Why is Sri Lanka Saddled with Two Seven Letter Words?
By SARATH De ALWIS
When did Sri Lanka become a unitary state? It became a unitary country enslaved by the British as a crown colony under a single administrative system in 1832 that was applicable to the maritime regions of the island as well as the Kandyan kingdom that was ceded to the British Crown by the Kandyan convention in 1815.
According to our ancient chronicles the first king of this island, which was to be the exclusive habitat of the Sinhala ethnic community was Vijaya. (543 B.C.) The last king of the Sinhalese was Sri Wickreme Rajasinghe (1798-1815)
In all 172 monarchs ruled this resplendent island. The first capital was Tammaanna Nuwara, The second Upatissa Nuwara and in 437 B.C. King Pandukabhaya founded the Capital Anuradhapura, the cradle of Sinhala Buddhist civilisation. That it nurtured a great civilisation often described as the Sinhala hydraulic civilisation is beyond dispute.
[The 13th-century staircase at Yapahuwa, Pic by Nick Leonard]
What is in dispute is that the island was subject to the authority of a single monarch and more importantly he ruled over a homogenous Sinhala Buddhist ethnic entity. Over a period of 2551 years the Sinhala seat of power moved from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruwa, back to Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura and on to Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunegala, Gampola, Kotte, Sitawaka and finally Kandy. Why?
[Sangiliyan statue in Jaffna - Pic By HumanityAshore.org]
The answer is found in the Great Wall of China. Until the concept of the nation state was firmly established after the Second World War, frontiers were expected to be breached or defended. This is the story of human history of peaceful migration, assimilation or conquest. The decline of the Rajarata kingdom from about the 13 th century coincides with the emergence of a Tamil kingdom in the Jaffna peninsula.
Professor W. I. Siriweera in his History Of Sri Lanka writes, “The historical fact is that there were waves of Indian migrations from Eastern and Western India during the latter part of the proto-historic era. Vijaya and his followers bringing in spouses from the Pandya country — Madura — indicates that there were migrations from south India as well.”
These migrations at times were for conquest and plunder.
The first Chola king to rule the Anuradhapura kingdom was Elara. His rule lasted 44 years — in the words of the author of Mahavamsa “administering justice impartially for friend and foe.” He was defeated and killed in battle by the great Sinhala hero Dutta gamani.
According to the Mahavamsa he had to fight 32 battles before defeating King Elara.What is significant in this battle was that many of Elara’s forces were Sinhala. Nandimitta one of the 10 great warriors of Duttagamani was a nephew of Mitta a general of Elara. (Mhv. Ch.XXIII. 4.5.6.)
The Mahavamsa in Chapter XXVI .1 states “When that king of high renown united Lanka in one kingdom he distributed places of honour to his warriors according to their rank.” After Duttagamani who ruled for 24 years passed away his brother Saddatissa was anointed king.
[In Polonnaruwa, Statue of King Parakramabahu - Pic by Sachintha Jinadasa ]
Since Duttagamani who ruled a united kingdom of Lanka, only four other Sinhala kings succeeded in keeping their realm as a united kingdom where the sovereign overlord extended his writ throughout the island. They are Sena 2nd (866 A.D. 35 years at Polonnaruwa), Vijayabahu 1st (1065 A.D.55 years at Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura), Parakramabahu 1st who is also referred to as Prakramabahu the Great (1164 A.D. 33 years at Polonnaruwa) and Parakramabahu 6th (1464 A.D.52 years at Kotte). This they achieved by appointing trusted officials as regents in charge of various regions.
Professor A.V.Suraweera in his translation of the Rajavaliya uses the term one canopy, which implies the existence of regional rulers with allegiance to the king.
Professor Sirima Kiribamune in an article Tamils in Ancient and Medieval Sri Lanka: The Historical Roots of Ethnic Identity (ethnic studies report vol.iv (i) 1986 writes “It is suggested that the Tamil community in Sri Lanka was the result of peaceful migration, trade contact, political domination and military recruitment.”
