INDIAN BOAT DESIGNS. 233 



Thurston adds: " The Parawas were once a powerful people and no doubt derived 

 much of their ascendancy over other tribes from their knowledge of navigation. They 

 had a succession of kings among them, distinguished by the title of Adiyarasen, some 



of whom seem to have resided at Uttara Kosamangay in the neighbourhood 



of Ramnad." 



The fables concerning their northern origin appear to have no foundation in fact, 

 but they do have value as corroboration of the theory that they are of different race 

 to the mass of the population of South India. Further evidence in favour of this 

 belief that the ancestors of the Parawas were immigrants from a distant land whence 

 they must have come in boats, looking to their occupational calling, is contained in 

 the report to the Governor of Ceylon and Dutch India, dated December 1669, by two 

 Dutch officials. Van Reede and I^aurens Pyl,' who wrote : — 



" 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 sea-faring 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, pay- 

 ing to the Rajas only an annual present, free from all other taxes which bore upon 

 the natives so heavily, looked upon as strangers, exe*mpt from tribute or subjection 

 to the Rajas, having a chief of their own election, whose descendants are still called 

 Kings of the Parruas, and who drew a revenue from the whole people which in pro- 

 cess 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 Par- 

 ruas obtained a livelihood, but as from their residence so near the sea, they had no 

 manner of disposing of their pearls, they made an agreement with the Rajas that a 

 market day should be proclaimed throughout their dominions, when merchants might 

 securely come from all parts of India, and at which the divers and sutlers necessary to 

 furnish provisions for the multitude might also meet, and as this assemblage would 

 consist of two different races, namely the Parruas and subjects of the Rajas, as well as 

 strangers and travellers, two kinds of guards and tribunals were to be established to 

 prevent all disputes and quarrels arising during this open market, every man being sub- 

 ject to his own judge, and his case being decided by him ; all payments were then also 

 divided among the headmen of the Parruas, who were the owners of that fishery, and 

 who hence became rich and powerful ; they had weapons and soldiers of their own, 

 with which they were able to defend themselves against the violence of the Rajas or 

 their subjects." 



' Hornell, J., Report on the Indian Pearl Fisheries in the Gulf of Mannar, Madra.<>, 1005. 

 2 Vangale, a village, a few miles south of Mannar, in Ceylon. (J. H). 



