User:Guyan46

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Alternative History[edit]

Sri Lanka in times past, has been known by many names including Taprobane, Serendip(and Ilam). Most literature though across Asia give Sinhaladipa or Sinhale, as the most well known.

When concerning the history of Tamils in Sri Lanka is a violent one, has always involved an invasion[1]. To be precise sixteen invasions of Lanka have been carried out by South India.

Jaffna Tamil[edit]

Their are many historians that claim that the Tamil's of Lanka are not descendants of these invaders but of another invader, the British. After many issues with Sinhala kingdom the British authorities carried what is infamously called The Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms[2]. These reforms included 7000 pages of ideas and recommendations. For these reforms British Civil Servants carried out a detailed report of the entire country including all districts including Jaffna[3]. Jaffna it would seem:

1. Has no cultivated lands[4]. 2. No settled populations[5].

According to Jaffna Collector,it seems the small population on the coast, is but a migratory one, where they have their homes in South India but travel to Jaffna for the duration of their fishing[6].

Where in 1833, the Collector of Jaffna[7], reports no populations, in 1881 it seems a population of 265000 had appeared with an overwhelming majority Tamil.See below:

  • Ceylon census 1881-1981
    Ceylon census 1881-1981

One of the recommendations in Colbrooke Commssion[8]. It was recommended that the Tamil laborers brought for road and rail construction, not be sent back to India but settled in Jaffna[9].

Eastern Tamil[edit]

The Eastern Tamil, came much later in time. This is confirmed by Sir James Emerson Tennet in 1840, who in his letters to the Colonial Office in London, confirms that the East is also ready for Tamil settlements as was done in Jaffna[10]. Following these, Governor Ward acts and starts this process in 1848.

Evidences[edit]

With the establishment of archeology in Ceylon in late 1880's by H.C.P Bell[1]. It can be said that all parts of this isle have been scrutinized as much as Egypt or Greece. With more than 100years of archeology, yet NO proof of either a Tamil Kingdom nor the existence of Tamil populations in the North or East of Lanka.

It was at the ancient port of Jambukola, the present Sambiliturai, in the Jaffna peninsula that the envoys of king Devanampiya Tissa [11] embarked when leaving Ceylon on their mission to the court of Asoka[12][13]. It was also at this port that the Theri Sanghamitta and her retinue had disembarked when they came from India with a branch of the Bodhi tree at Buddhagaya during the reign of Devanampiya Tissa. The Theri and her retinue were received by Devanampiya Tissa, who had come to Jambukola from Anuradhapura[14]. Further the chronicle states that king Devanampiya Tissa built three Buddhist shrines, namely the Jambukola Vihara, the Tissamaha Vihara and the Pacina Vihara and planted a Bo sapling in the Jaffna peninsula [15]. A gold plate inscription discovered at Vallipuram near point Pedro reveals that during the reign of Vasabha[16][2] the Jaffna peninsula was governed by a minister of that king and that a Buddhist Vihara named Piyaguka Tissa had been built there by that Minister.

  • King Vasabha inscription of Jaffna.
    King Vasabha inscription of Jaffna.

According to the Mahavamsa [17], Kanittha Tissa(167-186AD) during his reign at Anuradhapura repaired the cetiyaghara of the Tissamaha Vihara in the Jaffna peninsula and king Voharaka Tissa (209-231AD) during his reign effected improvements to that Vihara. The Culavamsa records that king Aggabodhi II(571-604) built a Relic House and a dwelling place named Unhaloma for the monks of the Rajayatana Vihara in Nagadipa and granted a village there for the provision of rice gruel to the monks living there[18].

