By Darshanie Ratnawalli –
Darshanie Ratnawalli
Not for personal gain is this exercise of mine but in pursuit of redemption. Redemption is a curious thing. To counter every wrong pattern that gets drawn on the canvas of existence, it draws some other pattern, next to which the wrong pattern looks so godawful and out of place that it soon gets erased by the collective forces of existence.
Gordon Weiss too has sat in front of his computer and drawn the following pattern;
“The hitherto relatively contiguous area that has formed the basis for a Tamil claim to a historic homeland will be broken up and interspersed with hundreds of army camps, staffed by Sinhalese soldiers…There is nothing new about the creeping erasure of Tamil territorial claims in the name of development…Archeologists and historians, sanctioned by the government, unleashed on to conquered territory and possibly funded by UNESCO, will supply the academic legitimacy for the ‘re-territorialisation’ of Sri Lanka. Eventually, postcards will be printed of newly minted Buddhist sites in formerly Tamil areas, and tour guides will regale sightseers with stories of their discovery and antiquity. Just two weeks after Prabhakaran’s death, the president’s wife unveiled a statue of Sanghamiththa…the woman who – two and a half thousand years before- is said to have brought a seedling of the holy Bo tree to Sri Lanka. The statue now sits in the middle of one of the HSZs, in the heart of Tamil Jaffna…”- (‘The Cage’, pp.255-256)
Even the sheer godawfulness of this passage generated by the ignorance of its 21st century Australian author is redeemable. A 17th century Dutch mapmaker redeems it by his cartographical representation of Jaffna[i] (held at the Nationaal Archief, Netherlands, but viewable online at beeldbank.nationaalarchief.nl/na:col1:dat516410). He wouldn’t have known that he was being an agent of redemption[ii] when he drew up this map of a Jaffna where Sinhalese and Tamil place names exist side by side. He was just exercising his craft in the service of imperial Holland. To him a Jaffna that could be interspersed with a Cottiewatte, Noenavil game, Watane, a Walandale, Lilagamo, Tangode, a Tambale, Batecotte, Anecotte, Naloer, Oergavature, Nagamoene, Tambegamo, Mepale, Pollopalle, Alipalle, Malwattoe, a Walewitakepoelo, etc. would have been business as usual, with no special significance. The fact that four centuries later, demographic changes both colonial state sponsored and natural, would render a major territorial division of his map Welligamo into Valikamam and leave a Vimankamam in place of his Vimangamo and affect almost total erasure of its Sinhalese names, would have, if known, filled the cartographer with indifference. If told that four centuries of political upheaval would make his map an embarrassing skeleton in the cupboard to a political ideology aspiring to own the SL reconciliation space in the global mind map, the cartographer would have tuned out in sheer incomprehension.
Yet four centuries later, the Redemptive Dynamic[iii] turns this Dutch cartographer into an agent and his map into a beacon that exposes the human frailty or the psychical darkness behind the Weiss tenets contained in the above excerpt, such as ‘Tamil Jaffna’, ‘Tamil territorial claims’, ‘Tamil claims to a historic homeland on the basis of a contiguous area’. It reveals the plight of men, who accept international postings under global organizations to complex countries swearing to uphold liberal principles, only to get bent by reason of their garden variety intellects into buying ethnic cleansing agendas for multicultural spaces. This agent of the Redemptive Dynamic and his beacon also show the sheer superfluity of “unleashing historians and archeologists on conquered territory” with or without UNESCO funding to give “academic legitimacy to the re-territorialisation of Sri Lanka”. All one has to do is give out framed copies of this map to the sections of the populace entertaining doubts about the legitimacy of the said re-territorialisation. In fact, I am not sure if the Redemptive Dynamic didn’t overdo it a bit with this map. There’s such a thing as having it too easy.
Re Sangamittha, that “woman” is indeed said by the Pali chronicle of Lanka to have landed in Jambukolapattana with the Bo sapling. But as this same chronicle was instrumental in establishing the identity of even this woman’s father in the inscriptions of India, it seems reasonable to assume that the chronicle was on the ball re the Asokan connection and she did indeed land in Jambukolapattana, which port is widely accepted by historians as belonging to the peninsula.
“……..a brief reference to the regional and not merely Sri Lankan importance of the translation of the Mahavamsa. In time it became the source for determining the identity of Devanampiya Piyadassi mentioned in a series of inscriptions on pillars and rocks in many parts of India, an identification eventually confirmed in the early 20th century, as the great Emperor Asoka. …”- (K M De Silva: Emerson Tennent Memorial Lecture: JRASSL, NS, VOL. XLI, Special Number, 1996)-
Did we really have as a UN official a man who was capable of regarding the celebration of this cultural association in Jaffna, as a violation and an abomination? The shock is fully comparable to seeing running sores on the body of a beauty contestant during the swimsuit round.
*The writer can be found at http://ratnawalli.blogspot.co.uk/and rathnawalli@gmail.com
[i] Kaart van Jaffanapatnam en onderhoorige landen en eilanden (Map of Jaffanapatnam countries and islands and dependencies). Browsers such as Google Chrome let you translate the web page into English. Get it full screen and start spotting the Sinhala place names.
[ii] There are other agents of redemption at large who help us by emphasizing the layered heritage of Jaffna. See for example; “The Kokila Sandesaya narrates the longest of the journeys from the southernmost point on the island, Devinuwara (Dondra) to its northernmost city, Yapa Patuna (Jaffna). It names seventy-two places along the journey. Some of the Sinhala place-names on the northern leg of the journey are no longer identifiable, because these areas are now home to a mainly Tamil population.”-
I talked about the layered heritage of the North in “Communal claims on common land”. That article grew out of a conversation I had with a historian.
H- ‘I have mailed you that article by Anoma Pieris’.
Me- ‘She is the granddaughter of G. C. Mendis isn’t she?’
H- ‘Yes. She is at Uni of Melbourne. Thought the bit about the northern leg of the journey might interest you’.
Me- ‘That the 15th century Kokila Sandesaya should list Sinhala place names on its northern leg? Hardly a revelation. Take a look at that 17th century Dutch map…
[iii] Another agent of redemption who emphasized the layered heritage of Jaffna very early on is Codrington; “The place-names in the peninsula indicate that it was held by Sinhala inhabitants at no very remote date, …” said he in Chapter VI, Short history of Ceylon, 1926. I have this mental picture of Codrington yawning from the Great Beyond when in 1965 the PhD student K. Indrapala highlighted “the toponymic evidence involving over a thousand place names of distinctly Sinhalese origin ‘in Tamil garb’” presented by the Jaffna peninsula.
Jim softy / August 11, 2013
Ha..ha..ha..
Now, I understand who Darshanie Rathanwalli is. She is no different from Ms. TG or a few other women who write here. They all think, they are the center of attraction.
Here, she looks for redemption, hum, from what ? wrong pattern of existence in her mind. So, she is the right one.
One thing she proves here is the layered heritage. But, the present question is whose heritage is worthy to accept. For example, as scientists say that Africans moved all over the world to habituate the earth, if Africans press for it, should we allow the Africans to claim the whole world as their country or the homeland ? If not which time period we should consider as the point of delimitation ?
I think, Darshanie is trying to place her with the other scholars and academics with whom she consider as the greatest and she consider other women as just “women” and not worthy of respect or veneration. There she shows her arrogance. Why, they were all not worthy of respect and you earn all the respect that we should give you ? with respect to how you address Venerable Sanghamittha, it shows your cultural and (moral) – bankruptcy in you. That is all British – culture.
The most important point is she is thinking that everyone who read this article is at her level with respect to whatever her specific education is. There she has made another stupid mistake. It is like she is writing an article to a peer reviewed journal (if she has that kind of environment in her discipline).
Darshanie, Why did not you think, probably, at the time of the writing of the Kokila Sandeshaya, Yapa Patuna was completely Sinhala or It’s sinhalaness had not been erased yet (any evidence to to prove otherwise ?), and the author did not have to consider those possibilities
In your article, some paragraphs are not at all related to the subsequent paragraph. I can not understand how many would understand those. I am pretty sure- do you see the connection – even the people in your discipline might not understand it as you understand because those are so unrelated or one paragraph is strange to the other one.
LOOK HER ARROGANCE. We should understand all these by default ?
” H- ‘I have mailed you that article by Anoma Pieris’.
Me- ‘She is the granddaughter of G. C. Mendis isn’t she?’
H- ‘Yes. She is at Uni of Melbourne. Thought the bit about the northern leg of the journey might interest you “
/
m.c.spencer / August 11, 2013
So-called cunning Jimmy Softly, is your real name Don Mahindapala? You are never ever going to admit that. If per chance I am wrong then I am trying to get the real Don Mahindapala to respond as he has not been heard for while supposed to be rewriting the SL’s recent history.
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Darshanie Ratnawalli / August 11, 2013
obviously it’s a conversation. Which conversation? It’s all written down. What’s there not to understand? Read the following within brackets carefully.
(I talked about the layered heritage of the North in “Communal claims on common land”. That article grew out of a conversation I had with a historian.
H- ‘I have mailed you that article by Anoma Pieris’.
Me- ‘She is the granddaughter of G. C. Mendis isn’t she?’
H- ‘Yes. She is at Uni of Melbourne. Thought the bit about the northern leg of the journey might interest you’.
Me- ‘That the 15th century Kokila Sandesaya should list Sinhala place names on its northern leg? Hardly a revelation. Take a look at that 17th century Dutch map…)
I called Sangamitta “that woman” because Gordon too calls her “woman” and I was trying for ironic humour.
How can you decide which heritages are worthwhile? Heritages rise one upon another. Either they are all worthy or all worthless.
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Aney Apochchi! / August 11, 2013
This is not much more than racist claptrap parading as erudition.
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Sudarshana / August 12, 2013
History and archaeology should be left to the specialists. Too many amateurs have attempted to romanticize the science of history and archaeology and have made a mess of it with speculative ideas that lead to further confusion and suspicion.
Mantai was the primary port for Anuradhapura and not the ports in Jaffna peninsula. You must also be aware that there are Dravidian and Austric mundari words in the earliest Brahmi inscriptions. One may note the Dravidian kinship terms in these 3rd Century BC Brahmi inscriptions. Please read quotations from those in Professor Indrapala’s recent book. Both Arya and Dravida are linguistic identities and not racial ones. We are yet carrying the Colonial and Orientalist baggage and killing each other for imagined identities.
Buddhist sites in South India are mainly located in the lower plains and coastal areas. Buddhism was mainly a metropolitan based religion. Almost all Tamil Brahmi inscriptions are in the upper reaches of rivers or in the hills and are primarily endowments made to Jain monks and not Buddhist monks. One must also keep in mind the incorporation of the megalithic burial ritual into Stupa worship, where evidence is found both in India and Sri Lanka. We need to have a sober perception to history and not an emotional one expressed through polemical debates.
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Darshanie Ratnawalli / August 12, 2013
Historians have been getting more incompetent by the year in Sri Lanka. That’s why amateurs enter. What they lack is holistic knowledge. Examples are just floating around. Take Prof. Indrapala you mention. Here’s what he says about the etymology of ‘kamam’ in Jaffna in his sorry excuse of a ‘recent book’. This is how he is trying to recant his former “Sinhala place names in Tamil garb”
“The survival of the word kamam (Pali, gama, village) as a suffix in some place names may further indicate the influence of Pali when Buddhism was a dominant religion in Jaffna. It may well be that this reflects a different Prakrit influence from that seen in the Brahmi inscriptions of the South where the word gama occurs. Such an influence may have come from Andhra, which region seems to have been a source of Buddhist influence in Jaffna. Early inscriptions from Amaravati, in Andhra, have place names ending in gama…”
He attempted even this mumbled recantation(which is hidden away in endnote 75 of chapter 6) because of insufficient knowledge about the Dutch and Portuguese periods and lack of awareness that ‘gama’ was no early aberration in Jaffna spawned from Buddhism and Pali soon to be decently covered by ‘kamam’, that it survived at least up to the Dutch period. The Dutch and Portuguese periods are not his periods. So they do not exist. This is what I mean about having zero holistic knowledge.
