SEARCH FOR A TAMIL HOMELAND

Wg. Cdr. Mark Seneviratne Retd.

SWASTIKA (Pvt) LTD329 Dam Street,

Colombo 12.Sri Lanka

1995

PREFACE

The claim for a Tamil Homeland in Sri Lanka is one that hasbeen voiced in Sri Lanka as well as abroad, by Tamils includingpoliticians and revolutionaries. lt has, as would be expected, beencontested by mainly Sinhalese, in letters to editors, newspaperfeatures and in books. I have seen some ol those books and thearguments they contain refuting the claim for a Tamil homeland.

In those books however, there is one factor which seems tohave been overlooked much of the time. lt is the aspect of themilitary. From the thirteenth century ( the period when the Tamilhomeland is claimed to have originated ) up to the 18th century, it hadin fact been more the military than politics that had occupied centrestage in the affairs of not only Sri Lanka and India, but also of somecountries in other parts of the world. As such at times, what was akingdom today became a vassal State tomorrow. Weaker King-doms, countries and territories were at times captured by strongerones and used very much like bufferzones to protectthe flanks of thestronger ones, similar to lsrael using the Gaza, the West Bank andthe Golan Heights.

Sd Lanka which most of the time was the weaker kingdom,when compared with the South Indian kingdoms of Pandya,Cholaand Chera, was not only subject to conquest but also to militaryexploitation and manipulation. Because ol allthat, it is necessary toexamine the military conditions in Sri Lanka; its neighbouring king-doms and in India itself during the thirteenth century and after, for aneffective search for a kingdom of Sri Lanka Tamils on which the claimfor a Tamil homeland is based.

That is what I have endeavoured to do-and fortunately for memy military background and knowledge has been useful in appreci-ating and analysing military conditions and the military intentions ofkings of those days.

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. : THE CALL OF LANKA

by Rev. W.S. SeniorBut most shall he sing of LankaIn the brave new days that come,When the races allhave blended,And the voice of strife is dumb;When we leap to a single bugle,March to a single drum;

And the palace gleams once more,One man from shore to shore,The stranger become a brother,The task of tutor o' er;When the ruin'd city rises,And the palace gleams once more.

Rev. W.S. Senior came to Sri Lanka in 1909. He died inEngland in 1938, but according to his wish his ashes were buriedamidst the Haputale mountains in Sri Lanka.

_ Rev Senior was Vice principal of Trinity College Kandy,Registrar.of the colombo University and Vicar oi cnristbnurch atGalle Face, Colombo.

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THE CLAIM FOR A TAMIL HOMELAND

Sri Lanka

On 22nd May 1972, when Ceylon became a Republic hername was changed to Sri Lanka. In ancient times however Sri Lankahad been known by different names at different times. She wascalled Taprobane by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The reasonfor their calling the country by that name is however not definite.Some historians are of the opinon that Taprobane is derived fromTambapani, which was the name given by Vijaya the Indian princewho made Sri Lanka his home in 543 B C. Professor Heinz Bechertin his biography of Wilhelm Geiger, the German who translated andedited the Sri Lanka chronicles, the MAHAVAMSA and theCHULAVAMSA writes, " The first accounts of the lsland of Ceylonreached the Greeks before Alexander's Indian campaign. Thbycalled the island, Taprobane which derives from the SanskritTamrapani."

Prince Vijaya was the son of king Sinhabahu of Sinhapura,and thence the name Sinhalese. In the 6th century BC, Sinhapurahad been located in the present Indian State of Gujerat.

The Arabs, who in those ancient times visited Sri Lanka for'trade purposes, referred to the country as Serendib. The Sinhaleseof those days called it Sinhaladipa - "Dipa" in Sinhalese meaing anisland. Very much later, in the 16th century, Sri Lanka was colonisedby the Portugese. The words Sinhala or Sihala would not .rollsmoothly along their tongues and so the Portugese found the nameCeilao an easier one to pronounce. The Dutch who captured thecountry from the Poftugese, called her Ceilan or Ceylan. Towardsthe end of the 18th century, the British defeated the Dutch in SriLanka and thereafter continued to colonise the country for 1 50 years.It was they who named it Ceylon, the anglicised version of Sinhala,or Ceilao or Ceilan.

Reverend James Cordiner, Chaplain to the British Garrison inColombo, the Sri Lankan capital city, wrote in his bookA DESCRIP-TION OF CEYLON, " The island which forms the subject of thepresent work, is the Taprobane of the Greeks ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . That of

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zeilan or ceylon by which it is know, is derived most probably fromsinhal the lion, the name by which the natives of the island are stilldenominated as cingalese from the Indian word sing, a Lion. Fromsinhal or sinhal-Dwipa, the Lion island, may have beLn derived thesielendiba of cosmos Indopleutes, who wrote in the seventh cen-tury, and the serendib of the Arabians, by which name it is called byall the nations which profess the religion of Mahomet ".

sir James Emmerson Tennent who had been a GovernmentAgent in the British administration of sri Lanka stated in his book,cEYLON, " Taprobane the name by which the island was f irst knownto the Macedonians, is derivable from pali "Tambapani ' , . . . . . . . . . . . .1nlatertimes Taprobane was exchanged for simundu, palai- simundu,under which names it is described by ptolemy, the author ofPeriplus... . . . . . . . and sarike he regards merery as a ieaman,s corrup-tion of ' Sinhala or Sihala' Sinhala with the suffix 'diva, or'Dwipa' and ' seren-diva', whence the 'serendib, of the Arabiannavigators and their romances; and this in latertimes was contractedinto Zeilan by the Portugese, ceyran by the Dutch, and ceylon by theEnglish".

.Liberation Tigers Of Tamit Eetam ( LTTE )

Sri Lanka. a 25,000 square-mile island in the Indian Oceanand lying a mere twenty miles south-east of rndia, is popurated by amajority of sinhalese and a minority of ( around 17y)Tamil people.Today this little island remains plagued by a vicious irregular warwaged against the government by a group of terrorism- prone Tamilrebels who call themselves the Liberation Tigers of ramil Eelam,commonly referred to as the LTTE. They are based in the north of thecountrywhere the major population is Tlmil. Fewer numbers of themare in east where the Tamils are in minority to the sinhalese and theMuslims combined, The Tigers, as the LTTE are nicknamed, claimas their primary objective, " the liberation of the North and East fromthe rest of the country because those two areas comprise Eelam orthe Tamil Homeland". lronically though, while the LTiE refer only tothe north and east of sri Lanka as Eelam , the ancient south lndianTamils called the whole of Sri Lanka llam ( now spelt Eelam )

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Eelam

Dr. Kartigesu Indrapalan a Tamil Professor of History in theUniversity of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka, explained the word llam(Eelam) ds, ".. . . . . . . . . . . . .presumab|y i t rests on the fact that l lam is nowused only in Tamil as a name for Ceylon. But the origin of the name,far from indicating that the island was occupied by Tamil speakingpeople in ancient times, show that the people f rbm whose name llamis derived were Sinhalese." Similarly that eminent Tamil pol i t i icanand historian, C Suntheral ingam was of the opinion that Lanka andthe Sinhalese have a common origin in the Tamil name Eylom(Eelam).

Acording to the Tamil lexicon the word llam is illustrated as :-

l lam < Pali - Sihala > Sinhala

which means that l lam in Pali is equal to Sihala in Sinhalese.

Thus even though the LTTE state that Eelam refers only tonorth and east Sri Lanka, Eelam should evidently refer to the wholeof Sri Lanka, and which in fact should be the homeland of theSinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Burghers and others of this country.

The Concept Of A Tamil Homeland

According to the generally accepted description of a Home-land, it is a country where a group of people have been born, livedand conducted theirown affairs independently, through generations.A homeland as we know it, does not however mean a mere part ofa country where a group who constitute a majority within that partonly, have been born and l ived through generations. l f i t did, thenTexas would be the homeland of the Texans and the hill country of.Sri Lanka where the majority are Kandyans, would be the homelandof the Kandyans. That ofcourse, is not so. The homeland of theTexans is the United States of America while the homeland of theKandyans is Sri Lanka.

Similarlythe homeland of the Tamils of Sri Lanka whethertheylive in the north, east or in any other part of the country should be Sri

05

Lanka itself. But the LTTE do not agree. They instead insist that thelorth and east of Sri Lanka taken together, had been a separateTamil kingdom continuously, if not f rom ancient times, at leasi sincethe thirteenth century, and that because of it, today the north andeast constitute the homeland of the Sri Lankan Tamils. Whatspecifically is the claim of the LTTE?

The LTTE Claim

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as well as those ofsimilar thinking describe their claim for a Tamil Homeland as, " Forover a thousand years as the result of a struggle for supremacybetween the Tamil kings and the Sinhalese kings.... . . . . . . . . . . . theentire island was under the sway of the Tamil kings at times and thesinhalese kings at other times. From this backgrounci of alternatingfortunes emerged at the begining of the 13th century, a clear andstable political fact. At this time the territory stretching in the westernseaboard from chillaw through Puttalam to Mannar and hence. tothe Northern regions that extended southwards up to Kumana to theNorth bank of the river Kumbukkan oya were firmly established asthe exclusive homeland of the Tami| i . . . . . . . . . . . The portugese sub-dued the State of Tamil Eelam and continued to govern it as aseparate State. So did the Dutch who captured it from thePoftugese.... . . . . . . . this'Tamil State was captured f rom the Dutch bythe British who continued to retain its separate status till 1g33,when.... . . , . . . . . the Brit ish brought together under one authority theState of Ee|am.... . . . . . . . . . . . and the Kandyan kingdom.... . . . . . . . alo.ngwith the Sinhalese kingdom of Kotte ".1

It could be taken from that claim that the first concept theLTTE endeavourto projeit is that, even priorto the 13th century, thewhole of Sri Lanka was ruled more or less alternatively, by Tamilkings and sinhalese kings. lt would perhaps be best that this andother claims for a Tamil homeland by the LTTE and others of similarthought, be confirmed, or in the alternative shown as baseless, bysearching through history for such Tamil kingdoms which gave riseto Tamil Homelands claims of today.

(1) See Map "A" on page06

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SEARCH FOR A TAMIL KTNGDOM PRIOR TO THE 13TH CENTURY

Three Sri Lankan Teruitorial Divisions

In ancienttimes Sri Lanka had been divided intothree Sinhaleseareas which were Pihitirata, Mayarata, and Ruhunarata, while thesparsely populated central hill-country in the south centre of theisland was called Malayarata. 1 Pihitiratawasthe northern Sinhalesekingdom and contained the area north of the Mahawelli river and theDeduru Oya river. In it was included the Jaffna peninsula, which attimes was referred to as Yapapatuna or Nagadipa. Apart fromJaffna, Pihitirata also encompassed the East of which Trincomaleewas part.

Mayarata had the river Deduru Oya as its northern boundary,the river Kaluganga as its southern border and the sea as its westernlimit. The central hills formed its eastern border. Ruhunarata con-sisted of the land between the river Mahawelli and the river Kaluganga,while the central hills formed its left border and the east coast, itsright border. Batticaloa and Ampara were part of Ruhunarata.

All three areas were ruled by Sinhalese kings and princes,sometimes of the same royalfamily, They were often referred to, inthe Sri Lankan chronicles, as well as in other history books asKingdoms, which evidently had been a casual description by histo-rians, even in later times than the chronicles,

Sir Emmerson Tennent wrote in his book CEYLON, " Leavingno issue to inherit the throne, ( prince Vijaya) was succeeded by hisnephew ( in 504 BC) ,who selected a relation of Gotama Buddha forhis queen lt was at that period that Ceylon was resolvedinto three geographicaldivisions, which down to a very late period,are habitually referred to by the native historians. All to the north ofthe Mahawelliganga was comprised of the denomination Pihitirata,or the Raja-rata, from its containing the ancient capital and theresidence of royalty;south of this was Rohano or Ruhunu..a portion of this division near Tangalle still retains the name Roona.The third was Maya.-rata which lay .. . . . . . . . . . . . and Kalu-ganga as i tssouthern l imit".

(1) See Map "B" O4Page .g08

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MAP "B'ANCIEilIT I)IYIEIONS

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CEYLON

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Pihitirata herd precedence over the other two divisions be-causethe kng of sri Lanka ruled from there. Normally the eldest boygf ,. sinhalese royar famiry was crowned king, wnire nis young",,brothdr, or at times his eldest son, became heir to the throne. Thecrown Prince was referred to as Adipada or as yuvaraja and he wasgenerally granted rule over Ruhunarata or Mayarata.

Sinhalese Crown prince as Governor of Jaffna

Whenever royal or other important activity took place inl"llne' the crown prince wourd be assigned by tne king to jou"rnJaffna. Yapapatuna which was the Tamit name for Jaffria wis saidto have meant, " town of the crown prince". The first king to appointthe crown prince to Jaffna was king Devanampiyatissa ie+z ti zozBC) during whose reign Buddhism was introduced to sri Lanka fromIndia. At that time all movements to and from lndia, related to tnutevent, had been through Jaff na. For instance, KingDevanampiyatissa's Embassy to the court of the Mauryan EmperorAsoka in lndia, left from Jaffna.

Devanampiyatissa's Embassy was despatched to seek Em-peror Asoka' assistance to introduce and disseminate Buddhism insri Lanka, Asoka did indeed send his own son Mahinda for the' purpose. A short while later, EmperorAsoka also sent saplings fromthe Bodhitree underwhich the Buddha had attained Nirvana]Thesehe.sent through his daughter sanghamitta. Devanampiyatissa rrim-self went to Jaffna to receive the saplings.

