posted September 02, 2003 01:11 PM            

Source: Northeastern Herald
By: Professor S. K. Sitrampalam

The Northeastern Herald serialises this week the fifth and concluding excerpt of ‘Tamils of Sri Lanka: The historical roots of Tamil identity,’ by Professor S. K. Sitrampalam, professor of history and dean, faculty of graduate studies, University of Jaffna. In the previous excerpts Sitrampalam argued that the early peopling of Sri Lanka were by two groups: one Austric-speakers, who are referred to as the Yakshas in the Pali chronicles and who are the ancestors of modern-day Veddhas, while the other strand is that of the Dravidian-language speakers who created the Megalithic civilization in southern India. Sri Lanka was the southern-most boundary of the spread of these people whose traces are found from around 900 B.C. on the Island.

Epigraphic records, were erroneously interpreted as evidence of early Aryan writing, but was in fact Tamil-Brahmi, a script, which is the mother of both proto-Sinhala (Elu) and early Tamil. But with north Indian Brahmi (Prakriti) accompanying the introduction of Buddhism to the Island, Tamil-Brahmi was gradually assimilated.

The script and other evidence show that Sri Lanka was not under continuous centralised rule from Anuradhapura as postulated by the Pali chronicles, but that Anuradhapura had to contend with 269 chieftaincies all over the Island, many of which were Tamil. Increasing trade and other ties between Tamilakham in south India and Sri Lanka around the early years of the Christian era led to larger Tamil settlements on the Island. Tamils eventually developed distinct cultural and social institutions, while also enjoying political authority in the Anuradhapura kingdom. It was during this period Tamils patronised Buddhism.

But the revival of Hinduism in the 5thand 6thcenturies, which was championed by the Pandyas, Pallavas and Colas and dynastic instability in Anuradhapura, led to south Indian military interventions in Sri Lanka taking on a distinct ethnic and religious flavour.

The ninth century saw the first attempt by expansionist south Indian kingdoms to bring Sri Lanka under their direct hegemony. Power struggles in south India that followed, into which Sri Lanka was also drawn. It ended in Sri Lanka becoming a province of the Cola empire in the 10118 century and its political and administrative structures being modelled on those in Tamiliakam. Cola power was installed in Sri Lanka for 70 years, which was preceded by the sacking of Anuradhapura and the shift of the capital to Polonnaruwa.

Cola presence led to even greater cultural, linguistic and religious penetration through southIndian mercenaries, officials and traders who were mostly Hindu and Tamil-speaking. It was this process beginning around the 6thcentury, which led to the Mahawansa that was creating through the Vijayan myth a political ideology of the state, to identify Sinhala with Buddhism and presenting the Tamils as opponents of Buddhism. This progressive Sinhalisation was to resist assimilation by south Indian cultures. The early years of the 13thcentury saw the invasion of the Kalingas under Magha. This led to two important consequences: the decline of the Polonnaruwa kingdom and the establishment for the first time of two kingdoms - a Tamil kingdom in the north and a Sinhala kingdom in central-southern Sri Lanka.

Jaffna was for a brief period under the Javana rule of Chandrabanu. He fell to the rising power of the Pandyas, who invaded the island in the latter part of the 13thcentury. Power then passed to the Ariyaccakkaravarthis, who were generals serving under the Pandyan king. The Ariyaccakkaravarthis also conquered sections of the hitherto independent Vanni. Prakramabahu VI eventually overthrew the Ariyaccakkaravarthis (mid-15thcentury) and Jaffna came under the Kotte kingdom.

King Cankili in the mid-16thcentury, faced with a Portuguese invasion of the Jaffna kingdom tried to beat the aggressors back by allying himself with the Sinhalese. The Jaffna kingdom however faced a decline under Cankili’s successors till the Portuguese captured it in 1619.

VIII

It is normally held that when the Portuguese landed here in 1505 A.D there were three kingdoms namely Kotte, Kandy and Jaffna. But the perusal of the Portuguese sources, and indigenous sources show that prior to the European conquest of Sri Lanka there was a plurality of polities in the Island. The account of the Portuguese historian Fernao de Queyroz118 in this respect is remarkable as this provides an indication of the political conditions that prevailed in the Island during the 16thand 17thcenturies. It is evident from his account that the Island was politically divided into four kingdoms, namely those of Kotte, Sitavake, Kandy and Jaffna and a number of kinglets or principalities collectively known as the Vanni when the Portuguese came to the Island.

