like Tuticorin, Nagercoil, Tirunelveli, Rameshwaram, Thiruchendur and Madurai where they are into diverse professions.

[8] The Paravars have a rich history, starting from their major economic contributions to the coffers of the ancient Pandya kings through their pearl-harvesting and trade,[9] to their later interactions with the Portuguese in the 16th century and later.

[25] The Cilappatikaram praises Bharathavars as one who sails high seas, killed whales, one who did pearl and valamburi shell diving, one who runs world’s famous kingdom and city, and kings.

[4] Cave engravings from the third century BC, found in 2003, reinforce this view as they suggest that the Paravars were the chieftains (Velirs) of the coastal region during this period, ruling as subordinates of the Pandyas.

[35][36] The community was also involved in sea salt production,[37] which was a relatively easy task on the Indian coast as the hot temperatures evaporated the water without the need for firewood.

[38] 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.

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.

[44] 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.

[50] 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".

He says that the Hindus were essentially peaceful in nature and temperamentally unsuited to counter physical threat,[51] although Frykenberg has described them as a "... proud and venturesome seafaring folk engaged in fishing, pearl diving, trading, and piracy.

[Notes 1] The protection was granted on the condition that the leaders were immediately baptised as Catholics and that they would encourage their people also to convert to Catholicism; the Portuguese would also gain a strategic foothold and control of the pearl fisheries.

[59] 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.

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 Catholic message.

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)[66] 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.

[4] 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",[26] and adds that the hierarchical system had its origins in times prior to the Portuguese intervention.

[67] 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.

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 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.

[79] Robinson has said Far more prosperous than the Mukkuvar, their access to wealth, and then to education, after conversion ensured that they could attempt to spread out, urbanize, acquire new skills and enter different professions.

"[80]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.

[81] Around that time some of the Paravar 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.

[82] In 1841, the Jesuits' 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 Cotton trade and boom and had hopes of validating their success with an appropriate rank in the hierarchy.

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.

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 Deums 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 Padroados 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.

[89] 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.

[96] The Bharatha businessmen donated large parcels of land to various Catholic religious societies to build schools and places of worship in Sri Lanka.