Nagadeepa & Nainathivu: Upholding All Parts Of The Cultural Mosaic
Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana
It has been reported that some Northern Provincial Council (NPC) members have initiated moves to change the name of Nagadeepa to Nainathivu, triggering polarization of opinion back to the feverish days of the TNA rallies in Vaddukkoddai (a town known even up to 1900 as Batakotte, marked as such in Dutch maps). That was a time when the gory verses of Kasi Ananthan calling for the blood of “traitors” were hailed as liberating “poetry”.
Ever since the railway connected Colombo with Jaffna in 1905, Northerners have moved into Colombo and suburbs, and then more well do to went on to even better climes abroad. Today, in Colombo we see a vibrant multi-ethnic society where Tamil culture is more alive than in Jaffna. Some businesses in Dehiwala have Tamil and English sign boards with names like “Dehiwalai”. But the Sinhalese have not protested. It is common to see buses with Tamilized destination names (in Tamil characters) where Tangalle becomes Tangallai and Halavatha becomes Chilapam, with absolutely no protest from the Sinhalese.
Unfortunately, Tamil nationalism and its cousin, Sinhala nationalism changed the open discussion of such topics. Toponymic studies have become a hot potato where a mere discussion of place names becomes like the positioning of “kajan” fences in Jaffna as they move back and forth claiming territory! The souring of the minds of even scholars of the caliber of A. J. Wilson from about 1965 onwards has been documented by Michael Roberts (Michael Roberts: Tamil nationalism: Journal of South Asian Studies, n.s., Vol.XXVII, no.1, April 2004
A vast number of place names in the North and East are most likely to be of Sinhala origin, as was pointed out even by Tamil Pandits like Rasanayagam, K. Velupillai and colonial civil servants. Velupillai, in hisYalpana Vaibhava Kaumudi devotes a whole chapter to Sinhala place names in Jaffna. These were further extended by Paul E. Peiris, Nicholas, Paranavithana and others, and in a doctoral thesis by Dr. Indrapala Karthigesu. Ven. Medhananda and others have followed suite. I have attempted to complement and compile what is known, and put them together as a website for scrutiny by interested scholars.
However, the question of etymology is not an issue to the ordinary citizen. For him, Colombo can be “Kolomba” or “Kolompu” depending on his language, just as Brussels is Bruxelles to a Francophone. They constitute the rich cultural tapestry that Sri Lanka acquired by being a nation on the silk route. Scholars like Rasanayagam and Velupillai were overjoyed to see that Iluppaikadavai identifies as the Meepaathota of the Sinhalese (Madhupatheetha of the Mahavamsa), while “Chenakaladi” near Batticaloa (Madakalapuwa) is identified as “Sinhala vaadiya“. On the other hand, place names like Chempian aru, Chempiyan pattu are most likely of Chola Origin, evoking the name of a Chola queen. I have listed some three thousand place names and their tentative toponymic details in the website that I referred to, while noting uncertainties in such research.
