Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 6.djvu/182

PARAVAN the sea-ports of Madura. Under the protection of those Rājas there lived a people, which had come to these parts from other countries * — they are called Paravas — they lived a seafaring life, gaining their bread by fishing and by diving for pearls; they had purchased from the petty Rājas 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 Rājas 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 Rājas, having a chief of their own election, whose descendants are still called kings of the Paravas, 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 Paravas assemble together) surpassing in distinction, dignity and outward honours all other persons there. The pearl fishery was the principal resource and expedient from which the Paravas 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 Rājas 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 Paravas and