418 The Tinncvelly Pearl Banks. 



THE TINNEVELLY PEAEL BANKS. 



BY CLEMENTS E. MAKKHAM, F.S.A., F.E.G.S. 



Er.oM time immemorial tlie pearl fishery in the narrow sea 

 which separates India from the island of Ceylon has been 

 famous in all the marts of the old world, and has rivalled the 

 still more renowned fishery of Bahrein, in the Persian Gnlf. 

 Opinions have always varied respecting the value of the pearls 

 from these fisheries. Tavernier, the old travelling jeweller, 

 said, in 1651, that the pearls from the sea that washes the walls 

 of Manaar, in Ceylon, are, for their roundness and water, the 

 fairest that are found, but rarely weigh three or four carats. 

 Master Kalph Fitch, a London merchant, who made a voyage 

 to the Indies in 1583, says, on the other hand, that, though the 

 pearls of Cape Comorin are very plentiful, they have not the 

 right orient lustre that those of Bahrein have. Whatever the 

 truth may be respecting the water and orient lustre of the 

 pearls of these rival fisheries, there can be no doubt that a 

 vast concourse of merchants and others has been annually 

 attracted to the fisheries in the Gulf of Manaar from the most 

 ancient times, which is sufficient evidence of their value. 



The Ceylon fisheries have retained their old reputation 

 down to modern times. But it is to the smaller and hitherto 

 less productive pearl banks, on the opposite side of the Manaar 

 gulf, off the shores of the Indian Collectorate of Tinnevelly, 

 that the reader's attention is requested. An experiment, with 

 a view to the improvement of the' fishery, has now been com- 

 menced there, which possesses considerable scientific and 

 general interest. 



In the golden age of the Tamil people of Southern India, 

 the Tinnevelly pearl fishery, then established, as Ptolemy states, 

 at Koru, the more modern Coil, paid tribute to the Pandyon 

 kings of Madura; and at this period, we are told by the 



Hot of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, none but 

 condemned criminals were employed in the fishery. Marco 

 Polo, in bhe end of the thirteenth century, mentions the land 

 of Maabar,* where many beautiful and great pearls are found 

 off the coast. The merchants and divers, hesays, congregated 

 at Betaler, in April and May, and ho reifttes how Ihe divers, 

 called Abrcticmain, performed incantations to preserve them- 

 from ihe attacks of greai fish in the depths of the sea. 



* Maalmr of Ibn Batata and Marco Polo is the southern region of the Coro- 

 TTmniii'i const, comprised in 1 1 io modern districts of Madura and Tinnevelly. Colonel 

 STule has suggested thai the word may be Arabic (Ma' alar, a ferry), in reference 

 to the or ferry to Ceylon. 