And what about Indrapala’s “An analysis of the few notices of the Northern Territory in the Pali chronicle indicates that it was an area different from the other territories.”- p 205
Do you think he would have made this attempt to other the northern territory if he knew that there are verses written by travelers from the northern territory belonging to the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries on the mirror wall? Do you think he has even read Sigiri Graffiti? Have you?
And what about Leslie Gunawardena who said ‘aya’ was of Tamil derivation. If he had been up to scratch in his Pali do you think he would have said it? Forget Pali, if had been turning the pages of the basic text books do you think he would have said it? Do you think if he had at least had a passing acquaintance with page cvi of Inscriptions of Ceylon, Vol 1 he would have said it? . I could have quoted the relevant two sentences(yes it’s just two sentences and a timely contact with that page and those two sentences would have saved him from that gaffe) But I will not. I want the pleasure of writing in detail about it.
And do you know what depths of ignorance S. Pathmanathan is apparently capable of now? Read http://www.nation.lk/edition/health/item/16204-history-of-lankan-thamilians-revisited.html and see for yourself.
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Native Vedda / August 13, 2013
Darshanie Ratnawalli
So far you have carved out a special place in history writing which no other persons wouldn’t dream of.
I suggest you read appreciations published by Gananath Obesekere, Amaradasa Liyanagamage, and Polity on R A L H Gunawardana’s death.
Romila Tapar also wrote one for EPW.
All these appreciations were actually waste of time. These people should have listen to you before publishing their stupid memories of Leslie.
Could you site name of Indrapala’s book
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kautily / August 13, 2013
What people say in a felicitation volume do not change facts.
What you need to do is to take the facts and judge them yourself.
See the comment by Native Veddha where
he now comes out clearly as an OLD CAR SALESMAN’!!!
Beware if car salesmen. They will polish up something
from the tamilnet and present it as
gosplal truth.
Indeed, Veddhas come in all kinds of garbs and avatars.
Veddha by the way, is a word coming from the sinhala word
Vaedda for forest.
Naked Veddah has to now go through the Changam stuff to prove that it is
Dravidian. Look it up in Tamil Etymology of the venerable Emmaneua et al.
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Mohammed / August 13, 2013
This is absolutely hilarious. This is like the dirty black pot calling the clean kettle black. An amateur journalist calling the fully trained historians/archeologists incompetent. What kind of holistic knowledge is she talking about?
As Sulaiman (below) has mentioned, has she really taken a holistic view or is she simply bluffing?
Sulaiman very aptly pointed out about Malayalam. Why did the colonials refer to the Tamils in the North as Malabars? Who actually were the Nagas? Have anybody studied the ancient place names in Chera Nadu (Kerala). Grama/gama and other so called ‘Sinhala’ place names would have come from there.
According to the ‘Anthropology in India’ (Bharatiya Vidiya Bhavan Publication), ‘The Sera or Chera (presently Kerala) is the Dravidian equivalent of the Nagas. Chera Mandala has the same meaning as Naga Mandala”
Today the Nayar (Nagar) from Chera (Kerala) are believed to be the descendants of Nagas. Dr. G. C. Mendis ‘Early History of Ceylon’, p. 23, Northern Ceylon is indicated as the Nagadipa which corresponds to Serentivu in Tamil.
The Arab traders/merchants who first landed in the North of the island called Serentivu/Serendipa as Serendip.
This is another joke!
******Do you think he would have made this attempt to other the northern territory if he knew that there are verses written by travelers from the northern territory belonging to the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries on the mirror wall? Do you think he has even read Sigiri Graffiti? Have you?*******
Assumptions, assumptions and more assumptions!
First of all, what does northern territory mean? North of Sigiri? North of where? Have those travelers from the northern territory belonging to the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries mentioned clearly the place names from where they came as Weligama, Vimangama, Batecotte, etc.
This woman is writing all these nonsense with a hidden agenda, definitely working for someone like BBS.
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Mohammed / August 14, 2013
Oh dear, the last joke regarding the ignorance S. Pathmanathan.
How stupid this womaan is to consider an article written by one K S Sivakumaran who has totally misinterpreted S. Pathmanathan to come to conclusion about a reputed historian.
This Kuragala valli amma has to grow up. When she grows up and come out from a childish mentality she will realize that all what she has written is totally naïve (she will feel like a cat that crapped on the rock). Poor thing imagines that she is ‘gorgeous’ and ‘intelligent’ and all others are imbeciles and mediocre whereas everybody else thinks vice versa. This is what happens when you restrict your readings to some imbeciles and mediocre historians/antropolisists such as Michael Roberts and Alan Strathern.
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Kumar / August 14, 2013
Mohammed,
You are spot on. Even amateurs do a better job than Ratnavalli.
In the 7th century AD, what actually was referred to as the Northern Territory and what was its geographical boundary are not known. Was Anuradapura also a part of the Northern Territory?
Did those travelers during the 8th, 9th, 10th century AD from the Northern Territory as mentioned in the Sigiriya Mirror Wall actually come from the same Northern Territory or some other area? Did this so called Northern Territory include Jaffna? If so, why did not they mention the actual place names of the Northern Territory such as Yapa Patuna, Naga Divpa, Jambukola patuna, Kadurugoda, Weligama, Vimangama, Batakotte, Anakotte and so? How can we be sure that those 8th, 9th, 10th century AD travelers from Northern Territory came from Jaffna?
How can someone make such assumptions and come to conclusions when it is so controversial?
Former Prof. K. Indrapala has done more than 40 years of research in history/archeology in Sri Lanka. If someone say, Indrapala does not know anything about the Sigiriya Mirror Wall and the Sigiri Graffiti, it is absolutely hilarious. If Indrapala had read this comment (by Ratnavalli) by any chance, he would have rolled on the floor and laughed from both ends.
Secondly, in the name of translating a Tamil article written by a well known historian Dr. S.Pathmanathan, one simpleton by the name K S Sivakumaran has done a blunder. Ratnavalli is quoting K S Sivakumaran’s article to ridicule Dr. S.Pathmanathan. Is this what she thinks as holistic knowledge?
I do not know much about Prof. Leslie Gunawardena but if I am right, he was a leading figure in the history department at Pera and was highly respected. If the above two mentioned by Ratnavalli are highly questionable, I am sure what she says about Leslie Gunawardena is also just another joke.
My advice to Ratnavalli is, in the name of holistic knowledge; please do not make yourself a laughing stock in a public forum.
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Silva / August 15, 2013
Ha,ha,ha
Mohammed and Kumar,
You guys have done a great job (good rational thinkers) in exposing this Ratanawalli’s stupidity. When I read your comments, I was LOL because she has not even thought of such simple things. I am sure most of the well known historians must be totally ignoring her. Only a few half baked historians like M. Roberts and those so called scholars who learned Physics/maths but talking history like Dharmawardne and Silva are her favourite guru so enough said about Ratanawalli, the readers will be able to understand what her hidden motive is all about.
Thanks for exposing her stupidity, she must be feeling like ‘caught with pants down’. Poor thing. Only Jim Sothy and Kautaliya to motivate her. However, this is quite fun and hope we get to see her frequently so that we can see more and more of her stupidity and enjoy the fun.
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Native Vedda / August 15, 2013
Kumar
“My advice to Ratnavalli is, in the name of holistic knowledge; please do not make yourself a laughing stock in a public forum.”
Irathina Valli is a child who is having fun.
So are we at her expense.
Please don’t deny us the free entertainment.
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Native Vedda / August 14, 2013
Darshanie Ratnawalli
“And do you know what depths of ignorance S. Pathmanathan is apparently capable of now? Read”
Please let us know why Prof S. Pathmanathan was suffering from ignorance.
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Bratnavilly / August 26, 2013
“And do you know what depths of ignorance S. Pathmanathan is apparently capable of now?
Apparently S. Pathmanathan would be ignoring the apparition of Darsanie Irattinavally.
Darsanie = (Show-off [darsane]sl; Student)
Irattinavalli = Gem Creeper
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Kumar / August 17, 2013
Ratnavalli,
Have you talked to Indrapala or at least to any of his close academic associates? Just because the book he wrote was up to C.1200 CE, that does not mean that his knowledge about the Dutch and Portuguese periods is insufficient or he has a zero holistic knowledge. How can you assume such things and come to conclusions? Your arguments, assumptions and conclusions are extremely silly and stupid.
Btw, have you read Dr. M Gunasingam’s ‘a comprehensive history of Tamils in Sri Lanka from (C. 300 B.C – C. 2000 A.D)’? He has done an extensive research from the of the primary sources relating to our history held by our past colonial masters in their libraries and national archives in Britain, Holland, Portugal and even the US.
Half knowledge is dangerous, it will lead to more problems. If you are not working with a Sinhala-Buddhist hidden agenda, then you should be more knowledgeable and well-read to rush in where angels fear to tread.
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mike / August 12, 2013
JimNutty, you have manifestly become the CENTER OF ATTRACTION to our readers by virtue of your mental aberration.
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Wickramasiri / August 13, 2013
Jim Softly, You have indeed got the whole article wrong! Read it again to get at the meaning of what she says. I in fact liked her article.
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Rooster / August 13, 2013
Leela, why dont you stand by the Norris road with some cheap make-up.
Guaranteed you gals can make some quick bucks than sitting and pecking keyboards.
This Leela or Jimsofty Walli BBS are all working together with a Southern Velupillai.
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Native Vedda / August 13, 2013
Rooster
Come on she is only having fun.
I think you should withdraw your comment and apologise to her.
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Rooster / August 14, 2013
I would rather make an apology to you and even withdraw the comment I made if you asking me to, Native Vedda.
But the rubbish that this broad walli writes and Leela broad endoses it is appalling. All are baseless lies. They lie to the public without any hasitance and believe in their lies.
That was why I said if the purpose was making money, there are other ways than try to rewrite the history.
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Native Vedda / August 14, 2013
Rooster
I understand your desperation to put them where they belong.
However you can do it by other means not lowering your own dignity below their level.
Irathina Valli is a child, treat her as such.
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Ventive Deva / August 26, 2013
No apologize to Leela the stately twat, I object it vehemently.
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Native Vedda / August 11, 2013
Darshanie Ratnawalli
I found this alternative etymology of the place name Valikamam. What do you have to say about it?
Please feel free to rubbish it as this site is run by your equally stupid Tamil brethren.
Valikaamam
வலிகாமம்
valikāmam
vali+kaamam
The sandy village.
Vali
Sand (Eezham Tamil place names); Vaal: Whiteness, purity, goodness (Tamil, Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 5364); Vaal-ekkar: White sand of the seashore or riverbank (Tamil, Changkam Diction); Vaalukaa: Sand, gravel (Sanskrit); Vaalukaa, Vaaluaa (Prakrit); Vaalukam: White sand (old Tamil lexicons); Vælla, Væli: Sand, sandy place (Sinhala); Veli: Sand (Dhivehi / Maldivian); Paal: Milk, known for whiteness (Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 4096); Pal: Tooth, known for whiteness (Dravidian Etymological Dictionary 3986)
Kaamam Village, large village, cultivation village (Eezham Tamil place names); Kamam: Cultivation land (Eezham Tamil); Kamak-kaaran: Cultivator, owner of cultivation land (Eezham Tamil); Gam, Gama: Village (Sinhala); Graama: An inhabited place, village, hamlet (Sanskrit); Gaama: A collection of houses, a hamlet, a parish or village having houses and distinct from the surrounding country (Prakrits); Gang and in sentences, Gamung, Gamah, Gamuge: Island, land, village, hamlet, domicile (Dhivehi / Maldivian)
In today’s Sinhalese, veli means sand. In old Tamil, vaal is an adjective meaning white and a synonym of paal. In Changkam diction, vaal ekkar is white sand dunes or sandy streches. Vaalukam is another word used for white sand in classical texts such as Chilappathikaaram.
