Vembar

Vembar is a settlement on the Gulf of Mannar, north of the pearl-fishing port of Thoothukudi. The coast was home to Paravar fishing communities whose work on the offshore banks supplied pearls to distant markets. Portuguese influence and Catholic missions spread among these communities in the sixteenth century; the Dutch later challenged Portuguese control of the fisheries. Vembar belonged to a chain of coastal villages linked by fishing, seaborne movement and a shared religious history.