Sir Ponnambalam Arunachalam, scholar statesman in his Sketches Of Ceylon History written in 1906 is more forthright. He writes “After Duttagamani’s time the Tamils proved a never failing source of harassment, They made frequent incursions into Ceylon and Tamil kings often sat on Wijaya’s throne.”
What is of significance to us is that during the recorded history of 2551 years of Sinhala monarchial rule interspersed with occasional Tamil monarchs with the last four Nayakkar Buddhist kings, monarchial rule of the entire country, as one political entity is only 199 years in total.
What we should also realise is that an untold number of traders, artisans, mercenaries and aristocratic Brahmins who migrated from South India embraced Buddhism and were totally assimilated in to the Sinhala milleu. This assimilation was a two way process. The Sinhalese adopted their gods and goddesses and many customs.
This phenomenon has been well researched and documented by scholars such as Professors Gananatha Obeysekera, H.L. Seneviratne, Stanley Jeyaraj Tambiah and Michael Roberts. Of these scholars special mention should be made of Stanley Tambiah whose book Buddhism Betrayed? was banned in this country purely because its cover depicted a photograph of a Buddhist Bhikku addressing a crowd with a clenched fist.
That in the excavations conducted throughout the Asokan empire and in Sri Lanka we have not found an image of the Buddha with a clenched fist is no fault of Dr.Tambiah.
Historical facts should be presented to shed light on the present, totally detached from prejudice and pre conceived beliefs. Emperor Asoka did not send only Arahat Mahinda to Sri Lanka. He also sent 160 loads of hill paddy to his friend King Devanam Piyatissa (Mhv.)
The cultivation of rice was introduced by importing Tamil agriculturists on a large scale as at this point of time, South India had made rice cultivation a principal source of their agricultural production. One may ask why hill paddy? The hydraulic civilisation was yet to come. So the Dravidian advent to this island was not far behind the arrival of the Indo Aryans.
History is meant to be a dialogue between the past and the present. If that is so why are we saddled with two seven-letter words-one dirty and the other sacred-Federal and Unitary?
Ajith Sam said,
June 26, 2007 @ 11:22 pm
Yes. Why are we saddled with this dirty seven letter word, let us live and let live.
Sarath Myass said,
June 27, 2007 @ 7:03 am
“SARATH De ALWIS” who is ithis? You should reveal your true identity a traceable one, so that the article has some credibility. You could easily be someone else posing as a sinhalese.
rodney said,
June 27, 2007 @ 7:12 am
too much of anything is good for nothing.—-It applies to everything in every field.For me even Prabakaran is a son of mother lanka.the main obstacle and the real enemy of our country is not the tigers but our own so called politicions.
Vipula said,
June 27, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
Dear Sarath Myass
Sarath de Alwis is well – known writer whose articles are published regularly in Sri Lanka newspapers. You are an ignoramus if you dont know that
Now do you have guts to declare your real name and real e – mail and post this challenge instead of hiding behind cheap and vulgar sarathmy ass.
KK nathan said,
June 27, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
Vipula is right. I have read many of Sarath de Alwis articles earlier. He mainly criticises Sinhala racist type of articles. So racist minded people will not have read them
Carlo Kovoor said,
June 27, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Sarath Myass
You labour under the delusion that only Tamils are capable of criticising Sinhala chauvinism. Therefore you suspect Sarath de Alwis to be a Tamil masquerading as Sinhala.
On the contrary there have been many Sinhala persons who have severely condemned Sinhala chauvinism and exposed racist myths and shibboleths.
You only display your arrogance and ignorance in your writing.
For that matter how do we know what nationality you are? Will you come clean please?
Nava Rajkumar said,
June 27, 2007 @ 4:28 pm
It is comforting to see that different people with different shades of opinion have written in, to address a very simple issue in Sri Lanka- Are the Sinhala and Tamil communities treating each other with respect, tolerance and understanding?. Until and less this happens, there will be no peace in this country. I am tempted to quote a couple of stanzas from the well known Hymn for Ceylon- “Where every prospect pleases and only man is vile.”
