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Karava
Karava () is a Sinhalese speaking ethnic group of Sri Lanka, whose ancestors from ancient times migrated from the Coromandel coast, claiming lineage to the Kaurava royalty of the old Kingdom of Kuru in Northern India. The Tamil equivalent is Karaiyar. Both groups are also known as the Kurukula (Kuru clan). The last mass migration to Sri Lanka happened in the 15th century from Tamil Nadu to fight against the Mukkuvar confederation as mentioned in the Mukkara Hatana. They have also given great importance to trade and commerce. The elite families are involved in entrepreneurial activities including the development of plantation agriculture such as coconut, tea and rubber. Etymology The origins of the term ''Karava'' are still debated. The name might be a modified version of the Tamil ''Karaiyar'', where "Karava" has the same root word ''kara'' or ''karai'' meaning "coast" or "shore" in Tamil. The name "Karava" has also been proposed to be a corruption of the Sanskrit name ''Kaur ...
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Karava Main Flag
Karava () is a Sinhalese speaking ethnic group of Sri Lanka, whose ancestors from ancient times migrated from the Coromandel coast, claiming lineage to the Kaurava royalty of the old Kingdom of Kuru in Northern India. The Tamil equivalent is Karaiyar. Both groups are also known as the Kurukula (Kuru clan). The last mass migration to Sri Lanka happened in the 15th century from Tamil Nadu to fight against the Mukkuvar confederation as mentioned in the Mukkara Hatana. They have also given great importance to trade and commerce. The elite families are involved in entrepreneurial activities including the development of plantation agriculture such as coconut, tea and rubber. Etymology The origins of the term ''Karava'' are still debated. The name might be a modified version of the Tamil ''Karaiyar'', where "Karava" has the same root word ''kara'' or ''karai'' meaning "coast" or "shore" in Tamil. The name "Karava" has also been proposed to be a corruption of the Sanskrit name ''Kau ...
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Timeline Of The Kurukulam
The following is a chronological overview of the history of the Karavas and Karaiyars caste of Sri Lanka and India. Both communities were historically also known as ''Kurukulam,'' meaning ''Kuru clan''. Medieval period * Under the reign of Virarajendra Chola(1063-1070 CE), the Chola rule ended through a rebellion led by Vijayabahu I, under the chief ''Kurukulatta Raiyan'' (King of Kurukulam), mentioned in an inscription in Thirumukkulam, Tamil Nadu. * The Karaiyar captain ''Meekaman'' lead the Chola troops and defeated the Mukkuvar chief ''Vediarasan'' and Moor chief ''Meera.'' The Delft Island fort is thought as his fort and is thill this day locally known as ''Meekaman Kottai'' or "fort of Meekaman". *The Mukkara Hatana, an old palm leaf manuscript from Sri Lanka, is an account of the defeat of the Mukkuvar by the Karaiyars in the Saka era 1159 and the taking of the fort of Puttalam after a three-month siege. * Under the leadership of Karaiyar chiefs Migapulle Arachchi a ...
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Karaiyar
Karaiyar is a Sri Lankan Tamil caste found mainly on the northern and eastern coastal areas of Sri Lanka, and globally among the Tamil diaspora. They are traditionally a seafaring community that is engaged in fishing, shipment and seaborne trade. They fish customarily in deep seas or on shore, and employ gillnet and seine fishing methods. The Karaiyars were the major maritime traders and boat owners who among other things, traded with pearls, chanks, tobacco, and shipped goods overseas to countries such as India, Myanmar and Indonesia. The community known for their maritime history, are also reputed as a warrior caste who contributed as army and navy soldiers of Tamil kings. They were noted as the army generals and navy captains of the Aryacakravarti dynasty. The Karaiyars emerged in the 1980s as strong representatives of Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. The nuclear leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have background in the wealthier enterprising section of th ...
