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The
arrival of Sinhalese and Tamils on the island is a
matter of great debate, as the history is often used
to justify one or another position in Sri
Lanka's on-going civil
war.
Early
inhabitants
The earliest inhabitants with any living descendants
on the island are the Wanniyala-Aetto
(more commonly known as Veddahs, although it is a
derogatory term). Most Wanniyala-Aetto have lived
as villagers for some time. A few tribes have until
recently continued to live the hunter-gatherer lifestyle,
but although attitudes are in flux, the government
has made this increasingly difficult.
Most historians believe that the Sinhalese
came to Sri Lanka from northern India,
near Bengal,
during the 6th
century BC (some historians trace the origins
back some 25,000 years). A nearly continuous written
history exists in the Mahavamsa from this point
on and it describes the Sinhalese
race as descending from king Vijaya and his followers.
It also describes a minister of Vijaya, Anuradha,
who establishes the village of Anuradhagamma which
later becomes Anuradhapura and becomes to capital
of Sri Lanka a few centuries later. Archeological
evidence is somewhat contradictory to this account,
showing continuous settlement in the Anuradhapura
area from the 10th
century BC onwards with people living in the area
having knowledge of agriculture, metallurgy, and livestock
breeding.
Buddhism
arrived from the subcontinent 300 years after Vijaya
at the hands of Mahinda Thero and spread rapidly.
Buddhism and a sophisticated system of irrigation
became the pillars of classical Sinhalese civilization
(200
BC-1200
AD) that flourished in the north-central part of the
island, with capitals at Anuradhapura
(from c. 200
BC to c. 1000
AD) and Polonnaruwa
(c. 1070
to 1200).
Tamil invasions from southern India, combined with
internecine strife, pushed Sinhalese kingdoms southward.
The origins of Tamil
presence on the island are also unclear. Given the
island's close proximity to the mainland, it is very
likely that people have travelled back and forth throughout
human history. The Sinhalese origin story describes
their first men taking 100 wives from south India.
Tamil and Sinhalese kingdoms fought occasionally,
but also had a great deal of peaceful exchange; there
were even Sinhalese rules of Tamil kingdoms and vice-versa.
Outside influences
The island's location in the middle of the Indian
Ocean has made it a popular trading stop through
the ages. Roman
sailors called the island "Taprobane." Arab
traders knew it as "Serendip" (derived from the Sanskrit
name Sinhala-dweepa), which became the root of the
word "serendipity." It is from this contact that the
island's mostly-converted Muslim population comes.
Beginning in 1505,
Portuguese
traders, in search of cinnamon and other spices, seized
the island's coastal areas and introduced Catholicism.
The Dutch
supplanted the Portuguese in 1658.
Although the British
ejected the Dutch in 1796,
Dutch law remains an important part of Sri Lankan
jurisprudence. In 1815,
the British defeated the king of Kandy,
last of the native rulers, and created the Crown Colony
of Ceylon. They established a plantation economy based
on tea (after a coffee blight), rubber, and coconuts.
In 1931, the British granted Ceylon limited self-rule
and a universal franchise. Ceylon became independent
on February
4, 1948
as a Commonwealth
realm.
Post-independence
On July
20, 1960
Ceylon elected Sirimavo
Bandaranaike Prime Minister which made her the
world's first female Prime
Minister.
The country changed its name to Sri Lanka (from Ceylon)
on May
22, 1972
and a new republican constitution was adopted. The
legislative capital was moved from Colombo
to Kotte
and the flag was changed.
Concerns about minority representation were expressed
and given some attention during the independence struggle,
but nothing was incorporated into the new governmental
structure. Official and unofficial governmental preference
for Sinhalese became a sore spot with Tamils as they
lost employment and educational opportunities. Tamil
support for a federal system grew, and eventually
even for a completely independent Tamil
Eelam. Occasional, mostly spontaneous violence
in the first few decades of independence exploded
in the 1983 attacks and riots usually taken as the
beginning of the ethnic conflict. Direct Indian involvement
in the late 1980s was inconclusive. A ceasefire has
been in effect since about the end of 2001. Talks
are on hold but both sides continue to affirm their
commitment to the peace process. (Ethnic
conflict in Sri Lanka) There have also been two
bloody uprisings against the government among the
Sinhalese, by the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.
(need more) Category:Sri Lanka
Related Stats
According to Hindu legend the greater part of Sri
Lanka was conquered in prehistoric times by Ramachandra,
the seventh incarnation of the supreme deity Vishnu.
The written history of the country begins with the
chronicle known as the Mahavamsa. This work was started
in the 6th century ad and provides a virtually unbroken
narrative up to 1815. The Mahavamsa was compiled by
a succession of Buddhist monks. Because it often aims
to glorify or to degrade certain periods or reigns,
it is not a wholly reliable source despite its wealth
of historical material. Sri
Lanka has had a continuous record of settled and civilized
life for more than two millennia. The content and
direction of this civilization has been shaped by
that of the Indian subcontinent.
The
island's two major ethnic groups, the Sinhalese and
the Tamils, and its two dominant religious cultures,
Buddhist and Hindu, made their way onto the island
from India. The various expressions of literate culture
parallel those of India, and overall the culture and
civilization of Sri Lanka are of the Indic pattern.
The
Mahavamsa relates that the island was conquered in
504 bc by Vijaya, a Hindu prince from northeast India.
After subjugating the aboriginal inhabitants, a people
now known as Veddas, Vijaya married a native princess,
encouraged emigration from the mainland, and made
himself ruler of the entire island. However, the realm
(called Sinhala after Vijaya’s patrimonial name)
that was inherited by his successors consisted of
the arid region lying to the north of the south central
mountain system.
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| Masks |
| During
the last one million years, when humans are
known to have existed in various parts of India,
Sri Lanka was connected to the sub-continent
on numerous occasions. The rise and fall of
sea level (due to cold/warm fluctuations in
the global climate) determined the periodicities
of these connections, the last separation having
occurred at ca. 7000 BP. 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.
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Five centuries before Christ, Sri Lanka was a land
throbbing with vitality and a well-ordered civilization.
Cities, palaces, reservoirs, parks, temples, monasteries,
monuments and works of art bore testament to the character,
imagination, culture, philosophy and faith of the
people of Sri Lanka, the Resplendent Land. Vestiges
of this ancient civilization are abundantly extant
today.
The
first major legendary reference to the island is found
in the great Indian epic, the Ramayana, thought to
have been written around 500 B.C. The Ramayana tells
of the conquest of Lanka in 3000 B.C. by Rama, an
incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. Rama's quest
to save his abducted wife, Sita, from Ravanna, the
demon god of Lanka, is, according to some scholars,
a poetic account of the early southward expansion
of Brahmanic civilization. The
most valuable source of knowledge for the legends
and historical heritage of Sri Lanka is the Mahavamsa
(Great Genealogy or Dynasty), a chronicle compiled
in Pali, in the sixth century. Vijaya is the central
legendary figure in the Mahavamsa.
He
was the grandson of an Indian princess Suppadevi from
Vanga in northern India who had been abducted by an
amorous lion, Simha, and son of their incestuous and
half-leonine offspring, Sinhabahu & Sinhasivali.
Along with 700 of his followers, perhaps from Kalinga
(Orissa), Vijaya arrived in Lanka, and established
himself as ruler with the help of Kuveni, a local
demon-worshiping princess. Although Kuveni had given
birth to two of Vijaya's children, she was banished
by the ruler, who then arranged a marriage with a
princess from Madurai in southeastern India. Kuveni's
offspring are the folkloric ancestors of the present
day Veddahs.
