Sri
Lanka is an island off the southern tip of
India.
There is secure evidence of settlements in Sri Lanka
by 130,000 years ago, probably by 300,000 BP and possibly
by 500,000 BP or earlier. Palaeo-environmental investigations
indicate that interglacials correlated with increased
atmospheric activity over the island - which was manifested
in correspondingly increased rainfall
on the windward aspect of the central mountains
and increased desiccation on the leeward side due
to the drying foehn effect of katabatic winds. This
model has been transposed to the eight major ecozones
of the country with their respective prehistoric carrying
capacities fluctuating in phase with climatic shifts.
Population densities in these ecozones have been estimated
for the Quaternary on the basis of ethnographic analogy.
Subsistence strategy has also been assessed through
archaeological evidence against a backdrop of ethnographic
analogy and postulated biotic resources that would
have been available for exploitation by Quaternary
foragers.
At the commencement of the 1st millennium BC, there
are indications of a rapid transition from a geometric
microlith-using Mesolithic culture
to the Early Iron Age, with horse, cattle, pottery and
paddy cultivation. It is proposed that with iron technology
(for clearing hitherto intractable equatorial rainforest)
a greatly enhanced food production capability increased
carrying capacity several-fold, thus attracting long
distance links with India.
The latter possibly involved migrations, of which the
Indo-Aryan Sinhalese
language (which was in use in Sri Lanka since at least
500 BC) could be but one manifestation.
Sinhalese
Civilization
The ancient civilization of sri lanka emerged and
flourished in the islands dry
zone-the extensive northern plain region and the
smaller plain in the southeast that together encompass
more than two-thirds of the island early settlements
sprang up on river banks in this region.The pioneers
subsisted on rice a crop that depended on the vagaries
of the monsoons. Settlements quickly spread across
the plains prompting an urgent need for a means of
coping with the geological and geographical peculiarities
of the dry
zone and its frequent droughts. Thus Sri Lanka
became one of the greatest irrigation civilisations
of the ancient world.
Geniuses
of irrigation
Large-scale irrigation networks began crisscrossing
the parched landscape which started as early as the
1st century A.D. Sri Lankas engineers utilized the
waters of the Mahaweli ganga and other rivers that
flowed down to the plains from the mountains
of the wet
zone.The construction of their canals and channels
exhibited an amazing in depth knowledge of trigonometry
; and the design of their reservoirs or wewas revealed
a thorough grasp of hydraulic principles Their dams
had broad bases able to withstand very heavy pressures
outlets for the discharge of water were installed
at suitable points in the embankment. The method of
regulating the flow of water from these tanks, as
the artificial lake reservoirs are called today, was
ingenious.
By
the 3rd century B.C. Sri
Lankan engineers had invented the BISOKOTUWA (valvepit),
the prototype of sluices regulating the flow of water
from contemporary reservoirs. The increasing sophistication
of irrigation technologies enabled Sri Lankas early
settlers to extend the water networks throughout the
dry
zone by the 6th century A.D engineering milestones
included the kantalai tank built by king mahasena
(274-302) It covered 4,560 acres was fed by a canal
25 miles long,and was contained by a dam 50 feet high.
Even more superior in technology was the kalawewa
constructed by king Dhatusena(460-478).
It
encompassed seven square miles and had a dam 3,1/2
miles long and 36 to 58 feet high with a Spill of
hammered granite. A canal 54 miles long and 40 feet
wide linked it to the city of Anuradhapura
and played an integral role in the development of
that ancient capital. The first 17 miles of this canal
had a gradient of only six inches slope per mile.
Subsequent centuries saw even more remarkable developments
in the irrigation of Sri Lanka. By the end of the
8th century, irrigation systems enabled the islanders
to open extensive tracts of land to cultivation.
Cores
Of civilization
Against
this backdrop of technological and agricultural growth
two important cores of sinhalese
civilization rose in the irrigated plains of the dry
zone. Anuradhapura,in
the center of the northern plain, and Polonnaruwa,
futher to the southeast near the Mahweli ganga in
time and in succession become the capital cities of
the whole Sinhalese
kingdom. Polonnaruwa boastednn one of the largest
and most spectacular of Sri Lankas ancient tanks,
the Parakra Samudra,the sea of Parakrama.It was buit
by Parakramabahu 1 (1153-1186)one of the greatest
of thr sinhales rulers.The bund of the parakrama samudra
was nearly nine miles long and rose to an average
height of 40 feet.Nothing of this scale was built
again until Sri Lanka regained her independence from
the British in 1948.
