By C.V. Wigneswaran –
Justice C.V. Wigneswaran
A friend of mine asked; Are you not being stupid in attacking the very foundation of the Sinhala belief system by saying
- The Sinhala language came into use only in the 6th or 7th century after Christ
- There were no Sinhalese before that
- That the Tamils have been the original inhabitants of this Island from pre Buddhistic times
- That the Sinhalese have never occupied the North and East in large numbers ever
- You have also said that it were the Tamils who received Buddhism into the country.
Apart from being stupid it is a dangerous exercise by you. Why have you done so?
My answer was:I am indeed thankful to you for your concern. You have answered your question already by using the phrase “Sinhala belief system.” It is the erstwhile belief of the Sinhalese which have got piqued by what I am saying. The need to bring these historical facts out arose due to the wrong perception of our Sinhala leaders that this Country is Sinhala Buddhist and that we Tamils are unwanted immigrants of yester years.
Just look at our so called Sinhala leaders. They speak of Sri Lanka being a Sinhala Buddhist Country. It is based on the false beliefs that have been fed into the psyche of the so called Sinhalese Buddhists. Unless they are cleansed of their false beliefs they would not accommodate the indegenous Tamils as their equals. What started as a need to take over administration from the British around 1920 has later got metamorphosed into a need for Sinhala hegemony and such feelings of wanting preponderant influence in Sri Lanka has now got deeply entrenched in the minds of the Sinhalese as their birth right. It is high time the Sinhala Buddhists came face to face with the reality and Truth.
It is like this. A child is adopted and bought up by the foster parents making the child believe that they are the natural parents of the child. He comes of age. Someone says he is not the son of his parents. He does a DNA test and finds that he is indeed not the child of his so called parents. He asks for the truth. Truth reveals his parents are some others but he had been adopted and bought up as the child of his foster parents.
In the matter under discussion regarding the Sinhala Buddhists we may have still not come to the stage of a full-fledged DNA test being done though certain DNA tests so far done do reveal the Sinhalese to be Dravidians. But may be I am the outsider who tells the Truth about the Sinhalese Buddhists. These DNA tests need to be done by our Sinhala intellectuals to find out the Truth themselves.
Often those who try to criticize my statements which you have so well summarized in your question become vituperative and abusive. None so far have met the statements you have mentioned in your question scientifically and with historical data. I am waiting for a recognized Historian to give the lie to my statements. Could anyone deny that the Sinhala language came into vogue in the 6th or 7th century AD? The oldest Sinhala inscriptions date from the 6th or 7th century AD and were on pottery. Sinhala literary works date from the 9th century AD.
That there was no Sinhalese language before the 6th century AD was my first statement. Are there any inscriptions, coins or other evidence of Sinhala language being used before 6th century AD?
If there was no Sinhala language before 6th or 7th centuries there could not have been Sinhalese living prior to the language being born, because the Sinhalese are those who speak the Sinhala language. There is an attempt to show Sinhalese language came from certain prakrit languages in use over 2000 years ago and therefore old Sinhala language prevailed then. That is not correct. My grandfather and grandmother gave birth to my father and my father and mother begot me. Can I say I am my grandfather? There was no contemplation even of a Wigneswaran at the time my grandparents lived. So called old Sinhala is like my grandfather. I am to be considered the present day Sinhala Language. But he was different and I am different. I am not my grandfather. But certainly I came from him. There are Tamil words about 40% which have come into Sinhala language. Does that mean modern Sinhala language is old Tamil language? What about the contribution of Pali in the development of the Sinhala language?
Tamils (Nagas) being the original inhabitants of this Island is well established now. Devanampiya Theesan was Tamil. There were no Sinhalese when Buddhism was introduced to this Island.
That the Sinhalese never occupied the North and East in large numbers is brought out by the continued reference to Tamil village names throughout history of the lands in the North and East. The Sinhala names now coined for Tamil place names was the result of definite conspiracy within the last 50 or 60 years. I knew the energetic activities of Professor Malalasekera in bringing North Indian words from Delhi to enhance the Sinhalese Vocabulary. I was friendly with Chitrasena to know the effect of foreign Cultures and Music on Sinhala Fine Arts. Sinhalese as a language and Sinhala Culture have no doubt developed phenomenally within the last 60 years or so. But all that is recent. The words in Sinhala for North and East place names were coined recently. There is no evidence of Sinhala place names in the North and East before 6th Century AD.