Kaamam in Sri Lankan Tamil is a cognate of graama in Sanskrit. Kiraamam is another Tamil derivate of the word. While gama is the cognate in Sinhala and in some of the Prakrits such as Pali, it has become kaamam in Sri Lankan Tamil. Also note that the word kamam for cultivation land, is yet another derivate.
The usage of the word Valikaamam as an important place name is found in the Chola inscriptions of 12th Century A.D. It could perhaps be a synonym for ma’natti or ma’nal thidar (sandy stretch) by which the Jaffna peninsula was known.
The etymology of Valikaamam is a good example to understand the shared elements in Tamil and Sinhala languages.
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=98&artid=22470
Valikaamam which might have origninated as a name of a village, became the name of a region in the Jaffna peninsula. Today, it is devided into five administrative divisions, Valikaamam North, Valikaamam South, Valikaamam East, Valikaamam West and Valikaamam Southwest.
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Darshanie Ratnawalli / August 11, 2013
Here I am not dealing in etymologies or how place names came to be. I am merely giving you primary evidence that in the 17th century Jaffna there were no “kamams” only “gamas”.
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Native Vedda / August 11, 2013
Darshanie Ratnawalli
What is the inference you are trying derive from your assertion that “17th century Jaffna there were no “kamams” only “gamas”.”
This is nonsense, how certain are you? Have you made an effort to consult with other credible linguists or historians?
Relying on just one source to make a sweeping conclusion is the most intellectually dishonest act one can perform.
It is also possible that Vasco da Gama camped out in those fields.
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Aney Apochchi! / August 11, 2013
Native veddah:
Don’t waste your time on this woman. She is a racist trying to prove that the Rajapassa’s Sinhalaization of the Jaffna area amounts to “restoring” the Sinhala presence in what was their centuries-old turf. All the kings horses and all the kings men couldn’t put together a bigger f..ing fairytale.
1
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Native Vedda / August 11, 2013
Aney Apochchi! –
“Don’t waste your time on this woman.”
If my wife reads your comment she is going to kill me.
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K.A Sumana sekera / August 12, 2013
Dear Native,
You sound like a gun Darvidian Scholar.
Not bad for our Balangoda progeny.
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Native Vedda / August 13, 2013
K.A Sumana sekera
“You sound like a gun Darvidian Scholar.”
You know very well that I am bit thick.
Are you planning to pull the rug under me?
“Not bad for our Balangoda progeny.”
Do you know my ancestors were generals in the Kandyan army and they fought the last war against Sudda when your people both stupid Sinhalese and stupid Tamils ran away or surrendered to the foreigners?
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 12, 2013
Sanskrit GRAMA became GAMA (Pali) or Kama(m)(TAMIL).
In Pali sanskrit “R” is always missing.
SUBADRA—-> SU BADDA.
PUTHRA—->PUTHA
DHARMA—-> DHAMMA
GRAMA—>GAMA…..
In Jaffna 90% of the village names are neither Sinhala nor Tamil.
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Kautilya / August 12, 2013
For a good , very complete compilation of place names in the north and the east, try the website:
http://dh-web.org/place.names/
There the Dutch maps, as well as writings from the Sandesha Kavvaya, de Queroz,
Paul E Peries, Rasanayagam, Nicholas etc., and even Tamilnet etc are resourced, together with
an excdllent etymological analysis.
I note that it is also kept updated. It givs Vallikamam as Vaeligama etc.
So why re-invent the wheel? Furthermore, Karthigesu Indrapala’s 1970 article in the JRAS reaffirms most of it. In his book on the evolution of ethnic consciousness he avoids talking about place names
or entering inot the politics of “Tamil homelands” as he knows that this is indefensible.
Looking at all the compilations, I think the http://dh-web.org/place.names/ is the most comprehensive compilation. The author if that compilation, Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana gave a talk at the RAS about his compilation and his methodology in 2010, and I attended that talk.
Apparently, the compilation was began in the 1970s, when the subject of placenames was not a political hot potato, during his tenure as the Vice-chancellor of Vidyodaya University.
The need to is to RESTATE the material, as people like Gorden Weiss do not know the basics, but ssuch ignoramuses become promoted as expert writers about Sri Lanka.
They ned to fit their story to what the client wants to hear, if they are to sell the book.
Today, it is the client who determines the product.
Dharshanie has begun to do the needful in exposing the mis-representations of Weiss. But this is scratching the surface. However, Gorden Weiss has the ear of the western press, and the funding of people who want to hear the facts transformed in the way Weiss has transformed “the facts”.
Th final “history ” is written by those who control the funds and the power to spread the newly minted history a la Weiss. So, until Dharshanie gets access to the international press, she is limited to talking with Native Vedas, JIm Softeys, Anei Apoies and myself who do not have the clout of Goblesian Weiss.
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Native Vedda / August 13, 2013
Kautilya
“For a good , very complete compilation of place names in the north and the east, try the website:
http://dh-web.org/place.names/“
Are you being serious?
If you believe this site and its authors you will believe anything.
I have a car without all four wheels, no engine, no gear box, no windscreen, no seats, no chassis, …………. and I am desperate to sell it.
Would you like to buy it?
Or I am planning to sell Taj Mahal. Would you be interested?
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kautily / August 13, 2013
See the comment below by Native Veddha where the option to reply has been suppressed.
In it he now comes out clearly as an OLD CAR SALESMAN’!!!
Beware if them. They will polish up something from the tamilnet and present it as
gosple truth.
Indeed, Veddahs come in all kinds of garbs and avatars.
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Darshanie Ratnawalli / August 13, 2013
Theories of linguists/etymologists stand or fall depending on primary evidence. An etymologist/linguist can look at a Vimankamam or Valikamam of 21 st century and theorize that
1)the kamam came into the Tamil language from Sanskrit or Pali long ago when these languages held currency in Asia.
2)So this explains the kamams in Jaffna
3)So there were kamams in Jaffna right throughout and Jaffna was always Tamil and kamam is a Tamil word which is a Sanskrit loan word
But what if it was Weligamo and Vimangamo, etc. in the 17th century Jaffna instead of valikamam and vimankamam?
Then that means this kamam is the Tamil adaptation of gama and this adaptation happened only since the 17th century. Then our linguist/etymologist’s theory falls flat. If there were gamas in Jaffna as late as the 17th century that shows that kamam is only a 17th century entry into Tamil and Sanskrit or Pali had nothing to do with it
Also what if it was not just a case of kamams but Cottiewatte, Noenavil game, Watane, a Walandale, Lilagamo, Tangode, a Tambale, Batecotte, Anecotte, Naloer, Oergavature, Nagamoene, Tambegamo, Mepale, Pollopalle, Alipalle, Malwattoe, a Walewitakepoelo how do you explain away all that?
Etymologists are not therapists that can give you theories to let you stay on in your comfort zones. And etymologists do not make place names. People do.
etymologist therapy – August 12, 2013
3:16 pm
Reply
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
But MATARA, Bentara, Galle,Kalutara, Panadura,Nalluruwa, Hambantota, Negombo, Puttalam, and Kandy cannot be identified as SINHALA by any etymologist.
Further GRAAMA is a Sanskrit word. GAAMA derived from the same.
Sinhalese cannot claim the SOLE ownership over Pali and Sanskrit languages!
Are you telling here anything in Sanskrit or derived from sanskrit is belong to Sinhala while the language of HINDUS is Sanskrit?
Remember Tamil people also influenced by Sanskrit for thousands of years.
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Jim softy / August 11, 2013
Darshanie: Don’t worry. Tamils are inventing every thing for their advantage.
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Sag Drifty / August 26, 2013
Including her Oyster shell.
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Sulaiman / August 12, 2013
So according to ratnavalli, the fact that a place name has a Tamil meaning that is no longer prevalent, is irrelevant. According to her it is immaterial that what she considers to be a Sinhala name would have been the Tamil usage at the time. Amazing, that a self announced historical expert would have selective sources. I guess she also seems to suggest that since the 17th century all the supposed Sinhalese who were crowding Jaffna had been evacuated from the North, so that at the time of independence there were only less than a handful of Sinhalese in Jaffna. Pretty incredible that such a mass exodus remains unmentioned anywhere else.
In addition she would do well to look at the Malayalam word usage to note the difference in earlier Tamil. As is known Malayalam diverged and became a separate language from Tamil only a few hundred years ago. Given the strong Kerala connection towards the early part of the last millennium it is only natural that the accent and Tamil usage, including placed names, has been influenced significantly. The refusal to take a holistic view on these matters is symptomatic of those who assume they are experts on any field merely because they have access to the internet.
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Ravi / August 12, 2013
Ratnavalli thinks that with a map and a few comments/assumptions by some historians it is enough to come to definite conclusions, but unfortunately ancient history cannot be simplified to such an extent.
The above term mass exodus prompted me to ask a few questions from Ratnavalli,
1. In the recorded history of Sri Lanka, where is it mentioned that there was a mass influx/settlement of Tamils from South India to the North of Sri Lanka during or after the Colonial invasion? Even before that, the Chola invaders only converted the Buddhists into Hindus but did not settle in large numbers. (There is a Dutch record of some settlement of Tobacco plantation coolies/slaves in the North and Coconut & Cinnamon plantation/peeling coolies/slaves in the South from South India but those coolies/slaves continued to live as low castes and can be identified).
2. In the recorded history of Sri Lanka, where is it mentioned that there was a mass exodus of Sinhalese from the North to the South? Did all the Sinhalese simply pack their bags and go to the South leaving all their lands to the newly arrived Tamils without any protest? (Do not come up with stupid answers like Sangali Kumaran annihilated them).
3. Most of the Sinhalese have their ancestral native place name also as a part of their name, known as Vasagama. Is there any Sinhalese person from any part of Sri Lanka who can come out and say that his Vasagama is a name from any part of NorthEast?
Even those Sinhalese who are living in the NorthEast today were colonized after 1948 by DS Senanayake, if you ask them each one of them will say that their grandfather or great grandfather is from the South.
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saman / August 18, 2013
No Sinhalese can trace their wasagama/surname to anywhere in Anurahapura or Polonnaruwa either.Most of the Sinhalese residing in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa are also recent migrants from the south.So according to your logic are we to conclude that Sinhalese never resided in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa either!
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ken robert / August 19, 2013
Dear Saman
I remember studying in social science books during secondary school days that ancient cities such as anuradhapura were abandoned in the middle ages and wayamba gained significance.this could be the reason.
Kind regards
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Suresh / August 12, 2013
The ancient language used in the region was Elu which belongs to Dravidian family and has similarities to Tamil and which was the precursor to Sinhala, and is the reason that place names in Jaffna appear to be Sinhala.
The grammar of Elu is written in ‘Sidatsangarawa.’ If you study ‘Sidatsangarava’ you will understand that it was based on the Tamil grammar book ‘Viirasooliyam’ composed by the Tamil Mahayana Buddhist ‘Buddhamittran’. In this grammar book only, the word ‘Aryan’ was used for the first time to denote European languages!
In ‘Viirasooliyam’ you find a Sutra that tells how to convert foreign words into ‘Tamil. Commentary written by Peruntthevan explains how the foreign words of European (Aryan) languages, Arabic, Chinese, Malay, Sanskrit, Pali, etc. etc. should be changed into ‘Tamil’ when written in Tamil language.
