United on high seas, divided on land 

The curious case of Pattapupalem and Pallepalem fishermen

• Despite being neighbouring villages and following the same profession, the inhabitants of these villages present a picture of stark contrast in terms of language, customs and traditions
• While Pattapupalem is inhabited by Tamil fishermen, Pallepalem is full of Telugu fishermen. In spite of myriad differences, they celebrate the diversity reaching out to help each other

Ongole: Andhra Pradesh is gifted by the vast sea shore, stretched for nearly 1,000 kilometers. This coastal area from Srikakulam to Nellore districts have more than 150 fishermen colonies, dominated by Vadabalija, Jalari, Pattapu and Palle sub-castes. As for Nellore, Prakasam and Guntur districts, there are a large number of Pattapupalem villages along the bay area, neighbouring Pallepalem hamlets.

Pattapupalem villages are predominantly inhabited by fishermen, like neighbouring Pallepalem hamlets. However, there is a stark contrast between these cluster of villages in terms of language, customs and traditions. Under British colonial rule, the fishermen in coastal areas had the liberty to go fishing to any place in its domicile.

So the fishing boats from the present Tamil Nadu used to go up to Calcutta hunting fish for months and selling the catch at nearby port towns. Similarly, the Telugu fishermen had gone up to Kanyakumari and Calcutta. As times progressed, fishermen of all regions identified some secluded locations near the port towns to save the catch. Started as temporary resting shelters, these places have now become colonies, with one hut adding after another.

The Tamil fishermen were more advanced in the technology and boats by that time due to their proximity to well-developed Madras. These fishermen were referred as Pattapollu by their Telugu counterparts. Pattapollu literally mean residents of towns by locals and their colonies were named as Pattapupalem.

As hundreds of years passed, the Tamil fishermen settled in Pattapupalem along the coast in present Andhra Pradesh. Since they are less in number, compared to locals, they tend to be aggressive to protect themselves from locals. This attitude of them has brought them the title of ‘tough guys’ and they behave really tough, when the situation really demands.

Pattapupalem villages stretch up to Bapatla in Guntur district from Chennai border. The mother tongue of fishermen in these colonies is Tamil, but they do not know it all. They use Telugu in their everyday communication. But they switch to Tamil only if the matter is not intended to be known to fellow fishermen of Pallepalem.

The Tamil and Telugu fishermen go for fishing in the same area, help each other if there is a problem but are apprehensive to believe one another and do not team up others even though they all are fishermen. The legend of Pattapupalem fishermen says that they were originally kings ruling southern coast of India. Once, they had abundant gold and mighty power, and their family goddess Poleramma wanted to test them.

She asked the kings to give her all of their wealth on condition that she would double them by the morning. The kings agreed and handed over all their wealth to goddess, which filled a large ship out on the sea. In the morning, they saw the goddess sinking the ship with all gold by making a hole under it. Witnessing that, Baba Nagul Meera, who happened to be trimming his beard at that time, thrown the mirror in his hand to cover the hole.

The goddess told the kings that all their gold would become fish in the sea and they should live by catching them for generations. Hence, the Pattapupalem fishermen pray to Poleramma and Nagul Meera in fear and respect, while the Pallepalem fishermen offer their prayers to Jalamma and Gangamma for safety on sea.

The Pattapupalem fishermen have a grand festival which lasts for four days every year to celebrate all festivals at one go. All villages of Pattapupalem celebrate an annual customary festival on a rotation basis. Each colony of the group gets the chance to conduct it once in every six or seven years. It is estimated that about 10,000 people visit the village, belonging to hardly 150 to 200 families during festival time.

The Chellemmagari Palle Pattapupalem near Pakala in Prakasam district got the chance to celebrate the festival after eight years. Vayila Srinivasulu, a Pattapu fisherman said: “As this festival is celebrated on rotation basis between the brotherly Pattapupalems in the region, we spend nearly one crore rupees for the festival. Every family receives nearly 20 to 30 relatives coming from other villages and spends about Rs. 1, 00,000 for the festival in the name of clothes, food and liquor.”

The Pattapupalem or Pallepalem fishermen have their own rules of discipline. If any offence or mistake is committed by a person in their community, the elders sit together and decide a fine amount to the offender and his family. They should abide by it at any cost. On the other hand, they demand the other fishermen from outside villages to respect their rules as long as they are in their village.

During the festival days, they order that no fishing boat leaves the village. If the boat goes to sea for fishing, it must return to the village even if the boat not belongs to villagers. If any non villager team tries to go away with his boat from the village during festival, they hunt the team and bring them back with the boat to the village and take them into custody.

Katam Murali of Chakicharla Pattapupalem said: “We have a belief that all our prayers during the festival will be answered by the goddess. If any boat leaves the village at that time, the fortune of the village might go away with it. So, we do not allow any boat, even if it belongs to others to leave the village. But we allow it if we believe the person return by evening with the boat after fishing in the sea.”

The Pallepalem fishermen also have same belief and they do not allow a boat leave the shore when one of the fishermen bought a new boat and offered a chicken or lamb to it. There will be no problem between the two sects of the fishermen as long as they respect each other’s traditions and individuality. But there comes moments of their greediness occasionally, ruining their relation.

The Kothapatnam and Ramayapatnam sea shore in Prakasam district is famous for a type of hairfin anchovy fish. About two years ago, the Chakicharla Pattapupalem fishermen were catching fish near Kothapatnam. The local Pallepalem fishermen didn’t allow the boats of Chakicharla fishermen to sell the catch and wantedly took custody of the boats for a day.

This made the Chakicharla fishermen lose more than one lakh rupees on that day and they complained the matter to Ramayapatnam Pattapupalem elders. Since then, the Ramayapatnam Pattapupalem fishermen are not allowing the Kothapatnam Pallepalem fishermen to come to their surroundings for catching fish. This disturbed the peaceful atmosphere between the neighbors and the elders from both parties are trying to settle the issue now.

By Naresh Nandam