The Vanniyas Of Sri Lanka Vs Vanniyas Of South India
By Darshanie Ratnawalli -December 8, 2013

None of the immigrant groups from South India given in the Sinhalese folk historical tradition as appointees to chieftaincies in the Wanni of Lanka can be identified as belonging to the group called Vanniyar mentioned in South Indian records from the 10th/11thcentury onwards[ii]. The Malavaras, lovingly mentioned in the relevant Hugh Nevill manuscript (Or 6606-182)[iii]as “the first possessors of the very own Wanni kingdom belonging to this Lanka”, are not of South Indian Vanniyar stock. Instead they are “chiefs of certain hill-tribes in the Karnata and Tamil areas of South India” whose warlike habits secured them many mentions in “the Pandya records of the thirteenth century in South India”( Indrapala 1965 thesis p296). The Malavara chieftains are also listed in the Sri Lankan Tamil tradition (in the “Vaiyapatal” and the “Vaiya”) among the more important colonists of Jaffna-(ibid).

Another group, which stands outside of the Vanniyar of South India, but became Vanniyas of Lanka were the Mukkuvas. A copperplate grant of Bhuvanekabahu VII in Sinhalese dated to 1544 A.D refers to a Navaratna Vanniya of Lunuvila, a mukkuva chieftain of the Puttalam region (Indrapala 1970: S. Casie Chetty, Ceylon Gazetteer, 1834, p190-191). Read More