The port in Jaffna through which ail those movements tookplace was named Jambukora, which is a typicaily sinharese nameand was so named because the popuration in Jaifna in those dayswas largely sinhalese. Devanampiyatissa planted one of the Bodhisaplings at Jambukota and atso hada Buddirist Vihara ( temple) builtthere in commemoration of that event. The temple'was namedJambukola Viharaya.

King Devanampiyatissa was the grandson of the sinharesewarrior-king, Pandukabhaya who tounOeO the capital city ofAnuradhapura' pandukabhaya himserf was the iranoson otPanduwasdeva, the nephew of Vijaya the Indian pririce who hadmadesri Lanka his home in 543 BC, and afterwhom the sinhalesegot their name.

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During Devanampiyatissa's reign, Jaffna was very much abusy and important part of his kingdom, due, mainly to the introduc-tion of Buddhism to the country f rom lndia. lt was for that reason thatthe Crown Prince Uttiya was appointed governor of Jaffna.

Even after king Devanampiyatissa's reign, Jaff na continued toremain underthe Sinhalese Pihitirata kingdom irrespective of whetherthe king reigned from Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa or elsewhbre.That the viharaya which was built by king Devanampiyatissa atJambukola was renovated by king Kanithatissa in the second cen-tury AC, and later by king Voharikatissa in the early 3rd century, andlater in the 11th century by king Vijayabahu l, al l of them Sinhalesekings, is an example of it.

Royal Court Ministers as Administrators

When not governed by a prince, Jaffna or for that matter anyother part of Sri Lanka was administered by a Minister of the RoyalCourt. According to the Sri Lanka University's historical record, THECONCISE HISTORY OF CEYLON, " Courtiers were in generalknown as Amatyas. They were entrusted with important responsi-bilities like the administration of provinces. Nagadipa in the northand Ruhuna in the south, which at t imes were ruled by members ofthe Royal family, w€;€ dt other t imes administered by Amatyas". l

Recently a gold plate of a previous era, was found at Vallipuramin Jaffna. The inscription on it states that Piyaguka Tissa built theViharaya at Badakara (the apcient S.inhalesd name fortoday's Tamilname of Val l ipuram) dur ing the reign'of King Vasabha atAnuradhapura (the then capital of Pihitirata ) f rom 67 to 1 1 1 AC, andwhile his Minister lsgiraya ( a Sinhalese) was Governor of Jaffna.

Referring to the sovereignity of the kings who reigned inPihitirata, the CONCISE HISTORY OF CEYLON states that, " Theearly inscriptions as well as the literary sources indicate that, fromthe time of Dutthaganfani ( a 1st century BC Sinhalese king), thesuzerainty of the king of Anuradhapura was acknowledged by alllocal ru lers. . . . . . . . . . .u

(1) Evei today government Ministers are known inSinhalese as " Amatya"

l l

Tamil Invasions Into Sri Lanka

In the period between Vijaya's advent to sri ranka in 543 BCand the diaspora both north and south from lower pihitirata when itwas abandoned in the 13th century, there were over 1g00 years.During those long years sri Lanka had been invaded by south inoianTamils only occasionaily and not regurarry. There wai in fact once,an interval of two hundred years without any invasions, and subse-quently another of fo.ur hundred years. ouiing those rong periodssinhalese kings ruled continuosly without interiuption or oisiuftion.

In allthose 1800 years the invaders had remained in occupa-tion only for an aggregate of around 200 years. Moreover they neveroccupied the whole of sri Lanka, but pihitirata. Ruhunurata was anarea where no invader courd completely subdue and occupy. lt wasin fact the region which, during an occupation of pihitirata byinvaders, produced kings who eventuaily defeated and pushed backthose invaders.

Invaders into sri Lanka had in the main been choras andPandyans of south India. Infrequenily cheras and Karingas ( withtheir Malayalee troops ) arso from India, invaded thiJ country.Javakas f rom south-East Asia perpetrated two invasions. These areall recorded in the Sri Lankan chronicles.

History therefore shows that most of the time sri Lanka hadremained under the rule of sinhalese kings and as such it is difficultto reconcile this fact with the LTTE claim that, ' , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . the entireisland was under the sway of ramil kings at times and the sinharesekings at other times. From this background of arternating for-tunes.. . . ; . . . . . . . . . . . . "

was sri Lanka a Tamir Kingdom prior io the 13th century ?

Even though one of those south tnoian invaders continued toremain in the country tor 77 years, the invaders did not convert thecountry, or even Pihitirata which they really occupied, into a Tamilkingdom. They were instead essentiaily occupation forces whomade the best material use of theirstay untilltheywere defeated andsent back to their own countries. That those invaders never consid-ered sri Lanka as their kingdom was observed by the British author

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Harry Wil l iams, who whi le commenting in his book, CEYLON, THEPEARL OF THE EAST about the nature of those invasions wrote, "It is curious that neither the Cholas nor the Pandyans seemed tohave wished to invest the island altogether. Time and again theyraided the rich plains and monasteries of the relatively defencelessnorthern kingdom, taking the proceeds of the marvellous agriculture,stripping temples, loading themselves with jewels and provisionsbefore returning to their poorly organised countries; but of a creativeand imaginat ive desire to rule Ceylon, there is no sign".

The bookCEYLON AND INDIAN HlSTORYwhich is authoreoby a Tamil, M Ratnasabapathy and a Sinhalese H. perera, observesthat, " Tamil k ings ruled over an essent ial ly Sinhalese kingdom.They usual ly fol lowed the customs and tradi t ions of the people andwhen their rule came to an end the is land's historv cont inued on thel ines on which i t had been developing ".

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T

A TAMIL KINGDOM AFTER THE 13TH CENTURY

Our search has so far revealed that the whole of Sri Lankacould not have been a Tamil kingdom. We now have to search foraTamil kingdom in the North and East of Sri Lanka which as claimedbythe LTTE and those of similarthinking, was established in the 13thcentury and continued until 1833 when the British merged it with therest of the country.

The region of the north and east of Sri Lanka which the LTTEcalls their homeland consists today of part of the north-westernprovince, the entire northern province and the eastern province. Thenorthern province comprises of the Jaffna district, the Mullaitivudistrict, the Vavuniya district and the Mannar district. Today,s Mullaitivudistrict, Vavuniya district and Mannar district together with part of theJaffna district constituted in those days, the Wanni which alsoencompassed the Trincomalee district.

The eastern province today consists of the districts oJTrincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara. In those days the district ofAmpara included the Panama division and part of the Bintennedivision.

The Eastern Province As A Tamil Kingdom

In our search for a Tamil kingdom after the 13th century, let usconsider the east, the north and the Wanni separately so that wecould effect a more detailed search. We would therefore begin withthe history of Sri Lanka's eastern province. lf the LTTE,s claim iscorrect, when the Portugese colonised Sri Lanka in the 16 th century,Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampara districts would have beensubject to a Tamil king, perhaps residing in Jaffna.

The Portugese priest and historian, Reverend Father Fernaode Queyroz in his book THE TEMPORAL AND SPIR|TUAL CON-QUEST OF CEYLON wrote, "As long as Rajapure (Anuradhapura)was the capital of Ceylon, the whole island was subject to one king;but after... . . . . . . . . . . the city of Cota (Kotte) became the metropolis,there were in the island 15 Kinglets, subject to the king of Cota, whotherefore was considered to be Emperor, and the same tiile is inthese days claimed by the king of Candea (Kandy). These kinglets

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were he of Dinavaca, Uva, Valave, Putelao (Puttalam). Mantota(Mannar). Tannagama, Mul iaual i (Mul la i t ivu). Tr iquimale(Trincomalee). Cuttiar (Kottiar). Battecalou (Batticaloa). Paneva(Panama). Vintena (Bintenne). Orupola, Mature, Candea and of thepoint of the north, Jaffnapatoa (Jaffna), 1 which together with thekingdom of Kotte makes 16.. . . . . . . . . . . and al l ended in the course oft ime, leaving only the kingdom of Candea which, ever gave troubleto the Portugese".

In describing the kingdom of Kandy Father Queyroz wrote, "The kingdom of eandea consisted besides i ts own lands, thePrinic ipal i t ies of Uva, Gampola, Battecalou Panama, and Cutt iar(part of the Trincomalee district).To the Portugese Trincomalee assuch was the area confined to the harbour and the fortress that theybui l t overlooking the harbour and which today is known as FortFrederick. The harbour and the fortress were of military importanceto them and that was the area out of the whole of the Trincomaleedistr ict which the Portugese held. The area surrounding theTrincomalee harbour and extending southwards was referred to asCutt iar or Kott iar, which together with the adjacent area ofTampalagama formed part of the Kandyan kingdom.

Father Queyroz' description of Trincomalee reads, " lt re-mains to give a descr ipt ion of Tr incomalee, which means the'mountain of the three Pagodas (Stupas) ' . . . . . Over that largeharbour there juts out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . a rock on which the k ing of Ceylonerected three Pagodas, two at the extremeties and one in the middleand highest point, which was the pr inic ipal one and the one mostvenerated in India". The mountain of the three Pagodas is the rockon which they bui l t their fortress and which is now known as FortFrederick.

Wri t ing about Kott iar Father Queyroz states, " . . . . . . . . . . . . . theseare the lands, Dissaves, Vidanas and Principal i t ies of the Kingdomof Candea.. . . . . . . . . . . . .u. Wri t ing more about the Portugese fortress atTr incomalee, Father Queyroz describes how, when the Danessailed into Trincomalee harbour and began to construct a fortressthere, the Portugese Governor Constantine de Saa hastened thereto get r id of the Danes. He wrote, " l f they (Danes) should succeed in

Emphasis is because they are part of the Regionclaimed as a Tamil Homeland

(1)

15

7-

erecting that fortalice, the danger should be irreparable, and if he ofcandea should league with them, it would give them greater audac-ity." writing further about the Trincomalee fortress eueyroz states," The king of Candea seeing that we took his ports, was deekingoccasion to break out in a fresh war, ' , and also, " . . . . . . . . . .as he ofCandeawas Lord of the port of Cuttiar, panaua (panama), Batecalouand others of lesser importance.. . . . . . . , . . . . ' ,

It could be seen f rom Father eueyroz' writing that Trincomalee,Batticaloa and Ampara which constitute the Eastern province, hadbeen part of the sinhalese kingdom of Kotte when the portugesearrived in sri Lanka, and that subsequenily they became par:t of theKandyan kingdom, and also that only the ports at Trincomalee andBatticaloa were controlled by the portugese. According to FatherQueyroz, Jaffna and Puttalam had also been part of the king ofKotte's emoire.

In 1659 a Bri t ish Naval Captain named Knox and his sonRobert, while sailing off the coast of rrincomalee landed at Kottiar toeffect repairs to their ship. In his book THE HISTORICAL RELA-TIONS oF THE ISLAND oF cEyLoN, Robert Knox describes theirarrival at Kottiar as, " By this time the king of the country had noticedour being there and, as I suppose, grew suspicious of us, not havingal l the whi le, by any message, made him acquainted with our intentand purpose in coming. Thereupon he despatched down a Dissauvaor General , with his army to us, who immediately sent a messengeron board, to acquaint the Captain with his coming, and desired himto come ashore to him, pretending a let terto him f rom the king., , Laterin the book, Robert Knox describes his audience with that k ing, atKandy. lt would be observed f rom Knox's narrative that Kottiar in theTrincomalee district was part of the Kandyan kingdom.

ln 1762 when the Dutch were in occupation of Sri Lanka,though not in the east of the country, John pybus a Bri t isher inMadras, was assigned by his government the mission of discussingan alliance with the Kandyan king. He arrived in Trincomalee on 5thMay. The diary kept by Pybus and pubtished subsequenily, reads, ,'May Sth - left the ships in Trincomalee Harbour at 3 a Clock in themorning and landed about 1/4 past 5 at a vi l lage cal led Moodoore(Mutur) about a mile up the mouth of Cottiar river, which is the nameof this distr ict . l t has 64 vi l lages belonging to i t . l t has 3 Head Men,who have the management for the General whose Government i t

l6

belongs, who resides in Candia (Kandy) . . . . . . . . . . . . .These Head Menassemble the people from different villages to assist in any businessof the King's . . . . . . . . . . . " l t could be seen f rom pybus, diary that Cott iarin the district of Trincomalee had been part of the Kandyan kingdomeven as recently as 1762, during the Dutch occupation of thecountry.

