12 MADRAS FISHERIES BULLETIN [VOL. XVI, 



beginning to be felt owing to the weakening of the paramount power 

 of Vijayanagar are graphically set forth in a report, dated 19th 

 December 1669, written by Van Reede and Laurens Pyi, res- 

 pectively Commandant of the Coast of Malabar and Kanara and 

 Senior Merchant and Chief of the sea-ports of Madura, in justi- 

 fication of their action in undertaking war with the Nayak or King 

 of Madura. This report addressed to Van Goens, the Governor 

 of Ceylon and Dutch India, contains the following exposition 

 of the condition of the Paravas prior to the arrival of the 

 Portuguese, and of the manner in which the Portuguese obtained 

 possession of the fisheries and subsequently carried them on : — 



"Under the protection of those Rajas there lived a people 

 'which had come to these parts from other countries* — they are 

 ' called Parruas — they lived a seafaring life, gaining their bread 

 " by fishing, and by diving for pearls ; they had purchased from 

 " the petty Rajas small streaks of the shore, along which they 

 " settled and built villages, and they divided themselves as their 

 " numbers progressively increased. 



"In these purchased lands they lived under the rule of their 

 "own headmen, paying to the Rajas only an annual present, free 

 " from all other taxes which bore upon the natives so heavily, looked 

 "upon as strangers, exempt from tribute or subjection to the Rajas, 

 " having a chief of their own election, whose descendants are still 

 " called Kings of the Parruas, t and who drew a revenue from 

 " the whole people which in process of time has spread itself from 

 " Quilon to Bengal.! Their importance and power have not been 

 " reduced by this dispersion, for they are seen at every pearl fishery 

 " (on which occasions the Parruas assemble together), surpassing 

 " in distinction, dignity and outward honours, all other persons 

 " there, and still bearing their own appellation. 



" The pearl fishery was the principal resource and expedient 

 "from which the Parruas obtained a livelihood, but as from their 



* From anthropometric and physical evidence this is probably correct. The Paravas 

 are distinctly brachycephalic whereas the Dravidians who constitute the higher castes in 

 South India are notably long-headed and approximate closely in phy ical characteris- 

 tics to the Mediterranean race. The Paravas are probably derived from ancient racial 

 elements akin to the progenitors of the Polynesians —perhaps the N'agas of the ancient 

 Tamil classics. (See the author's papers on " The Outrigger Canoes of Indonesia " i-n 

 the Madras Fisheries Bulletin, Vol. 12, 1920, and " The Origins and Ethnol. Signi- 

 ficance of Indian Boat 1 >esigns" in the Mem. Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, 1919). 



f The Jathi Talaivan. 



\ Bengal. This is, of course, not the Bengal of the Ganges delta, but the obscure 

 Vangali, a village situated a few miles south of Mannar, on the Ceylon mainland. 



