SLAVE EXPORT FROM KAYALPATNAM (17TH CENTURY)

...The second short-lived boom in the export of Coromandel slaves occured during a famine in the wake of the revolt of the Nayaka Hindu rulers of South India (Tanjavur, Senji, and Madurai) against Vijayanagara overlordship (1645) and the subsequent devastation of the Tanjavur countryside by the Bijapur army. According to indigenous informants, more than 150,000 people were taken by the invading Deccani Muslim armies to Bijapur and Golconda. In 1646, 2,118 slaves were exported to Batavia, the overwhelming majority from southern Coromandel. Some slaves were also acquired further south at Tondi, Adirampatnam, and Kayalpatnam...

Source: Vink, Markus, 'The World's Oldest Trade': Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century. Journal of World History 14.2 (2003): 76 pars. 8 Jan. 2007
[Click here for full article]

DUTCH MAP OF 18TH CENTURY

Dutch East India Company - like the British - had presence in many parts of what is now India. A colored engraving dated between 1724-1726 indicates the location of Kayalpatnam (spelled caylpatnam in the map)

IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA
First published in 1909

There are references to Kayalpatnam in two places in the books:

1. Volume No. 15, Page No.195

Kayalpatnam - A small port in the Srivaikuntam Taluk of Tinnevelly District, Madras, situated in 8^o34^' N. and 78^o8^' E, a few miles to the south of the Tambraparni river and 18 miles south of Tuticorin; not to be confounded with Kayal. It is a Union, with a population (1901) of 11,746. Its sea-borne trade, which is chiefly in rice and coco-nuts with Ceylon and in timber and areca-nuts with Travancore, is carried on by the Musalman tribe of Labbais. There is also some trade in palmyra-leaf boxes and jaggery (coarse sugar), and a large salt factory is at work

2. Volume No. 23, Page No.372

...There are ten salt factories in Tinnevelly (those at Tuticorin, Arumuganeri, Kayalpatnam, and Kulasekarapatnam being the most important), with an out-turn (in 1903) of about 64,000 tons of salt, which brought in a duty to Government of nearly 35 lakhs... There are three recognised ports, Tuticorin, kulasekarapatnam and Kayalpatnam; but the first is the only one which is important