Reverend Phi l l ip Baldeus, the Dutch Mi l i tary Chaplain in SriLanka during Dutch occupat ion, wrote in his book A DESCRIpTIONOF THE GREAT ISLAND OF CEYLON about a ser ious i i lness thatthe king in Kandy had suffered. He recorded that, ' ,On August 18,1613 the Emperor Senerat assembled his Counci l lors at a smal ltown called DileEe to which he had been removed on account ofi l lness". Further on in his book, Baldeus describes the proclamationof Senerat, King of Kandy issued to that assembly as, ,,Cenuviraed(Senerat) by the Grace of God, Emperor of Ceylon, King of Kande(Kandy), Setevaca, Tr inquemale (Tr incomalee). Jaffnapattam(Jaffna), Settecories, Manaer (Mannar). Chi laon (Chi l law). panua.(Panama). Batecalo (Batt icaloa).1 Palugam and Jae|e.. . . . . . . . . . . peaceto al l i t may concern.. . . . . . . . . . . . in the more extreme case of death of al lthese heirs, I entrust and conf ine these our realm to your hands tochoose for a successor a person who shall be my nearest bloodconnect ion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . "

Batticaloa

Just as much as in Trincomalee at Batticaioca too, thePortugese had only a fortress at the mouth of the lagoon.The restof the Batticaloa district evidently remained under the king of Kandy.While describing the Portugese fortif ication in Batticaloa de eueyrozwri tes, " . . . . . . . . . . . . for i t is sure that the Candiot (k ing of Kandy) wouldbreak out in war, when he saw Batticaloa forlified',. Furtheron,Queyroz goes on to state that, " The Candiot sallied out with all hisforces to imoede this ' .

S.O. Canagaratnam, a Tamiloff ic ial in the Bri t ish administra-tion in Sri Lanka, and based in the Eastern province, produced aMONOGRAPH OF THE BATTICALOA D|STRtCT in which he statedthat, " the whole district formed part of the Kandyan province when

Emphasis is because they are part of the Region ctaimedas a Tamil Homeland

(1)

11

the.sinharese kings herd sway and Batticaroa was then known asPuliyanduwa".

Historicar descriptions of the arrivar of the first Dutchman in SriLanka arso iilustrate.that Batticaroa was part of the Kandyan king-dom even at the beginning of the 17th century. That first Dutchmanwas AdmiralJoris van Spilbergen.

R L Brohier, in his book sRr LANKA AND THE NETHER-LANDS describes spirbergen's visit as, " on the sro June iibozlSpilbergen proceeded to,Matecalou' (Batt icaloa)... . . . . . . . . . . . .He wasreceived with ostentatious cordiarity by Dissawa Mohotoila whostood with unsheated sword at the head of a guard of more than sixhundred men with naked weapons in their hands.... . . . . . . . , . .Spilbergenand his retinue were thereafter conducted for tne nigirt 10

'tneNilame's house.... . . . . . . .The subsequent behaviour of the i lrohotoi la,or the ' king of Matecarou' as he is cailed in spirbergen'. Jorinar,roused theAdmiral 's suspicions of his bonafides and vJr,". l ty._-... . . . .The position was crariffed when the Admirar rearnt that he wasdealing with a regionar overiord under the King and Empeior ofceylon whose court was at Kandy, and that the Mohotolla could notprovide them with the cargo ot render any assistance without theorders of h is sovereign.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ' ,

In his book HrsroRy oF cEyLoN wiiliam Knighton writesthat, " Accordingly in the year 1601, Admiral Spilbergei.. . , . . . .--. ,".despatched with three vessers to open a communication with thenatives. on 2gth May 1 602, he anchored inthe mouth of a rivera litfleto the south of Batticaroa, and immediatery commenced a corre-spondence with a native governor of thai town, who,

"s ,ru"f,endeavoured to make himserf appear an independ"nt'rou"r"[n.

After some unimportant altercation with the prince, tn" o"t"'r., nori-ralfound out the truth, and on 15th June despatched a messengerto Candy (Kandy). Don John ( the King oi t<anOy at tnai timelreceived him with cordial i ty... . . . . . . . . . ,

our search through those historiar records revear that sriLanka's eastern province courd not have been a Tamir kingdom byitself or even a part of one, and that instead it had been pJrt "iin"Kotte kingdom when the portugese colonised the country, anOsubsequenily rormed part of the Kandyan kingoom when it became

the centre of Sri Lanka,s kingship.

t8

The east had in fact remained part of the Kandyan kingdomuntil in 1766, when the Dutch after their invasion of Kindy uni tn"subs.equent Treaty with the king of Kandy, began to aoministei tnemaritime areas in the east.i Even then the bintenne oiviion orAmpara continued ro remain part for the Kandyan kingo;.prior to'1 766 therefore the Dutch and before them, the Fortugeie, controtteonot the east but only the harbours and fortresses at rrincomalee andat Batticaloa.

Memorandum Of Dutch Governor

That the eastern rands of sri Lanka beronged to the Kandyankingdom, and arso that the king in Kandy exerted i strong dominationover the Sri Lankan people wherever they may n""u" n""n, i.described in a Memorandum of a retiring Dutch Governor in sriLanka to his successor. That Memorandum of Governor schreuderi9 Ggvelor designate Lubbert Jan Baron Van Eck, dated lZthMarch 1762, inctuded the foltowing :_

'. . . . . . . . . . .we have acquired our terr i tory not from the King ofKul.dv. but direcily from the portugese *ho'porr"rs"o'ifru*iurry,partly by treaty, parily b.y te_stamentary desposition, and parily byforce of arms, at of which wit be forthwith demonstrated.... . . . . .For i tis my object to point out here that whatever fortifications, harboursand stations we now possess round the lsland, there are howeverplaces enough outside our possessions where *" poar".. noterritory and where the enemy may easliy come without exposinghimself to any great danger, such'as the south -east side of theDissavony of Mature (Matara) up to Batticaloa, the stretch f rom thereto Trincomaree and further on in the direction ot.rarnapatt",

"noagain from Calpentyn (Kalpitiya) to Negombo,,.Writ ing about the strong inf luence that the king of Kandyexerted over the Sri Lankan people Schreuder stated:

".. . . . . . . . . the progress of the Company,s (Dutch EastIndia Company) service and in fact almosi everythingthat depends on the favourablqconditions of the sam6as a natural result thereof for the profit of the Company,

(1) See map "C" on page 20

19

MAP 'C' '

. . i lAWARAKA LA WI'YA

CEYLONt796

5ho*in7

Th e l{a n d y a n D is a ra n ie.

- Oulch Fronlier bolore t766. - ;. -lrter Oulih fronlie? in t 766

ntI!:REricE3K& 1.8 |h're c lforales a

louorBulalaama1 r( FaurlloraleiP Pallalan4.2 Adapalala nilh

UppcrEulalgamaollolmalc

W l{alapane il(igeluw

o

7AMAN.

t tAouwA t \. \

'..t

;/

o8

' N7E NNA

(n

3

FI

l(alalara

29

o i , / sEvEN

C*tn*V"KOAALES

:

ATA LE

%o \-z

\%G.l r I e

is entirely contingent upon the disposition of the Couttof Kandy, which so often as it pleases is able without theslightest trouble to create a diversion in all our activities,to oppose the Company's interests, and to place us atevery turn in embarrassment as soon as we decline to,dance to the King's piping, and that too through the helpof our own subjects whom he keeps in check to such adegree and subservient to his will that not only manywho are furthest away from here and are nearer to hisfront iers. . . . . . . . . . . but even the others through fear ofpunishment show themselves ready at the slightestwish of the King to rebel against the Company and toswel l the crowd which.. . . . . . . . in a short t ime spreadthroughout the whole country, places eveything in con-fusion and cannot be stamped out without the greatesttrouble and circumspect ion. For our inhabitants havelong since being brought to that f rame of mind.. . . . . . . . . . . . .and imagine that they are not the Company'sbut the King's subjects, and that they can serve theHonourable Company only by his permission, so thatthe mere mention of the King's name is sufficient toseduce them from their al legiance to their lawful mas-ters without the least reason whatsoever and as it werein spi te of themselves".

The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Ceylon Branch) in itsVolume XVI (1899) states, " That the eastern area of Ceylonremained part of the Kandyan Kingdom even in the middle of the '1 8thcentury is conf irmed by the fact that in 1766 King Kir thi Sr iRajasingha was obl iged by treaty with the Dutch to rel inquish hissovereignity, inter al ia over Tr ikunamala (Tr incomalee), andPul iyanduwa (Batt icaloa) land the places appertaining thereto anda belt along the sea coast up to a distance of one SinhaleseGawwa".2

Emphasis is because they are part of the Regionclaimed as a Tamil HomelandApproximately four miles

(1)

(2)

21

l--

East - Not a Tamil Homeland

It could be seen therefore that the east could not have beena Tamil kingdom, or even a part of one which, according to the LTTE,the Portugese and after them the Dutch, subdued and continued togovern as a separate State. History shows that instead, the east hadbeen part of the Kandyan kingdom until 1766 when the Dutch bytreaty, acquiied it and that too, only a coastal strip of land, at placesnot more than about ten miles wide.

The LTTE claim that ".. . . . . . . . . . . .emerged from the beginning ofthe 13th century, a clear and stable poli t ical fact.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . (that) theregions that extended southwards up to Kumana to the north bankof the river Kumbukkan oya were f irmly established as the exclusivehomelands of the Tamils ", fails therefore to stand up to the test ofhistory.

22

tti,,til,

SEARCH FOR A TAMIL HOMELAND IN JAFFNA

ln our search through history, we have seen so far that neitherSri Lanka prior to the 13th century, nor the East of Sri Lanka afterthe 13th century, had been Tamil kingdonr's, and thus could not becalled Tamil Homelands of today. From there we move now, insearch of a Tamil kingdom in the north. Perhaps we should beginwith the Jaffna peninsula where we would seaich through the pagesof history for a Tamil kingdom, in and after the 13th century.

Jaffna In Early Times

Before we commence to examine the 13th century and after in thecontext of the Jaffna peninsula, it may be useful to study Jaffna,searly history. We had seen earlier, how king Devanampiyatissa usedthe Jambukola port of Jaffna. In addition to that port, the ancientSinhalese kings had also used the sea port at Kayts which is anisland off Jaffna peninsula and considered as.part of Jaffna. Evenas late as the 12th centirry Kayts port had biien prepared forthelaunching of an expeditionary military force into South India. Cholainscriptions describe how the Sinhalese king parakramabahu I(1 153 to 1 186) had made preparations to launch a second invasioninto south India f rom Kayts port as well as f rom other ports in Jaffna.

There can be no doubt that Tamils had been living in Jaffna inancient times and consisting mainly of those who had migrated f romSouth India. Yet however the Sinhalese population had been largerand had predominated. This is evident in the Jaffna place names ofthose ancient times, which in the main were Sinhalese ones. Forinstance today's Valikamam in the Jaffna peninsula was in thosedays known by the Sinhalese name Waligama.

The eminent Tamil historian Mudaliyar Rasanayagam statesin his book, ANCIENT JAFFNA, " that Jaffna was occupied by theSinhalese earlier than by the Tamils could be seen not only in theplace names of Jaffna but also in some of the habits and customs ofthe people. The system of branding cattle with the communalbrandby which not only the caste but also the position and the family of theowner could be traced, was peculiarly Sinhalese,,.

23

Jaffna After The lQth Century

. lf Jatfna hadoriginatybeen inhabited bya majorityof sinharese,how.did the Tamils become the majority -subsequenttyf

nlooOnumber of those Tamirs had been mercernaries in the sinharesearmies whire others had been sordiers of invading forces or *no naochosen to remain in.this country. As wd had seen ""rti"r, 'noat

otthose invading forces were f rom -south

India. To Jaffna arso'*"nt ff,"Javakas of south-east Asia; Mukkuvers from the Malabar coast oflndia; lndian pallavas; Arab and Mohamedan traders who hadmarried ramirs or who decided to make J"ff* th;i; nor", m"Madapallis of Kalinga; Kurukullams; Thimilar from the sind andothers of rndian origin. Among the mercernaries in the sinharese1fr'."r and among the remnanis of invasions from'south rndia were' C.holas,Pandyans, Cheras, Kalingas, naif uts, and otherVellaikaras.The last named means in Tamir. "-servicemen on pay,,. The invadersfrom south-East Asia were the Javakas who were

"inni."rrv rr,r"ruv.

The mercernaries initiaily rived in south pihitirata. Their migra-tion first began when rand to riv;-in oegan to become scarce in southPihitirata. so they moved to nonh pihiiirata. But as the wanniwhichwas in their immediate north, courd offer onry, the harsh and difficurtconditions of jungre rand, many of them moved further north to theJaffna peninsula. The tough among tnem oio however setile in thewanni and ofcourse benefilted by hiving rargerareaforthemserves.some of them did not go nort-hwaro iut to the south, either toMayarata to Ruhunurata, and subsequenry many of tirem wereabsorbed into sinharese society. nn exoJus ot ramirs to tn" .ortnfrom lower Pihitirata occr.r.rred ol a very rarge scare consequent tothe decay and decline of lower pihitiraia in in" tgtn ."ntury.

-

Tamil Mercernaries

- But why were there so many mercernaries in sri Lanka?Because most of the time the armils of ancient sinharese kingsconsisted mainry of mercernaries from various south Indian iing-doms. Many of them were of ramil origin. The sinhalese too did forman element of the ancient sri Lanka miiitary, but in the main th"/*"r"involved in agricurture and rerigion. euite otten when sinharesefought in batiles, they did so as-militia.

Sir Emmerson Tennent, in his book CEYLON refers to theemployment of mercernaries in Sinhalese armies, even as far backas the 3rd century BC. He wrot€, "...........dnd hence while the peoplewere zealously devoted to the service of religion, the sovereign atAnuradhapura was compelled, through a combination of causes totake into his pay a body of Malabars (South Indians) for theprotection of both the coast and the interior".

Throughout the centuries those Tamil mercernaries in theSinhalese armies, settled in Pihitirata. Some of them had even beengifted with land. But as we have already seen, when there were nomore suitable land to settle in, the mercernaries began migratingnorthward, particularlyto the Jatfna peninsula in uppei pihitirata. Allthe emigrde to Jaffna were however not Tamils. There were alsoSinhilese seeking new pastures or moving with the Tamils becauseof marriage ties.