In the same way,in the Sinhala books and literature, ‘Tamil’ words were changed into ‘Sinhala’ words gramatically.
This is grammar. Argument on words and languages without studying the grammar books will be of no use. You should first understand how names, languages developed and transformed into the present state.
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Kautilya / August 12, 2013
Regarding Suresh’s comment
We have learn something about Tamil language and tamil grammar. The great Tamil epigraphist Iravathu Mahadevan who studied the Tamil stone inscriptions shows that Tamil itself arose from a Tamil Parkrit, written in Tamil Brahmi. This was a slight modification of the Asokan Brahmi and Asokan Parkrit. According to Mahadevan and other Tamil linguists, the Tamil language itself arose in the Sangam period around the first century BC. It is not much older than that, and contains large amounts of prakrit and local dravidian words (the word dravidian means, literarily, southern – Dhakshina or Thechchina, as in in Tedchinamorthy). So originally, the name “Dravida, Dameda, Damila were used by Northern writers to indicate any language used to the south of the Vindhya mountains in South India. The Plai Chronicle writers prided themselves as “north indians”, and adopted the word “Damila” to refer to Dravidian people who lived NORTH of them in the subcontinent, some what as we call the people living in the arab countries the “middle-ext”, although it is “near-west” to us. So, initially, “Dravida” did not refere to a race, or to a language group, but to a region. later it began to apply to a language group, and finally even to a “racial group”. However, modern science does not accept race distinctions as intra-racial differences can be greater than so-called inter-racial differences..
Sinhala is also a Prakrit language (Elu) coming from Pali and other middle-indian prakrits. It used Sinhala Brahmi as the script, somewhat distinct from the Asokan or Tamil Brahmi. Only around the 10the century it is that Sinhala acquired a large number of malayalam words, due to the Magha conquests around the 10th century. These Malayalee words have also now become Tamil words due to absorption. Many old place names in the Vanni, e.g., Giranikke, were taken over lock-stock and barrel by the Magha who translated it as Killinochchi, where Nochchci is the malayalam word for the tree Vitex Nugendo, known in Sinhala as the Nika tree. Giranikke used to be a forest of Nika trees where parrots (Kili) lived, and had been declared a bird sanctuary by the Sinhalese kings. Even the Magha respected this and it remained a bird sanctury for a long time.
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Native Vedda / August 13, 2013
Kautilya
“The great Tamil epigraphist Iravathu Mahadevan who studied the Tamil stone inscriptions shows that Tamil itself arose from a Tamil Parkrit, written in Tamil Brahmi.”
Please site your source.
“According to Mahadevan and other Tamil linguists, the Tamil language itself arose in the Sangam period around the first century BC.”
Please site your source.
“It is not much older than that, and contains large amounts of prakrit and local dravidian words (the word dravidian means, literarily, southern – Dhakshina or Thechchina, as in in Tedchinamorthy).”
Please site your source.
“So originally, the name “Dravida, Dameda, Damila were used by Northern writers to indicate any language used to the south of the Vindhya mountains in South India.”
Please site your source
“Sinhala is also a Prakrit language (Elu) coming from Pali and other middle-indian prakrits.”
Please site your source
“Only around the 10the century it is that Sinhala acquired a large number of malayalam words, due to the Magha conquests around the 10th century.”
Please site your source
“Many old place names in the Vanni, e.g., Giranikke, were taken over lock-stock and barrel by the Magha who translated it as Killinochchi, where Nochchci is the malayalam word for the tree Vitex Nugendo, known in Sinhala as the Nika tree. Giranikke used to be a forest of Nika trees where parrots (Kili) lived, and had been declared a bird sanctuary by the Sinhalese kings.”
Please site your source
I found this etymology of Ki’linochchi from site run by your equally stupid Tamil brethren:
Ki’linochchi
கிளிநொச்சி
kiḷinocci
Ki’li+nochchi
The village of parrots.
ki’li parrot
nochchi an ancient Tamil term for village, derived from nochchi natural vegetation (Vitex negundo).
Vitex negundo
Vitex negundo
In the Changkam diction, nochchi primarily means the natural vegetation Vitex negundo. There are three kinds: karu nochchi, neer nochchi and ve’n nochchi. The word also stands for a poetic theme (nochchith thi’nai) of defending a fortress, because the defenders are supposed to wear garlands made of the flowers of nochchi.
The Tamil lexicons Thivaakaram, Pingkalam and Choodaama’ni give the following meanings for nochchi: village/town (oor), small village, wall of a fort and the act of defending a fort.
Among the changkam poets, there was one Nochchi Niyamam Kizhaar (the one who hails from the trade guild town of nochchi vegetation / walled town).
Compare the place name with similar names Nochchi Moaddai (the shallow pond of nochchi vegetation), Poonochchikku’lam (the tank of flowering nochchi vegetation), Nochchiyaa Gama (the village of nochchi vegetation) and Ki’li Veddi (the open land of parrots / frequented by parrots).
Ki’linochchi is a District Head Quarters in the Northern Province.
First published: Wednesday, 13 June 2007, 01:00
http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=98&artid=22453
If you intent to site Bandu de Silva, Kamalika Pieris, Champika, Nalin de Silva, Gota ….other revisionists………….please don’t bother.
Please send them to me only on my request that is if and when I decide to commit suicide.
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
You confused the scripts with language. Both are different.
Sinhala, Tamil and Malayalam “scripts” come from the same ancestor.
ELU or HELA has nothing to do with Pali or Sanskrit! That is why no trace of Sinhala in the North India except in South India and Sri lanka only!
Do you know Malayalam and Tamil?
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Kundidevi / August 26, 2013
Without the ecstasy of Kamams you couldn’t born to be a Villi.
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J.muthu / August 11, 2013
Please Native explain what this gorgeous women trying to proove…
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Native Vedda / August 11, 2013
J.muthu
As a Tamil Saivaite you should be able to work it out for yourself as to what this gorgeous Sinhala/Buddhist women is trying to prove.
“A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.”
– Carl Jung
“You can be with one of the most beautiful women in the world and still be unhappy.”
– Rod Stewart
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Senguttuvan / August 12, 2013
Native V,
Do I take it u goin bonkers on a mere Diana Ross hairstyle?
Senguttuvan
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Native Vedda / August 12, 2013
Senguttuvan
“Do I take it u goin bonkers on a mere Diana Ross hairstyle?”
No, It was J.muthu who was infatuated by this lady and distracted by her beauty.
I was only warning him of the dangers associated with beauty.
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Talcum / August 26, 2013
“Beauty is but swim deep” _ Shakespuyaraya.
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Native Vedda / August 11, 2013
J.muthu
“Please Native explain what this gorgeous women trying to proove…”
Please contact our eccentric old chap
Bandu de Silva/No-ethnologist for he knows more about her intentions than I do.
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Cold Nocchi / August 26, 2013
A Gajamuthu out of her little shell.
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 12, 2013
“ELU” or “HELA” was the parent language of Tamil, Sinhala and Malayalam.
If you go through ELU you will find thousands of similar words in all three languages!
All these three languages became separate after the invasions and religions.
I believe some 4000 years ago the people of S/India and Sri lanka were speaking “SAME” language!
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K.A Sumana sekera / August 12, 2013
My elders tell me that ELUVA s a goat,favorite of our Tamil brethren.
BBS doesn’t seem to bother about goats because My people can’t affor it anyway.
Tamil take outs in Sacborough serve bloody good goat curries and they are cheap as chips.
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Native Vedda / August 12, 2013
K.A Sumana sekera
“BBS doesn’t seem to bother about goats because My people can’t affor it anyway.”
They like lion, laziest animal on earth.
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
Do you know the Tamil KUSU and Sanskrit KUSU(M)?
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Etimo / August 26, 2013
Yea, how the flatulence of the Tamil Kusu transforms to a smell of Kusum of Sans-Script; Miracle.
Ahoy, what an affinity.
So, the outcome Sinhala is a pompously embellished flatulence.
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Gotcha Baya / August 26, 2013
‘Elu’ belongs to the parent species Capra Hircus, on whose etymology the Tamils, Keralites and Sangahelayas thrive upon attaching to their motherly source to the first bleat of the Elu Bovidae.
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 12, 2013
You are right.
Tamils call the flesh of the young coconut as VALUKKAI because of the WHITE colored flesh!
VELUTHTHA means WHITEN in Malayalam. VELLAI =WHITE must be derived from the same VALUKKA(I).
In Chunnakam there is a VALUKKAI aaru.( Sandy river and it has water during the rainy season only)
Even the bald headed people are called VALUKKAI thalaiyan. All the bald heads are not WHITE but in Jaffna people use the word VEL(WHITE) MANDAIYAN for bald headed people.
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K.A Sumana sekera / August 12, 2013
This is interesting.
“Vellai means White”
Is this the reason why almost all Vellalas are fair skinned?.
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
Idiot.. VELLAI is not VELLALA!
Learn Tamil first to bark here!
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Manoharan / August 12, 2013
Vel also means bare, or nude in old Tamil.
However, focusing back on the article by Dharshini R on Gorden Weiss, I believe that a very unfortunate chapter was taken by SJVChelvanagayam and others in 1949 in launching this idea of an exclusive homeland. This was reaffirmed with the decision to use military if needed to achieve Eelam (exclusive tamil homeland) in the Vaddukkodai resolution. Thiese were most unfortunate decisions, rejected by sensible Tamils like Senator Thirucheklvan.
Prior to the rise of the federal party, people like Fr. Rasanayagam and others had written the “History of Jaffna”, and similarly we have a chapter in the University of Ceylon history of Ceylon edited by Paranavithana and Nicholas. There the chapter on the Tamil History of Lanka was written by one of the descendants of Sri Ponnambalam ramanathan. All these people wrote honest, empirically correct history and NOT the distorted history claiming an “exclusive himeland for the Tamils in the North and the East”.
There was no exclusive homeland. The tamils lived EVERYWHERE in the island, and so did the Sinhalese, from time to time the sinhalese or the tamils were the majority in the North. However, until thr north, and the Vanni were cleared of Malaria by the Senanayakes, very few people wanted to live in the Vanni, the East, or even the North.
As Tamils we must reject the injurious and false doctrine of “exclusive Tamil homelands” brought in by the Ilanakai Arasu kadchchi as a part of its post 1952 campaign and rejected bty the Tamkls then. WE HAVE TO GO BY THE CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS and CURRENT DEMOGRAPHICS not what it was during Sankilli’s time, or when the Portuguese arrived here etc. Today most of the tamils live in the south, in the Colombo suburbs, Galle, Hill country etc. A smaller percentage ( less than 5%-6% of the total population of the island) lives in the North and the East.
So, the current Tamil population has its homeland outside the area that Gorden Weiss is talking about. I live in the Dehiwelai-MtLavinia border. I totally reject this politics, and this polemics based on the “Tamil homeland” concept that has utterly destroyed our community and misled it to fight a war against an adversary 10 times as big as us in population. In the process, by going for “Arasu” we lost much of the dominant position we held in the 1950s.
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Wickramasiri / August 14, 2013
Sensible advice. Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim must adopt like minded attitude to each other if all are to live in peace. Fundamental requirement in addition to attitude, is the acceptance of equal rights who so ever you are.
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Arthagnani / August 16, 2013
Right on Manoharan. Very cogently argued and written well too,sound practical politics.Keep on writing
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Spam / August 26, 2013
In Jaffna-Tamil White(Blonde)is called Sevala, thus a “Sevalayan” is a “fair complexioned” man, while originally the word “Sevala” in Sinhala means “Moss”, it is too used in slang to denote social eccentrics as “Sevalaya”. Else, the word “Sevala” reach far more complex to refer to the kernel of a Tamil-coconut, and the scales of a Sinhala-fish? Still Etymology bonds back the people of the same spermatozoon is an anti-valli theory.
