Self-esteem and ancient Sri Lanka

Kamalika Pieris

In the British period, there was open contempt towards the ancient Sinhala culture. Malalasekera in his doctoral thesis (1928) spoke of the Sinhala kings who ruled from the 5th century to 11th century as a ‘royal imbeciles’ (p 147). The Europeans said that Sinhala culture was an inferior off shoot of Indian culture. They said there was nothing original in the ancient Sinhala culture.

This view is kept alive today. P.E.E .Fernando said in the 1940s that the Sinhala script is based on the Pallava Grantha script. A Sinhala translation of this was published in 2008. Pathmanathan said that Sri Lanka got its culture and political ideas from India. D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke said that Sri Lanka had inherited its literary forms from India and that there was no theatre in Sri Lanka.

.G. Kulatunga said that the idea of “viragal” came from India, citing Mahabaharata and Bhagavad Gita. According to newspaper reports, the Sri Lanka embassy holds an annual Wesak talk in Madras where a Sri Lankan academic goes across and says that everything in Sri Lanka came from South India.

Since the Indian kingdom closest to Sri Lanka was a Tamil kingdom. This encouraged the Tamils to look at our Sinhala culture. Due to this, there arose in Sri Lanka, a Tamil minority with a ‘majority complex’ and a Sinhala majority with a ‘minority complex’. This led to low self-esteem among the Sinhalese. It is necessary to correct this view and reverse this image.

The Tamil kingdom was ruled by several rival dynasties that fought each other continuously from the 7th century. Then in 1370 the Vijayanagaras of Karnataka conquered the Tamil kingdom and That was the end of the kingdom. It never regained sovereignty. Today, Tamilnadu is one of several States in the Republic of India. Sri Lanka on the other hand continued its sovereign kingdom till 1815. It regained its independence in 1948.

The Sinhala civilization was more advanced than the Tamil civilization. Sri Lanka has a fine collection of historical records. Tamilnadu has few cave inscriptions and lacking information on the period between 300 AD and 600 AD. Sangam poems have a continuous genealogy only for the Chera kings. Chola period (11th century) is noted only for its bronze sculptures. But Nepal was producing fine bronzes from the 9th century. Tamil literature developed only around 6th century AD. Tolkappiyan is dated to around 4th century AD.

Sinhala builders were working on colossal structures long before India. The Sinhala stupas were larger than those in India. Ruvanvelisaya is 278 feet without Chatra and 338 feet with pinnacle. Sanchi is 60 feet high.

Present day Sinhalese are therefore unimpressed by 7th century Pallava architecture, shown in the rathas, bas reliefs and small Shore temple at Mahamallapuram. The Chola temples (11th century) were of moderate size. The temples we see today in Tamilnadu date only from the 14th century. The Pandyas had enlarged the Gopuras (entrance towers). Vijayangara introduced the Pillared Mandapa, containing pillars with a vast amount of statuary, particularly the furiously rearing horse, and the whole carved out of a single block of stone. India excelled in decorative carving in both high and low relief. The Sinhala style was austere.

Sri Lanka had several scientific firsts, such as wind powered steel and the Biso Kotuwa. China discovered gunpowder and had an irrigation system similar to Sri Lanka’s. India was not known for scientific discovery other than mathematics. However, K. Indrapala makes the startling observation that the much-admired Sinhala irrigation system was due to Tamil input.

is argument is that though there is no historical evidence there must have been some interaction. He says Chola king Karikala was famed as a great builder of dams. But admits there is no historical evidence to show that Karikala and his dams ever existed. W.M.K. Wijetunge said that Karikala’s existence is in doubt.

The irrigation systems of Sri Lanka are considered unique. The undulating planes in North Central Sri Lanka led helped in the creation of extensive and complicated irrigation systems. South India consisted mainly of flat plains and irrigation was provided through rain fed village tanks and canals.

The irrigation systems in Tamil kingdom were small and limited to certain areas. They were not as advanced as the Sinhala system. The piston or rajamohol sluices of Karnataka and Tamilnadu had an outlet aperture of only 410.5 sq. centimeters. The cistern sluices of Sri Lanka were able to handle larger bodies of water. Nuwarawewa sluice outlet measured 9,000 sq. centimeters. Tamil irrigation was very late compared to that of Sri Lanka. It was only in the time of Devaraya I (1405-6) that a huge dam was built over Tungabhadra and a channel cut out of rock from the river to the city.

Sri Lanka had several international ports and were an important trade hubs. The external trade was controlled by the king. Tamil kingdom had no useful ports and its geographical position was unfavourable. The main South Indian rivers, Godavari and Krishna flow into the Bay of Bengal through Andhra Pradesh.

(The writings of Bandu de Silva, K.M. de Silva, R.A.L.H. Gunawardana, D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke, A.S. Hettiarachchi, K. Indrapala, T.G Kulatunga, G.P. Malalasekera, K. A. Nilakanta Sastri, C.R. Panabokke, S. Pathmanathan and R. Thapar were used for this essay)