113992242-Dravidian-Settlements-in-Ceylon-and-the-Beginnings-of-the-Kingdom-of-Jaffna-By-Karthigesu-Indrapala-Complete-Phd-Thesis-University-of-London-1965

meanjn mariners or boatmen As a sea-faring community they were
considered to be a low caste
There is little reliable information in our sources
regarding the migration of the Mukkuvar from South India. They
do not find mention in our sources before the thirteenth century.
The earliest known reference is in the Dabadei-asna, where
the Mukkuva mercenaries of the time of Parkramabhu II are
mentioned The next references to them are to be found in a
number of Sinhalese and Tamil works of later times. The most
important among these are the Mukkaru-hatana, Vanni-upata,
RLiv4i-kathva and the Uarata-vitti and the iamil chronicles
of Jaffna and Batticaloa. In the Sinhalese works, there is an
account of an invasion by a people called the Kka Mukkaru,
identifiable with the Mukkuvar, in the time of Bhtika Tissa
(lkO-l6k) According to this account, Kka Mukkar was a Tamil
371
1. Pyrard de Lava]., Discours du Voyage des Francai aux Indes
Orientales, I, (1887), p. 3]Jf; 'These mariners are called Noucois';
2. A.T.Pringle, The iary and Consultation Book of the Agent,
Governor an Council of Fort St.George, 1st Series, III, p. 131:
'Naquas or boatmen'.
2. I4ahuan (A.D.].k09): 'The liukkuvas, the lowest and poorest of all',
quoted by V.Nagam Aiya, Travancore State !anua1, I, (1906), p.280.
3. Daffi a ei-asna, p. 1i.
k. Cf., Vanni-upata, (Cob bo Yiuseum }ianuscript), p. 15.