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Sri Lankan Tamil
Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, live in significant numbers in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces. Modern Sri Lankan Tamils descend from residents of the Jaffna Kingdom, a former kingdom in the north of Sri Lanka and Vannimai chieftaincies from the east. According to the anthropological and archaeological evidence, Sri Lankan Tamils have a very long history in Sri Lanka and have lived on the island since at least around the 2nd century BCE. The Sri Lankan Tamils are mostly Hindus with a significant Christian population. Sri Lankan Tamil literature on topics including religion and the sciences flourished during the medieval period in the court of the Jaffna Kingdom. Since the beginning ...
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Mukkara Hatana
The Mukkara Hatana ("''The'' ''Mukkuvar War"'') is a 17th-century palm-leaf manuscript from Sri Lanka. Written in Sinhalese, the work celebrates the victory of the Karaiyars, also known as Karavas, over the Mukkuvars, who battled for the dominance of the western coast of Sri Lanka. The manuscript is now preserved in the Hugh Nevill collection at the British Museum. Plot The victory of the Karaiyars over the Mukkuvars happened in the Saka era 1159, corresponding to the 15th century. About 7700 Karaiyar chieftains from Kanchipuram, Kaveripattinam and Kilakarai of Tamil Nadu arrived in Sri Lanka at the invitation of Parakramabahu VI of Kotte. The army was led by the chieftains Kurukula Nattu Thevar, Adiarasa Adappan, Varunasuriya Adappan, Kurukulasuriya Mudaliya, Bharathakulasuriya Mudaliyar, Arasakulasuriya Mudaliyar and their main royal chief, Manikka Thalaivan. The chieftains first overthrew the fort of Puttalam after a three-month siege of the Mukkuvar led by Nala Mudaliya ...
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Negombo
Negombo (, ) is a major city in Sri Lanka, situated on the west coast and at the mouth of the Negombo Lagoon, in Western Province, from Colombo via Colombo - Katunayake Expressway. Negombo is one of the major commercial hubs in the country and the administrative centre of Negombo Division. Negombo has about 142,136 population within its divisional secretariat division. Negombo municipal boundary is fully extended throughout its Divisional Secretariat area. Negombo is known for its long sandy beaches and centuries old fishing industry. Negombo has a large bilingual (Sinhala/Tamil) population with a clear Roman Catholic majority. = Etymology = The name "Negombo" is the Portuguese corrupted name of its Tamil name ''Neerkolombu''. The Sinhala name means from Old-Tamil Naval terminology Meegaman Pattinam. Meegaman denotes Naval Captain, where the local Karava population’s long association of Naval and Fishing connections. Later, "Village of the honeycomb", gaining its name fro ...
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Pattanavar
Pattanavar (also spelled ''Pattinavar'') is a Tamil caste found in Tamil Nadu, India. They are a maritime community dominating Chennai, Kanchipuram, Cuddalore, Villuppuram, Thanjavur and Nagapattinam districts of the Coromandel Coast, who have traditionally been involved in fishing, shipment, navy, and trade. Etymology The term ''Pattanavar'' literally means inhabitant of a ''Pattinam.'' The term Pattinam means "sea-port town" which is often seen as a suffix among prominent harbors such as Nagapattinam, Kaveripoompattinam and Chennaipattinam. They are among other divided as Periya Pattanavar and Chinna Pattanavar. The term ''Periya'' means "big" and the term ''Chinna'' means "small", where the Periya Pattanavar are considered socially superior to the Chinna Pattanavar. The Pattanavars are also colloquial known as ''Karaiyar'' in the Thanjavur district, which is also the term of one of the subcaste of the community. Karaiyar means "coast people", which is also term for a d ...
