Bharatha People

Bharatha People (, ) also known as Bharatakula and Paravar, is an ethnicity in the island of Sri Lanka. Earlier considered a caste of the Sri Lankan Tamils, they got classified as separate ethnic group in the 2001 census. They are descendant of Tamil speaking Paravar of Southern India who migrated to Sri Lanka under Portuguese rule. They live mainly on the western coast of Sri Lanka and mainly found in the cities of Mannar, Negombo and Colombo. Etymology Scholars derive Bharatha, also pronounced as Parathar, from the Tamil root word para meaning "expanse" or "sea". The word has been documented in ancient Sangam literature, describing them as maritime people of the Neithal Sangam landscape. Colonial archives refer them as Paruwa, a corrupted form of "Paravar". According to other scholars is Bharatha a name the community took from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, the clan of Bhāratas, who were the ancestor of the heroes in the epic, following their origin myth from Ayodhya. History