The tough and the hardy, as well as those experienced infarming under difficult conditions, chose to settle amidst the thickforests of north Pihitirata and lying between Vavuniya arfd the Jaffnalagoon. That area was referred to as the Wanni. Both Tamils andSinhalese settled in the Wanni. However because of the harsh anduncertain conditions in the jungles of the Wanni, the people tendedto settle in cliques which often consisted of those of similar origins ornationalities. Very much later those separate cliques were trans-formed into typical Wanni tribes like the tribes which had alreadybeen in the Wanni when the mass emlgration into it from lowerPihitirata, began.

trrespective of where they settled, most of the mercernariescontinued to remain soldiers of the Sinhalese king's armies. Thosewho settled in the Wanni however became typically tribal andisolated themselves fronithe rest of the country.

As we saw earlier, allthe Tamil mel:cernaries did not move tothe north. There were also those who moved to the south. Many ofthem married Sinhalese and eventually became absorbed into theSinhalese community. Dr. C. Sivaratnam a Tamil historian, referredto those mercernaries in his bookTHE TAMTLS lN EARLY CEYLON.He wrote, " Tamil mercern'aries who with the consent of the hostcountry operated through a millenium, adventurous and daring, andwho penetrated into Sinhalese villages and social structure, makingmarriage alliances, lost their identity and are Sinhalese now."

25

John Still, the British authorof the book THE VTLLAGE tN THEJUNGLE had his own observations which he expressed as, " TheSinhalese nation is of mixed blood in which is incorporated remnantsof the original inhabitants and a strong strain of Tamil. Tamilcontributions before Chola invasions is due to the sublle nature ofTamil influence".

Allthat mixing and meiging of Sinhalese and Tamils through-out history, could well influence and impartial observer to concludethat the claim for a Tamil homeland is meaningless. Yet however, asthe LTTE insists that there should be a separate Tamil homelandbased on a Tamil kingdom that had existed since the l gth century,we must continue our search for that kingdom, through the pages ofhistory.

Decadence Of The Pihitirata Kingdom

During our search so far a Tamil kingdom in Sri Lanka, we sawthat there had been a decline and decay of the pihitirata kingdom, inthe 13th century. But how did such a decadence ol the SinhaleseRoyal kingdom of Pihitirata occur ?

Throughout the centuries Sinhalese kings had used highlyefficient and broad-based Administrative and Bureaucratic systemsto rule the country, so much so that even while the kings concen-trated on constructing massive inland water reservoirs, commonlyreferred to as 'tanks' , or in constructing Dagobas and establishingmonasteries for the betterment of Buddhism, the kingdom and thecountry progressed effectively and well in all spheres, includingeconomic, agricultural, finance, education, health etc, The zenith ofefficient administration and good government was achieved in the12th century during the reign of king Parakramabahu | (1 153 to 1 186)

About a century before Parakramabahu however, the seedsol decadence had already begun to be inadvertently sown. Thoseseeds were one of the majorfactors which brought about the decline.The period was the 1 1 th century when Pihitirata was occupied by the

r,.Chofas of South India, who remained in occupation tor around 77years. At that time Ruhunurata which was also without a king, wasbeset on the one hand by the lack of sound and central administra-tion, and on the other hand by conspirdcies and intrigues, so much

26

so that it produced severalwar Lords, each ruling his own territoryin Ruhunurata. They were, as would be expected, frequently at war

with one another. Fortunately though for sri Lanka, from all that

dissension and division, arose almost miraculously, king VijayabahuI who not only united Ruhunarata under his rule, but also went on to

defeat the Cirolas in Pihitirata, and then to unite the whole countryunder his kingshiP

Yethowever 'ashefoughtthepowerfu|Cho|asinPihi t i rata.Vijayabahu continued to be plagued by incessant rebellions and

inirigues from the Sinhalese themselves. He had no option but to

simriltaneously fight the Cholas as well.as the rebels within his own

kingdom, all by himself. There were no allies to assist him. Yet he

cou-ld recall how when a Pandyan king had faced a similar sitilationhe had been supported by a militaryforce from sri Lanka! He himselfhowever, had io face his own predicament all by himselt. So he

began to search for a reason for it. lt was lrue that at that moment,the-Pandyans were under chola domination, but yet they were only

a stone's throw from sri Lanka and could have sent some kind of

reinforcements, if they were so inclined. what then was needed to

secure assistance in troubled times?

ViiayabahulrecalledhowinSouthlndia,kings"rushedto.theassistante of other kings because of personal relationships, includ-ing those through marriage. There were for instance the chalukyasan-O tne Hoysalis, who helped the Cholas because of marriage ties.

Vijayabahu concluded from all that, that it was best to establishpersonat relationships with royalty of other countries, so that there

could be a royalobligation to assist sri Lanka in times of adversity.He accordingiy gave his sister in marriage to a Pandyan prince and

moreover, ne irimself married Tilakosundari, a princess of Kalinga.

Such practice was adopted by other kings too, mainly in the

hope of securing assistance during invasions. Unfortunately how-

ever those mairiage ties, instead of protecting sri Lanka and

safeguarding sinhalese kingship, created conflict and chaos within

the c-ountry.lhose marriages produced situations where queens of

Pandya, Kalinga, Srivijaya, Chola, Chera or other origins, contrivedto have their own sonssucceed tothe Throne, instead of the rightful

heirs.

27

All that naturaily red to a series of intrigues, assassinations,coup, rebellions and such like, with the result that the hithertoefficient and broadbased administration in pihitirata deterioratedinto chaos and confusion, which eventuaily racked the capaciiy toprevent the rise of the.miritary. Generars became king and qr""nmakers, so much so that eueen Leerawatie was put on the throne byher Generals on three sbparate occasions, when she rured forthreeyears, for an year, and four months respectively

.The lack of proper administration and contror invariabry af-fected the management of the kingdom's finances, which at timescaused the Tamil mercernaries as wellas sinhalese soldiers to haveto be without their salaries. At such tirnes the soldiers ano ine,mercernaries revolted and went on the rampage, looting andpillaging. The decadence which had set in aftei Vilayabahu-l wasstemmed during the reign of king parakramabanu t,but it continuedeven more rapidry after that king's death. The decadence ofPihitirata is well illustrated in one

-ot sri Lanka,s chronicles, the

RAJAWALIYA which in translation means, ,,A historical narrative ofSinhalese kingship".

The RAJAWALTYA records that because parakramabahu did40thaveanychildren, hewas succeeded by his nephewwhowastheson of his sister, marrie{ to a South Indian Xatinga prince. Thenephew was crowned as Vijayabahu il. The RAJAwRttyR t"ngoes on:

" His nephew Vijayabahu succeeded him.Kilinkesda caused him to be murdered by the instru_mentality of the daugther of a shepherd, and reigned 5days.

Kirti Nissanka, who came from Kalinga country whencetheTooth Retic had been broulht, titt6O frim;............andhe reigned for 9 years.

His successor, king Virabahu having been put to deathby the commander of the army, king Vjkramabahureigned 3 nronths. Afterhim the cornmaiderof the armyput Chodaganga to death, and caused the kingdom tobe administered for 3 years by the principal queen(Lilawatie) of (the tate) king parakramabahu. After-

1

wards, a king (Shasamalla) descended from the OKKArace, reigned 9 years.

Thereafter, Elalu Abo Seneviraja dethroned the kingand carried on the government through the principalqueen (Kalyanawatie) of king Nissanka for 6 years..Afterwards he placed on the throne an infant prince offive months old, Dharmasoka by name and adminis-tered the kingdom for 6 years.

After him Eniyanga camefrom Damba_diva with a pow-erful army, landed in the island of Lanka, tookPolonnaruwa, killed king Dharmasoka and Elalu Abo,the Chief Commanderof the army, and himself reigned1 5 days.

Thereafter Manakam Senevi killed him and caused thekingdom to be administered for I year by queen Lilawatiej,who had ruled on a former occasion.

Then Lokeswera brought a Tamil army from a foreigncountry, erected fortifications and reigned 5 months.After him queen Lilawatie reigned 4 months.Having brought an army from the pandyan country anddethroned the said queen, king parakrama pandireigned 3 years.

.. . . . . . . . .The king of Kalinga landed on the island of Lankawith an army of 20,000 able-bodied men, fortified him-self, took the city of Polonnaruwa, seized the kingParakrama Pandi, plucked out his eyes, destroyed thereligion and the people and broke into Ruwanveli andother dagabas. He caused the Tamils to take anddestroy the shrines...........the pinnacles which werelike their crowns.... . . . . . . . .and the re| ics... . . . . . . . . . . . .Hewrought confusion in castes by reducing {o servitudBpeople of high birth in Lanka, raising people of low birthand holding them in high esteem. He reducedto pove(ypeople of rank; causedthe people of Lankatoembracea false faith; seized those who were observant ofmorals, and mutilated them...........turned Lanka into g

In

house on fire; settled Tamils in every village; and

reigned 19 years in commission of deeds of v iolence'"

Flight To the South

That invader from Kalinga was Magha, a ruthless despot' His

was a reign of terror and deitruction' He destroyed not only the

Buddhist shrines and edifices, but also the vast irrigation system in

pihitirata. All that terror and destruction sent sinhalese, as well as

Tamils and others, f leeing to the North and South' The Sinhalese

king moved his capital city south-west to Dambadeniya' far away

f roir tfre terrible chaos that had gripped the Pihitirata kingdom' The

new capital was in MaYarata.

Amongthi lsewhoremainedin|owerPhit i ratawereTami|mercernariei and remnants of previous invasions who were all on

the rampage, looting and pillaging, and of course Magha's troops

werealsothere'A|sostayingbackatPihi t i ratawereSinha|esewhoref used to abandon theit iands, or who had marriage ties w1h others

who chose to remain, or had other reasons to remain there'

The exodus of a greater part of the population out of lower

Pihi t i ratacausedthea|readydamagedirr igat ionsystemto.becometotally neglected. This naturally led to a shortage of food because

agricuttur; could not be cont inued due to the lack of water '

Flight Northward

By the t ime Kal inga Magha was defeated by k ing

Parakramabahu ll, the capitil city Polonnaruwa' as well as the other

cities and villages in lower Pihitirata, had become unsuited for

humanhabitat ion.Moreover,seeming|yonthehee|softhedestruc-t ionofthe|owerPihi t i ratainigat ionsystem,thedreadeddiseaseMalaria raised its head, The lack of water for agriculture; the

shortage of food; the emergence of malaria and the ominous

'encroalhment of the jungle into abandoned vi l lages and ci t ies'

ptoOO"O those remaining-in lower Pih.itirata to move out' That

migration was in the mairi, northward, while some did move south-

wards.

30

The migration north had been primarily to Jaffna because thewanni which lay in between consisted, to a large extent of thickjungle and also could offer only very harsh and difficult conditions.Among those who rnigrated north were mainly Tamils while therewere ifew Sinhalese among them. A majority of those Tamils werecomprised of mercernaries from south India, while the othersconsisted of remnants of invasiohs f rom South India, and troops ofthe defeated Kalinga Magha. Those Tamils naturally preferred tomove into the Jaffna peninsula because it was nearer their places ofor:igin. Also among those migrants were races such as Arabs,tvtustims and Malays, who moved north mainly because of trade, ormarriage ties.

Allthat migration, north and south of lower Pihitirata, togetherwith the spread ol the jungle throughout the area in between,automatically isolated the people in the Jatfna peninsula frqm thosein the southern areas of Mayarata and Ruhunurata, and vice-versa.

Sri Lanka's historical chronicle, the MAHAVAMSA describesthe desolation of Polonnaruwa just 35 years after the defeat ofKalinga Magha, through a conversation between king Vijayabahu lVand his kinsman virabahu, while they visited that fomer capital city..ln that conversation the king states, " ln this town called Pulatthinagara(Polonnaruwa) there are now Pasadas, lmage house$, Viharas,Parivenas, Cetiyas and Relic temples, walls, gate-towers, houses ofAddhayoga and of the Hammiya kind, Mandapas, Sermon halls,temples io the dieties, and other buildings. some of these standerect, covered with grass, trees and whatever else has grown uponthem. others have collapsed without support as the whole of theirpillars perished; others again alas, willfall, bending underthe weightof walls cracked from top to foot, because other support is wanting.Some of these, through decay and old age are like greybeardq, andunable to stand erect, they become rnore bowed from day to day'with many the joists are broken and their pinnacles destroyed, withothers the roofs have decayed and the bricks are broken. ln othprsby the breakage of the damaged r:ooftree, the bricks of the roof havefallen and only walls and pillars remain.ln others again the gateshave fallen-in and the hinges of the gate posts destroyed; in othersagain the steps have become loosened and the railings have fallen-ini Of many, all that can be seen are parts still hanging together ofthe originai foundation wall; of many not even the place where tlneyonce stood is now to be seen".