That successive post-independance governments in SriLanka have done a great disservice to the Tamils is without any question. Besides engineering draconian and repressive constitutions, leaders(were they?) like SWRDB, CP De Silva, The Senanayakes, JRJ, and the list goes on… , ensured the gradual marginalization of the Tamils in the ‘big picture.’ From a parliamentary democracy point of view, “Ethnic Bargaining’ was the name of the game.
Tamil leaders, especially the Colombo-based types, for their part(perhaps with the exception of SJVC), clearly betrayed thier minority ‘complex’ by playing along with the majority community. If anything, they represented the interests of the newly-emerging , post-colonial elite in the country rather than the well being of the Tamil electorates that they represented.
This aside, I think the fundamental problem with that country is one of ATTITUDES. Not only were socio-economic-political relations controlled by lies, half-truths and myths, the two communities always tended to focus on each other’s differences, rather than on their commonalities or similarities. I vividly remember, during the 1983 pogram on the Tamils in Colombo and the major regional capitals, how the Sinhala news reader on Rupavahini TV constantly referred to Tamils as Dravidians. Generations of Sinhala children and youth were brainwashed into believing that Tamils were invaders, undesirables and a threat. Just read throught some of the Primary, Middle and upper school textbooks written in Sinhala. There has to be a change in attitudes as a start. Also, truth hurts, but it should be in the forefront, not on the back burner.
Have the two communities really come to the parting of ways? If separation of the North-east cannot be tolerated, why does the Sri Lankan state practice separation? Can you think of another country that bombs its own civilians? Enough bull about unitary states.
Peace to all.
Nava
vishvajith said,
June 27, 2007 @ 11:54 pm
Sarath Myass.
Get a grip. Sarath de Alwis excists. It’s good that guys like you are reading the Tamilweek. I hope you are reading the Tamilnet too.
Cheers.
Sundaram said,
June 28, 2007 @ 8:18 am
Thanks to DBS for publishing this article.
Sarath de Alwis,
I salute you for your good article.
I request those who do not agree to the contents of this article to explain with logical reasons and facts why they do so.
According to my reading the Tamil kingdom, which existed before the arrival, European Colonists included Eastern and the coastal part of North Western province
Sen said,
June 28, 2007 @ 8:29 am
It should be noted that -The last king of the Sinhalese was Sri Wickreme Rajasinghe (1798-1815)- but he was a Tamil. He signed the surrender document to British in Tamil as Kanapan Rajasinghan.
Roopa Chetty said,
June 28, 2007 @ 8:40 am
Mr. Sarath Alwis , thanks for the short and precise information. I have been reading Professor Gananath Obeyasekara , Stanley Thambiah and a few others to gleam exactly what Mr. Alwis says ‘Historical facts should be presented to shed light on the present, totally detached from prejudice and pre conceived beliefs. Beyond the past, we are all good people ..and I have been wondering why we are fighting. Is it because of these two words one dirty and the other sacred.
I cannot imagine two better group of people to live together or live side by side than Tamils and Sinhalese. Yet this process of discrimination , complaints , pacts and accords have eventually given way to a protracted war .
WHY ?.
I love all my Sinhalese friends and they may be more than my own kind , that is Tamils from the north. I cannot even think of an Indian as a friend , even if he is a Tamil.
.
There are many many good Sinhalese, maybe a silent majority. Yet why and how we end up electing any of these Sinhala leaders .
be it Banda or any of his family members or be it DS, Dudley , JR, Premadasa and now we have one of the worst , openly defiant clan of Rajapakshe . Why ?.
What is wrong in our democracy ?
Why all the good Sinhalese and good Tamils get together and form a grand national alliance and hand over all these criminals now in power to the Hague ?
Should we wait for things to get even worse until one of the Rajapakshe builds a secret Gas Chamber with Pakistani or Chinese help, or even Indian help ?. and send the Tamils to their final moment. naked and starved ?.
Yes there were good Germans before and during Hitlers regime ..yet the tragedy of Holocaust is for all of us to read and feel so sad and be ashamed of that past. Why these phenomenoa repeats so soon after that episode was over not only in Sri-Lanka, but else where also. What do the big powers are doing ?.