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Senguttuvan / August 12, 2013
Native Veddah,
It is more likely Vallikamam, in the predominantly Tamil soil, is in honour of Valli, the consort of Lord Murugan (Kataragama Deviyo) The other consort being Theviyanai.
Senguttuvan
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Native Vedda / August 12, 2013
Senguttuvan
You may be right.
However please note Darshanie Ratnawalli sounds like a Sinhalised Tamil name Iraththina Valli.
By any chance she is related to you.
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
My cousin’s daughter is Priya Darshani.
Tamil Hindus have names like Kamalawathy, Premawathy, Seethaa and many Sanskrit names.
Is it means they are non Tamils?
Darshanie Valli(amma) makes more fun!
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Vaikondeshwa / August 26, 2013
The latter the movie actress?
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Silva / August 11, 2013
Oh dear, the Kuragala walli again with some nonsense. Who the hell is interested in all this RUBBISH? There are more important issues to deal with.
May be the native Veddha can deal with this woman.
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Native Vedda / August 11, 2013
Silva
“May be the native Veddha can deal with this woman.”
Do I have a choice?
If I have a choice I would not deal with Erathina Valli.
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Gamaraala / August 11, 2013
Sinhala place names in the North?
So what? What is the issue?
There are Tamil place names in the South and Sinhala place names in the North. Sinhalese also may have lived in the Jaffna kingdom just like the Tamils living in the Kandyan and Kotte kingdoms. What may have happened was, the Tamils in the Southern kingdom would have assimilated with the Sinhalese (majority in the South) and the Sinhalese in the Northern kingdom would have assimilated with the Tamils (majority in the North). It is the process of naturalization (Sinhalization/Tamilization).
At independence, when we received the country after 500 odd years from the European colonial rulers, the North and East of Sri Lanka was a Tamil speaking area and the rest was Sinhala speaking. Obviously, the Tamil speaking area is the home for the Tamils and the Sinhala speaking area is the home for the Sinhalese.
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abhaya / August 12, 2013
gon gamaya .. lucky for you you live in caanada which is also part of the greater elam
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Native Vedda / August 12, 2013
Gamaraala
“Obviously, the Tamil speaking area is the home for the Tamils and the Sinhala speaking area is the home for the Sinhalese.”
However the entire island is home for my people.
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Manoharan / August 12, 2013
THe Cabinet at independence contained morfe tamils than is warranted by our demographic percentage. So, a majority of Tamil leaders in 1948 accepted that TAMIL HOMELAN IS EVERYWHERE IN LANKA.
Similaly, the Sinhala homeeland is everywhere in lanka.
Tday more tamils live OUTSIDE the so-called “Exclusive tamil homeland”.
This “exclusive” doctrine was the basis of ethnic cleansing of the Sinhalese from the North after 1977, muslims a little later.
It was a breakaway group led by SJVChelvanayagam who wanted exclusive Arasu in the North, and his plan was rejected not only in 1948 by the tamil leadership, but also in 1952.
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
That is the truth Gamarala!
changing language and assimilations are common in the process anywhere.
Negros in N/America are now ENGLISH. It does not mean they came from England!
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crazyoldmansl / August 12, 2013
Amazing! Most of the names are Tamil names written in English possibly by someone who did not know Tamil. If he was Dutch then that would account for the unusual spelling.
It would be interesting to have a look at older maps, if there are any, and see how often the place names have changed.
It is surprising to hear that Sangamitta gave this bo tree to the Tamils in Jaffna. Maybe it is to these Tamils that the task of safeguarding the Buddhist Philosophy was entrusted. It would be nice to have an article exposing the basis on which Jambukollapattana was established as being in Jaffna.
Interestingly wikipedia has an entry that claims Jambudvipa to be the name given by hinduism to the island where ‘ordinary’ humans live. Future myths and legends may refer to it as ‘Jambukollapama’ where ‘kollapakkarayas’ and ‘kollapakkariyas’ live and produce little ‘kollapakkuruminayas’.
Vaal also means tail and Kaamam also means lust and put together they become interestingly suggestive in a Freudian kind of way which may be what has led to all this talk about wives and about the terror of gorgeous sinhala buddhist women that tails sometimes suffer from and as a result refuse to wag and leading as a result to ‘disappointment’.
Quite a scrum, and there is much that is funny about this jambukollapama.
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Donald J Gnanakone / August 12, 2013
I really do not understand what and where this author is going about names and possibly the colonization of the Tamil homeland by the Sinhala racist and chauvinist Buddhist.
Buddhism is a great philosophy invented by a Hindu man. The problem is the followers of the Buddhist philosophy who are arrogant and demand the domination of the minorities living in their homeland in the north and east part of the Island.
Even if there is more Sinhala Buddhist colonization of the North and the East and there are more Sinhala MP’s in the SL Parliament like from the electorates like in Amparai,(Igniyagala) Seruwila, (Kantale), or even Padaviya it is only 3-4 MP’s in a 225 member Parliament. But the important fact is the districts in the Tamil homeland has increased it’s population, foreign/GOSL aid/loans/investment contributing to the GDP of the NE Province. lol.
The best is yet to come where the Tamil diaspora has increased it’s population, influence, and money power to support and invest in the Tamil homeland of the future. They also will empower Tamils in the Malai Nadu, and Colombo increasing it’s population and political power creating the balance of power in parliament and international affairs. As one can observe, when international dignitaries and diplomats visit Colombo they insist on meetings with the TNA, Mano Ganeshan’s party, and the SLMC. Today, TNA leaders are visiting USA, Canada and UK meeting top officials and the diaspora.
Canadian Tamils will spend half a million dollars on the event and fund raising which is really the tip of the iceberg.
SLMC, UNP, or SLFP cannot even think of generating such excitement or support. Why?
Even US citizens like Basil R, Gotha R, Milinda M, and Fonseka cannot visit their own countries (USA) and see their relatives, family, friends, and assets (including illegally acquired), because they are freaking scared…. LMAO. The tax man and the other intelligent agents are also carefully and meticulously monitoring/watching them. These 4 are aware of it and also trying their very best to hide their financial activity.
Don’t forget, Fonseka had a million dollars hidden in banks and financial companies instead of his own Presidential fund account. This is the amount that got caught to the Rajapakses.. How about the funds he illegally received which did not get caught? How about the foreign exchange he had (Or his in laws had) which is a serious violation of the exchange control laws which he shhould have been prosecuted for..
There is a reason why that subject did not come up and was not investigated. lol.
Returning to this article, the contents is all exaggerated and it does not matter. It does not matter about the few individuals from Melbourne who are also hiding under fictitious names writing comments.
Tamils have plans for Sri Lanka and won’t be threatened or intimidated by colonization and high security zones which will be removed and given up sooner or later. Or else there would be a huge economic price that has to be paid unlike the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation without boycotts, sanctions and lobbying against the Jews.
Do not forget that Tamils send officially 6 Billion dollars in inward remittances annually without which Sri Lankan foreign reserves will be in the negative…. ha ha ha.
Donald Gnanakone
Tamils For Justice.
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abhaya / August 12, 2013
“Buddhism is a great philosophy invented by a Hindu man.”
idiot . dont you realize that even though he was born a hindu he went againt every single premise of Hinduisum . like for instance people are born into a caste, Dont make idiotic statements .. but then again that what you idiot diaspora do . lmao
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Native Vedda / August 12, 2013
abhaya
“idiot . dont you realize that even though he was born a hindu he went againt every single premise of Hinduisum.
Yet the Sinhala/Buddhists obediently observe Hindu rituals. Why?
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abhaya / August 12, 2013
its their cultural roots . if you look at how every religeon is praticed there is a lot of modification based on the original rituals . but the rituals are not religeon .
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Native Vedda / August 13, 2013
abhaya
“its their cultural roots”
Even after 2500 years of “learning” Buddhism has not changed your cultural roots.
Patni worship started only about few hundred years ago directly imported from South India.
Just accept it like your Tamil brethren you too are suffering from identity crisis.
Send your cultural roots back to drawing board and get it analysed and draw a prototype, test it and relaunch your cultural product.
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abhaya / August 13, 2013
dont be an idiot. go and see how buddhisum is praticed in thailand or China there are always remneants of the older cultural roots in pratice . it is the same with Christianity as praticed in latin amerrica or africa . I think only islam roots away the older culture out . but if you go to indonesia you see a lot of hindu roots in the that muslim culture, buddhisum was an inclusive religeon . now this is nothing a wedda will understand but lol
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K.A Sumana sekera / August 12, 2013
Our Lord Buddha landed in Jaffna not once but three times.
And he did it by power walk,unlike Rama who flew in in his Dandumonara with Hanuman as the First officer.
Power walk is more plausibile anyway.
Good to hear that Donald’s Diaspora mates are pumping ship loads of Dollars to the tune of 6 Billion a year.
At that rate even the poor war widows of the LLTE matyrs wouldn be able to have a nice pad of their own and freehold, plus a set of NANO wheels as well.
Donald should personally ensure that these widows are taken care of with this collosal sums of Dollars , before it filters in to Vellala accounts in Indian Overseas Bank,which Mr Sengutuan seems to promote.
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Peace Lover / August 12, 2013
hey dumbo sumansekera (leela) hows it going man,any new housng projects let me know ok
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
Buddhism never support any superstition/magics as you cry!
But you cannot understand this thread or arguments. Sad Sinhalaya!
Kehelmalak neda?
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Ravi / August 13, 2013
There is no evidence what so ever to prove Buddha came to Sri Lanka. It is only a myth created by Ven. Mahanama thero. If Buddha had come, it would have been a top secret because even his most close deciple Ananda Thero was not aware of Buddha’s magical visits to Sri Lanka.
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Wickramasiri / August 14, 2013
Ravi, You have to accept the word of K.A.Sumanaekera who is an authority on Buddha’s visits. The rumour is that he met the Buddha all three times and listened to the sermons, which is why he is such a fine Buddhist.
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R. Varathan / August 14, 2013
After reading for sometime many Tamils coming forward on behalf of our people, I think it is necessary our struggle must be carried out by
educated men and women – speaking for us in respectable language, structured in good English and with some knowledge of the world around
us. They should conduct their bebates decently maintaining decorum and dignity of argument. Men like this Donald Gnanakone bring disrepute to Tamils and it is time other readers also write into stop this clearly disturbed man speaking for us. His Tamils for Justice is something we have not heard of. I know of at least one educated good gentleman who has ceased commenting here because of the foul language of Gnanakone
where he went into private matters.
I don’t know who this Gnanakone is. All I know is he is bad news wherever you discuss Tamil matters.
R. Varathan
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Native Vedda / August 14, 2013
R. Varathan
“I think it is necessary our struggle must be carried out by
educated men and women”
What is your struggle, Tamil Eelam?
What exactly you mean by “educated men and women”
Whom do have in mind?
Where were these people all these years?
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Donald J Gnanakone / August 14, 2013
@Varathan.. Who are You Please?
Have you heard of Google Search?
Just Google who Donald Gnanakone is without demonstrating your absolute ignorance.
Also explain who and where are you from and where you were educate as well as your profession.
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R. Varathan / August 16, 2013
So Mr Donald J shows signs of being ready to learn and behave in his public utterances and writing. We must welcome that. Hopefully his future comments will be decent and polite.