31

\rl

I

I

I

- - t

South Indian Kingdoms

Did the Tamils amohg whom were the Cholas, pandyans,Kalingas, Cheras, and others, together with the Sinhalese andTamils who had arready been in theJaffna peninsura, the Arabs, theMuslims and those of other nationarities, estabrish an arternatekingodm in Jaffna, to the sinharese kingdom. in the south? Thesearch forsuch a kingdom would additionally necessitate the exami-nation of the history of south lndian kingdoms too, because manypeopre in the peninsura were from south rndia, and Jaffna being amere 'stone's throw'from south India was close enough to influenceor be. influenced by thbse kingdoms. Moreover sri Llnka's historyhad through the centuries been closely intenryoven with those of thesouth Indian kingdoms which themserves to a rarge exent, con-ducted wars with each other, in which sometimes sri ianka itserf hadbeen involved.

The wars, the ethnic conflicts, the rise in supremacy of oneloyth lndian kingdom over another, did indeed have their etfects onsd Lanka. Events in sri Lanka had arways been monitoreo oy southIndian kingdoms, so much so that they invaded this country wnenthey found a weak monarch, or anarchy and confubion in it. Even thedecadence of Pihitirata and the resultant developments were moni-tored by the south lndians particularry the cholas and the pandyanswho were also historicaily, enemies of each other. Each of themknew well the capacity of sri Lanka to bounce back from advbrsity.Also, each of those two kingdoms harboured a suspicion tnaisriLanka would support the other. Thus the sudden infrux into thepeninsula by so many south indians did cause concern to the choiasand the Pandyans, particularly the latter who had by then baretygainqd supremacy over the choras after centuries oi being domi-nated by them.

what were the south rndian Kingdoms which infruenced oraffected sri Lanka ? chora, pandya and chera were those mostinvolved with sri Lanka either as invaders, or as the areas fromwhere sri Lankan kings got their mercernary sordiers for theirarmies, Eirigraphic evioenie of those rinjooms were found in theR.ock Edicts of Emperor Asoka, and which-described the empero/sdiplomatic relations with those kingdoms. The ancient sAi{GAMwoRKS of south India refer to the ihree kingdoms and even exalttheir kings, particularly Karikala of chola and-seguilavan of chera

32

In those Indian lands, there had been throughout the centu-ries, a kind of struggle for supremacy among those kingdoms. Sucha struggle was most pronounced between the Cholas and thePandyans. Unfortunately however, because of the proximity of SriLanka to both kingdoms, the fluctuation in power between the twohad its impact on this country. Sri Lanka's occasional invasion intoSouth lndia helped to rnake matters even worse. There was constantsuspicion in those two kingdoms that Sri Lanka was supportive oftheir adversary.

Cholas And Pandyans

The early histories of the Cholas and the Pandyan's have notbeen recorded in detail as has been the histories of their latterperiods. Only nips of informalion about them in ancient times areavailable, like for instance the Greek historian Megasthene refer-ring, in the 4th century BC, to the great wealth of Pandya. TheMAHAVAMSA records that Prince Vijaya of India who made SriLanka his home in 543 BC, married a princess from Pandya. Theleare also references to those kingdoms in the early SANGAM WORKSarising lrom the literary assemblies of poets held in Courts of Indiankings, who were patrons of literature. However although they areinformative in the context of socialand cultural aspects, the SANGAMWORKS say little about the political history ot those times.

The VENNIKKUYATTIYAR, referring to the Chola victory atVenni underthe leadership of Karikala, conveys a concept althoughrough, of the Chola characteristic. lt states, " Karikala, Sola king whoare descended from the poweful monarch who ruled the wind anddrove the ships on the waste of water, the sea, and who own verystrong elephants, you marched against the enemy and exhibitedyour might by defeating

.him. The foe committed sucide on the

battlefield of Venni...........for he was ashamed of the wound on theback and desired to obtain fame in the world; but he is not superiorto you".

i

I..tII

lt

' l

33

Pandyan Supremacy

The earliest recorded history of pandyan supremacy overtheCholas commences with the reign of king KADUGON (590 to 620AC)and ends with the reign of king MARAVARMAN RAJASTMHA tlwhose rule was cut short when he was defeated by the Chola kingPARANTAKA I at the battle of Vellore, in the early tenth century. ThePandya king fled to Sri Lanka, taking with him his Headgear andRegalia.

Chola Power

The emergence of the Cholas as a strong power, really beganaround the end of the ninth century with king VIJALAYA. tt was hewho frist embarked upon the campaign to first subdue the pallavasand thus lay the foundation for the ascendancy of the cholas over thePandyans. Vijalaya's son ADITIYA, ended pallava domination withhis victory over the Pallava king ApARAJITA, after which heannexed Tondaimandalam. He extended Chola territory northward,as far as the frontiers of the Rashtrakutas, the Gangas and theCongu country. Towards the latter part of his reign, ADlTlyA begana war of supremacy over their traditional enemy, the pandyans.

ADITIYA's strategy of f irst bringing the areas in his north underChola control before taking on the pandyans, was used by both theChola and the Pandyans. One objective of that strategy was toprevent assistance to the enemy, and another was to avoid thepossibi l i ty of being distracted from their main war effort, byharrassments on other fronts, in all probability prompted by theirenemy.

ADITIYA however could not subdue the entire pandyan King-dom before his death, lt was left to his son PARANTAKA | (907 to 953AC) to complete the task by defeating the pandyan kingMARAVARMAN RAJASIMHA II.

Chola power cotinued with ever increasing strength, until thePandyans once again rose to ascendancy over the Cholas in thereign of their king. MARAVARMAN SUNDARA pANDyA (1216 TO1239) in the early thirteenth century. Almost three hundred year.s ofstrorig and ruthless Chola domination had made deep impressions

34

on the Pandya psyche, so much so that even when they eventually .gained supremacy over the Cholas, they continued to remain appre-hensive about losing thejr power once more.

One major factor which caused the pandyans to be soapprehensive was the strong Chola resilience. For instance, theChola King PARANTAKA who had conquered the pandyans in theearly 10 th century, was defeaied by the Rastrakuta king KRISHNAlll at Takkolam. Hope surged in the Pandyan breast. But they lostwhatever hope they had when the Chola king RAJARAJA the Great(985 to 1016) made Pandya a part of the Chola empire and evencalled it RajarajaPandinadu. He also defeated the chera fleet off theMalabar coast and went on to subdue the Cheras too.

Evidently not satisfied with all that, RAJARAJA the Greatdefeated the Gangas of Mysore as well as the Eastern Chalukyas,occupied Vpngi and captured Koorg. RAJARAJA the Great thenmoved on tb Western Chalukya and also conquered Kalinga. Allthose conquests eventually produced a Chola empire covering thevast area from Thungabadra in the west and Mahandi in the east, tothe southern end of India. To cap it all, towards the end of the 1Othcentury he invaded Sri Lanka and Conquered pihitirata during theregin of the Sinhalese king MAHINDA V, who was subsequenilytaken captive to Chola, by RAJARAJA's son and successor, kingRAJENDRA l. The Chotas remained at pihitirata for well overseventy years, until they were defeated and expelled by the Sinhaleseking VIJAYABAHU l. Under the kingship of RAJARAJA, Choladomination Was extended to the Maldive and the Laccadive islands.

RAJARAJA's son RAJENDRA I (1016 to 1044), in typicalChola character was not content with the vast kingdom that heinherited, So he attacked the Chalukyas, conquerred Orissa, en-tered Bengal and reached as far as the banks of the Ganges. Tocelebrate all those victories, king RAJENDRA I assumed the tiile ofGangaikonda and built himself a new capitalwhich in obvious vanityhe named, Gangaikonda - Gholapuram.

Even though signs of the weakeing of Chola power surfacedaround mid 11th century, when Pandya, Sri Lanka and WesternChalukya began to revolt and also, in certain parts of the greaflyexpanded kingdom, where Chola power became subject to chal-lenge, the resilience of the Cholas was such that they continued tohold their position as a dominant power until the 13th century. In the

35

I

latter half of the 11th century, the Sinhalese king VIJAYABAHUdefeated and expelled the Cholas who had occupied Pihitirata foraround 77 years. Some historians attribute that defeat to theweakened state of the Cholas at that time, but that could not be thetrue picture because the Chola king KULOTTUNGA l, recapturedand brought Vengi back into the Chola kingdom, suppressed rebel-lions in Pandya and Chera, and also overran Kalinga during thatperiod.

Even at the end of 12th century Chola power waxed strong.When PARAKRAMA the Pandya ruler of Madura appealed to SriLanka's PARAKRAMABAHU l, for military assistance in his waragainst KULASEKERA the Pandyan ruler of Tinnevely, the Cholaking RAJADHIRAJA ll who supported KULASEKERA, defeatedboth the Pandyan and Sri Lanka forces. Similarly when Sri Lankareinforced VIRA PANDYA in his war against his fellow Pandyan,WICKREME PANDYA it was the Chola king KULOTTUNGA l l lwhohelped WICKREME PANDYA to defeat his foes.

All those Chola successes and resilience prompted thePandyans to feel that the Cholas were indomitable. They began tohave some hope only with the ascendance of the comparativelyweak Chola monarch, RAJARAJA lll to the throne. The Pandyanking MARAVARMAN SUNDARA PANDYA ( 1216 to 1239 AC)attacked RAJARAJA lll, captured Tanjore and Uraiyar and causedthe Chola king to flee. Yet however Pandyan hopes were once moreshort lived when the Hoysala king NARASIMHA ll intervened torestore BAJARAJA lll to Chola throne.

Pandyan Apprehensions

The assistance that the Cholas received f rom other kingdomswas one reason whythe Pandyans remained apprehensive of Cholabeing helped back to power, even if subdued by Pandya. Even thepresence of so many Cholas in Sri Lanka was viewed by thePandyans with suspicion, because though they may not have beenstronQ enough to attack Pandya, they could create the necessarydiversions to distract Pandyan concentration on fighting the Cholas.

Apart lrom the Cholas in Sri Lanka being a threat, Sri Lankankings themselves had displayed an even more remarkable resilience

36

than the Cholas in their ability to rid themselves of invaders. ThePandyans were conscious of this, as well as of the potential ofSinhalese kings themselves to pose athreat, oreven a distraction onher south flank.

While SUNDARA PANDYA who ruled Pandya in the earty13th century, concentrated on conquering the Chola kingdom, SriLanka wis invaded by a ruthless despot from Kalinga, known asMAGHA. At that time however it did not pose a serious threat to thePandyans because MAGHA had to first establish himself in SriLanka. Yet the Pandyan monarch was aware that at sometime orother he would have to tackle that threat. In fact it took the pandyansover two decades to be able to do so because of their war to subduethe Cholas.

When the Pandyans were able to turn their attention to SriLanka, they saw that the Sri Lankan king PARAKRAMABAHU tllacked a strong enough force to defeat MAGHA. The Pandyan kingtherefore decided to assist Sri Lanka to get rid of the invader MAGHAbefore he could begin to pose a threat on their south flank. Accord-ingly a Pandyan force landed in Sri Lanka and began to exertpressure from the East, on MAGHA who was in Polonnardwa. Theplan of action was to push MAGHA westward, into a trap laid for himby the Sri Lankan forces, waiting at Kalawewa. MAGHA fell for theruse and was routed at Kalawewa. The defeat of MAGHA eased theminds of the Pandyans because he too held the potentialto distractthem sufficiently, to weaken their military campaigns in their north.

MAGHA did not die in that battle but instead fled to Jaffna. lnthe meanwhile however, the popluation in Jaffna had swelled be-cause of the influx from lower Pihitirata after it had been abandoned.The Pandyans were evidently not allthat pleased at the prospect ofhaving so many Cholas virtually at their southern doorstep. Theytherefore began to monitor events in Jaff na, just as much as they haddone on developments elsewhere in Sri Lanka, so that they couldensure that their south flank would not be seriously threatened.

MAGHA, perhaps because of his domineering personalityand stron g characteristics, evidently assumed leadership over Jaffna.The Pandyans knew him to be power-mad and as such feared thepossibility of him being manipulated by the Cholas in South India toharrass the Pandyans on their south flank. To their relief however acomplete transformation seemed to have come over MAGHA. for he

*

i, l

JI

- - -j4P

took to fostering agriculture and religion among the people. For thetime being therefore,the Pandyans did not have to worry undulyabout MAGHA.

Major Threats FaeinE Pandya

Sri Lanka by itself could not of course, pose a serious or directthreat to Pandya. What disturbed the Pandyans was that while theytackled their major chal lenges, part icular ly external ones, Sr i Lankacould distract or be used as a distraction to weaken their concentra-tion and effort. What were those major challenges or threats thattroubled the Pandyans? One threat was f rom the Cholas themselveswho because of their organisat ion, determinat ion, support f romother kingdoms and great resi l ience, could be expected, al thoughsubdued, to r ise-up again. The Pandyans were also very much al iveto the vast conquests, dominat ion and strengh of the Cholas, dur ingthe previous three centur ies.

Apart from the Cholas, there were the Turko-Mohamedanswho had already conquered parts o( nor(hern fndra. l-frose forcesunder the leadership of MUHAMED GUHRI had overrun a largeport ion of north India including the Punjab, whi le under eUTB-UD-DIN-AIBAK they had establ ished the Delhi-sut tanate. ThoseMohamedan forces had begun to move south.

