Marakkar/Maricar/Marecar/Marikkar/Marican/Marecan (Tamil: Marrakayar)(Sinhalese: Marakkala), is a South Asian Muslim community found in parts of Indian states of Tamil Nadu (the Palk Strait and Coromandel Coast), Kerala and in Sri Lanka. The Marakkars speak Tamil in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka and Malayalam in Kerala. The community trace their ancestry to marriages between early Arab Muslim traders of the high seas and indigenous Mukkuvar coastal women. Arab traders have also married with other non-Mukkuvar South Asian women in Sri Lanka and India, but their descendants are not necessarily members of the Marakkar community.