Notes on Schorer's Account of the Coromandel Coast

Summary

In the Miscellany section, this note critically examines Schorer’s published account of the Coromandel Coast—an important trading region on India’s south‑eastern seaboard—in the early seventeenth century. Schorer identified a figure referred to as “the great Aya” as the Nayak of Gingee; the author corrects this identification, explaining that the Aya was in fact a eunuch and powerful subordinate of Krishnappa Nayaka, the Vijayanagara governor of Gingee. Drawing on Dutch East India Company (VOC) records, the note recounts how the Aya negotiated with Dutch factors in 1608–1610. He offered them permission to build a factory at Tegnapatam (Fort St. David) and assured them of duty‑free trade, thus allowing the Dutch to maintain a presence on the coast despite opposition from the Raja of Chandragiri, who favoured the Portuguese. The note details subsequent negotiations in March 1610 between the Aya, named Tigre Wangelai, and VOC representatives Arend Maertssen and Pieter Gerritsz Bourgonje. In this contract the Dutch promised to furnish the fortress of Tirupapuliyur with cannon and munitions and to pay modest import and export duties. The author emphasises that Schorer mischaracterised the power dynamics: it was the Aya who wielded real authority over local administration rather than the titular Nayak. The note thus corrects the historical record and provides a concise narrative of Dutch–Nayak relations on the Coromandel Coast based on contemporary European sources.