Mukkuvar is a maritime

ethnic An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

group found in the Indian states of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

and the Eastern and North Western coastal regions of

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. They are mostly found on the Malabar Coast, and Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu, 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 (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

and other maritime activities.

Etymology

The caste name proposes several etymology theories. The Peoples in the coastal region of Malabar in Chera dynasty is used to sunk the enemy ships and pirate ships of those days. Hence they got the name Mukkuvar. Mukku or mukkuka in Tamil and Malayalam means dip. '' Patitrupattu describes the attack on the enemy ship by Cheran Chenkuttuvan, which refers the skills used by mukkuvars to sunk and attack the enemy ships. Other titles used by the community are ''Kukankulam, Murkukan'' and ''Mukkiyar''. The Mukkuvars are divided into exogamous clans known as ''llam'' meaning "house". The Mukkuvars of Northern Malabar are known as ''Nalillakkar'' (meaning "of the four illams") consisted of the clans known as ''Ponillam'' (from ''pon'' meaning "gold"), ''Chembillam'' (from ''chembu'' meaning "copper"), ''Karillam'' and ''Kachillam''. The Mukkuvars of Southern Malabar have only three clans, with the absence of Ponillam, and are therefore known as ''Munillakar'' (meaning "of the three illams").

History

Early history

The Mukkuvars historically were inhabitants of the ''Neithal'' (coastal) lands of Malabar coast in Chera kingdom. As suggested by their name they were involved in diving to sunk the enemy ships during the Chera dynasty. They were maritime inhabitants of the Present day

Malabar Coast The Malabar Coast () is the southwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. It generally refers to the West Coast of India, western coastline of India stretching from Konkan to Kanyakumari. Geographically, it comprises one of the wettest regio ...

,'' who were involved in naval activities, boatbuilding, fishing, among other maritime activities.'' Mukkuvars were brought into Vizhinjam region by the Chera and Venad Kings to attack Raja Raja Cholan's navy ships during the 10th century when the Cholas conquered Vizhinjam and Kollam. Thus the Mukkuvars from present day Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kochi migrated to Venad region of present-day Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, and Kanyakumari districts and few settled over there. Mukkuvars had trade relation in Sri Lanka from 12th century and few settled there from then. According to the legend of the Mukkuvar from Kerala, they emigrated to and from Sri Lanka. The '' Mattakallappu Manmiyam'' text and other local palm-leaf manuscripts in Sri Lanka attribute the emigration of the Sri Lankan Mukkuvar from South India under the rule of

Kalinga Magha Kalinga Magha or Gangaraja Kalinga Vijayabahu (, , ) was an invader from the Kingdom of Kalinga (historical region), Kalinga who usurped the throne from Parakrama Pandyan II of Polonnaruwa in 1215. A massive migration followed of Sinhalese peop ...

in 12th century AD, who delegates the power to local petty kings whose successors are identified as belonging to ''Kukankulam''.

Medieval history

In the 8th century made mercantile

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

appearances in Kerala, where they among other married natives such as those from the Mukkuvar community, and formed social groups such as the Mappilas. The Mukkuvars were in addition to fishing and seafaring, involved in

warfare War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of State (polity), states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or betwe ...

. Later rulers such as the Zamorin of Calicut promoted Mukkuvars in conversion to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

in order to man their navies. Up to 1000 AD were the Mukkuvars recruited to the naval fleets of the Chera dynasty. South Indian communities were often invited to

as mercenaries. The Sinhala text known as ''Dambadeni Asna'' refers to Mukkuvar warriors serving in the army of Parakramabahu II of Dambadeniya. As mentioned in Mattakallappu Manmiyam, they also served in the 13th century in the army of the invader

, who seized control of northern and eastern parts of

. The Kerala-derived Mukkuvars, whose descendants are the Sri Lankan Mukkuvars, under

were made chieftains known as ''Vanniar'' in the Batticaloa region, where they also formed matrilinear landlords known as ''Podiyar'' and exhibited significant political domination. Mukkuvars in alliance with Arabs encamped at the Puttalam region where in an campaign initiated by Parakramabahu VI of Kotte, battled and chased away by Karaiyar mercenaries, mentioned in Mukkara Hatana (meaning Mukkuvar war). Mukkuvar women intermarried with their allied Arabs, whose descendants reside in the Sri Lankan Moor ethnicity.{{Cite book, last1=Mayer, first1=Markus, title=Building Local Capacities for Peace: Rethinking Conflict and Development in Sri Lanka, last2=Rajasingham-Senanayake, first2=Darini, last3=Thangarajah, first3=Yuvi, date=2003, publisher=Macmillan India, isbn=978-0-333-93921-5, pages=69, language=en

References

Indian castes Social groups of Kerala