Lastly my statement that it were the Tamils who received Buddhism is accepted historically. If Sinhalese language came in the 6th or 7th century after Christ how could have Sinhalese been there to receive Buddhism?
The fundamental question here is when was Sinhala language born? If it were in the 6th or 7th century AD all what I said and ably referred to in your question, are true. Let some Historian who thinks otherwise clarify this, saying Sinhala language has been in existence for over 2500 years. The existence of Tamil language and Saivite culture 2500 years ago has been established decisively.
Danger lurks everywhere. The idea behind the Sinhala politician using the big stick against us is to silence us. The pogroms and riots staged by the Sinhalese Goordas were indeed to terrify us and silence us so that we will not come out with the Truth. Would you want me to keep my mouth shut knowing the Truth just because my life is in danger? You will die. I will die. We all will die. Why this pompousness on the part of the Sinhalese and their discrimination against us?
*Justice C.V. Wigneswaran, Ex- Chief Minister, Northern Province and Secretary General, Thamizh Makkal Kootanii and Co-Chairman, Thamizh Makkal Peravai
Hamlet / March 12, 2020
The moral of this story is that Tamils have a Homeland in Tamilnadu!
Whereas the Sinhalese are found nowhere else in the World except in Sri Lanka!
So why did some Tamils leave Tamilnadu to settle in Sri Lanka?
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / March 12, 2020
German or German speakers are native to three lands , so are the French speakers. Arabic speakers are native to around 24 lands and Tamil speakers native to two lands so do not post rubbish. Just because Sinhalese and the Sinhalese speakers evolved in the island out of the native Tamils tibes and other Indian immigrants , again largely Tamils and the Sinhalese language out of the native Tamil dialect that got heavily mixed with Pali/Prakrit , when Buddhism arrived and not found anywhere else in the world , does not mean that the island only belongs to you and the native Tamils who have a far older history and have retained their ancient identity , religion and culture do not belong , as Tamil is also spoken in South India, that is only 20 miles to the north. What a stupid , racist argument. The Sinhalese were always confined to the South of the island and had no peep or say in the north, east and even large parts of the north west coast, until the British gave all these ancient Tamil lands , together with the hapless Tamil population , to them on a platter in 1948 and created all this mess. Talk about the British favouring the Tamils , all their actions show that they favoured the Sinhalese and used the Tamils. You can only call the southern seven provinces as Sinhalese lands not the north and east. No amount of recent colonisation and illegal land grabbing by the Sinhalese establishment and fake Arab South Indian origin Muslim immigrants is going to change this fact. Go and post this racist garbage at some stupid racist Sinhalese site like ” Lanka Lies” those idiots who patronise that site will lap up your garbage, as they are the same too.
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ghk / March 12, 2020
RSSS,
“Tamil speakers native to two lands so do not post rubbish” – How many more years to include projects in the pipeline, Malaysia, Singapore, UK, Canada? He..he
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Rohan / March 13, 2020
Only person posting rubbish here is you , Sinhalese extremist. Most Sinhalese here post rubbish full of racist venom , mostly towards the Tamils. now even towards the Muslim Tamils
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punchinilame / March 15, 2020
Some information so very relevant for commentators:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPuI9_ctAZU&feature=em-subs_digest-wl
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Eagle Eye / March 12, 2020
Siva Sankaran Sharma,
History of Demalu who are a hochpoch of Dravida slaves brought to Sinhale is less than 500 years. Except few artifacts brought from Hindusthan and buried in the North, no archeological evidences to support the existence of Demalu in Sinhale have been found whereas there are plenty of archeological evidences uncovered by renowned archeologists P.E.P. Deraniyagala, S.U. Deraniyagala and Raj Somadeva that prove Sinhalayo and Vedda Eththo evolved in this island from Homo Sapiens lived in the Southern part of the country 125,000 years ago. Except Sinhalayo and Vedda Eththo, all the others in Sinhale are ‘Para’ people.
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“You can only call the southern seven provinces as Sinhalese lands not the north and east.”
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Where were the ancient Sinhala Kingdoms Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa existed? In Mars or Jupiter?
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At the time Portuguese captured Yapanaya, Native Sinhalayo lived in Yapanaya along with Kallathoni Demala Muslims and Hindus.
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Raman / March 13, 2020
Dumb eagle,
You still keep ranting about “native Sinhalayo”.
Okay let’s concede for a moment that such a species exists. What makes them unique?
1. Following true Buddhism?
In the first place, Buddha wa an Indian. Buddhism doesn’t tell anyone to worship trees or rape boys.
