Various myths and theories have been forwarded and expounded with regard to the origin of the Paravas.
Edgar Thurston quotes from Historica Eccliasastica that the Paravas and Parvaims referred to in the Bible are the same. He adds that in the time of King Solomon ,the Paravas were famous among those who made voyages by sea. (Thurston)
One of the interviews of Patric . A.. Roche goes like this.’’ we, the Paravas, are the Parvaims, one of the last tribes of Israel and our present settlement of Uvari in Paravanadu is the Ophir of the Bible .”(Roche).
It is the general belief among the Paravas that their original country was Ayodhya or Oudh and it appears that before the Mahabharatha war, they inhabited the territory bordering Yamuna or Jamuna. (Thurston).
According to Edgar Thurston, the Paravars were once a very powerful people. They had a succession of kings among them distinguished by the title of *Adiarasan*, some of whom seem to have resided in Uttarasakosamangai., a famous place of hindu pilgrimage in the neighbourhood of Ramanathapuram.(Thurston) .
Henry Heras throws fresh light on this issue, saying that the Paravas belonged to one of those ancient groups of people who derived their origin from the *Indus valley*. The Moon Paravas as he mentions in the research findings , are likely to be the ancestors of the Pandyan kings of Madurai and of their Parava subjects of the fishery coast. (Heras)
Leaving their birth place in the Indus valley the Paravas came down South in search of fortunes. They settled on the Southeast coast of India , the Coramandal coast on the one side and on the other side along the West coast of Ceylon from Negombo to Mannar. (Heras)
Here, they consolidated their position and became a distinct and important entity in South India. In an ancient Tamil inscription there is a reference to Parava men who fished pearls by paying tribute to Alli Arasani , daughter of Pandya king of Madurai. (Heras). They were probably the only people who fished pearls at that time.
Whatever their origin the Paravas make their first appearance in history as fisherman , divers of pearls , and organizers and chief beneficieries of the pearl fisheries along their coast. The word Paravan in classic Tamil denotes *Man of the sea*. Its plural form is Paravas. The Paravas are also called Parathavar (Sastri) or Bharathar or Bharathavars in conformity with their alleged origin from their royal ancestor Bharathar , grand father of KulasekaraPandya founder of the Pandya dynasty in Tamilnadu(Fernando).
From the Paravas also arose the race of ancient Indian sailors who later carried Indian goods in boats to Africa, and Arabia in the west, and to Malaysiaand China in the east. Besides many among the Paravas engaged themselves in pearl fishing and in collecting conch shells. (Iyengar).
Highly renowned for its pearl trade , Korkai was the chief town of the leading Paravas of the region. The people of the town consisted mostly of pearl divers and chunk cutters .
Literature dating to the sangam age refer frequently to the paravas as a group that leda prosperous lifeon the fishery coast. In course of time as the fishery coast passed through different fortunes under different ruling dynasties , the paravas life also underwent changes.
by S. DECLA
I know the paravar orgin from your articles this is good consept. all the best
Kumar
Thank you for this interesting write-up on the various hypotheses regarding the origin of Paravars.
You mention Mr/Dr.Patric A. Roche. Are his writings available? I now remember he came to talk to my father about Paravas, and mentioned that he was working on them for his Ph.D. in USA.
Best wishes.
Christine Gomez
dear DECLA,
I have doubt that some authors quote paravars are the origin of pandiyas the ruling dynasities. If you have any historical evidences of this pls explian .
Jegan
The predominance of paravars on the Chola Mandalam coast in the extreme South Eastern Bay of Bengal indicate that these communities primarily must have been thriving on fishing and pearl fishing. Later they might have taken to sailing by dinghies and schooners and as seafaring happens to be a rough & tough profession they were considered to be courageous and daring.
I belong to parava community,and I am a commercial diver, where I was not knowing my ancestors was doing the same
Did you know the hostory of parava community???
There is credibility in the research on Paravar. My great grand father was a Fernando.Who had gone as far as Madagascar to do deep sea diving for Pearls. They had extraordinary stamina to hold their breath under water without the aid of any device like oxygen tanks. (Beginning of the 20th Century )My grandfather a Fernando too owned his own country vessel for carrying Cargo to the coastal regions in India Srilanka Maldives.etc.
The community called ‘Paravar’ mentioned in the article very likely refers to the ‘meen paravar’ (மீன் பரவர் / மீன் பரதவர்), who are fishermen. The insignia of these early Pandyas who ruled from Korkai was fish. The early Pandyan flag had a single fish emblem.
Later another dynasty started ruling from Madurai and now one more fish was added to their emblem. So the flag of the Madurai Pandyas had double fish (also called double carp or twin fish) as the insignia.