The Portuguese, although they had brought the Jaffna kingdom under their political over lordship by 1619, did not however, interfere much with the internal administration of these areas. They did not have the resources or the ability to do so and constant hostility to them in Sri Lanka from local people and leaders gave them little time to devote their attention to the proper supervision of internal matters. Therefore, Tamils of Sri Lanka during the time of Portuguese rule experienced only a change in higher levels of political management while in all other spheres they almost continued to experience hardly any change in their usual form of activity. One notable and lasting change that should be referred to that came with Portuguese rule over the Tamils could be best seen in the religious sphere - Catholicism.

When the Dutch replaced the Portuguese as rulers of coastal areas of Sri Lanka by 1658, Tamils too came under a new master from the west. Dutch introduced a better organisation and system of management than the Portuguese over the areas occupied by the Tamils. But even they did not make any fundamental changes with regard to the society or life of these people, though they were generally more efficient and systematic masters than the Portuguese. As there was a problem in ascertaining the laws of the country the Dutch made some genuine attempts to do so by codifying the laws and customs of the Tamils of Jaffna into Thesavalamai.

Thus in the 17thand 18thcenturies, Tamil speaking territories of the North and the East maintained their administrative separation from the rest of the Island even though the Portuguese and the Dutch ruled over the entire maritime distinct of the Island. While the Tamil Vanni chieftaincies of northern Sri Lanka such as Tennamarav~dy, Panankâmam, Mçlpattu, Mulliyawalai, CaricaþþumÔlai and Carun~wal paþþu acknowledged the over-lordship of the Portuguese and the Dutch, the Tamil chieftains of Trincomalee such as Tirukkon~malai, Tampalak~mam, Koþþiy~ram and Kaþþukkulam and Batticaloa district such as Maþþakkalappu, Paluk~mam, PÔrativu, N~þukatu, Pan~mai and Camm~nturai before they came under the administrative control of the Dutch, nominally acknowledged, the over lordship of the Kandyan kingdom.119 The during this time the Island was also divided into two linguistic zones is attested by the testimony of European colonial historians and administrators.Commenting on the provenance of the Tamil and Sinhalese languages the Dutch Predikant, Philippus Baldaeus who was in the Island during the mid 17thcentury asserts, 120 “It is to be observed that in Ceylon they not only speak the Cinghalesche but also the Malabaarsche languages, the former from Negombo to Colombo, Caleture, Berbering, Alican, Gale, Belligamme, Matura, Donders etc. But in all other parts of the Island which are contiguous to the Coromandel coast, Malabaarsche is the prevailing language. I have heard it often asserted by the inhabitants of Jafna patnam that, that part of the country was times past peopled from the Coromandel coast and hence the dialect of their fatherland (which is situated so close to Ceylon); the probable accuracy of this account is borne out by the circumstance, that in the interior of the country as Candy, Vintane, Ballaney etc, the Cinghalesche is the only language generally spoken.”

The above view is also corroborated by the Governor Rjklof Van Goens account dated 1675. 121 Referring to Batticaloa he made the following comment: “And since all the inhabitants of Batticalo (both in customs, religion, origin and other characteristics) together with those of Jaffnapatnam, Cotjaar and on Westward right over to Calpentyn and the Northern portion of the Mangul Corle inclusive, have been from the remotest times and are still now Malabaars, divided into their tribes, and very unwillingly mix with the Cingalese, Weddas or others outside their tribes, as also the others are not willing to do with these, they are up till now to be considered no otherwise than that they form with those of Jaffnapatnam, Cotjaar, and a people separate from the Cingalese, and have up till now remained pretty well in their freedom; having accepted of their free will the Company’s protection only in order to protect themselves against the cruelty of the king of Candi, wherefore it behoves us not to leave them in need or to delay if we do not wish to see them presently stand exposed to the same cruelty; since otherwise we have to expect from this rich, populous and fertile territory yet many fruits both temporal and spiritual.”

Taking the above factor into consideration, the Dutch for administrative purposes divided their maritime possessions into six units. They are Colombo, Jaffna patnam, Galle, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Calpetty and Puttalam. Of these Jaffna patnam, Trincomalee and Batticaloa divisions embraced the present day Tamil speaking North-Eastern provinces. Besides this the Dutch also divided their possessions into three units namely Colombo, Jaffnapatnam and Galle for judicial purposes and brought the present day Tamil speaking North-Eastern province under the jurisdiction of the Jaffna patnam.

Its courts of justice exercised jurisdiction in the northern and eastern part of the Island from the limits of Puttalam and Mannar to the river Koemene or koembekeroy (Kumbukan Oya), which separates the country of Batticaloa from that of Matura (Matara). 122

It is in the light of the above background that one has to view the observations of Hugh Cleghorn123 who served as colonial secretary to the first British governor of Sri Lanka, namely Frederick North in 1799. He observed that, “Two different nations, from very ancient period, have divided between them the possession of the Island. First the Cingalese inhabiting the interior of the country, in its Southern and Western parts, from the river Wallouve, to that of Chilow, and secondly the Malabars, who posses the northern and eastern districts.