2. Having the Buddha’s tooth in Kandy ?
This fake tooth is six inches long. The Buddha was a normal person, not a giant.
3. Unique Sinhala culture?
What culture? Sari from India. Kavun, kokis, pittu, hoppers, stringhhoppers, Kandyan dancing all from India.
Even your alphabet is from India. Music from Portuguese. And to cap it all, your women are in Dubai !!!!
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Eagle Eye / March 13, 2020
Raman,
I feel sorry for you who do not understand what I mean by ‘Native Sinhalayo’. With scientific evidences now it has been proved that Sinhalayo and Vedda Eththo evolved in this island. That is the reason why I call ‘Native Sinhalayo’. There are some ‘Para’ Demalu (Tamil Diaspora) whose origin is Hindusthan and their sympathizers making a deliberate attempt to give the impression that both Sinhalayo and Demalu came to this country from Hindusthan which is not true. There are also some ‘Para’ Demalu who are cooking up stories to give the impression that Demalu are also ‘Native’ people in this country which is not true.
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Sinhalayo as a dynamic race have taken many things from others. That does not affect the status of Sinhalayo as ‘Native People’.
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Raman / March 13, 2020
Potta eagle,
Whether Sinhalayo are native or not, what the hell have they achieved for the country. You rant about your so-called glorious history, but though your entire culture is from India, you have the nerve to call Tamils foreign. Most of the Sinhala kings murdered each other or their parents to come to power. Is that what you are proud of?
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Eagle Eye / March 14, 2020
Raman,
‘Para’ Demalu are ‘Potta’. That is why they do not see what Native Sinhalayo have achieved. If your eye sight is good travel in the Northern and Eastern part of the country where first Sinhala Kingdoms Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa existed. See the massive reservoirs and irrigation systems, huge ‘Dagabas’ that reflect the engineering skills of Sinhalayo.
‘Para’ Demala barbarians who invaded Sinhale 53 times from third Century BC destroyed those Kingdoms. That is the achievement of ‘Para’ Demalu.
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Raman / March 15, 2020
Potta eagle,
What is the point in boasting about “engineering’ piles of earth called dagabas built 2000 years ago?
What have you done even in the last 1000 years apart from whining about Tamil “invaders”. If the Sinhala kings had enough time to kill each other, why didn’t they defend the country?
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Spring Koha / March 14, 2020
Correction: Kokis is from Dutch cuisine.
Also, let us not forget that Fernando, Perera, Silva, Almeida, etccome from the Portuguese.
As you say, of course, the much-loved baila came from the Portuguese. No Sri Lankan social gathering is complete with dancing to the baila . . . .hoi!
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Jayasuriya / March 14, 2020
And tamils? Tamil nadu, looks like nothing in this land is native.
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Native Thambapanni / March 13, 2020
Archaeology/History has always been political in Sri Lanka and it’s no different even today. The archaeological department is the handmaiden of the Government and always biased towards Sinhala and Buddhism. Archaeologists like Raj Somadeva are well paid to twist and misinterpret their research in favour (biased) towards Sinhala and Buddhism. They misinterpret their findings and concoct new stories (purely based on their own speculation/assumptions). This is why we should never trust the history written/misinterpreted by some racially biased historians/archeologists.
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Eagle Eye / March 14, 2020
Native Thambapanni,
Native Sinhalayo do not have to distort history or archeological findings because they have solid scientific evidences for their history and heritage in documented and archeological forms. ‘Para’ Demalu are jealous of documents such as Mahawansa, Chulawansa, Bodhiwansa because they do not have history in this country. How can there be a history for Dravida slaves brought to Sinhale by colonial parasites after 1506.
That is the reason Kallathoni racist bigot Chelvanayakam started a project to distort the history of Sinhale to justify his bogus claim ‘Traditional Homeland’.
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Native Thambapanni / March 15, 2020
EE
“Sinhalayo do not have to distort history or archeological findings because they have solid scientific evidences for their history and heritage” LOL!
Somadeva is a biased researcher just like Paranawithana in distorting the archeological findings and misinterpreting them in favor of Sinhalese. He is well paid and promoted to do it and he is shamelessly doing it.
The joke is, all the above (Mahawansa, Chulawansa, Bodhiwansa) were written in a language (Pali) that the Sinhalayo can neither read nor understand. Only after the British (George Turner) translated it from Pali to English in 1837, the very first Sinhala translation was done in 1883 by Ven. Hikkaduwe Sumangala thero (aka Don Niculas Gunawardhana) and Don Andris de Silva Batuvantudave.