The
third core of Sinhalese
civilisation, Ruhuna, was located near modern Magampattu,
in the far southeast of the dry
zone where the climate is even more severe,and
rainfall less reliable, than in the kingdoms to the
north. The region was settled by the ancient sinhalese
almost as early as Anuradhapura
and a well developed irrigation system was established
there at least 2,000 years ago. Ruhuna periodically
asserted its independence
from the other two centers of sinhalese
power and served as a refuge for their defeated kings
or rival claimants to those thrones. However,it was
frequently controlled from Anuradhapura,and
seems never to have rivalled those cities in economic
power or population resources.
Another
significant facet of life in ancient Sri Lanka was
BUDDHISM.
It had an impact on the island and its people as important
in social and political affairs as was the development
of irrigation technology in the field of economic
acitivity. Buddhism,which
probably reached sri lanka earlier, was formally recived
in the 3rd century B.C during the reign of Devanampiyatissa
a contemporary of the last great empeor of indias
Maurya dynasty, Asoka. Tradition has it that Asoka
sent the first Buddhist missionaries to Sri Lanka.
In time ,The intimate connection between the Sinhalese
and Buddhism
the Sinhalese
belive theirs is a divine mission, that they are a
chosen people destined to protect and preserve the
Buddhist faith within their island home.
Sri
Lankas irrigation network formed the basis for a thriving
economy with a large agricultural surplus that sustained
a vibrant civilization, Buddhism
gave that civilisation dignity and elegance. It inspired
the architectural and sculptural splendours of ancient
Sri Lanka. Anurahapura and polonnaruwa were transformed
into bejewelled testaments to the wealth and refinement
of Sri Lankas Buddhist rulers of old. Anuradhapura
awed visitors with its magnificent stupa. The stupa
or dagaba an architectural innovation imported from
northern India
usually enshrined relics of the Buddha and other celebrated
illuminati of early Buddhism.
That makes them objects of veneration even today.
These solid hemispherical domes provided a subdued
but effective expression of the quintessence of Buddhism.
They blend simplicity and serenity. The imposing size
of the stupas of Anuradhapura.
It is certain that they were of non-Aryan racial stock
and highly civilized, possessing a high standard of
art and craftsmanship and a well-developed system
of pictographic writing that had existed for a considerable
period before the arrival of Indo-Aryans. It could
be that they were invaders as their settlements have
also been found in Baluchistan.
They were probably already highly civilized before
they entered the country. Almost all experts call
the civilization "proto-Dravidian" and many
are of the opinion that they are the ancestors of
Tamils.
Prof. Raghav Mathivanan, a research scholar, has determined
that letters found in the Harappa inscriptions were
ancient Tamil.
The
pictographic writing found under a painting on a rock
formation in the South Arcot district of Tamil
Nadu was the same as that found in the Indus Valley.
A four foot long brick found during excavations in
the Karunool district of Andrapradesh has inscriptions
in Indus Valley letters. A seal found during excavations
in Anaicoddai in Eelam contained both Indus Valley
letters and brahmic script. All these have been translated
into modern day Tamil.
More evidence of who the Indus Valley people were
is found in the translations of the Vedas ( which
were written by the Aryans who came to India
some 3500 years ago) by H.H. Wilson, Ralph Griffith,
and A.A. McDonnell and A.B. Keith in English and by
M.R. Sambunatha Iyer in Tamil.
The Indus
Valley people are described as noseless, black
and godless barbarians.
They
are called Dravidians, Thasar, Thayook, Asurar, Arakkar,
Rakshather and Sutra. They are also described as anti-gods,
chandalas, milechas, sons of prostitutes and in many
other derogatory terms. However, their courage and
fighting abilities are praised. There are several
reference to the town of Hariyupa
(later became Harappa).
Some of the many major kings of the Thasar (Tamils)
referred to in the Vedas are Samparan, Varacinan,
Viruthiran and Susunan with whom the Aryans fought
many battles. With Samparan they fought over a period
of 40 years. Several sub-rulers and army chiefs are
also mentioned.
Thanu
who went to the battle front to help her son Viruthiran
and Kiraki and Arayi, wives of the sub-ruler Kijava,
who also went to the front are some of the heroines
mentioned. Even today these names are common in parts
of Tamil
Nadu. The army of the Tamils
had women battalions. The Vedas also refer to the
Dravidians occupying the whole of the then known India
from the Himalayas to Cape Comrin. They also mention
that during the war the Aryans killed hundreds of
thousands of Tamils,
took several as slaves, destroyed several cities and
fortresses, plundered their wealth, broke dams against
rivers and bunds of tanks thus inundating the areas,
and took their livestock and weapons.
The
abandoning of Harrapa
and Mohenjodaro
was probably due to several factors such as sacking
and flooding by invaders, progressive desiccation
of the Indus
Valley and dangers of floods. There is no doubt
that the civilization was ancient and well advanced.
Tamils
should be proud to belong to it.
