Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/172

PARAVAN and are further employed in the manufacture of baskets and umbrellas. Socially, they occupy a higher position than the Nalkes, but rank below the Pombadas. The bhūthas (devils) whose disguise they assume are Kodamanitaya and the Baiderukalu, who may not be represented by Nalkes; and they have no objection to putting on the disguise of other bhūthas. Paravas are engaged for all kinds of devil-dances when Nalkes are not available. (See Nalke.)  Paravan.— Concerning the origin of the Parava fishing community of the south-east coast, the following legends are current.* The author of the Historia Ecclesiastica (published in Tamil at Tranquebar in 1735) identifies them with the Parvaim of the Scriptures, and adds that, in the time of Solomon, they were famous among those who made voyages by sea; but it does not appear that there is any solid foundation for this hypothesis. It is the general belief among the Paravas that their original country was Ayodhya, or Oudh; and it appears that, previously to the war of Mahābhārata, they inhabited the territory bordering on the river Yamuna or Jumna. At present they are chiefly found in the seaport towns of the Tinnevelly district in the south of India, and also in some of the provinces on the north-west coast of Ceylon. With regard to their origin, there is a variety as well as discordancy of opinions. Some of the Tantras represent them to be descended from a Brāhman by a Sūdra woman, while the Jātībēdi Nūl (a work of some celebrity among the Tamils) states them to be the offspring of a Kurava (or basket-maker) begotten clandestinely on a female of the Chetty (or merchant) tribe. But the Paravas have among themselves quite a different 