Mahavamsa is NOT a Sinhala history book. It does not say anything about a Sinhala country or a Sinhala kingdom or a Sinhala king or a Sinhala civilization but it talks a lot about Tamils, Tamil kings and Tamil kingdom.
The biggest joke is, the Sinhalese are the only immigrants who call others immigrants.
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K.Anaga / March 12, 2020
There is Buddhism in Burma, Japan, China, maybe in small numbers in India. Why don’t you go to India and spread Buddhism? Buddha was from INDIA and did he bring Buddhism To Srilanka? The Tamils received it Buddhism without hesitation, not as a religion but as Philosophy. The so-called Sinhalese made it a religion and thought they would out beat the Hindus/Christians/Muslims and Insult the Great Budhha, who was born to Hindu parents. I believe he was an agnostic, similar to Thiru Valluvar, whose two stanza poems out beat all religious teachings put together – teaching a practical way of living without any religious flavor. I wonder in what language did Buddha communicate?
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ghk / March 12, 2020
K. Anaga,
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“Why don’t you go to India and spread Buddhism? Buddha was from INDIA and did he bring Buddhism To Srilanka? “
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Charles Babbage invented computers, is from UK. Did he take that to other countries, including those doing much better than UK in the technology? Good things, anyone can take it anywhere, use it, get in love with it, spread it, establish it…whatever..and it happens by itself.
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K.Anaga / March 13, 2020
Please do not compare man and machine. Machines are invented but not philosophy and teachings, they are discovered with the passage of time and experience. You may, of course, spread the Buddha’s teaching via Computer without adulterating with Srilankan way of Buddhism- VIOLENCE
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Nathan / March 13, 2020
My dear Sinhala brothers and sisters,
When Mahintha and Sangamitha arrived here, Thamil Saiva king Thevanainampiya Theesan received them and he became as a Buddhist. His subjects also followed the king and became as Buddhists. That time both saivaites and Buddhists spoke the same Thamil language.
Sinhala language was created to safeguard Buddhism.
Lord Buddha and Vijeya are Saivaites and not Sinhalese.
Five Eeswarams existed in this island when Vijeya accidentally landed here.
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Jayasuriya / March 14, 2020
Nathan
“Thevanainampiya Theesan “
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Doesn’t matter how much you guys butcher names of Sinhalese kings, it does not mean they become tamil. Me as a Sinhalese calling elara, eranga does not make him a Sinhalese king. Same goes for you guys, you already have a history in tamil nadu so please stop trying to change ours, we are barely learning about it after the british left and its all based on actual physical findings and not some elaborate theories from tamilnet.
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Raman / March 15, 2020
“. Me as a Sinhalese calling elara, eranga does not make him a Sinhalese”
So you are a “Sinhalese” eh? If you go across the water to .Kerala, you can find plenty of Jayasuriyas.
It is better to keep quiet than talk big and expose your ignorance.
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Rohan / March 16, 2020
Checked internet . Jayasurya is quite a common name is Kerala .
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Native Thambapanni / March 15, 2020
The Dravidians (Nagas) who moved to the Southern parts of the sub-continent would have easily occupied both South India and Sri Lanka (even after Sri Lanka split from South India around 7 thousand years ago, the Adams/RamaSethu Bridge existed). The South Indian Tamil (Chola, Chera, Pandya, Pallava), Telugu (Vijayanagara), Orissa (Kalinga) and Tambapanni (Yaksha, Naga) are all Dravidians. Kalinga was one of the earliest Dravidian countries to be Aryanised/Prakritised in speech, Telugu & Tambapanni followed. It is important to note that though Aryanised/Prakritised in speech they are Dravidian people.
Everything changed in Sri Lanka only after the arrival of Emperor Asoka’s missionary monks lead by Arahat Mahinda who converted the Dravidian King Muta Siva’s son Prince Thissa to Buddhism. A large number of the Dravidian tribes in the Tambapanni island embraced Asoka’s Buddhism, Aryanised/Prakritised their speech, learned to write using Asoka Bhrami script, adopted Asoka’s Lion symbol (Indian Lion) and the Dhamma Chakra (also called the Asoka Chakra), accepted the Asoka Buddhist culture and implemented Asoka’s technology to build Stupas, Chaitya, Viharas, Sangharama, and so on. Later, those who moved towards the South of Anuradapura/Rajarata created their own language Sinhala (because they were isolated from others) whereas those who moved towards the North of Anuradapura closer to the Tamil mainland continued to use the Tamil language due to the influence from across the palk strait with free movement due to the Rama Setu bridge.