In addit ion to the threat from the Mohamedan forces in thenorth, there was also the ex plosive emergence of the Mongol ians asa forceful power, which within a comparat ively short per iod of t ime,had conquered the vast country of China, penetrated into the heartof Bussia, and had gone on to extend their dominat ion to poland inthe west and Japan in the east. l t would have been not al l that di f f icul tfor Mongol leaders l ike Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, who hadturned Central Asia into a powerful empire, to overrun India too.They did in fact invade India, many a t ime in the 13th and early 14thcentur ies, and they even captured Lahore, in 1241AC. The pandyansheard much about the conquests of the Mongolians lrom varioustravel lers, including Marco Polo, who on his return from a vis i t toKublai Khan's palace, came through India and Sri Lanka. Theylearnt about the powerful military pontential of the Mongols whichsurpassed even that of the Mohamedans who were occupying agood part of north India. They were also told about how the merenarne Genghis Khan inst i l led fear in the hearts of nat ions.

38

: The Sri Lanka Factor

-_. With such potent threats hanging.over her, pandya wasnaturally anxious to have no threatJ whatsoever,'"no nf*"u",minor, on her south frank. one reason for such pandyan aon""rnwas that unrike themserves who had been kept rroor"JLv f,echolas for centuries, sri Lanka had ail ttre'wnle ow#o

"remarkabre abirity to bounce back form adversity *itNn u-Joilp"r"_tively short while, and to then turn tables on hir "onqr"rorrifn.Pandyans courd not forget now tne

-sri Lankas even after angccupation ot 77 years by the Cholas, fought anO uanquiJ"O tn"invaders, and united the whore of sri Lanka underone nov"ig"nn"r.

. . The pandyans were also aware that Sri Lanka had on occa_sion despatched miritary forces to south India, at times to assist thePandyans themserves. on one occasion however the sri Lankanking sENA t had even sent a strong force to pandya to aueng! tneinvasion of sri Lanka by a pandyan-king, a short whire earrier. suchwas the resilience of Sri Lanka

. During the 13th century and aftenruards, pandyan kings hadalso been quite conscious of the chora factor. The chora factorwasthat, after each chora invasion hundreds of chora soridiers re_mained in the country and became entrenched in ftre soliatlaoric orPihitirata. Afterthe abandonment of rower pinitirata, a taig; nu;n".of choras moved northward, whire others continued as mercernariesin the Sinhalese armies

The pandyans^accordingry feared that the choras in southrndia wourd use the choras in sri tanka to create a threat on theirsouth frank. That is not ail that surprising because even today, rndianMajor Generar Afsir Karim, in his ooot r"nnrusNATroNAL TERRoh_rsM - THE DANGER. rN THE SOUTH writes of the threat that theLTTE ( who craim to be descended from the choras) "no

oin",traditionar enemies of.rndia are qu.ite rikery to pose to rndia,s stabirityand integrity by opening a ,, Southern Front,,.It was therefore yylaJ,to1t]re pandyan kings of the 13th centuryand thereafter; to ensure that sri Lanka does not rise in power as ithad done many a time, pleviousry. rt did noiat at suit pandyan poricyto have a strong and united. sri.Linka, particurarry in ui"* oitni"ig"number of choras in the isrand. To the eanoyins ii *J. f;;Hil, r"

promote a rival force to the sinhalese king's power, and to contriveto have each power dependent on pandyan support.

The isolation of the Jaffna peninsula from the rest of sri Lankaafter Pihitirata was abandoned, as well as its proximity to pandya,prompted the Pandyan kings to consider creating in Jatfna, a forcefor the purpose of keeping the rest of sri Lanka in check. Howeveras there was no immediate threat nor urgency to cre'ate such a force,at that time, the Pandyans opted to closely monitor events both insouth sri Lanka, as well as in the Jaffna peninsula. lt was around thattimethatthe Pandyansfound Magha involved in promoting agriculltureand religion

Javaka Chandrabanu

In the second half of the 13th century, a Sriviajyan (Javaka)prince named chandrabanu invaded sri Lanka for a second time,leading a Malayalee force reinforced by south Indian soldiers,including cholas. At that time the sri Lankan capital had been movedto Yapahuwa. chandrabanu entered sri Lanka at Mannarbut did notadvance upon the capitalcity. He instead moved north to Jaffna andremained there for sometime. By that time Magha was either deador disinterested in power politics, with the result that chandrabanuconsolidated his position in Jaffna and became its leader. His menmerged with Jaffna society and thereby began the Javaka influencein the peninsula. chandrabanu's activities were also closely moni-tored by the Pandyans.

Chandrabanu who evidenily had the Sri Lankan 'Crown,as hismain objective, contrived to first possess the Tooth Relic of theBuddha, which he knew was the palladium of Sri Lankan kingship.He calculated that with the relics in his possession, kingship wasalmost assured. He accordingly mustered a strong military force,advanced upon Yapahuwa and laid siege to it. The pandyan kingJATAVARMAN SUNDARA PANDyA il (1253 to127O)viewed thosedevelopments in sri Lanka with increasing concern. He calculatedthat if the srivijayan prince chandrabanu succeeded in wearing thesri Lankan crown, he could turn out to be quite a force to reckon with,particularlyas he could secure supportfrom srivijaya itself. such aneventuality was not at all to his liking. He therefore despatched a

40

Pandyan force to rerieve yapahuwa of chandrabanu,s siege. whenthat.was accomplished, the sri Lankan ruler VIJAyABAHU lV andhis kinsman Virabahu, broke out of their fortress in iapanr*",attacked chandrabanu and vanquished him. chandr"o"nu no*lever escaped to Jaffna.

rt was not rong before it became evident to the pandyans thata strong leadership had eimerged in Jaffna. Even though iristoricatrecords are not crear as to who that reader was, in ail firobabirity itwas chandrabanu himserf. JATAVARMAN suNDAnn Fnr.rov ilwas not one to take chances. He despatched a highry efficient ancapable Pandyan Generarto Jaffna. That Generatitew tn" Jurtnuleader and subdued his force.

Check On South Sri Lanka #

Meanwhire is south sri Lanka, vTJAYABAHU rV was consori-dating his position. The pandyans who had monitored his batfle withchandrabanu, had observed him to have exceptionar batflefierdstrategy and tactics.After defeating chandrabanu VIJAYABAHUbegan to iestore the ancient capit; city Anuradhapura. He.arsorestored Poronnaruw-a sufficienily to cere-brate the coronation of hisaged father, pARAKRAMABAHU il in thar former Rinitir"tu

""litut,because. the old king could not have himself crowned there eaitier,due to Magha's presence at polonnaruwa.

The Pandyans who preferred to see severar kingdoms in sriLanka,with each king confined to and jearousry guardini nis particu-lar kindom, became concerned anoui vt.lnyngnHu ri,. *ioeningcontrol, and accordingrydecided to staunch it. However,

"u"n Lltor"they could carry-out whatever plans they had, VijayaOanu,s owncommander-in-chief, the Generar Mithra, assassinated him. Ar_though there had been some differences between the king and hiscommander -in-chief, there had not been any serious anim-osity forone by the other. As such, the assassinati-on shocked

"u"rytn",particuhrry VTJAYABAH u's mercernary troops. one schoor of thougnthowever considers that rhe king,s deaih h";6;;;il;;;iilih"Pandyans"whose Generar and officers had estabrished a croserelationship with Generar M.ithra when they assisted vrJAyABAHu,in his war against Chandrabanu.

4l

Whatever it was, that assassination failed to alleviate thePandyan fears,

'because an even stronger threat arose from a

unexpected quarter. General Mithra was in turn decapitated byThakuraka, the leaderof VIJAYABAHU's Rajput mercernaries. TheRajput and the Sinhalese soldiers then got together to instalVIJAYABAHU's brother, BUWANIKABAHU I on the throne.

King BUWANIKABAHU himself was of sturdy stock. In a shortwhile be began to display signs of possessing much of the promiseand resilience of some previous Sinhalese kings. He repelled twoattempted invasions by Kalinga and Chola Generals. He also broughtthe f ierce Wannichiefs under his control. The Sri Lankan chronicle,MAHAVAMSA's narrative on BUWANIKABAHU reads, " from thattime onwards the king made the whole double army (Rajputs and

. Sinhalese) obedient to his will by assigning them salaries and thel ike, drove back the Damila (Tamils) foe l ike Kal ingaraya,Cholangadeva and the rest who landed f rom the opposite coast, andalso subdued the Vanni kings in Sinhala, KADALIVATA, APANA,TIPA, HIMIYANAKA and so on, and freed Lanka from the briers ofthe foe."

All those developments in Sri Lanka were monitored by'thePandyan king who at that time was MARAVAHMAN KULASEKERA.He considered the options available to him, and decided againstsending a strong force against BUWANIKABAHU I because heneeded allthe men that he could muster, in Pandya itself . Moreover,even if he had despatched a mil i tary force and ki l led kingBUWANIKABAHU, there was no guarantee against another ableSinhalese king emerging. What he needed was a more permanentsolution, perhaps something where he would keep the Sinhaleseking alive but at the sametime reduce his power and authority. Hereflected that according to Sinhalese traditions and ieligious beliefs,the king's power and authority f lowed f rom the palladium of Sinhalesekingship, which was the Tooth Relic of the Buddha. Thus with hisRegulartroops needed to counterthe ever increasing threatfrom theMohamedans in particular, MARAVARMAN KULASEKERA opted todespatch a small sub-force of a commando type, charged with thetask of bringing back the Tooth Relic.

The sub{orce that he sent was that of the Arya Chakrawarty,which was more or less a feudal force used by the Pandyans for theborder security of the south coast. The Arya Chakrawarty accom-

+z

prished his mission successfufiy and gave the Tooth Reric to his king.without the Tooth Reric, the p'o*", ino autnority or ne ling ot sriLanka was nominal, so much so tfrai itre next king, 'ARAKRAMA

BAHU 't

persona'y visited pandya,- ptedged ;i;il;;;'io tnePandyan king and brought back the iooth Retic.

The Pandyan Frontier tn Jaffna

. Eve.n though king pARAKRAMABAHU ilt had ptedged alle-giance to the pandvan king, the ratter couto not be assured that othersinharese kings wourd nonourlnui;i"d; The pandyans krrew werlthe sri Lankan psyche and were accoriingry not prepared to takeany, ch.ances. They were however yet facect with the problem ofdeploying theirforces in sriLanka betause the Mohamedans underthe teadership of MALrK KAFUR nal-moveo south and had evenattacked Madura, in the. heart of pandya. Thus insteao oi.o,iri ti"gtheir regurar forces to keep ttre sinn'ause kings under check, thePandyan king decjdeO, to position part of the pandyan Aryachakrawarty's forces which were in Ramesweram, in the Jaffnapeninsura. His intention was to kiil two biids witn on" ,tonq i,itn"ton the one hand th:-Arya Chakrawarty would keep the Cholas anctothers in Jaffna under contror, whire ai the same time ensuring thatthe power of the sinharese kings w"r" r,"pt in check. The pan-dyanArya chakrawarty forces wourd have suiied that requirement wer,and moreover if the necessity arose, those troops courd be rein-forced.

Arya Chakarawarty

Who were those Arya Chakrawarties? Evidenily althoughthey were resident is Ramesweram, tnef were not peopre of thatarea, nor even of pandya itself.

^-. .. l-.ording to Dr. C Sivaratnam, in his bookTAM|LS lN EARLY'EYLON,

Arya Chakrawarties were " chiefs who rurgd a district inRamesweram under pandyan kings.. a;;" historians such as thetsritisher H.W.Codrington were ol tne opinion m"t tf,uiin;;"chakrawarties were of mixed oescent, ariJ craiming to be from theGanga area' some others trace tne origin oithe Arya chakrawarties

43

to Gujerat and the Rajputs. Whatever their origins, the Arya

chakrawarties were, as stated by Dr. sivaratnam, essentially chief-

tains and not kings.

Becauseoftheirwar| ikecapaci ty|ormi| i tary|eadershipandthe ferocious efficiency of their troops, the Pandyans used the Arya

chakrawarties as the frontier force at Ramesweram, and subse-quenfly at Jaff na. In the Jaff na peninsula their misson was'to govern

the pebple there, as well as to keep the Sinhalese kings from rising

to power where they would constitute a threat to the Pandyan south

f lank. The Arya Chakrawadies did just that most of the time and even

continued to do so when the Vijayanagar Empire rose in power in

south India afterthe Pandyan kingdom had fallen tothe Mohamedans.

Like the Pandyans, the Vijayanagars too were harrassed by

uprisings in their south flank, which was Jaffna. whenever the Arya

ifratrawarty in Jaffna failed to control a rebellion the Vijayanagarsdespatched reinforcements to the Jaffna peninsula. For instancewhen Jaff ha rebelled against the Vijayanagars in 1377, VirapakshaUdayar was sent to subdue the rebels. Again in the early.lSthcentiry another force, including cavalry had to be sent to Jaffna toputdownanuprising.ThiswasdoneandVijayanagarauthoritywasrestored in the JafJna peninsula. Towards the end of the 15th

century, there was yet another rebellion in the Jaffna lrontier of the

Vijayanagar Empire, and it was General Nayakka who had to be sent

to quell that revolt.

Viaiayanagar EmPire

The Vijayanagars themselves continued deploying the Arya

chakrawarty-forces-in their extended frontier at Jalfna until their

empire fell to the Mohamedans. They had also their own forces in

the Jaffna f ront ier and this was evidenced when Pr ince

Sapumalkumara, who was sent by king PARAKRAMABAHU Vl to

capture Jaffna, found Vijayanagar troops manning the forward

defences at Pooneryn and at Paranthan.

The main enemy of the Vijayanagar Empire was however not

the Cholas who had -been

the enemy of the Pandyans, but the

Mohamedans.