No. I don’t know what Google is. I am a close associate of Booruwansa who too does not know if this is a person, thing or whatever. You are the clever man here and you have read what others have to say about you. The reference about the Gnanakones in the internet is not flattering – with one being called a fraudster by the Aussie police. The Tamil people I have spoken do not know who in heaven you are – and that goes for your TfJ that appears to be a party whose membership can be tucked into a
3-wheeler (tuck tuck)
As to your other questions Mr Duck I will keep my personal CV with me. If I need a job under you at anytime I will let you have these. Thank you.
Varathan
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Vaal Mickey / August 26, 2013
I know one Donalad with a pseudonym ‘Duck’ under the banner of Disney Productions.
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crazyoldmansl / August 12, 2013
What in heaven is ‘Tamil Jaffna’???? is there a Sinhala Jaffna somewhere and what about an English Jaffna? of course there will soon be German, Norwegian, Swiss, Dutch and many other Jaffnas too I guess. So it may be easier to let Jaffna be Jaffna or maybe we should have Sinhala, Tamil, German, Hindhi, French, Swiss, Dutch and what not cantons for Jaffna and all other places on this jumping jumbudvipa on which the Chinese have begun to do what the auto drivers call JIGGY JIGGY producing lots of loveley chubby and golden skinned cheelankans some of whom will surely grow up to be gorgeous chinghala buddhist women who will have an impact on tails and write tall tales of their own as well.
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abhaya / August 12, 2013
there is definitely a canaadian jaffna its called Sacrbaria and it stinks
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
Thanks to 1983 and the Sinhala soorayos for the creation.
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abhaya / August 12, 2013
I am no historian , but I like what you are doing . Contradicting idiocy with facts. but at the end of the day what is important is to tell our tamil friends that there are no such things as traditional homelands . just land in the blessed island of Lanka . For all of us to live and enjoy
dont get discouraged by what some jealous A holes are saying . what is important is not that you are beautiful but you are intelligent . :)
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gonbella / August 12, 2013
Abhaya,
I agree and disagree. I agree she is beautiful but intelligent – hmmm not totally – that is if masking racism in the language of academe can be called intelligent.
With regards to ‘Blessed Island of Lanka’, hmmm well, well, you got it all wrong there.
Nothing blessed about Sri Lanka, when the land is seeped in the blood of minorities. When Bhikkhus instead of preaching Metta and Karuna are preaching violence. When the powers that be practice Nepotism in its crudest form and plunder everything that is plunderable. Do I need to go on.
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abhaya / August 12, 2013
tell me of any land that does not or has not seeped in blood and a few priests dont make the whole sasana
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Silva / August 12, 2013
abhaya the pottaya,
“you are beautiful but you are intelligent”
My Foot!!!
Abhaya is not only blind but also has a pea brain (top class idiot).
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abhaya / August 12, 2013
well what can I say silva . I think a lot more out of my pea brain than you do out of your ick brain
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Kumar / August 12, 2013
Ratnavalli,
Who told you that the place names in Jaffna are Sinhalese? If you analyze those place names, each one of them are drawn from either Sanskrit or Pali and later got modified into Tamil. During the ancient past, Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism have flourished in Northern Sri Lanka (Jaffna).
Sanskrit is the sacred language of the Hindus, and similarly Pali is considered as the sacred language of the Buddhists (used by the Royals and the clergy). The Ancient Buddhist/Hindu civilization in Sri Lanka and the ancient Pali/Sanskrit place names has nothing to do with the ethnicity. In other words, the Ancient Buddhist/Hindu heritage and the ancient Pali/Sanskrit place names in the North and East of Sri Lanka has nothing to do with Sinhala or Tamil.
Since the Sinhalese have adopted and incorporated Sanskrit and Pali into their Sinhala language, those place names sounds like Sinhala but actually they are meaningful Sanskrit and Pali words and has nothing to do with Sinhala.
Do not think of the ancient past in today’s context. Whenever an ancient Buddhist artifact is found by the archeologists, immediately they link it to Sinhalese or Sinhala-Buddhist totally ignoring the fact that there were also Tamil Buddhists. Similarly, when they find a Pali/Sanskrit place name they immediately link it to the Sinhalese ignoring the fact that even the Tamil Royals used Sanskrit/Pali for official purpose. Today the Sinhalese are trying to claim Jaffna by saying there are ancient Buddhist ruins and the place names are Sinhalese.
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Ravi / August 12, 2013
From antiquity, the people of Sri Lanka were following Hinduism/Brahmanism, Jainism, and Buddhism (Theravada and Mahayana). During the ancient period it was the King and his advisers who chose the place names. Irrespective of whether the King was a Naga, Tamil or Sinhalese, most of the kings advisers were members of the clergy who were highly competent in Pali and Sanskrit.
The King and the people may have spoken Tamil or Sinhalese and practiced Hinduism/Brahmanism, Jainism, and Buddhism (Theravada and Mahayana) but the official written language for inscriptions, place names, etc were chosen by the kings advisors (religious leaders) not based on ethnicity.
When it comes to names, in Tamil Nadu the Pandiyan Kings were known as VIJAYA PANDYAN, VIKRAMA PANDYAN, PARAKRAMA PANDYAN, VIRA PANDYAN, VIRA PARAKRAMA PANDYAN, JAYA PANDYAN and so on. In Sri Lanka, some of the Tamil-Buddhist Kings were known as VIJAYA BAHU, VIKRAMA BAHU, PARAKRAMA BAHU, VIRA BAHU, JAYA BAHU and so on.
Since land grab is taking place in the North, I think this woman is paid to write some rubbish to justify it.
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Kautilya / August 12, 2013
Why didn’t these tamil Buddhists leave Tamil inscriptions?
The Sinhalese buddhists left some 3000 stone inscriptions written in a language clearly identifiable as Sinhala and documented in Ephigrahica Zeylanica in several volumes.
The number of tamil inscriptions can be counted on your fingerers. So there were a few tamil Buddhists, but they were an awfully small minority.
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Native Vedda / August 13, 2013
Kautilya
“Why didn’t these tamil Buddhists leave Tamil inscriptions?”
Please do visit Velgam Vehera, ten miles northwest of Trincomalee off the Trincomalee – Horowupothana road. You will find Tamil Buddhist inscription.
“The number of tamil inscriptions can be counted on your fingerers.”
Do you expect a person who is counting Tamil inscriptions to have not less than 500 fingers?
Read Alvapiilai Vellupillai’s papers on Tamil inscriptions. He published a book in 1980, Publishers Jaffna Archaeological society.
If you are not aware of “things” please feel free to ask others. Make sure you leave your Mahavamsa Aryan Sinhala/Buddhist mindset at your bedroom before you approach these subjects.
With your Mahavamsa Aryan Sinhala/Buddhist mindset you will not find anything even if it is sitting in your palm.
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John Milton / August 26, 2013
He will never feel the raised dots, even if it is brailed onto his arsus.
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Ravi / August 13, 2013
Kautilya
Please do not talk NONSENSE!
None of the ancient Brahmi inscriptions were written in a language called ‘Sinhala’. It was written in a language called Prakit (sanskrit and Pali) using the Brahmi script. The Sinhala language which actually developed only after the 7th century AD adopted the early prakrit into it. Just because a German ‘scholar’ William Giger who came to Sri Lanka in the 19th century to study Buddhism/Buddhist history labelled the Prakit language found in the stone inscriptions as Old Sinhala or Sinhala Prakit we cannot come to such conclusions. As a Sinhalese, you will NEVER understand a single word written in those inscriptions to call it Sinhala language (old or what ever).
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kautily / August 13, 2013
Read Guyer. When I use the word “sinhlala”, I imply continuity into Elu. I don’t
just mean Sinhala in the sense of Leslie Gunawardenea, but in the sense of
people like KNODharmadasa who position the begining of sinhala in the 2nd or 3 rd century BC.
I am gald Native Vedda whose usual stance is to ridicule what Dharshani and any other serious scholar have stated, and attempted to become serious. Tghat shoiws that at last he frealises that the truth is hitting his fables.
The guy is just trying to sell us the ideological myths constructed during the LTTE era by a ideologues at Jaffna U which drove out Karthigesu Indrapala as his “history” did not match the history that the so-called “Native Veddjha” claims to be true..
Dharshini is wasting her time throwing pearls at swine.
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Native Vedda / August 14, 2013
kautily
Have you really read research papers by K N O Dharmadasa and R A L H Gunawardana?
What did you learn from both of them?
Believe me I do not take Irathina Valli seriously for she is only child let her have some fun.
Beauty without a brain is a Bimbo.
She has a bright future only if she learns. Please don’t spoil her with your unwanted pampering.
If you wants her to remain a Bimbo please continue with your applauds for her silly stupid small minded articles.
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ken robert / February 22, 2014
Kautily/Chanakya
Prof KNO Dharmadasa does not claim that sinhala language has a continuous presence in his reply to Prof Leslie Gunawardena’s writings on sinhala ethnicity ( The people of lion)
Ken
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etymologist therapy / August 12, 2013
Theories of linguists/etymologists stand or fall depending on primary evidence. An etymologist/linguist can look at a Vimankamam or Valikamam of 21 st century and theorize that
1) the kamam came into the Tamil language from Sanskrit or Pali long ago when these languages held currency in Asia.
2) So this explains the kamams in Jaffna
3) So there were kamams in Jaffna right throughout and Jaffna was always Tamil and kamam is a Tamil word which is a Sanskrit loan word
But what if it was Weligamo and Vimangamo, etc. in the 17th century Jaffna instead of valikamam and vimankamam?
Then that means this kamam is the Tamil adaptation of gama and this adaptation happened only since the 17th century. Then our linguist/etymologist’s theory falls flat. If there were gamas in Jaffna as late as the 17th century that shows that kamam is only a 17th century entry into Tamil and Sanskrit or Pali had nothing to do with it
Also what if it was not just a case of kamams but Cottiewatte, Noenavil game, Watane, a Walandale, Lilagamo, Tangode, a Tambale, Batecotte, Anecotte, Naloer, Oergavature, Nagamoene, Tambegamo, Mepale, Pollopalle, Alipalle, Malwattoe, a Walewitakepoelo how do you explain away all that?
Etymologists are not therapists that can give you theories to let you stay on in your comfort zones. And etymologists do not make place names. People do.
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maitreya / August 12, 2013
Does anyone else suspect that Darshanie [Edited out]
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gonbella / August 13, 2013
You are all missing the point.
Don’t let Ratnawalli’s gorgeousness dupe you into complacency.
Her real agenda is to give justification to the unjustifiable acts of MARA and his ‘Thugocracy’ in the traditional Tamil lands – the land grab and the Sinhalasisation of Jaffna and the Eastern Provinces.
Look at the world around you. There are many an expert and celebrity eager to endorse any commercial product – of course at a price. I do not suggest that Ratnawalli has a vested interest in MARA Inc. But what else drives her to endorse land grabbing and give support to the forcible dislocation of an already traumatised minority.
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thivya / August 13, 2013
Many Sinhala literatures including Kokila Santhesaya are based on Tamil literatures such as ‘Mekam Vidu Thoothu.
Sappumal Kumaraya was a Tamil named Senpaka Perumal, adopted son of Kotte King Paraktamabahu VI.The name sappumal Kumaraya is the direct translation of his Tamil name Senpaka Perumal.
Senpakam – a flower, sappu mal
Kumaraya- Perumal, Son in Tamil.
(The Kokila Sandeshaya written during the reign of Parakramabahu the 6th (1415-1470) is said to encase the longest route taken by any Sandesha bird. From the Southernmost point of Dondra or Devundara, the cuckoo flies all the way to Jaffna to hand over a message to Prince Sapumal who conquered the North for a father who adopted him. After his successful invasion he becomes Yuvaraj of the peninsula and settles down there. He returns to take over the crown of Kotte, that entailed the title of Chakravarthi, on the death of King Parakramabuhu. It was however a short reign.