The Sinhalese still worshipping the Dravidian Gods/deities while calling themselves Buddhists indicates their original Dravidian roots. It is important to note that both Sinhalese and Tamils are Dravidian from the same tribes/stock but the language was changed to either Indo-Aryan (Sinhala) or remained Dravidian (Tamil).
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Eagle Eye / March 12, 2020
K.Anaga,
Gauthama Buddha’s teachings were assassinated by Brahamins because Buddha said:
“Najajja Wasalo Hoti, Najajja Hoti Brahmano, Kammana Wasalo Hoti, Kamma Hoti Brahmano” (One becomes a nobleman by his deeds and not by his birth, one becomes an untouchable by his deeds and not by his birth).
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For the situation prevailing in Yapanaya we should say:
“Najajja Dalith Hoti, Najajja Hoti Wellala, Kammana Dalith Hoti, Kamma Hoti Wellala” (One becomes a Wellala by his deeds and not by his birth, one becomes a Dalith by his deeds and not by his birth).
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Thanks to Sinhala Monks who transcribed Buddha’s teachings at Aluvihara Temple, Matale, Buddha’s teachings survived.
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‘Para’ Dravida invaders have burnt lot of Buddhist documents written in Ola Leaves.
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K.Anaga / March 13, 2020
‘…….. yes by deeds’, true. But Sajith and his father suffered by their birth. No amount of deeds they performed could eradicate the ‘STIGMA’ of their birth which is causing damage and it is being exploited subtly.
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EmAG / March 14, 2020
“Goebbels I” – the sinhaloo,
The devil in you is now quoting scripture!
How true “one becomes a Dalith by his deeds and not by his birth”……..and you truly are that sh*t collector.
EmAG
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sach / March 13, 2020
There were NO Tamils when Buddhism was introduced. Even in South Indian society, Buddhism was practiced by a fringe. There are NO Tamil scholars who studied Buddhism. Even monks like Buddhagosha were South Indians and had to come to Sri Lanka, the learning center to study Buddhism. Learn history…fairy tales by Tamil megalomaniacs is not helpful …. If anything South Indian Tamil speakers did, that was to destroy Buddhist places of worship.
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / March 13, 2020
Sach the brain dead, your statements are confirmation of your racist mind. Buddha was there only 2500 years ago, while Tamil language is about 4,000 years old. Read Thrukkural, which was by a Tamil poet who was an orphan and brought up by a Buddhist family. It is nothing but Buddhist philosophy, perhaps the best literary work in the world, dealing will all matters concerning humans. Please do not allow your ignorance to guide your thoughts and actions against Tamils. For your information Buddhism was taken to Indonesia and Cambodia by Pallavas who are a mixed Tamil Kalinga ethnicity who ruled those lands. The tallest Buddha statue in the world still stands in Andra Pradesh. It is in history that at the time of introduction of Buddhism, several Hindu temples were destroyed and Buddhist temples built on it. King Mahasena is being recorded to have destroyed Hindu temples. Ancient Siva temple Thondeeswaram in Dondra which was discovered by chance in 1998 when digging for laying foundation for a building, will never be resurrected as a Buddhist vihare had been built over it. Abhayagiri, Isurumuniya, Lankatilleke, Embekke, Gadaladeniya, Nalanda gedige were Hindu temples.
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Jayasuriya / March 14, 2020
Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam
Does it hurt when we break through you delusions and knock some sense into your head?
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / March 15, 2020
Do not display your ignorance about delusions which is defined as unshakable false beliefs. Anything proved scientifically is not delusion. Examples of delusions are male lion mating with female human and producing a progeny who re the ancestors of Sinhala race and Buddha without any vehicle making three flying visits from Gaya to Lanka, during one of which placing his foot on a rock in Adam’s peak. It is people like you who believe in such stupid things, need to have sense knocked into the brain, provided you have one.
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Nagadevan / March 15, 2020
Jayasuriyas are recent immigrants from Kerala. They came to SL during the colonial period. Can you please tell us from which part of Kerala (Malabar) your ancestors came to SL and got converted into Sinhala-Buddhists?
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Hamlet / March 16, 2020
Nagadevan, are you sure that your Ancestors did not also come from India, TamilNadu, as recent Immigrants?
