1922] MADRAS PEARL FISHERIES 7 



" Periplus of the Erythraean Sea," written about the end of the first 

 century A.D. by an Alexandrian Greek. In a description of the 

 ports on the Indian Coast, he writes - 



"Upon leaving Bakare we come to the Ruddy Mountain 

 "towards the south; the country which succeeds is under the 

 "Government of Pandian ; it is called Paralia* and lies almost 

 "directly north and south; it reaches to Kolkhoi in the vicinity 

 " of the pearl fishery. But the first port after leaving the Ruddy 

 " Mountain is Balita and next to that is Komar which has a good 

 " harbour and a village by the shore. . . . From Komar the 

 " district extends to Kolkhoi and the pearl fishery which is 

 " conducted by slaves or criminals condemned to the service ; the 

 " whole southern point of the continent is part of Pandian's 

 " dominion. Beyond Kolkhoi there succeeds another district called 

 "the 'Coast country,' lying along a gulf (Palk Bay) and has a 

 " region inland called Argaru.t Here and here only the pearls 

 "obtained in the fishery at the island of Epiodorus i are per- 

 " forated and prepared for market and from the same place are 

 " procured the muslins called Argaritic." 



Ptolemy (who died in A.D. 163) adds further interesting refer- 

 ences, mentioning in his description of the provinces, towns, and 

 rivers of the East Coast — 



"Country of the Kareoi ; in the Kolkhic Gulf, where there is 

 "the pearl fishery, Sosikourai and Kolkhoi, an emporium at the 

 " mouth of the river Solen." 



So unchanging are names and peoples in this district that at 

 the present day the majority of these names can be readily recog- 

 nized — in itself also a tribute to the accuracy of the two Grseco- 

 Egyptian geographers of 1,800 years ago. Komar is obviously 

 Kumari, anglicized into Comorin : the Kareoi are the caste of 

 Karaiyar or coast people — fishermen and boatmen— of whom the 

 Parathavar or Paravas are perhaps a branch or section, described 

 in the Tamil poem Maturaik-hanchi (LI 140— 144) § as men who 

 dived for pearls or for conch shells and knew the charm to keep 

 off sharks from that part of the sea where they dived. 



* Pural i, an ancient name for Tra vane ore. 



t In this we can recognize Uraiyur, the ancient capital of the Cholas. 

 X This would seem to be the island of Mannar, formerly the headquarters of the 

 Ceylon Pearl-fishery. 



§ Probably written about the same time as the " Periplus." 