In fact the oldest Tamil inscription found in Jaffna, was in Nagadipa by the Sinhala king Parakramabahu Raja, regarding ship wrecks and taxes on Urathota(Kayts)[19]. According to Dr. Karthigesu Indrapala, the editor of this inscription and the Professor of History of the University of Jaffna, "the fact that this edict was issued not by any subordinate official, but by the king himself shows that the monarch was in supreme control of the northern most region of the island"[20]. Although not even a single Tamil inscription belonging to any of those so-called Tamil rulers of Jaffna in and around the Jaffna District, a few Sinhala, Tamil and Sanskrit inscriptions belonging to some Sinhala kings of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa have been discovered from some sites in and around the Jaffna District indicating that the region was under their control and it was part of their kingdom as late as the 13th century. I have already referred to the gold plate inscription of Vasabha discovered at Vallipuram and to the Nainativu inscription of Parakramabahu I. In addition to these two inscriptions found in the Jaffna District, two other Sinhala[21] inscriptions of Dappula IV who ruled at Anuradhapura during the 10th century A.D. have come to light from that District; of these two, one was discovered at Kandarodai, the ancient Kadurugoda Vihara, a Buddhist Temple in Uduvil and the other at Tunukai in the D.R.O.s, division of Punakari[22]. A few more inscriptions belonging to some Sinhala kings have also been found at various places around the District of Jaffna; we may mention among them, the Tiriyaya Sanskrit inscription of Aggabodhi VI(733-772), the Tiruketisvaram Pillar inscription of Sena II(853-887), the Mannar Kacceri pillar inscription of Kassapa IV (898-914), a tenth century slab inscription at Kurundanmalai near Mulaitivu dated in the reign of a Sinhala king named Abhasalamevan, the Palmottai slab inscription of Vijayabahu (1055-1110) and the Kantalai stone seat inscription of Nissankamalla (1187-1196).

Place names[edit]

P.A.T. Gunasinghe says that Jaffna was populated by Sinhalese in the medieval period as well. He says that the place names of Jaffna only make sense if they are seen as translations of Sinhala names. He points out that ‘vil’ means ‘bow,’ and ‘pay’ means ‘net’ in Tamil. Therefore names like Kokuvil and Manipay only make sense when they are seen as the Tamilisation of the Sinhala words Kokavila and Mampe. Valikamam and Vimankam are meaningless in Tamil, but make sense if the villages originally bore the Sinhala names of Valigama and Vimangama.

  1. ^ Mahawamsa by Wilhelm Geiger (Editor), 1908, p.155, ISBN:978-1437328028
  2. ^ British Archives, London,1829-1833
  3. ^ Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms, British Archives, London, p.319
  4. ^ Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms, British Archives, London, p.55, ref Co416/4
  5. ^ Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms, British Archives, London, p.55, ref Co416/4
  6. ^ Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms, British Archives, London, p.55, ref Co416/4
  7. ^ Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms, British Archives, London, p.55, ref Co416/4
  8. ^ Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms, British Archives, London, p.57
  9. ^ Colebrooke-Cameron Reforms, British Archives, London, p.57
  10. ^ Letters of Sir Emerson Tennet, British Archives, London,1840
  11. ^ THE SO-CALLED TAMIL KINGDOM OF JAFFNA, by Prof.S.Ranwella, p210-250
  12. ^ THE SO-CALLED TAMIL KINGDOM OF JAFFNA, by Prof.S.Ranwella, p236-273
  13. ^ Mahawamsa, Ch.XI, p.20-24
  14. ^ Mahawamsa by Wilhelm Geiger (Editor), 1908,ISBN:978-1437328028 Ch.XVIII, p1-8, CH.XIX, p23-32
  15. ^ Mahawamsa, Ch.XX, p25-27
  16. ^ THE SO-CALLED TAMIL KINGDOM OF JAFFNA, by Prof.S.Ranwella, p67-111
  17. ^ Mahavamsa by Wilhelm Geiger (Editor), 1908,ISBN:978-1437328028 Ch. XXXVI.9,36
  18. ^ Culavamse by Wilhelm Geiger (Editor), Reprint 1992,ISBN:81-206-0430, p42-62
  19. ^ UCR. Vol.XXI, pp.63-70
  20. ^ UCR.Vo.XXI,p.66
  21. ^ Silumina, Literary supplement - 25.03.79, p.1.20.05.79, p.11
  22. ^ Silumina, Literary supplement - 25.03.79, p.1.20.05.79, p.11
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