British Foresight And The Evolution Of Sinhala Dimension Of Genocide
Arumugam Thevarajan
1. Ancient History:
Sri Lanka land mass was never under a single Kingdom. There were three independent Kingdoms – Jaffna (Tamil) Kingdom, Kandyan Kingdom and Kotte Kingdoms (both Sinhalese Kingdoms but ruled by Tamil Kings as well ) .The Tamil Kingdom always remained separate and independent, except for a short while when the Tamil King of Kotte Parakrama Bahu VI conquered and subdued it for a while. But the Tamil kingdom shook off the yoke of Kotte and reasserted its independence within a short period. For most of the time, there were two or three Sinhala Kingdoms viz. Malayaratta (KANDY) Rajaratta (Anuradhapura) Ruhunuratta and Dhakshinadesa (Kotte). The Kingdoms of Dhakshinadesa (Kotte) and Ruhunuratta were generally united but at times remained separately also.
The country was ruled by a three tiered vibrant democratic system of devolved powers to regions. There were the gamsabas and the best of the administrators there were elected to the Rattasabas (the regional power centres) and the brilliant administrators there were elected to Ministerial offices in the Madhyama Anduwa (Central Government.) Those great men in the distant past realized that there can be no effective democratic governance with benefit for the people unless the power was devolved to the people at regional and village levels. That was the home grown vision and intelligence.
2.Tamils and Tamil Language:
The use of Tamil Language and the presence of Tamils in what is presently
known as Sri Lanka(i.e. throughout the entirety of the three Kingdoms) is attested to by the earliest lithic records where the language is Prakrit or regionalized Prakrit and Tamil and Parkritised Tamil. The script is the Damili of the Pandyan region. The script transforms into Asokan (or North Indian) Brahmi only after the introduction of Buddhism and that too only from first century A.D. The influence of Tamil on the development of the Sinhala language and literature is deep and indelible. Even the Sinhala grammatical work SIDAT SANGARAWA is an adaptation of the Tamil grammatical work VIRASOLIYAM.
The pre-Christian Sri Lankan polity is reminiscent of the Sangam period polity of Tamil Nadu. Social groups that played decisive roles in Tamil Nadu also played key roles in Sri Lanka too. The Ays, Vels, Baratas, etc. played key roles in Sri Lankan polity too. There are Tamil names as well. In fact, the name of the queen of the first known king of the historical period Devanam-piya-Tissa is Ramadatta – datta in Tamil and Malayalam means parrot. The Tamil language was considered the language of the learned. Even in the 16th century CE according to no less a person than Maitreya the scholar monk who lived in Velapura (modern Kalutara, where you still find the village Welgama) and rendered into Sinhalese many ethical works in Tamil.
