Know the Etymology: 139
Place Name of the Day: Tuesday, 03 November 2009

Adappara-gama

அடப்பரகம
Aṭapparagama

Adappar+gama
Adaippar+gama
Adaippanaar+gama

The village of a headman of the pearl-diving community of Paravas.

Adappanaar

Also Adappan: An honorific appellation among fishermen (Winslow’s Tamil Dictionary); Honorofic appellation among Paravas (Madras Tamil Lexicon); The headman whose boat leads the other boats set for pearl diving, headman usually owning a boat and in-charge of a group of divers, contractor controlling pearl divers, a tax-collector of the coastal folk (Colonial Records, G. Vane, Pearl Fisheries in Ceylon, 1865); Adai: Contract, rent due for a land etc (Tamil inscription, 870 CE, Glossary of Tamil Inscriptions); (as verb) to lease, entrust, bestow, reach, arrive at, take refuge in, obtain, get, enjoy; (as noun) Joining, delivering, conveying, deposit (Tamil, Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 79); Adaikkalam: Responsibility (Tamil inscription 850 CE, GTI); Adai-kudi: Lesse, renter (Tamil inscription 1014 CE, GTI); Adai-ko’ndaar: Those who have taken the contract (Tamil inscription 985 CE, GTI); Adaippu: Accounts of produce (Tamil inscription 1232 CE, GTI); Lease (DED 79); Adaivu: Pledge (DED 79)

Gama

Village (Sinhala). See Valikaamam for etymology.

Adappar, Adappan, Adappanaar, Adaippanaar are titles of headmen among the coastal folk of Thooththukkudi region of Tamil Nadu and of Mannaar and Puththa’lam districts of the island of Sri Lanka.

From colonial records we come to know that they were in charge of collecting tax from their community members and were mentioned along with Paddangkaddi, headmen of another community of coastal folk called Mukkuvar or Nu’laiyar.

Another function of Adappanaar noticed in the colonial records is that they were small–scale contractors or sub-contractors of pearl diving in the Gulf of Mannaar.

Adappanaars were usually boat owners and they used to bring their men for pearl diving. A 19th century colonial record (G Vane, Pearl Fisheries in Ceylon, 1865) says, when boats were leaving at midnight for pearl diving, the chief Adappanaar’s boat was leading all the other boats.

Colonial officials also engaged these headmen in the inspection of pearl banks as guides.

In usage it seems Adappanaar was a specific title for the headmen of the pearl diving sections of the Paravar, Parathar or Parathavar community.

This ancient Tamil community (DED 3957), found mentioned in the Changkam literature, gained its name from the old Tamil word Paravai for sea (DED 3949).

The community, the identity of whom is widely found today in the Thooththukkudi region of Tamil Nadu, was also one of the early peoples of the island of Sri Lanka as evidenced by the Brahmi inscriptions, i.e., the earliest written records of the island dating from pre-Christian centuries (Sudharshan Seneviratne, 1985).

The title of the headmen of this community, Adappan, Adappar etc., comes from the root Adai, a Tamil word (DED 79), which in this context stood for contract. See table to find how the word was used in inscriptional Tamil.

The title therefore primarily meant that they were contractors and in that capacity were headmen.

The original spelling of the title must have been Adaippan, Adaippar or Adaippanaar.

The social traces of the once-flourishing pearl diving activity of the Gulf of Mannaar could be widely seen in Mannaar and Puththa’lam districts and the survival of the title Adappar or Adappanaar is one such.

The Sinhala suffix of the place name, Gama (village), is one of the many examples found in the coastal part of North Western Province for the Sinhalicisation of Tamil communities and their villages.

The two words, Adappar and Gama, are linked by the genitive case (Aa'raam Veattumai) suffix 'A', common to old Tamil and Prakrit.

Adappara-gama is a coastal village east of Kudawewa railway station in the Colombo – Puththa’lam line in the Chilaapam (Chilaw) division of Puththa’lam district.

Some related place names:

Adappanaar-villu: The pond of a headman of the perl-diving community of Paravas. This is a coastal place near Paalaavi in the Puththa'lam division of Puththa'lam district.

Adappara-vaththa: The garden or grove of a headman of the pearl-diving community of Paravas. This is a coastal place lying east of the Willarawadiya railway station of the Colombo-Puththa’lam line, in the Chilaapam (Chilaw) division of Puththa'lam district.

First published: Tuesday, 03 November 2009, 02:01