THOOTHUKUDI: Cultivation of pearl oysters or pearl culture thrived millennia ago at the inland protected bay at Panaiyur in Kulathur along the Gulf of Mannar, claimed independent researcher P Rajesh Selvarathi.
Selvarathi presented the findings at the International conference on Tamil and Thai studies held at Assumption University in Thailand from June 26 to 28. Speaking to TNIE, Rajesh said that the inland protected bay at Panaiyur has disappeared, however, marine fossils of oysters, shells, freshwater molluscs and other species are found abundantly.
A small portion of the bay was washed away during the Tamil Nadu Floods in 2023, which exposed the underlying marine fossils. Marine fossils kicked in during the studies, Rajesh said.
He also presented the findings of marine fossils belonging to the Holocene period (the current geological phase) discovered at Panaiyur during the session on trade and industry at the international conference.
The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) confirmed that the Panaiyur fossil assemblage belonged to the late Holocene, approximately between 8,000 and 12,000 years ago.
The bay had been calm and conducive for pearl cultivation as strong waves were deterred by the presence of Vilanguchalli and Karaichalli islands of the Gulf of Mannar.
The oysters of Magallana, Meretrix casta, Cardium have been cultivated, he said, adding that the identified taxa belong to the phylum Mollusca and are explicitly extant (still living today) in the Gulf of Mannar biosphere. Rajesh pointed out that the disappeared inland bay is marked in Robert Orme’s map on Coromandel coast published in 1778. The map was crucial for finding the inland bay that disappeared centuries ago.
On the map, the Gulf of Mannar is referred to under the title of “Coleroon to Cape Comorin” cartographic on page 104 and 105 dealing with ‘A history of the military transactions of the British Nation in Indostan’.
Rajesh said that the bay measured 6.92 km in east-west direction from the sea and 4.15 km diameter running northsouth.
The fringes of the bay still have water bodies, namely Panaiyur Kanmoi, Kulathur south kanmoi, Kulathur north kanmoi and Malayalam kanmoi.
Claiming that pearl oysters may have been cultivated artificially in the bay, Rajesh said pearls harvested here are traded through seaports of Kayalpattinam, Pattinamarudur (Keelpattinam) and Periyalattinam (Keelakarai).
Panaiyur is close to the Pattinamarudhur archaeological site, where the state archaeological department has begun excavation.
Rajesh was instrumental in finding the archaeological sites at Pattinamarudhur, Tharuvaikulam, Melamaruthur, Therku kalmedi, and the marine fossils of Panaiyur in Thoothukudi district.