How can you prove that you are Native to Sri Lanka?
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Anpu / March 13, 2020
You need to learn FACTS
Buddhist Heritage of Tamil Nadu and its Links with Lanka
https://sangam.org/buddhist-heritage-tamil-nadu-links-lanka/
The Tamil Buddhists of the Past and the Future
https://www.sangam.org/2010/12/Tamil_Buddhists.php?uid=4177
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Eagle Eye / March 12, 2020
Hamlet,
“So why did some Tamils leave Tamilnadu to settle in Sri Lanka?”
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Demala people who live in Sri Lanka fall into three categories:
1. Descendants of Dravida invaders who invaded Sinhale 52 times. Sinhala Kings either killed or chased away the War Loads who ruled Northern part of the country for short periods but allowed ordinary folks who were brought to this country by War Loads to stay in Sinhale.
2. Descendants of ‘Kallathonis’ who came from Hindusthan and settled down in Sinhale. They are confined to coastal areas.
3. Descendants of Dravida slaves brought to Sinhale by Portuguese, Dutch and British. Large number of Demalu fall into this category because colonial parasites brought millions of slaves.
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Native Sinhalayo have to hear this BS because our elders made a big blunder by giving citizenship to Malabar slaves brought to Sinhale illegally from Dravida Nadu by Portuguese to work in their tobacco plantations in Yapanaya instead of sending them back after British left in 1948.
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Raman / March 13, 2020
Dumb eagle,
“Descendants of Dravida slaves brought to Sinhale by Portuguese, Dutch and British. Large number of Demalu fall into this category because colonial parasites brought millions of slaves.”
Yes, and who are all those Silva’s, Soysas,. Fonsekas in the South ?
Surely not Portuguese?
There is no such thing as a Sinhalese. Tell me your full name and I will tell you which corner of Hidustan your miserable ancestors came from.
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Raman / March 13, 2020
Eagle,
You are so boring and predictable. At least learn from KA Sumanasekera. His writing is stylish and he has a sense of humour.
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Jayasuriya / March 14, 2020
Raman
I could do the same actually, tell me your last name and I can tell you where in india your spineless ancestors but, you obviously know it. Tamil nadu.
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Raman / March 15, 2020
I freely admit that my ancestors came from India, unlike you. Do you know that your own name is of Kerala origin? Sinhala my foot!
There are two kinds of idiots, those who know they are idiots and those who don’t. The second kind is more dangerous.
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Native Thambapanni / March 13, 2020
Hamlet
You are saying, “If a community/ethnic group (eg. Sinhalese) is found only in one country (Sri Lanka) then they are the real natives where as if a community/ethnic group (eg. Tamils) is found in more than one country then they are not the real natives” LOL!
There are more than 20 Arab countries in the Mid-East and North African region and they all call themselves Arabs and speak the Arabic language.
The Tamils are Dravidians who have occupied and live in both South India and North Sri Lanka (separated only by a narrow sea) from ancient period (like the Arabs occupying several countries). The Sinhalese are Indo-Aryans who have occupied the Southern parts of Sri Lanka. Both Sinhalese and Tamil kings have ruled Sri Lanka. The country belongs to both Sinhala and Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka. Of course, Sri Lanka is ONE state (Nation) comprising many ethnic/religious groups.
What has Tamil Nadu got to do with the indigenous Tamils of the island? This like some idiot stating Germany is the homeland of the German speaking Austrians and Swiss or France is the homeland of French speaking Swiss and the Walloon population in Belgium, just because all these people speak a common language.
Besides, there was nothing called Tamil Nadu until the British created it. What existed as the Tamil countries in South India were known as Chola/Sola Nadu, Pandya/Pandu Nadu, and Chera/Sera Nadu.
It is now proved archaeologically that people who lived in Sri Lanka and South India during pre-historic period were Dravidians. Genetically the Sinhalese are descendants of Dravidians and have no Indo-Aryan DNA. They adopted the Indo-Aryan language meaning a North Indian language (originally Prakrit made up of Sanskrit and Pali) which later developed into Sinhala language. It happened due to the Indian oceanic trade and migrations from North India.
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GATAM / March 14, 2020
Good question. I know the answer – shamelessness. Mind you that is despite 1956, 1958, 1977, 1983 and 2009.
