| by Mahendra de Silva
( February 3, 2013, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Recently a Tamil colleague of mine was expressing the view that he cannot understand why Sinhalese are so proud of the fact that they originated from the union between a Lion and a human. According to him that Lion is a dirty animal and male lion eats even its cubs through jealousy. My explanation was that these are fantasy stories and no one believes or bothered about these crazy stories now. I told him that according to Buddha it is only the person’s character that matters for one to be a higher caste, Brahmin. Only the fools will take pride on ancient heritage, community, race, caste, connections to important famous ancestors etc. My good friend’s next question was if Sinhalese being so passionate about Buddhism why they discriminate against Tamils and harmed Tamils mercilessly in communal riots and in Wanni operation against Tamil Tigers. I asked him whether all Tamils should take responsibility for the atrocities of Tamil Tigers, when they killed thousands of innocent Sinhalese all over the country by landmines and remote control bombs while fighting with armed forces of Sri Lanka. We also know large scale of massacres of civilians by armed forces of western armies from the time of colonial era to Iraq war. Can we blame all German people for sins of Hitler? The point I want to raise was brutality of a section of the community or the rulers of a country does not reflect the nature of the community. It is the ignorance and the environmental factors that bring ruthlessness and brutality. It is not the fault of the religion that people interpret religion to achieve their own selfish intentions.
Evolving further on my ideas on this discussion, recently I read an interesting article in SriLanka Guardian by: Dr. S. K. Vadivel
In the above article Dr.S.K Vadivel is making some alarming observations and conclusions on the origin of Sinhalese Language and the Sinhalese. I am not a scholar or a historian to support or reject his article, However I am curious as to find out the truth of some of the revelations Dr. SK Vadivel makes in this article. Following are taken from the article.
1. Majority of the people in in ancient Sri Lanka were Tamils of Hindu faith. It was only during Devanam Piya Tissa, 247B.C that Tamils started converting in to Buddhism with the influence of Arahat Mihidu. Devanam Piya Tissam himself was a Tamil King.
2. According to Dr.Vadivel the name” Sinhala” came out for the first time in Srilankan history only in Deepavamsa 4th or 5 the century AD
3. Mahanama wrote Mahavansa in 5th century AD. It is Mahanama, who mentioned the arrival of Vijaya and his followers from Bengali prior to 1000 years before Mahavansa was started.
Dr.Vadivel claims that Mahanama created the ‘Sinhalese race ‘when he saw some Tamils converted to Buddhism were speaking the new language. Is it possible for one person to just give a name and start a new race and the story for the origin of race without any foundation?
4. The wars fought by Gemunu and Elara happened around 1st century BC and they were not Sinhala-Tamil wars as projected by Mahanama nearly 600 years after the event.
Accordingly King Dutu Gemunu’s pedigree will reveal that he was as much a Tamil as Elara, with the difference being that Gemunu was a Buddhist, while Elara was a Hindu Many fighting for Gemunu’s side were Tamils who had embraced Buddhism. Same way there was Tamils of Buddhist faith fighting for Elara.
5. To justify his reasoning Dr.Vadievel provides several interesting examples to show Hindu element in the life styles of Sinhala Buddhists. According to him. Senanayake, Bandaranaike, Alahakone, Kulathunge, Wickrema, Anuradha, Gunasinghe, Gunaratna etc. are obviously Tamil names. Caste divisions are identical with those of the Tamils. North Indians do not worship Lord Mauruka but the Tamils and Sinhalese worship Lord Muruka with great piety.
I believe that we should study the history only for academic reasons. This study or research should not be done to prove the greatness of a race or undermines a race or a community. I am sure that some of the Dr. Vadievel’s observations would be challenged by other Scholars who have done research on Sri Lankan history. However there are some facts we can accept without much argument purely on logical reasoning and available proof. Mahavansa was written only in the 5th century, nearly 600 years after the DutuGemunu era. When we consider the proximity of India to Sri Lanka it is probable that there had been migrants from all parts of India to Sri Lanka from the time immemorial. Therefore it is logical to believe that Tamils and Sinhalese had co-existed in Sri Lanka for centuries. It is also quite possible to have a considerable DNA mix up between Sinhalese and Tamils over the years. Same way when Muslims first came here as Traders, only the males came. They obviously married local women and spread their community. Most of the present day Christians would have been Buddhists or Hindus previously. Today Scientists have proven that our original ancestors could have come from Africa. These connections show how interconnected we would have been in the past. No one can claim to be from a “Pure race”. Hitler was under the illusion that he is coming from Aryan race and he was so proud of it, it is recorded that he sent some research teams to Central Asia and India to find more about his heritage. We know what an evil man Hitler was. It would be a disgrace for any race to claim any links with a man like Hitler. Modern Researches who examined the family history of Hitler, claims that although Hitler hate Jewish as a race, his family history had shown that he had strong Jewish connections. We know sometimes Jewish people have the superiority complex because they were regarded as “Chosen people “in the Bible. Jewish have produced great Noble prize winning Scientists like Einstein, as well as many murders, crooks, just like some other community. Good and bad sides exist in any race or community because of the difference in the people. Finally what matters is the individual, whether he or she is a good or bad person. When we make friends in the society, we would prefer to be friendly with a good hearted person from any other community or race than having a notorious thug from your own community as a friend or neighbour. It is only for selfish reasons people explore person’s community or race and crate problems everywhere.
It is only the manmade divisions that separate people. We had no choice to decide for which race we were born. Then after being brainwashed by the family and environment, some people become racists and develop prejudice against others who are not in your race or community Buddhism and Hinduism believe in rebirth. Can anyone really believing rebirth hate other fellow beings on the grounds of race, religion or community? Under the concept of rebirth and Karma, our previous life or next life depends solely on good or bad Karmic actions. We have absolutely no control over where we are going to be reborn. It could be a completely different race to our present one. Then why some people become so passionate about their race and think that they should be the guardians of the race they were born? These racists not only fight their whole life to protect their race but try to undermine and harm people of other races. This is nothing but the ignorance and immaturity. Buddhists should know more than anyone else the impermanency of everything we desperately try to safeguard. This applies even to the race and the community. In Buddhism one should extend love and kindness to all human beings without any boundaries. Sometimes I am at a loss to understand how our people who have been learning this message from childhood could have prejudices to the extent of committing hate crimes against other communities. It is sad to observe that there are prominent Buddhist priests behind Hela Urumaya, which advocates Sinhalese supremacy and fight for the rights of only Sinhalese. How could these Buddhist priests who are following Buddha’s teachings justify their action? Instead of spreading kindness and peaceful co-existence they spread hatred and prejudice. I believe a good Buddhist should rise above humanity to protect the rights of everyone and condemn the wrong irrespective of the community or race of the aggressor. They should develop empathy and toleration more than other religions or communities in Sri Lanka.
In the final analysis we find that the concept of “race” is false, misleading and confusing illusion. What stands strong is Buddha’s reinterpretation of’ Brahmin” high caste of ancient India. Buddha said it is individual’s moral character, not caste that determines his worth. So the True Brahmin or a great human being is not the one born to any particular race or caste, but one who exhibit excellent human qualities and character.
 Recently a Tamil colleague of mine was expressing the view ...){kind=link}