Are these powers behind all this menace. making and exporting lethal technology ?.
Look at India with nearly a billion human beings going hungry every day and a few million programmers living like that was all there to learn. and the politicians busy making Hindu Bombs. with the help of a few misguided patriotic scientists. Why South Asia is a messed up place.
Maybe we can hope for the worst natural dissaster to put and end to all this no more people to go on fighting and pursue Adharma and destructive policies. Indians are the worst enemies of Sri-Lanka. I always imagined , what would it be like , if Sri-Lanka is thousands of miles away from that stinking land of poverty. missery , hypocrisy ……..lies and selfishness…..Yes it was land of Dharma or at least in the epic stories .. listen to those often wandering Swamies now only wandering into America only………… they will talk nice sweet Hindutva or Hindu extremism ……….nicely springling hatred and even militancy…..can these people help the Sri-Lankans ?.
We are definitely better people .. let us do something about it
Sen said,
June 28, 2007 @ 8:59 am
It should be noted that -The last king of the Sinhalese was Sri Wickreme Rajasinghe (1798-1815)- but he was a Tamil. He signed the surrender document to British in Tamil language as Kanapan Rajasinghan.
Roopa Chetty said,
June 28, 2007 @ 8:51 pm
Sarath YourAss ,
Why are you so upset ?. Afterall most of the people in Sri-Lanka are the same….Vijeyan came with 75 fellows and no women. Naturally they went to TAmil Kingdoms and brought their Tamil wives to Lanka ..and of course from that very word go.. we have a 50/50 half casts , if they were not the same already. Then most of the Good Sinhala Kings raised mercenary forces to defeat their own Good Sinhala brothers ..and after defeating , the Good King gave them land and requested them to settle down .. they got assimilated , adopted Sinhala language and Buddhist religion …good for them , now they are Sinhalese and are not persecuted by the Sinhalese and they can now fight their real brothers , like they good old Sinhala King who brought them to Lanka..So, according to Professor Gananath Obeysekara , former Head of Anthropology at Princeton UNiversity, most Sinhalese came from “TAMIL NADU” during the 15th century , much later than the Tamils of North / East Sri-Lanka. Of course Vijeyan came , but he went somewhere else , because he didn’t like the local women.
Thamilan said,
June 29, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
SARATH De ALWIS,
If anyone believed your date, the so called facts and claims on this article then people would have no problem believing that Buddha flew on a cloud and that he offered Lanka to the Sinhalese.
The Sinhalese were never the orginal inhabitants of the Island (unless they claim it though the half Tamil blood) and the Sinhalese will never have the ownership of this Island.
RajaRaja and Rajendra Cholan should have pushed the Sinhalese more south, too bad that they were upholding humanitarian morals.
dias said,
June 29, 2007 @ 4:49 pm
In an increasingly shrinking globe where every square inch of real estate is paramount for survival, both Tamils and Singhalese use (more like abuse) “ethnic ownership” to justify their stakes. An egalitarian democratic solution is warranted – one that promotes equal participation, equitable distribution of resources, and importantly, one that encourages mutual respect. Federal, Unitary or something in-between, a golden opportunity to create a new order.
Gayan Ranasinghe said,
June 30, 2007 @ 10:28 pm
well ….truth is no one is winning from war(except few crooked politicians and weapons dealers……..)
IF we cared more about “words” our own brethren Tamils and country as a whole will go trough immense misery……….
I think those expatriate Tamils who promote war by giving money to LTTE should think twice…and of course those bloody crooked polititians who turn blind eye to corruption and earn money by war,……..
people of srilanka (sinhala and tamil should understand the bigger picture)
War can only be stopped by being flexible(win win situation)
WE must go for strong federal solution…….
nimal said,
July 1, 2007 @ 6:27 am
In fact Richard Zoysa, who has been assassinated during Premamdasa’s regime wrote an article citing the root of south coast belt Sinhalese to the migrants from south India and specially from Kerala. . Incidentally according to him it was attributed recent migration.
It is good Sarath myass read this. He will realise how wrong he is.