44

when the portugese began to colonise Indiaaftertheirarrivalat Goa, south rndia was under the rure of the viiavanagars. rnatempire was essentiaily a Hindu one, and which had been estab_lished bytwobrothers, HARr-HARA and BUKKA, on tn"6"nr.. ottn"Tungabhadra river. rt was estabrisheJ to counter the Bahmanikingdom of the Mohamedans who at that time, posed a serious threatto south India. At the time of the portugese arrivar at Goa, theVijayanagar king wab KRT'HNADEVA RA'A, who was one of theirgreatest kings. The Vijayanagar Empire cotapsed att"iiney *eredefeated by the Mohamedans at ttre batile of rarikota, in the secondhalf of the 16th century.

The deep rooted hosti l i ty of the portugese towardsArabs,Mohamedans.and M9ors, prompted them to nitrr" cio.e "nAfriendly rerations with the vilayanagai ring.. As'ti,'n"'*"rr'[v, tn",friendship became firmry consoridat6o, .o much so that even thougnthe Portugese coronised much of the maritime districts ot sri L"nr",those crose ties strongry infruenced them to deray their cotonising otthe Jaffna district, because it was under Vijayanagar rure. Jaffna wascaptured by the portugese onry after the fa, 5t

'.rr vu"v"n^ugu,Empire.

Commerce Between South India And Jaffna

As the Jaffna peninsula had been a frontier of first thePandyans, and later the Vijayanag"rr, ih"r" would naturally havebeen a free frow of commerce and trade between Jaffna and southIndia after the 13th century. rt wourd in fact have been a matter ofroutine for businessemen and traders of Jaffna to sairto soutn iniia,transact business and return without any customs or other checks.That practice wourd have been so ingraineo in the peofr" oi i"irn"that even in the earry lgth century,-tne aritistrer James cordinerfound Jaffna stillat it.

Reverend James cordiner, chaprain of the British Garrison incolombo, had arrived in sri Lanka in t z'ge. Rt tne uegining ;iir," I $ncentury he had traveiled throughout the mar:itime iroui"n"", of tn"g?!lly'-Tlose experiences were recorded in his book, n oescnip-TION OF cEyLoN, which was pubtish"i in raoz. tn his J;;;ipi;nof Jaffna, cordiner writes, "The country "ru,.'ol, iirirrrr, "

J"lr5ij"

45

II

bustle pervades the daily markets; and a regular trade with theopposite eoast of India affords many opportunities of improving asmallfortune".

Even up to very recent times when the Palk Strait which is thesea between Jaffna and South India, began to be patrolled by thenavies of Sri Lanka and India, the people in Jaffna would not havegiveri. a second throught about going to South India for tradd,commerce or merely to see a popular film.

Jaffna Not A Tamil Homeland

In the light of the politicat and mititary history of both Sri Lankaand South India, it would be seen that Jaffna could not have been aTamil kingdom after the 13th century. The peninsula had insteadbeen afrontierof the Pandyans, and afterthe fallof pandyan power,a frontier province of the Vijayanagar Empire. Both the pandyansand the Vijayanagars used Jaffna to protect their south flank. Theycontrolled Jaff na with their own troops and also used those forces tocheck the rise of the Sinhalese kings.

The apprehensions of the both the pandyans and theVijayanagars about Sri Lanka were vindicated when, even after thelong period that the Sinhalese had been kept under check, kingPARAKRAMABAHU Vl rose not only to capture Jaffna but to evendespatch an invasion force into the Vijayanagar port of Adriampet.

Mannar lsland

As movement between Jaffna and South India had quite oftenbeen through the Mannar insland, the Pandyans as well as theVijayanagars, included the island in their frontier province. Mannarisland was also used for movement between Jaffna and south SriLanka.

The island of Mannartoo was populated by mercernaries andremnants of invasions from south India, by other Tamils, Muslims,Sinhalese, Arabs, and others who had migrated there after lowerPihitirata was abandoned. The oldest inhabitants had however beenthe descendats of the Sinhalese, Arabs, South Indian and other

46

traders who had been part _of the vast Mannar Emporium, and thePearl Fisheries during pre_Christian ti;;;.

The island of Mannar too was garrisoned with pandya_Aryachakrawarty troops, ,ano r"t"i *iti"v,yilv"n"g"r forces, but not asstrongty as rhey did the Jaffna prrirrlTj.

Our search fora Tamil homeland through thepages of history,has so far revealed tnat not inJ;;J:';;r, the Jaffna peninsutatogether with the jsland. ot frrf"nnailortj'nave been Sri LankanTamir kingdoms in or after tn" igil ;;;ilry As such those areascannot possibry be considereo ".

nor"r"ids of sri Lankan Tamirs.That leaves us with the re.quiremenfto seaich through history, for aTamir homerand in the wanniilil;;"rms part of the reoion;ffi*jl

the LrrE uno otn"r.-il,,i,,"r' thinkins, as a.rimil

j

I

II

. ttt'

47

THE WANNI

In their descr ipt ions of the or igin of the name WANNI, mosthistorians seem to have thought that it had been based on theextensive jungle which characterised its territory. One or two ofthem, had even been of the opiniorf that it could have got its namefrom the intense heat that pervades its entire area.

According to the Tamil scholar M.D. Raghavan, who wasonce Head of the Department of Anthropology at the University ofMadras, in South India, and laterthe Enthnologist in the Departmentof National Museums, the name Wanni may have been derived fromthe forest which largely covers its territroy, or it may have meant theland of the Wanniyas. 1 H. Parker, the Bri t ish Engineer, wri t ing aboutthe Wanniyas in his book ANCIENT CEYLON states, " Their ownname for themselves is Wanniya, 'person of the Wanni ' , as theforest and jungle of Northern Ceylon to the south of Elephant passis cal led".

What area did Wanni encompass? J.P. Lewis in the paper hepresented to the Royal Asiat ic Society on 31st July 1894, t i t ledARCHAELOGY OF THE WANNY stated " The Wannv was the namegiven to that par l of northern Ceylon which is bounded in the northby the Jaffna lake, on the south by the Aruvi river and the District ofNuwarakalawiya, which now forms part of the North Central Prov-ince, on the east by the Distr ict of Tr incomalee, and on the west bythe Distr ict of Mannar. . . . . . . . . . . . . .The Distr ict of Mul lai t ivu forms i tsNorthern half and that of Vavuniya its Southern"

The THIRUKETHEESWARAM PAPERS edited by Sir KanthiahVaithianathan, an eminent Tamil erudite, contains one paper whichcarr ies extractsfrom C.S. Navaratnam's VANNIAND THE VANNIAS.According to that paper the, "Vanni was the name given to thenorthern country between the Jaffna peninsula and theNuwarakalawiya distr ict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . l t stretched f rom Trincomaleeon the east coast to Mannar on the west and consisted ofTennamaravadi, Mul l iyavalai , Karunaval Pattu, Panakamam,Perumkalai Pattu and Musal i Pattu which included lands as farKudiramalai and a port ion of Chedikulam".

Ceylon by M.D. Raghavan(1)

48

' According to those descriptions, we who have already examined the history of the east, and of the Jaffna peninsula togetherwith the Mannar island, in our search for a Tamil homeland in sriLanka, are now left with only the history of the Wanni, for study.

As we had seen earlier in our search, after the decline anddecadence of Polonnaruwa and lower pihitirata in the 13th century,many people from those areas, particularly the stong and the sturdysettled amidst the harsh and difficult conditions that prevaited in thewanni. The area of the wanni had however, not always been difficultto live in. From prechristian times the area that was later called theWanni, had its own towns and villages and as such it had beencovered by less expansive jungle than it had been in the 13thcentury. In fact when Buddhism was introduced into sri Lanka, it wasthrough that territory that king Devanampiyatissa travelled toJambukola, in the Jaffna Beninsula.

The pre-Christain and otherancient tanks as wellas archaeo_logical finds which have been discovered during and after Britishcolonial times, bear testimony to the existence of towns, villagesand a civilization within that territory, centuries before it becameknow as the Wanni. The Britisher J.p. Lewis, in that paper hepresented to the Royal Asiatic society in 1gg4 stated that,"Mahakachchatkodi in Kilakkumulai South, which is one of theearliest settlements in the Wanni, also probably dates from prechristian times - its sinhalese name is Tittavali". ln that same paperLewis wrote, " The hill at Kuruntankulam or piyangala is identi-f ied... . . . . . . . . . . as the spot visited by the Buddha on his second journeyto ceylon and the tank would therefore date f rom at least the middleof the third century 8.C.".

Also aboutthe Kuruntankulam tank, J.p. Lewiswrote, " Butthemost extensive ruins in the province are those at Kurunturmalai orPiyanagala (south west of Mullait ivu)... . . . . . . . .at the south end of theembankmeht of the Kurunlurkulam tank.. . . . . . . . . . . . .about hal fway.... . . . . . is the site of an ancient temple, with the stone image of afive-headed corba.... . . . . . .Behind the bund are the remains of i t leastthree temp1es.. . . . . . . . . . . . .at Madukanda, Mahakachchatkodi ,l ratper iyakulam.. . . . . . . . . . . . . .one of the two Makara Thoranastones.... . . . . . .at Madukanda is lying on the surface.... . . . . . . . ln anotherplace is a roughly executed f igure of a bull . . . . . . . . . . . .There are also alarge heap of bricks, apparenily the remains of a dagaba..............u

49

- , l j

Still further on in his paper, J.P. Lewis wrote, ,,ln the eltreme northof Kurunavalpattu at Putumuripukulam (about 8 to 10 miles south ofElephant Pass).............the remains of a Buddhist monastery are tobe seen in the tract below the tank".

H. Parker in his bookANCIENT CEYLON writes, ,'Vavunikulama reservoir in the northern Province ( Wanni) should probably beassigned to near ly ihe same per iod (mid th i rd centuryB.C.)..............There would have been a vast population in the areain the 3rd century- mainly ricefarmers - possibly both Sinhalese andTamils".

lf there had been towns, villages and tanks in that area frompre-Christian times, there would also have been roads. KingDevanampiyatissa and his entourage would surely have travelled toJaffna f rom Anuradhapura, along a broad and well maintainbd road.

The THIRUKETHEESWERAM PAPERS on the Wanni statesthat, "Traces of ancient roads from Anuradhapura to Mantota andJaffna can be noticed in Killakkamulai South. There is an ancientbridge at Olukkulam". J.P. Lewis paper on THE ARCHAEOLOGYOF THE WANNI elaborates on it further with, " The remains of a veryancient stone bridge are to be seen in the jungle behind theOlukkulam vi l lage.... . . . . . . . l t was 200 to 300 ft and was raised uponpiers of substantial stone posts............The road which passes overit st i l l goes by the name of the Mawata (high road)... . . . . . . . . . . The.people say that this was a main road from Anuradhapura to Jaffna,possibly by way of Upatissanuwara".

Those and other ancient roads, even though they would havebeen in a state of disrepair in and after the 13th century, would in allprobability have been used by the Wanni tribes for commutingbetween their villages and north or south of the Wanni.

In ancient times however, that area was not referred to as theWanni. The first reference to it as the Wanniby historians, includingthe authors of the Sri Lankan Chronicles MAHAVAMSA, were inrelation to the 13th century. At that time most of the Wanni terriorywas covered with jungle.

The British historian H.W. Codrington in his SHORT HtS-TORY OF CEYLON wrote, " The reputat ion enjoyed byParakramabahu ll (1236 to 1271 AC) is due to the religious and

50

literary activities of his reign ...........11is at this period that we hear ofthe Vanniyans to whom tn'e satety oilnuraonapura was entrusted.These chiefs in rater oays occuiieo-ne frontier country betweenJaffna and the sinharese't<ingoom-,;1n ine sri Lankan chronicres, thewanni is mentioned for the-first time'in connection with the 13thcenturv kins VTJAyA?1HU X. (12s2 to rego nc.i rn""c6'ricrse'HrsroRy oF cEyLOw comments tnlt tn" ,,territoriar maqnatescated Vann i ch iefs came into p.rin"n." L tn"lnii"ilrii'i3n,u rv,there were eighteen of them ;J";.;;i them rured a district in rheregion lying betwe:n ll" .orntry-Jii"cily administered bv tneSinhalese king and the Northern ptt"nt"t".,, J

The area which came to be referred to as the wanni in the 13thcentury, had in ancient times been simiraito other areas of pihitirata,Iravi.Lo many viilages with.rarge pop;i"til"r. rt was abandoned whenlLllp_:r:tainins irrisation sy.t"r.',iit|,in it were J".ii"v"o ovrnvasions and its associated bat'es. waturat ;;;;;.,;JIn

".storrns and cycrones which are known'to have occured in thoseareas severar times, contributed in resser extent towards that de_struction of the irrigation system, tn"r". rn fact one particurarfyvicious storm is recorded to have ;il;;; as rate as.l802, when theBritish governed Sri Lanka.

unrike the tanks in rower pihitirata which enjoyed a perennialinflow of waters from rivers which n"J in"i, .ources amonq thecentrat hi's, the tanks in the Wanni*"L,"tr';;;;;';";,yo'-zone rivers which canied ritae or no *"i", cruring the dry season.commenting on the wanni rivers c.s-.ru"]r"r"tnum wrote, ,,There areno mountains in the Vanni district to enslre a perennial supply ofwatdr for the cultivation of crops. ...... . . .Th;;" are many rain fed riversin the Vanniwhich oodry Ori, lg tn" OrV'."".on.... . . . . . . . , ,The Wannidid not get much ,af,I ine tgt"h

"enirry-"nO after. The MONTHL'LTTERARY REGTsTER pubrished Jrri"!jn" Brirish administrationin sri ranka, in its issue of March rggiltateo that, ,'The Vanni issituated in the dry zone of ceylon, tn" "u"r"g"

rainfall at vavuniyabeing about 55 inchei in ayZar unJ"t'[rrr"ittivu some s inchesless"""""'the aveaqe number of rainy days in the year is 75 atvavuniya and s6 at iltulaittivui' -' 's"'t u(

Accordingry, both rn pre and post christian times, when tanksin that dry zone were damageo, tn;ie was lit'e or no water to feedthem, even if the tanks *"rj r"piir"J. ii n"o to await the advent of5l

rain' Thus when those tanks became badry damaged in batfles oreven otherwise, specificaily during that rongchora Jccupation in the11th century, it became impossibie for the inhabitants to contiue tolive there, and so they migrated to more suitabre areas. conse-quenfly with the abandonment of those towns and viilages, thejungle, the erephant and other animars of the wirds movedln.

