-
500
Mention of paravars in history
Paravars were fishers and seamen, specialising in seasonal harvesting of pearl oysters and chank, both of which were significant exports from southern India -
Period: 500 to
Paravar
-
Nov 28, 1200
Pandyan control
Pandyan control around the mid-1200s following a series of battles -
Dec 1, 1292
Kayal Port
main settlement was the town of Kayal -
Jan 1, 1527
Threats by Arab
Paravars were being threatened by Arab fleets offshore, headed by the Muslim-supporting Zamorin of Calicut,[40] and also by an onshore campaign of the Rajah of Madura to wrest control of Tirunelveli and the Fishery Coast from the hands of the Rajah of Travancore.[39][41] This continuing situation, and the desire to be relieved of the rivalry from Lebbai divers, caused the Paravars to seek the protection of Portuguese explorers who had moved into the area. -
Jan 1, 1532
Seeking Protection of Portuguese explorers
A delegation led by Vikirama Aditha Pandya visited Goa to seek protection.it was granted on the condition that the leaders were immediately baptised as Christians and that they would encourage their people also to convert to Christianity; the Portuguese would also gain a strategic foothold and control of the pearl fisheries. The deal was agreed and some months later 20,000 Paravars were baptised en masse, and became subjects of Portugal, during the visit of Peter Gonsalves, Vicar of Cochi -
Jan 1, 1537
Complete Conversion
By the end of 1537 the entire community had declared itself to be Christianity -
Jun 27, 1538
Arabs defeted by Portuguese
Portuguese destroy the Arab fleet when they met fortuitously at Vedalai.From that point the Paravar people as a whole enjoyed renewed prosperity. Their declaration of acceptance of the Christian faith did not prevent them from continuing to worship in the manner which they had done previously because there were no translators to spread the Christian message and also because the conversion was seen by the Paravar people as being merely a convenient arrangement to obtain protection, not a stateme -
Oct 1, 1542
Francis Xavier arrives
Francis Xavier, a Jesuit priest, had been working in Goa prior to his journey to Kanyakumari, where he arrived in October 1542 -
Dutch Control
Control of the fisheries passed from the Portuguese to the Dutch from 1658, along with sovereignty over the Paravars -
Paravar - kings of their own people
A report written in 1669 made it clear that in so far as they were kings, they were only kings of their own people and not of any wider constituency; furthermore, that these "kings" were referred to as such only by the Paravars -
British take control
The British took over control in 1796, after a period of gradual usurpation of Dutch authority along the coast and elsewhere by the East India Company -
Jesuit missionaries return
When the Jesuit missionaries returned in the 1830s, following the revival of their Society, they were shocked at the lapse in formal religious observance and in general Christian morality, as well as the opulent lifestyle being led by the Paravar elite which contrasted with the dilapidated state of the churches -
Jesuit missionaries revisit
When the Jesuit missionaries returned in the 1830s, following the revival of their Society, they were shocked at the lapse in formal religious observance and in general Christian morality, as well as the opulent lifestyle being led by the Paravar elite which contrasted with the dilapidated state of the churches. -
Tuticorin - 5th Largest port in entire india
Tuticorin was the location of the main cotton export activities in southern India and by the end of the century it was the fifth largest port in the entire of India -
Paravar Molopoly
The fisheries became a monopoly of the new independent Indian government. -
Under Cholas rule
Southern India came under the control of the Cholas