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pirabakaran / March 15, 2020
Hamlet
Yet another Modaya comes up with his disjointed logic. The fact that the Sinhalese only live in Srilanka makes it their homeland. The components of Sinhala namely Pali and sanskirit don’t exist here. Tamil nadu and Tamil Eelam were one land mass at one time.
No wonder Sinhalayas are known as Modayas ( fools )all over the world.
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Hamlet / March 15, 2020
pirabakaran:-
“Tamil nadu and Tamil Eelam were one land mass at one time.”
If your ‘Disjointed Logic’ comes up with the above statement, you have forgotten that this Land mass existed before any form of Life appeared on Earth!
Anyway your Ancestors arrived in the Indian Subcontinent, Overland from Africa!
Check your comments, before Broadcasting them as Facts!
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K.A. Sumanasekera / March 12, 2020
Who gave those PhDs to old Pranavitnaranas and the others who dug the dirt and found the evidence to say Lord Buddhacame to Lankawe not once, but three times..
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Has Wiggy gone troppo, walking under that Scorching Sun in Jaffana in his old age, after spending 70 years in A/C rooms in Kurunduwatta?..
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Anyway what does he want?..
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If it is an Independent Eelaam in in the North, forget it..
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It ain”t going to happen even if Keselwatata Kid gets in with or without Dr Ranil..
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That is not because of the Sinhala System ,
That is because there is no Velupulle now to Shut up the Vellala Tamils from Colombo like Vigenswaran, who put the spanner in the works.
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Because of Wiggy, Samapathar and Abraham now can’t even go to Jaffna as I understand.
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Doughie has rounded up all the Left Leaning Dalit Politikkas there .
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Non rehabilitated LTTE cadres and few Diaspora agents have formed their own faction with some War Wodows..
And the real Rehabilitated LTTE Cadres ,in fact nearly 10 thousand of them have their own front , which is a formidable outfit as I a understand.
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Then there is the AAVA Party which displays the Sword too often..
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Can Wiggy form an alliance with all those Dudes to ask for an Elaam for the Vellalas to run from Colombo . Will they agree?.
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Even if the UNP under Keselwatta Kid score a few seats , can Abraham win 40 Seats without Jaffna to help Dr Rani form a Government and give Vellala Wiggy the Elaam?…
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Wonder what is KP doing nowadays?..
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rk / March 12, 2020
for once, your comment has been appreciated
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Native Vedda / March 12, 2020
KASmaalam K.A. Sumanasekera
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“That is because there is no Velupulle now to Shut up the Vellala Tamils from Colombo like Vigenswaran, who put the spanner in the works.”
–
It appears you miss Thiruvengadam Velupillai Prabaharan (TVP).
It is understandable, those who benefited (new-rich of the South) from Thiruvengadam Velupillai Prabaharan’s 30 year proxy war, now long for VP’s return which they think would enable them access to fresh streams of income.
/
Unreal / March 14, 2020
‘Wonder what is KP doing nowadays?’
– Don’t wander too much! KP is one happy guy with Gota in the saddle!
/
Thappu / March 12, 2020
Irrespective of the veracity of your line of thinking, your contribution towards bringing about a sane conclusion to this unending discussion is appreciated. I’ll keep my opinion on the subject to myself, for now.
.
(The Q & A format you have employed is the better way to get the facts out. Keep it up, Sir.)
/
Bootan / March 12, 2020
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.
For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2
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K.A. Sumanasekera / March 12, 2020
Bootan , I like the name .. Pity I couldn’t read the Comment..
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ajith / March 12, 2020
Former Jusice Wigneswaran is right. None of the so called Buddhist Sinhala Fundamentalist leadership are true Sinhalese or true Buddhists. They are converted from Christianity and English or Portuguese background. They are the people who tries to protect Sinhala and Buddhism. Isn’t it fake?
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soma / March 12, 2020
Once a Tamil told me that originally the Sigiriya rock was somewhere in Jaffna. Wijaya with his 700 pirates stole it from the Tamils and moved to Dambulla.
–
Soma
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / March 13, 2020
Soma, that could be possible in the same way that Buddha flew on his own from Gaya to Sri Lanka three times over, during one of which landing in Adams peak and placing his foot on the rock. Did you ever care to find out how Sigiriya rock frescoes have a close resemblance to Ajantha rock frescoes. Probably during one of his visits Buddha with superhuman powers may have carried a replica rock from Ajantha to Sigiriya.
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ajith / March 13, 2020
Soma,
One of my Sinhala friend told that Lord Buddha born to a Sinhala over 5000 years before Christ. Do you deny his believe?