Like it or not, according to scholar poets like Repiel Tennekoon, now forgotten Sapumal himself was a Tamil earlier carrying the name Sembagappaperumal. How come? Racism seems to have taken a back seat in that by-gone century. Ironically people in court and outside seemed to have been more broad-minded than in this enlightened age. Sapumal’s father served in the royal court of Sri Jayawardenapura, Kotte and the little son was soon to attract the attention of the monarch who adopted him and brought him up as his very own. Both father (Sapumal’s biological father) and son seem to have been of the consensus that the island should be under one Chatra and the King reigning in the capital city of Kotte had to be the sole monarch.
The writer once again wishes to focus attention on the mixed lineage of Sapumal mainly to water down raging racial animosities that only contribute to the dreaded three letter word WAR sprouted mainly from racial consciousness that one can see at present in all its ferocity on distant Gaza Strip killing even suckling babes. Another factor that needs attention is that texts on Sandesha Kavyas indicate that the author of Kokila Sandeshaya was a Monk who knew many languages including Tamil. Perhaps his fondness for the Jaffna peninsula where the language is spoken widely was one motivating factor for him to send the cuckoo there. Twelve days the bird flew non-stop carrying the message. In its beak? No. The message in its physical form was as non-existent as the messenger bird who lived only in the poet’s imagination. The Megha Dutha or Cloud Messenger of the Bharatha Desha had set the trend to be taken up avidly by our own poets.)
(Excerpts from:
http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/05/24/imp06.asp)
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Missaka / August 13, 2013
Despite the erudite delivery of the narrative and innovative (or rather imaginative) application of the ‘redemption’ theory, Ratnawali still muddles in the thriving pit of scholars whose profession is to legitimize Sinhala Supremacy.
Weisse’s account, though with the gaping inadequacies in analysis, expresses a justified fear that the attempts to Sinhalize the North and establish more repressive government control will be reinvigorated in the war aftermath. His fears have become real in the past few years.
The fact that Sri Lanka as a whole was a patchwork of diverse communities is no epoch defining revelation by Ratnawali. It was the nature of the communal fabric of entire South Asia and the fundamental reason for the failure of communally defined nation states that emerged in the post-colonial era. On the other-hand the Dutch man’s cadastral map (made for his trader colleagues) tells nothing of the nature of these communities apart from some Sinhala and Tamil sounding names. It’s clumsy to think that these communities fall withing the race definitions that Britich colonial capitalism established 200 years after.
However we have to grapple with these present day national level racial identities (Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim) regardless of the nature of 14th century communities. This is where the Tamil and Muslim communal territorial claims, Sinhala supremacist state and the class struggle in general comes into open conflict with each other.
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Darshanie Ratnawalli / August 13, 2013
@ Missaka
Your comment was one of the three comments among all I have seen here so far, which made me smile with real gladness because they were islands of intelligence in a sea of imbecility and mediocrity. The other two were from “Sudarshana” and “Etymologist Therapy”
Refreshing as your comment is, it’s not entirely free from wetness. Because you are still wet behind the ears when it comes to pre-British/pre-colonial ethnic identities. The backs of your ears are in this moistened condition because you are stuck in a post orientalist rut. You should read Michael Roberts and Alan Strathern, in my opinion two of the most brilliant shedders of the post orientalist veils to reveal the ethnic identities of the pre-British/pre-colonial religious/ethnic identities.
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Native Vedda / August 13, 2013
Darshanie Ratnawalli
“You should read Michael Roberts and Alan Strathern, in my opinion two of the most brilliant shedders of the post orientalist veils to reveal the ethnic identities of the pre-British/pre-colonial religious/ethnic identities.”
Could you let us have the details of their publications that you are referring above.
Earlier you wrote:
“Take Prof. Indrapala you mention. Here’s what he says about the etymology of ‘kamam’ in Jaffna in his sorry excuse of a ‘recent book’. This is how he is trying to recant his former “Sinhala place names in Tamil garb”
Could you give us details of Indrapala’s book.
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maitreya / August 14, 2013
DR, you’re right that the notion that colonial administrators moonlighting as enthographers and historians simply conjured modes of social categorization like ethnicity, caste, etc. out of thin air has been pretty well debunked. That being said, I don’t think Roberts and Strathern have the last word on these matters. In my opinion, their treatment of the social contexts for the production of their source materials leaves much to be desired. Yes, we can read modes of social belonging and attachment out of HATAN KAVI, but these are poems produced within the context of mobile soldiering communities. We know from the exemplary work of scholars like Dirk Kolff (who works on the same time period in North Indian contexts) that military encampments were loci for the production and consolidation of social identities. To then read these out as approximating anything close to our present-day notion of ‘ethnicity’ is i) to give short shrift to the far more socially circumscribed contexts in which these identities circulated then, and ii) politically dangerous. Moreover, I’ve seen reference to sandesa poems bandied about in this discussion. These were highly stylized works of literature that were produced specifically for courtly audiences. I’ve yet to see a scholar take seriously their literary quality in discussions of the political work they accomplished. The notion that texts more broadly somehow reflect social realities, or passively record ‘history’ is problematic. This seems to be an obvious point that many commentators here are having trouble grasping. Rather, texts like sandesa-s were composed to enunciate a particular order for society – that is, they were prescriptive, not descriptive.
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Janaka Fernando / August 14, 2013
Darshanie,
Dr. Siran Deraniyagala has written his magnum opus on the Pre History of Sri Lanka in two large volumes. It is certainly a specialized work and probably one of the best written on Sri Lankan History.
Here are some readings which will interest you. These particular articles carry comparative studies with South India.
Publications:
1981
“Kalinga and Andhra: The process of secondary state formation in south east India” The Study of the State. Ed. H.J.M. Classen and Peter Skalnik. The Hague. Mouton.
1983
“The Curse of Kuveni: The indigenous Vedda and the anti thesis of Modernization”.
Colombo. Lanka Guardian
1984
“The Archaeology of the Megalithic – Black and Red Ware Complex in Sri Lanka” Ancient Ceylon. Colombo. Archaeological Survey Department. No.5:237-307
1985
“The Barata: a Case study of Community Integration in Early Historic Sri Lanka”. Festschrift 1985: James Thevathasan Rutnam, Ed. A.R.B. Amarasinghe and S.J. Sumanasekera Banda. Colombo: Sri Lanka UNESCO National Commission. 49-56
1987 ‘Iron technology in Sri Lanka: A preliminary study of resource-use and production techniques during the Early Iron Age’. The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities. Vol.XI: 121-132.
1990
“The locational significance of Early Iron Age sites in Intermediary Transitional Eco-systems: A preliminary investigation of the Upper Kala Oya system”. The Settlement Archaeology of the Sigiriya-Dambulla Region. Ed. Senake Bandaranayake et al. Colombo. Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology. 121-152.
1990b
“A Life after Death: Continuity and Change in the Religious Symbolism of the Early Iron age”. Ed. Sudharshan Seneviratne et al. Persepectives in Archaeology. Department of Archaeology. University of Peradeniya.145-152
1992
“Pre state chieftains and servants of the state: A case study of Parumaka”. Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities. Vol. XV (Nos. 1 & 2). 15:99-131.
1993a
“Some Sangam Terms Reflecting Movement, Interaction and sedentation during the Early Iron Age of South India”. Critical Essays on Language and Literature. Ed. P. Sorata and J. Danansuriya. Kandy. Sarasvati Pirivena. 137-145
1994b
“Twilight of the Perumakan: South Indian Polity Restructured and Incorporated”. Pivot Politics: Changing Cultural Identities in Early State Formation Process. Martin Van Bakel et al Ed. Amsterdam. Het Spinhuis. 161-179
1995
“From Kudi to Nadu: A suggested framework for the study of Pre State Political Formations in Early Iron Age South India”. The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities Vol. XIX (N0s. 1 & 2) 57-77
1996
“State Formation in Peninsular India and Sri Lanka”. History of Humanity III, Paris/ New York: UNESCO. 378-384.
1996
“Peripheral Regions and Marginal Communities: Towards an Alternative Explanation in Early Iron Age Material and Social Formations” Tradition, Dissent and Ideology: Essays in Honor of Romila Thapar. Ed. R. Champakalakshmi & S. Gopal. Delhi. Oxford University Press. 264-312.
1997
Pinwewa-Galsohonkanatta 1997: The Archaeology of an Early Iron age Memorial Site. Department of Archaeology. University of Peradeniya.
1997a
“Chankam Poetic Works as a Source for the Archaeologist”. S.Thilayanathan Felicitation Volume. V. Kanakaratnam Ed.Kandy. 342-346
1999
“Megaliths of South Asia with Special Reference to the Early Megaliths in Sri Lanka”
World Megalithic Culture. Inhak Yoo Ed. Soul. World Megalithic Association.
2001
“Situating History and the Historians Craft”. Ethnic Studies Report. Vol.XIX, No.1:139-145. Colombo. ICES
2003
The Philosophical and Social Role of Early Buddhism in South India. Chennai.
2005
“Knowledge Information in Multi Cultural South Asia: Redefining Education for the next generation” Ethnic Studies Review. Colombo. ICES
2005a
“From Language to Race: Deconstructing Tamil Identity in Antiquity”. International Relations in a Globalizing World. Vol.1. no.1:137-160. New Delhi. Sage.
2006a
“Problems of Ceylon History and the Fear of History”. Identity and Difference: Essays on Society and Culture of Sri Lanka. Ed. John Clifford Holt & PB Meegaskumbura, Kandy. Intercollegiate Sri Lanka Educational (ISLE) Program USA. 27-48
2007
People to People Connectivity and Peace Interaction: Redefining Heritage for Conflict Resolution. Katmandu.
2008
“Situating World Heritage Sites in a multi cultural society: The ideology of presentation of the scared city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka”. Archaeology and the Post Colonial Critique. Ed. Mathew Libmann and Uzma Z. Rizvi. New York. Alta Mira Press. 177-196.
2008a
Heritage for Coexistence: Situating Sri Lanka’s Role in the SAARC Region. Colombo.
2010 [Executive Editor]
Corridors of Oceanic Heritage: Galle Maritime Archaeology Museum & Information Center. Colombo. Central Cultural Fund.
2010a
Contradictions of Development in the Chasm of Survival or Obliteration: Saga of Crafts Communities in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. Colombo. FLICT & Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.
2011 (Executive Editor)
The Sigiriya Museum (Central Cultural Fund Museum series I). Colombo. Central Cultural Fund
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Native Vedda / August 14, 2013
Janaka Fernando
Impressive.
I don’t think any of us comment here even heard about all those well researched papers mostly published (by the eminent Sudharsan Seneviratne) leave alone reading them.
Do you think Irathina Valli & Co would care to look at your recommendations? I doubt it.
My elders have access to most of the papers you mentioned above.
You have done a good job for which I am grateful.
Anyhow brilliant.
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Donald J Gnanakone / August 14, 2013
@Darshanie” You wrote-Quote “You should read Michael Roberts and Alan Strathern, in my opinion two of the most brilliant shedders of the post orientalist veils” Unquote.
That says it all. Michael Roberts the [Edited out] than the Sinhala racist singing the praise of the State Terrorist all the time. And this author calls him “Brillaint”… OMG.
Not worth any further discussions.
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M.SIVANANTHAN / August 13, 2013
Ratnavalli Amma:
Please explain who are the HERATH MUDIYANSE people among Sinhalese if you know?
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kali / August 14, 2013
Ratnavallie,
I felt the same as you did until the Northern Assembly elections were announced. I was resigned to the fact 3000 year Tamil heritage was facing extinction but not any more and let me explain why.
