(May 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sri Lanka had links with North India as well as South India during its ancient and medieval periods.
Settlers migrated into Sri Lanka from the north west and north east of India as well as from the Indus valley region, now in Pakistan. The Sinhala language shows an affinity with both eastern and western Indo-Aryan languages. This supports the view that there were migrations from north east and north west of ancient India. The distance between Sri Lanka and the closest linguistic group indicates that these migrants came by sea and not land.
In the first recorded migration, Vijaya, whose family initially lived in Bengal, came into Sri Lanka from Gujerat, having called at Supara, on the west coast of India. They landed at Tambapanni near Puttalam. He came into an inhabited country. Soon after, there were migrations from the north east of India, probably from Bengal and Orissa. These settlers had landed at Trincomalee which meant that they had come from the Bay of Bengal.
There is evidence to indicate that a third group of settlers came from the upper Indus, which is today in Pakistan. Some of the place names in Sri Lanka indicate a connection with the Indus region. Onescritus, who was the pilot of the ship in which Alexander sailed down the Indus, in the 4th century BC, speaks of Sri Lanka in his writings based on this Journey. This is the earliest reference to Sri Lanka in any written work and indicates that settlers came from the Indus region. These settlers did not migrate directly to Sri Lanka. They had come down to an intermediate area and then moved to Sri Lanka from there.
They brought with them the two major cultures nurtured in north India, the Mohenjodaro-Harappa, culture and the Aryan culture. Some of the symbols of unknown significance in certain old Sinhalese Brahmi inscriptions have parallels among the symbols of the Indus script. Even the notion of the lion-killer can be found on a seal from Mohendojaro. The Harappa culture was a ‘spectacular culture’ existing between 3000 BC to 1500 BC. This civilisation extended beyond the Indus plain to northern Rajastan and the Kathiawar region in western India and goes even further east and south. There were cities in Sind, Rajasthan, Punjab, Gujerat and Baluchistan. Harappa was a very advanced urban civilisation, with a highly developed municipal life. Almost every house had wells, drains, and bathrooms. Streets were wide and straight with elaborate drainage system, which included soakage pits for sediment. Well-fired bricks and glazed pottery were used. Tin, copper, and precious stones had been obtained from places beyond India.
The Aryan tribes started in Upper Asia and fanned out into Europe and Asia from there. They arrived in India around 800 BC. They inhabited the land stretching from eastern Afghanistan to the upper Ganges with a concentration in the Ganges-Jamuna area. They were primarily an agricultural and pastoral people but trade, industry and urban life developed later. They had kings and elaborate administrative machinery. Attention was paid to dress and ornament. There were chariot races, hunting, music and song. However, the Harappa culture was more advanced than that of the Aryans. There were other differences as well. Harappa worshipped the bull, the Aryans worshipped the cow.
There were about 16 major states in north India around 600 BC Kamboja, which occupied the extreme north-western area bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan was one of these states. People from Kamboja, came to Sri Lanka and were living as a distinct social group constituted into a corporation in the 2nd century BC. Several early brahmi inscriptions refer to the Kamboja, and an early Pali text refers to a Kambojagama in Ruhuna. This group may have migrated from the upper Indus, to Gujerat where they settled for some time, before they migrated to Sri Lanka.
The arrivals did not end there. A regular trade route had emerged between a seaport on north coast of Ceylon and Tambralipti in Bengal. (Tamluk) by the Maurya period. Historical chronicles unanimously state that many noble families and artisans arrived from Magadha along with the Buddhist missionaries and made Sri Lanka their home. Much later, in the mid 14 century, Rajputs had settled in Sri Lanka. P. E. E. Fernando, has pointed out that names like Suba, Amara, Rupa, Jaya, Vira such as Vijayatunga, Jayapala, Rajakaruna, Devaraja, and Vimalasena are of Rajput origin. Some names are associated only with Rajputs, such as Satarasinha. This may be due to the recruitment of Rajput mercenaries into the king’s army in the 13 country.
Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Nepal were a part of ancient North India. This region was invaded and ruled over by Persians, Bactrian Greeks and by several Central Asian dynasties. The Indian subcontinent was eventually criss-crossed with trade routes, which linked with central Asia and western Asia. The result was an intermingling of Greek, Persian, Central Asian and Indian cultures. Sri Lanka would have received some exposure to these European and Central Asian cultures well before it established its own links with Persia. It is important to note, however, that Sri Lanka was never the baby sister of north India. North India was in no position to look after a baby sister. It was ruled in sections, by different dynasties, which kept rising and falling. Sri Lanka was treated as an independent state. It had developed it own sophisticated urban culture by 10th century BC.
Sinhala kings had continuous contact with the various states of north India. The consort of Vijayabahu I, Lilavati, was a princess of Oudh. Nissankamalla maintained contact with Orissa, Bengal, and Gujerat. Long before that king Dharmasoka, contacted Devanampiyatissa, (250-210 BC) and Kithsirimevan (301-328 AD) sent an embassy to Samudragupta. These should be treated as evidence of continuing contact with the states of north India, not as a series of kangaroo leaps.
The Dravidian culture popularly associated with South India is not South Indian in origin. It started in the Mediterranean region, and moved from there to north India, to the east of the Indus. Brahui, a Dravidian language, is spoken even today in Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Baluchistan. There are Dravidian monuments in Karachi, and there is Dravidian influence in the Rigveda. Thereafter the Dravidians moved down to an intermediate region, probably Gujerat or Kathiawar and came into South India from there. Tradition says Tamil people came from this intermediate region.
The culture did not remain pure Dravidian either. The traditions mentioned in the Sangam literature show considerable Aryan influence. Damilas whose names appear in Brahmi inscriptions in Sri Lanka, bear Aryan names and appear to have come under Aryan influence before they moved to Sri Lanka. The Mediterranean influence is not confined to the Dravidian culture. The Stone Age (megalithic) culture of south India, dating around 1200 BC, is similar to the Mediterranean stone age culture and may have arrived in South India from western Asia.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
Fantastic article! Please publish more of such articles. Preferably as a series to know more about how people came to Sri Lanka and how it developed links with the rest of the world.
One important question I have is what happened to the monarchy of Sri Lanka after the rule of the British? How it died.
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