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Vijayabahu I Of Polonnaruwa
Vijayabahu I (born ''Prince Keerthi'') (ruled 1055–1110), also known as Vijayabahu the Great, was a medieval king of Sri Lanka. Born to a royal bloodline, Vijayabahu grew up under Chola occupation. He assumed rulership of the Ruhuna principality in the southern parts of the country in 1055. Following a seventeen-year-long campaign, he successfully drove the Cholas out of the island in 1070, "In their expulsion from the island" reuniting the country for the first time in over a century. During his reign, he re-established Buddhism in Sri Lanka and repaired much of the damage caused to infrastructure during the wars. He offered the Thihoshin Pagoda(Lord of Sri Lanka Buddha image) to Burma king Alaungsithu and it is now still in Pakokku. Early life Vijayabahu was born around 1039, by the name of Kitti (Keethi) in Ruhuna principality, under Chola occupation. ''Indian History with Objective Questions and Historical Maps Twenty-Sixth Edition 2010, South India page 59'' As a result t ...
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Tamils
The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar ( ta, தமிழர், Tamiḻar, translit-std=ISO, in the singular or ta, தமிழர்கள், Tamiḻarkaḷ, translit-std=ISO, label=none, in the plural), or simply Tamils (), are a Dravidian ethno-linguistic group who trace their ancestry mainly to India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, union territory of Puducherry and to Sri Lanka. Tamils who speak the Tamil Language and are born in Tamil clans are considered Tamilians. Tamils constitute 5.9% of the population in India (concentrated mainly in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry), 15% in Sri Lanka (excluding Sri Lankan Moors), 7% in Malaysia, 6% in Mauritius, and 5% in Singapore. From the 4th century BCE, urbanisation and mercantile activity along the western and eastern coasts of what is today Kerala and Tamil Nadu led to the development of four large Tamil empires, the Cheras, Cholas, Pandyas, and Pallavas and a number of smaller states, all of whom were warring amongst ...
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Sinhalese People
Sinhalese people ( si, සිංහල ජනතාව, Sinhala Janathāva) are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the island of Sri Lanka. They were historically known as Hela people ( si, හෙළ). They constitute about 75% of the Sri Lankan population and number more than 16.2 million. The Sinhalese identity is based on language, cultural heritage and nationality. The Sinhalese people speak Sinhala, an insular Indo-Aryan language, and are predominantly Theravada Buddhists, although a minority of Sinhalese follow branches of Christianity and other religions. Since 1815, they were broadly divided into two respective groups: The 'Up-country Sinhalese' in the central mountainous regions, and the 'Low-country Sinhalese' in the coastal regions; although both groups speak the same language, they are distinguished as they observe different cultural customs. According to the Mahavamsa and the Dipavamsa, a third–fifth century treatise written in Pali by ...
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Trade
Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. An early form of trade, barter, saw the direct exchange of goods and services for other goods and services, i.e. trading things without the use of money. Modern traders generally negotiate through a medium of exchange, such as money. As a result, buying can be separated from selling, or earning. The invention of money (and letter of credit, paper money, and non-physical money) greatly simplified and promoted trade. Trade between two traders is called bilateral trade, while trade involving more than two traders is called multilateral trade. In one modern view, trade exists due to specialization and the division of labour, a predominant form of economic activity in which individuals and groups concentrate on a small aspect of production, but use their output in trades for other products ...
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Coromandel Coast
The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an area of about 22,800 square kilometres. The coast has an average elevation of 80 metres and is backed by the Eastern Ghats, a chain of low lying and flat-topped hills. In historical Muslim sources from the 12th century onward, the Coromandel Coast was called Maʿbar. Etymology The land of the Chola dynasty was called ''Cholamandalam'' (சோழ மண்டலம்) in Tamil, translated as ''The realm of the Cholas'', from which the Portuguese derived the name ''Coromandel''.''The Land of the Tamulians and Its Missions'', by Eduard Raimund Baierlein, James Dunning BakerSouth Indian Coins – Page 61 by T. Desikachari – Coins, Indic – 1984Indian History – Page 112''Annals of Oriental Research'' – Page 1 by University of Madras ...
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