{ "item_title" : "Lords of the Pearl Sea", "item_author" : [" Alex Gomez "], "item_description" : "LORDS OF THE PEARL SEAThe Parathavar: Maritime Power, Faith, and Two Millennia of Indian Ocean HistoryBy Dr. Alex S. Gomez, PhDFor more than two thousand years, the waters of the Gulf of Mannar have sustained a remarkable maritime world shaped by pearl divers, fishermen, navigators, merchants, and coastal communities. Among them, the Parathavar occupy a distinctive place in the history of southern India and the wider Indian Ocean.Lords of the Pearl Sea explores the history of the Parathavar from their appearance in ancient Tamil literature through the changing political, economic, and religious landscapes of the medieval, Portuguese, Dutch, and British periods.Drawing upon Sangam poetry, archaeological findings, missionary correspondence, European maritime records, colonial documents, and community traditions, Dr. Alex S. Gomez examines the Parathavar's relationship with the celebrated pearl fisheries of the Gulf of Mannar, their maritime knowledge, their institutions of leadership, and their encounters with successive regional and European powers.The book gives particular attention to the sixteenth-century Portuguese alliance and the community's conversion to Catholic Christianity, the development of Tamil Christian religious and literary traditions, and the changing roles of hereditary leaders known by titles such as Pattangatti, Jāti Talaivan, and Pandiyapathy. It also considers the historical memory surrounding Don Gabriel de Cruz Parathavarma Pandian and the ceremonial Golden Chariot associated with Our Lady of Snows in Thoothukudi.Rather than treating every inherited tradition as established fact, the book carefully distinguishes documented events from later genealogical claims, community memory, and questions that remain open to further archival investigation.Rooted in the author's ancestral connection to Vembar, a historic coastal settlement of Tamil Nadu, this work brings together personal heritage and scholarly inquiry. It seeks to recover the experiences of a maritime community whose history extends beyond royal courts and colonial administrations to the everyday lives of divers, seafarers, families, religious institutions, and coastal settlements.Lords of the Pearl Sea is a study of maritime heritage, faith, political authority, and historical identity-a journey through two millennia of Indian Ocean history, told from the shores of the Pearl Fishery Coast.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers2.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/9/79/816/093/9798160939261_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "60.00", "online_price" : "60.00", "our_price" : "60.00", "club_price" : "60.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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