Pattanavar (also spelled ''Pattinavar'') is a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

caste found in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. They are a maritime community dominating

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, Kanchipuram,

Cuddalore Cuddalore, also spelt as Kadalur (), is the city and headquarters of the Cuddalore District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated south of Chennai, Cuddalore was an important port during the British Raj. While the early history of Cudda ...

Villuppuram Viluppuram, Villupuram, or Vizhuppuram () is a Municipality and the administrative headquarters of Viluppuram district. Located south west of a Tiruvannamalai and north west of Cuddalore null The town serves as a major railway junction, ...

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...

and

Nagapattinam Nagapattinam (''nākappaṭṭinam'', previously spelt Nagapatnam or Negapatam) is a town in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Nagapattinam District. The town came to prominence during the period of Medieva ...

districts of the

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 ...

, who have traditionally been involved in

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

shipment Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ext ...

navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...

, and

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 excha ...

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

Kaveripoompattinam Puhar (also known as Poompuhar) is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It was once a flourishing ancient port city known as Kaveri Poompattinam, which is described in Sangam literature like Silapp ...

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 Thanjavur District is one of the 38 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu, in southeastern India. Its headquarters is Thanjavur. The district is located in the delta of the Cauvery River and is mostly agrarian. As of 2011, 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 dominant maritime caste in Sri Lanka. The earliest mention of this term is made by 2nd century AD

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

writer

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

, mentioning them with the corrupted term ''Kareoi''s''.'' The subcaste's name ''Padaiyachi'' means literally "ruler of army".

History

The Pattanavar are one of the communities who traditionally inhabited the

Sangam landscape The Sangam landscape (Tamil: அகத்திணை "inner classification") is the name given to a poetic device that was characteristic of love poetry in classical Tamil Sangam literature. The core of the device was the categorisation of poe ...

''Neithal,'' the littoral landscape. They have inhabited the

since ancient times where they possess a strong system of self-governance. The Pattinavar merchants were organized in trader guilds such as the

Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavolu The Five Hundred Lords of Ayyavole were a merchant guild from Aihole that provided trade links between trading communities in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. They have been mentioned in inscriptions from the 9th century CE.''A History of ...

and the ''Patinenvisayattar''. They were reputed for oversea trading with other South Asian countries. The Pattinavars served additionally as naval mercenaries under the

kings. According to some historians like

Hermann Kulke Hermann Kulke (born 1938 in Berlin) is a German historian and Indologist, who was professor of South and Southeast Asian history at the Department of History, Kiel University (1988–2003). After receiving his PhD in Indology from Freiburg Univer ...

, the Pattinavar community may have played a significant role in the organization and exploits of the

Chola navy The Cholas did not have a standing navy in the modern sense. The maritime force of Cholas was formed by using ships used for trade, as they did not have a dedicated ship for naval combat. The ships were used for transporting the land army overs ...

Traditions

Subcastes

The Pattanavar are traditionally divided into

endogamous Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Endogamy is common in many cultu ...

subcastes which include the ''Periya Pattanavar'', ''Chinna Pattanavar'', ''Karaiyar'' and ''Padaiyachi''. Both Karaiyar and Padaiyachi are traditionally considered subcastes of warrior heritage. The Periya Pattanavar and the Chinna Pattanavar are said to share common ancestor.

Governing systems

The Pattanavar possess a strong system of self-governance. Their

Panchayati raj The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical ment ...

is controlled by their hereditary leaders known as '' Nattar''. The Pattanavar follow a traditional system known as ''Padu''. The term ''Padu'' means "fishing ground" or "fishing site". According to Matthew, the Padu system is a "traditional system of granting entitlements to eligible members of a particular community to undertake specific fishing activities in certain designated fishing grounds during specified seasons." The system is hereditary where only those of the ''Periya Pattanavar'' subcaste can participate. The participants are granted the rights to use ''padu fishing gears'' which include beach seine and stake

net Net or net may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Net (mathematics), a filter-like topological generalization of a sequence * Net, a linear system of divisors of dimension 2 * Net (polyhedron), an arrangement of polygons that can be folded up ...

. Fishing with gears unregulated by the Padu system are often methods of low yields.

Titles

They use titles such as ''Chetty'', ''

Mudaliar Mudaliar (alternatively spelled: Muthaliar, Mudali, Muthali, or Moodley ) is a Tamil title and surname. As title, it was historically given to high-ranking military officers and their descendants. The surname is most prevalent among Tamils from Tami ...

'', ''Pillai'', ''Varunakula Mudali'' and ''Kurukulavamsam''. Their headmen were known as ''Yejaman'' and ''Nattamai''. The title ''Chetty'', is a generic term used by several

merchant groups. The Pattanavars who used this title had politicoeconomic power, and gained wealth through maritime trade. Their village headmen were also known as ''Ūr Chettiar'', where the main headman was known as ''Periya Chettiar'' and the assistant headman known as ''Chinna Chettiar''. The Pattanavar have also been noted to have caste titles such as Varunakula mudali (

Varuna Varuna (; sa, वरुण, , Malay: ''Baruna'') is a Vedic deity associated initially with the sky, later also with the seas as well as Ṛta (justice) and Satya (truth). He is found in the oldest layer of Vedic literature of Hinduism, such ...

clan headman) or Kurukula vamsam ( Kuru clan lineage).Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Vol. 6 of 7, Edgar Thurston https://www.gutenberg.org/files/42996/42996-h/42996-h.htm#pl6-185 These titles are also shared with the Sinhalese Karava and Sri Lankan Tamil

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 t ...

who share common origins.

References

{{reflist Social groups of Tamil Nadu Indian castes