1) Kicking and screaming MR has been forced to call the election and he has succumbed to pressure.
2) The retention of Police and Land Power is vital and an integral part of the Northern Assembly to guarantee everything Tamil and to preserve our Language and Heritage.
3) Until now the North which is Tamil Homeland has been under Direct Rule from the Centre headed by the Thugs. The reason why MR did not want to call any election giving excuses that the LTTE remnants are still a threat to the Sinhala Nation was because that would have interrupted and interfered with his grand plan to colonise the North which the Sinhalese have tried for the last 3000 years but failed.
4) With the timely Divine Intervention that threat has been reversed and halted for good.
5) We are now entering the next phase in our struggle to reverse everything and undo the damage.
6) The challenge and the task facing the Supremo ( the CM)is immense and this is how it is going to shape up.
7) As soon as elected I would expect him to carry out peoples mandate and confine the barbaric army which has brought so much misery death and destruction to the Social Fabric of the Tamil Nation to barracks and initiate a Tamil Police force to take charge of security.
8) Using the Land Powers enshrined under the constitution return all the confiscated Land to the rightful owners.
If any one is an any doubt then they should listen to what the Supremo
Mr.Wigneswaran recently stated and he said ” I don’t have to ask any one to give me these powers as they are vested in me under the Constitution. MR then has a dilemma. Either accept defeat and let CM carry out peoples mandate or DISSOLVE the newly elected assembly and impose direct rule arrest and jail CM and the elected members in Wellikade Jail like he did to the decorated four star general SF. If one assumes that he will do according to his natural instinct then we are on a collision course and battle lines will be drawn but the difference this time is we have the world on our side.
I am confident that we have the momentum on our side to withstand any challenges and we will win hands down.
So my message to MR and his cronies is that you are not going to destroy 3000 years Tamil Heritage which has stood the test of times.
THESE ARE THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF MY LIFE.
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Native Vedda / August 14, 2013
kali
“you are not going to destroy 3000 years Tamil Heritage”
Tamils were brought from Tamilnadu to the North by Dutch to work in the Tobacco plantation, later the British brought them to up country to toil and die in Tea plantation.
Where did you get this silly idea of 3,000 years Tamil Heritage?
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kali / August 15, 2013
Native you half animal where did you come from man.
Your ancesters mated with a lion before they arrived here. In Native jargon they used to dip it in Animal.
Read history before you open your mouth you lion.
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Native Vedda / August 15, 2013
kali
“Your ancesters mated with a lion before they arrived here. In Native jargon they used to dip it in Animal.”
This is a comment you should aim at Irathina Valli.
By the way, could you sight any evidence for your assertion that yours is a “3000 years Tamil Heritage”. May be in Tamilnadu.
Ancestors of Kali and Valli were on the same Kallathoni from South India. Please go back to your ancestral land, when you go take your sister Irathina Valli with you.
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kali / August 15, 2013
Native,
The following is a peace of History you cant erase as unfortunately you have to live with it.
Sinhabahu or (“Lion-arms”), was the son of a Vanga princess and a lion. He killed his father and became king of Vanga. His son Vijaya would emigrate to Lanka and become the progenitor of the Sinhala people.
I think the question for you is whether you arrived first or the Universe was created first. I think you arrived before the Universe was created.
I am proud to have roots in south India which is our second home and for your information I am not taking my sister Valli anywhere as she belongs in Tamil Eelam . You ( Half lion) can go back to Jungle
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Native Lankan / August 15, 2013
Native Veddha,
It is true that the Dutch brought slaves from South India and sold them to the Jaffna farmers/land owners (Vellalar) as laborers to grow Tobacco in their fields but those people lived in Jaffna until recently as low castes (pallar).
At the same time both Portuguese and the Dutch brought tens of thousands of slaves from South India (Coramandal and Malabar Coasts) to the South of Ceylon (Chilaw, Colombo, Galle and the entire South West up to Matara). One of the main sources of income the Portuguese and the Dutch had at that time was Cinnamon.
Those South Indian slaves (Tamils & Malabars) brought and settled in the South by the Portuguese/Dutch as menial labourers (for growing/peeling cinnamon, fishing/pearl diving, coconut planting/plucking and toddy tapping) assimilated with the Sinhalese adopting the Sinhala language, religion, culture, and castes but in order to hide their original identity they adopted Portuguese surnames such as de Silva, Fernando, Dias, Cooray, de Souza, Perera, Peiri, Mendi, Fonseka, Corea, etc. Some of them also adopted bogus Sinhala surnames.
Dr. Paul E. Pieris has published extracts from the Portuguese tombo which gives the original names of Fernandos, Pereras, etc before their conversion to Christianity/Buddhism. Even though the Portuguese names were the most popular surnames their original native names were also given such as Vira Cutti, Parama Cutti, Nila Cutti, Sembaga Perumal, Adambara Perumal, Nahepulle, Avepulle and so on which points to recent South Indian origin. Today these de Silvas, Fernandos, Fonsekas, at el are the champions of Sinhala Buddhism.
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Native Vedda / August 15, 2013
Native Lankan
I don’t believe you.
Sinhala/Buddhists originated from pure Aryan race, their ancestors came from Iran, Gujarat, Bengal, Nepal,…except South India.
Even some Helas trace their origin to Helsinki (Finland), some believe they are Singaporeans because Vijaya came from Sinhapura.
Is it possible that you could publish a paper on hidden facts of Sinhala/Buddhist purity, with references to previous researches?
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kali / August 15, 2013
CORRECTION
Sinhabahu or (“Lion-arms”), was the son of a Vanga princess and a lion. He killed his father and became king of Vanga. His son Vijaya would emigrate to Lanka and become the progenitor of the Sinhala people.
Sinhala/Buddhists originated from pure Aryan race, their ancestors came from Iran, Gujarat, Bengal, Nepal,
Why do they look so dark. Just look at Sanath. Where did he come from
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Native Lankan / August 16, 2013
If the Sinhala-Buddhists are pure Aryans who came from Iran, Gujarat, Bengal, Nepal, etc how come their physical appearance, features, complexion, etc are very similar to the South Indian Tamils and Malabars and has no similarity what so ever to the North Indians?
If you compare the DNA/genes of the Sinhala-Buddhists with both North and South Indians you will get to know the actual truth.
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Singkeshkar / August 26, 2013
The truth was already found, the Sinhalese belonged to the same species of Madagaskar [not a Maharashtra surname].
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Native Vedda / August 16, 2013
Native Lankan
Do you think
Bandu de Silva’s
ancestors could have been brought to this island by Portuguese, and Dutch as slaves to work in the various professions you just mentioned above.
That explains as to why Bandu de Silva takes dig at Vellalas and Tamils.
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Native Lankan / August 16, 2013
Bandu de Silva, Nalin de Silva, et al are from the Karawa caste broughht from South India (Coromandal/Malabar coast) for fishing (the Tamil equavalent is Karayar). Now they are hiding behind the Portuguese surnames but their original native names can be found if you refer Dr. Paul E. Pieris’s publication (extracts from the Portuguese tombo). Today these Sinhalized Tamils think that they decend from the Naga king Dutugemunu.They are more Sinhala-Buddhist than the original natives (if any) and the reason is obvious.
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Cincinattus / August 16, 2013
Native Lankan:Can you please let us know where Paul Peiris published these results from the tombo?
Thanks
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Tamilum-Sinhalopithacus / August 26, 2013
… still thriving in the veins of Native Veddahs.
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Arthagnani / August 15, 2013
Why do so many of you take this woman’s totured metaphors and comical theories seriously enough to make comments?She should be allowed to stew in her own poisonous stew!!
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Native Vedda / August 15, 2013
Arthagnani
Come on you know we don’t take Irathina Valli seriously. She is only a child who is having fun. So are we, albeit at her expense.
I beg of you, don’t stop her.
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Cincinnatus / August 15, 2013
Do you know what is lacking RATANA VALLI’S essays?The humility and doubts that true scholars have in their writings. and they are abe also to distinguish between criticism and abuse.IF SHE WANTS AN EXAMPLE OF OF HOW TO CONDUCT A SCHCLOARLY ARGUMENT SHE SHOULD READ THE DEBATE BETWEEN LESLIE GUNAWARDENA AND HIS CRTICS.Ratnavalii seems to have taken the style of the propaganda machine of the Third Reich!
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Native Vedda / August 15, 2013
Cincinnatus
Irathina Valli is only a child. Please allow her to have fun.
That is the only way we can have fun too, at her own expense.
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kali / August 15, 2013
Native:
The following is a piece of history you cannot erase so cherish it man:
Sinhabahu or (“Lion-arms”), was the son of a Vanga princess and a lion. He killed his father and became king of Vanga. His son Vijaya would emigrate to Lanka and become the progenitor of the Sinhala people.
The question for you is whether you arrived first or the Universe was created first and according to you arrived first.
I am proud to have roots in South India which is my second Home and my sister Valli is not going anywhere as she belongs in India. You ( half lion) can go back to the Jungle and hunt.
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Cincinnatus / August 16, 2013
Why would one be so desperate as to use a myth of origin to win an argument?
Many cultures have such myths and no one takes them literaaly.The question one has to ask is not whether the Vanga princess actually — copulated –even the mechanics of it could have been difficult to arrange–with the lion but what narrative purpose does it serve in the mythology of the Sinhala people just as one must ask what role does the myth of Romulus play in the story of the ancient Romans …
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Arthagnani / August 16, 2013
As far as I can make out from this thread that seems to be going on so many tangents one main line of debate is that the nature of the original inhabitants of a region can be inferred from the phonetic similarity between certain words — such as Valligamam.One of the first lessons in classes in linguitics is that “etymology by sound is unsound etymology”!This kind of argument violates not only linguitic theory but also what may be called common sense ethnography.Humam beings migrate,intermarry assimilate on a constant basis…Furthermore adjacent languages borrow from each other again on a constant basis.
Only a scholar of Ratnavalli’s depth of knowledge and wisdom will be unawre of this!!
In any case, what kind of people lived in which place long ago is utterly irrelevant to contemporary political problems.IT IS WHO IS LIVING THERE NOW NOW THAT IS THE RELEVANT ISSUE
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ken robert / August 16, 2013
Fellow Srilankans
This discussion about ancient history of Srilanka is fascinating and offers a lot of food for thought. I am biased to look at it with my myopic medical eye.
Positive aspects of this discourse is that
1. srilankan population inherited diversity and antiquity in its gene pool. It will be interesting to have further genetic studies in srilankan population to look at vedda population and compare it with south indian chakkiliar group to look at similarities in what is hypothesised as proto australoid group. Additionally all island genetic sampling should show more insight into our ancestory and migrational history.
2. I watched the video by michael wood (on the story of india) where mr pitchaiappan, a professor conducting genetic studies in kallar community in india agreeing with michael wood that language is far more difficult to decipher the origins. Infact a previous comment in this discussion aptly described the analogy of american black community and its origins.
3. It is common courtesy that one should criticize the topic of discussion not the writer and most of comments laid nice platform for further interest. However I could not disagree with native vedda that dharshanie’s writing is in a way pleasurable to read, not withstanding the lack of clarity between facts and opinion.
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Native Vedda / August 17, 2013
ken robert
“It is common courtesy that one should criticize the topic of discussion not the writer”
It is good of you to remind our responsibility as commentators. However most of us play the man rather than the ball, in this case a female child.
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Anpu / August 17, 2013
I thought you all would be interested on this
“In these letters, Samuel Livingstone offers his insights on the place names and terms used in irrigation, and their Tamil origin. In subsequent sections 2, 3 and 4, I plan to provide Letters 9-16, 17-24 and 25-30 sequentially.”
http://www.sangam.org/2011/08/Aryan_Theory.php?uid=4446
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