These two nations differ entirely in their religion, language and manners. The former, who are allowed to be the earlier settlers, derive their origin from Siam, professing the ancient religion of that country. Besides these two nations, Mohometans from the coast of India, are spread in great numbers everywhere along the coast; they are beyond all comparison, the most industrious, and useful class of inhabitants, but being the last settlers, they are regarded not only as strangers but are moreover very unwisely and unjustly exposed in the European settlements to very high captitation tax and other particular imposts.”

The British took over the administration of Sri Lanka from the Dutch in 1796 and became the first European power to unify the Island in 1815. As a colonial power of the industrial age, their rule over the Island was markedly of a different nature from those of the first two colonial powers in many ways, including the degree of centralization, unification and consequent ability to introduce social and economic changes. Even Tamil speaking territories of the North and East were constituted as two separate provinces when the British reorganised the administration of the Island. At first, both the northern and the eastern provinces incorporated the Sinhalese jungle districts. In 1873, however, the Sinhalese districts adjoining Tamil areas were detached to form a new province and the Northern Province became a homogeneous Tamil province. The Eastern Province extended from Trincomalee southward to Pottuvil and incorporated Tamil Hindu and Muslim villages, as well as a small minority of Sinhalese on the jungle fringe.

A significant point to be noted is that even when the British ruled over the whole of Sri Lanka they recognised the distinctiveness and separateness of the areas in which Sri Lankan Tamils mainly lived from those of the Sinhalese. These Tamil-populated lands were treated as separate administrative provinces from those provinces, which were composed mainly of the Sinhalese people. The British also allowed continuance of customs, laws and institutions and minor officials peculiar in these Tamil-peopled areas to remain in vogue so long as they were not in diametric opposition to their essential policies or practices.

This administrative attitude of the British make it clearly evident that to them although the whole of Sri Lanka was under their complete control, the people of the Sinhalese areas and the people of the Sri Lankan Tamil areas were two distinct elements of the same island’s population. The recognition of the Tamil identity of these North Eastern provinces by the British is also confirmed by the successive census taken in these regions starting from 1827, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1946, 1953, 1963, 1971 to 1981. The recognition of such a distinction by the British authorities grew even clearer when they began to introduce gradually political or constitutional innovations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and even later.

The impact of the colonial rule has been summed by Arasaratnam124 as follows: “The Tamils of Sri Lanka experienced successive colonial rule from the Portuguese, Dutch and British. Although their culture and socio-economic system faced inevitable changes under colonial rule, Sri Lankan Tamils retained their religious beliefs, social structures and their traditional power hierarchy. Economic changes introduced by the colonisers were readily absorbed into the existing social structures, but the units of family and caste remained entrenched in the traditional social system. They continued to maintain economic and cultural ties with their ancestral homeland, South India, throughout colonial period, but they also began to develop their own identity and cultural characteristics, distinct form that of South India. They absorbed various aspects of their colonisers’ culture and Christianity became an integral part of Tamil culture. It also became an initial venue for the growth of Tamil literacy.”

However British rule and the missionary activity in the north led to a Hindu renaissance in the 19thcentury as in the case of India. The pioneer of this movement was Arumuga Navalar, who by sheer coincidence hailed from Nallur, the seat of the kingdom of Jaffna.125 Although this movement gave a Tamil and Hindu identity late in the 20thcentury to Tamils in Jaffna, they were accommodated in the larger horizon of Tamil nationalism. Moreover with the spread of education, the consciousness of an all-Island Tamil speaking community bound together by the mother tongue was beginning to evolve in the 20thcentury.

Nevertheless, the Hindu renaissance movement of the 19thcentury in a similar vein triggered off a similar movement in southern Sri Lanka, which gave way to Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism. Both these movements were the precursors of nationalism in Sri Lanka, which unlike in India took the form of a Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism, a sophisticated form of the Mahavamsas’ Sinhala-Buddhist ideology. The effects of this could be seen in the journey towards self-government and later a demand for separate state among the Tamils during the post-Independence era. Thus a sense of Tamil identity, which prevailed over a long time contributed to the rise of a feeling of Tamil Nation. Finally, it should be noted that since I have dealt with only a historical roots of the Tamil identity, I have omitted the history of the hill-country Tamils who have distinctive social and cultural elements. Their migration to Sri Lanka from Thamilakam started from the early part of the 19118 century and continued to do so well into the early part of the 20thcentury.

Bibliography (for this excerpt only)