'

Among the pre-christian tanks in the wanniwere the Giantstank, Vavunikuram tank, pavatkuram tank and the Kuruntankuramtank, while the tanks at periyankuram, orumadu, Kanakarayankutamand Pandarakuram were probabry of earry christain timei.rn addi-tion there were tanks at Tannimurippu, Mamadu, Chennamadu,Mataruvai t taakulam, puttumurip 'pukulam, l ratper iyakulam,Kannukkerni, Madukanda, Maha Rambaikuram and Kachc-hiramadu,almost allbuilt long before the 13th century, when the migration intothe Wannifrom lower pihitirata took place.

The Wanni being closely covered with jungle, was not hightypopulated in the years prior to the migration there from lower.Pihitirata. lt hed in fact been popurat6o oy tribes which werescattered near water sources such as rivers, ponds formed out of 'naturalsprings, and tanks which yet contained some water. some ofthe migrants to the wanni in the 1'3th century setiled down independ-ently while other moved-in with resident tribes. The ratter weregradually absorbed into those tribes. Those who setiled separaterytended to do so according to their crass, caste or nationaritiy. Therewere however also people of different backgrounds who chose tosettle down together

. Eventuaily ail those setflements, being isorated from eachother lived their separate kinds of lives and developed into differentwannitribes, with each having its own chieftain or bhieftainess whowere known as waniyas orwannichchees. Female leaders were notuncommon among the wannitribes. lt was in fact wanichbhee Mariasembatte who harrassed the Dutch more than any othertribal leaderof the Wanni.

Those Wanni tribes became isolated not only from one an_other but also from the developing civirization both north and southof the wanni. Eventuaily, after.generations of them had been werlimmersed in wanni rifesilye of hunting and agricurture, those de-scendants of the migrants from rower pihitirata became typicalwanni people who coirld no longer be identified as either sinhaleseor Tamil. 52

The rerigions of the orginar migrants did go down f rom genera-tion to generation. yet however, to their usual dieties *eri addednew godssuch as Aiyanar, the forest god. That could ofcourse havebeen expected because of the isoration, the consfant dangers in thejungle, the hard life, the uncertainity and such like, which w-ould havecreated the need for a god of their new environment, which was thejungle. According to the.THIRUKETHEESWERAM pApERS, "through the interiorof ceylon, Aiyanar (Tamil) orAiyana (sinhalese)is considered a forest god who guards t r ivei lers in thefgrest'..'..........Tempres dedicated to this diety are in many parts otthe Vanni".

H. Parker in his book ANOTENT cEyLoN describes thereligious ceremony performed by wanni hunting parties before theyleft their village. The diety that they imploreo wai invariably Aiyanar.According to parker, " They right a smail ramp at the tront bt tneoffering.............before the right expires they perform obeisancetowards the offering, and utter aroud the foiiowirig prayer for thefavour and protection of the Forest Dieties, wnic-n'must also berepeated every morning during the expedition, aftertheir millet-cake,gini-puwa had been eaten, before starting for the day ,s huntin!. :-

_ .. ̂ "W9

"re going to your jungle; we do not want to meet with the

Tall one (Erephant), the Jungre watcher (Bear), the animai*iir,il.,"head causing fear (snake), the Leopard.you must brunt the thorns.we must meet with the Horn bearer (sambar Deer) , the Deer, theone full'of oir (pig), the noosed one (rguana), the store-House(Beehive). We must meetwith about three pingo loads of noney, Aythe favour of the Gods. we ask onry for the sake of our n'ooityl ivel ihood".

.. That the migrants from rower pihitirata continued with thereligions of their birth, even while they remained tribarised in thewarrni, was evidenced by the Buddhlst and Hindu tempres, ihedagabas, statues etc, which were subsequenily discovered amongwanni ruins. Buddhist editices and statues were found in certeiiiwannitribalvillages, while Hindu structures and statues were foundamong the ruins of other wanni villages.Among some wanni vil-lages however, the ruins of both Buddhis and HinJu shrines, edificesetc, were found in the same prace. The THTRUKETHEESWERAMPAPERS quoting c.s. Navaratnam describes it as, ,'The Vanni is therand of spectacular runis of huge tanks and breached bunds. Ruihs

of Hindu temples stand side by side with dilapidated dagobas (Buddhist Stupas)......,.........occasionally among such surroundings wouldstand the ruins of the proud residences of the Vanniya chiefsnarrating their thrilling story of a thousand years of independence".

The Britisher, H Nevillwho wrote about his finds in the Wanniduring the British administration of Sri Lanka stated, " There is aruined temple wiih a large stone Buddha 8 ft high.... . . . . . . . . .near himis a Vishnu...........two flagstalf sockets or oil motars over a smallruined dagoba............a large temple with its posts all upset, and itsSaivite Lingam broken.... . . . . . . . ."

The Wanni was far from the composite entity that a kingomwould be whether Tamil or Sinhalese. Each Wanni chieftan and histribe was independent of the others. Moreoverthey jealously guardedtheir tribal territory against intrusion by other tribes in the Wanni.Apart from each Wanni tribe being independent of the others, theentire Wanni remained independent of the Pandyan frontier in theJalfna peninsula and the Sinhalese kingdoms in the south,for mostof the time. Sometimes however, if it was advantageous to them,Wanni chiefs paid tribute, quite often a token tribute, to the north orsouth, whichever was stronger, or strong enough to benefit them.

M.D. Ragahavan writing aboutthe Wanni in his book CEYLONstates, "The seat of the Sinhalese kings changing from place toplace, the Vanniyar chiefs were largely left to themselves, enjoyingfull sovereignity, independent of either the Sinhalese kings or theTamil kings in the North".

Dr.C.Sivaratnam in his bookTHE TAMILS OF EARLY CEYLONwrites that, "the Vanniars were independent rulers who paid tributeto either Kotte or Jaffna, according to who was more powerful at aparticular time".

. Sir Emmerson Tennent in his book CEYLON described theorganisation of the Wanni at the time of the arrival of the Portugeseas, " the political condition of Ceylon at that time was deplorable.Theseaports on all parts of the coast were virtually in the hands of theMoors; the north was in the possession of the Malabars (SouthIndians) where the seat of government was at Jaffna-pattam; and thegreat central region (since known as the Wanny) and Neurakalawa,were formed into petty fiefs, each governed by a Wanniya, callinghimself vassal, but virtually uncontrolled by any paramount author-ity".

s4

Another British historian H.W, Codrington in his book AsHoRT HlsroRY oF cEyLoN confirms the independence of thewannichiefs when he writes that, " it is at this per'iod that we hearof the Vanniyars............These cheifs in rater days occupied thef rontier country between Jaff na and the sinhalese tiingoom, and wassubject to one or the other of these states, or affeited completeindependence according to the strengh of their neighbours,,.

The wanni cheifs and tribes continued in their particular lifestyle until the colonization of sri Lanka by the Dutch and subse-quently by the British.The poftugese, because of the ferociousaggressiveness of the wannias, preferred to leave them alone. sirEmmerson Tennent commenting on it wrote, " The portugese wereonly nominal sovereigns of the Vanny and their dominaiion neverextended beyond the sea coast..........and they exercied no actualcontrol over the restless chieftains and their followers,,.

The Dutch and the British after them, were however intent ondominating the wanni. one major reason for that was the elephantsof the wanni which enjoyed a high market varue. The wannichieftains however, were intolerant of any intrusions into theirterritory. They therefore fought back even though the odds wereagainst them, especiaily in the case of their iimpte and basicweapons as againstthe more powerfuland sophisticated ones of theDutch and British.

It was however not ail smooth sairing for the Dutch and theBritish in their attempts to control the wanni. The Dutch caught atigress by its tail when they tried to subdue the wannichchee fiariasembatte, while the British themselves had their share of problemswith the Wannichieftain, panderam Wannia.

Because the Wanni was not a kingdom of the Tamils, orsinhalese, it lacked central organisation and control. The wanniinstead comprised essentially of different wanni tribes which be-cause of concerted offensives against them by first 'the Dutch, andthen the British, began to disinte!rate. consequentry many oiini,moved from the interior to the wanni coasts where they ?elt moresecure. A few of them formed into small bandit groups whicnplundered villages and hamlets bordering the Wanni.

Finally when the wanni tribar areas were abandoned, it oncemore became the domain of the forest, the elephant and of the wlld.

55

We have now seen what the Wanni had been through theyears right up to the periods of the Dutch and the British, and it isdifficult indeed, however much we may try, to find in the romantichistory of the Wanni, a Tamil kingdom, or even a part of one.

It has been evident in our search through the history of theWannithat the Wannias were essentially tribesmen and a law untothemselves, and also that they were independent of the pandyanfrontier peninusla in Jaffna and of the Sinhalese kingdoms in thesouth, other than occasionally when they paid tribute to the north orto the south if it was advantageous for them to do so.

End of Search

We have now come to the end of our search through history,for a Tamil kingdom in Sri Lanka, which if one existed could haveformed the base for a claim for a Tamil homeland. Unfo.rtunatelythough, as history fails to reveal the existence of a Tamil kin$domin the whole of Sri Lanka; in the north and east only; from pre-Christian times; or after the 1 3th century, there does not exist a basisfor a claim for a Tamil Homeland in Sri Lanka.

In our search through historywe also came across what couldbe described as a curiosity. Although the LTTE claim for a Tamilhomeland states that the north and east constituted a separate Tamilkingdom after the 13 century, and that they were togethertreated asa separate State by the Portugese, the Dutch and the British until1833 when that Tamil kingom, the Kandyan kingdom and the Kottekingdom were combined by the British to form one sovereign State,Leonard Woolf the British administrator who served in Sri Lanka asa Government Agent in the Provinces, seems to think differenily.

In his DIARIES lN CEYLON Leonard Woolf records that, " In1833 consequent to the Colebrooke recommendations the twoadministrative systems forthe Maritime Provinces and the Kandyanprovinces were united and a new system introduced." We could seethat, that there is no mention of a Tamil kingdom or province, or evenof a Kotte kingdom or a Kotte province!

About the Kotte kingdom as such, Leonard Woolf also notedin his DIARIES lN CEYLON that the Kandyan kingdom became theonly indegenous kingdom when king RAJASINGHE I of Sitawaka

56

died in 1593 and part of his kingdom was annexed by the Portugesein the name of DON JUAN DHARMAPALA, the puppet king of Kotte,and the balance absorbed by the Kandyan kingdom under kingVIMALA DHARAMASURIYA l. In 1597, inat puppet king of Kottedied, with the result that Kotte was absorbed into Portugese territory,and thereby ceased to exist.

Accordingly in 1833 which was over two hundreds later, therecould not have been a Kotte kingdom for the British to unite with theKandyan kingdom and a Tamil kingdom, as is claimed by the LTTEand those of similar thinking.

******** ***

) t

The claim for a Tamil Homeland made by Sri Lankan Tamilswho are a minori ty ethnic group in the country is basical ly theexpression of a strong desire to l ive separately from the major i tySinhalese who the Tamils accuse of oppressing them. The Lio-erat ion Tigers of Tamil Eelam who have been wiging a l iberat ionwar against the Sri Lankan government for several years, with theaim of establ ishing a separate State which they cal l Tamil Eelam,have declared that, " by l iberat ion we mean total l iberat ion of curhomeland and the winning of pol i t ical independence for our op-pressed people and the establ ishment of an Independent sover-eign social ist state of Tamil Eelam".

The Claim for a Tamil homeland which is of recent or ig in ishowever based on an event seven hundred years ago, whenTamils and Sinhalese who had l ived peaceful ly and harmoniouslywith each other for centur ies were separated by a singular ly vio-lent and destruct ive invasion from the South lndian kingdom ofKal inga. Sri Lankan Tamils assert through that Claim that there-after they had their own Tamil k ingdom in the north and east ofthe country unt i l Sr i Lanka was colonised by European nat ions,and that therefore i t makes that area a Tamil homeland.

This bosk searches through the pages of history for sucha Sri Lankan Tamil k ingdom. Because the Sinhalese refute theclaim for a Tamil homeland, the search for i t has as far as Dos-sible, avoided referr ing to Sinhalese histor ians and has insteadrel ied mainly on independent foreign authors and on Tamil histo-r ians as wel l .

* * **