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EmAG / March 14, 2020
Soma,
The music group ‘The Gypsies” sometime ago at a concert – which was recorded for marketing – said to the effect that, ask any governing parliamentarian of Srilanka, he would say with no hesitation he built the Sigiriya and not the potholed streets.
Liar, liar your pants are on fire.
EmAG
/
lankan / March 12, 2020
one thing is sure that all imported ideologies.. Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam Christianity and all other ideologies are imported to Sri Lanka. So, what is the point in fighting for this. Only Vedda could make a claim for this Island .. but all others are new arrivals what is called migrant communities today. Only difference is who came first.. but all came to this Island..
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Good Sense / March 12, 2020
Wiggy’s attempt to rewrite history is neither here nor there. I value any action that would make the people of this country feel that they are one set of people. Wiggy’s revelations, like the one’s of Oracle in Delphi, only promotes otherwise. DIVISION! DIVISION! DIVISION!
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C. B. Goonatilake / March 12, 2020
Why is there so much emphasis on one’s language and religion. Aren’t these acquired labels at birth? Had I been misplaced at birth in the maternity ward to a Tamil mother, I may be talking like Wiggy now! Isn’t it sufficient to call ourselves just Sri Lankans with a common heritage and a composite culture? There is no purity of race, as DNA tests would show of anyone from KKS to Dondra. Ideally, the push for a common Sri Lankan identity should come from leaders on both sides of this contrived divide. Perhaps this former Judge, an intelligent man, would give the lead by taking a neutral stand without barracking from one side. We cannot expect much from other politicians on either side.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / March 12, 2020
Good so let us start this by narrating the real history of the island , that there was ancient Tamil Saivite history , long before Buddhism arrived and not the fake Vijaya North Indian origin and also acknowledge that 99.9 % of the island’s population is Dravidian and closely related to the Tamils of South India. Not to imagined Aryans from North India or to Arabs or other western Asians. Let also respect the ancient pre Buddhist Saivite history of the island and not try to destroy it by using fake concocted history , produced by Sinhalese historians, the Archeological department, now even bey fake Arab Dravidian South Indian origin Wahhabis . Just like what happened in ancient Hindu Kathirkammam and many other Hindu sites. Hope you are agreeable to this . What is your so called Sri Lankan Identity? Sinhalese Buddhist Identity or some form of Sinhalese identity. This is what most Sinhalese racist are trying to do by stealth. Common Sri Lankan identity which is basically a Sinhalese identity and not the older Tamil identity. Good try. Pretending to act reasonable and impartial but always stack Tamils when they try to state the truth but keep quiet or cheer Sinhalese racists. Justice Vigneswaran is correct. Sinhalese will use any method to shut Tamils up from stating the true history of the island. Violence , ridicule , belittle them. You are trying the last two
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Eagle Eye / March 13, 2020
Siva Sankaran Sharma,
“Sinhalese will use any method to shut Tamils up from stating the true history of the island.”
—
After several Demala historians failed to find evidences for history of Demala people in Sinhale within this country, another historian Dr. Gunasingam went on a world-wide search for evidence of the role played by Tamils in building a truly comprehensive history of the Tamil nation in Sri Lanka. At the end he wrote that “no overall or comprehensive history of the Tamils in Sri Lanka has yet been written.” (p, 25 – Primary Sources For The History Of The Sri Lankan Tamils, World-Wide Search, 2005.).
—
From where do you plan to get information to tell the true history of Demala people in Sinhale?
/
nalmen / March 12, 2020
the nagas were not tamils
they were mythical people who lived undergound
/
Rohan / March 12, 2020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naga_people_(Lanka) .
They are now mythical to you , as it does not suit your Mahavmasa fairly tale but mythical Prince Vijaya is real for Sinhalese racist to support their Aryan origin fairy tale and claim the island for them.
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SJ / March 12, 2020
Points 1, 2 and 3 are false.
Point 4 is partly true to the extent that the Jaffna peninsula was not settled with Sinhalese.
Point 5 is a distortion. Buddhism had several routes to this country. To assign it to the Tamils alone is daft and dishonest.
The man’s knowledge of history is highly questionable. He should consult serious historians like Professors S Pathmanathan and K Indirapala before shooting his mouth.
*
This is election season. Stirring the communal pot can gather votes. But this man has nothing to offer by way of a political programme.
/
Native Vedda / March 12, 2020
SJ
–
“He should consult serious historians like Professors S Pathmanathan and K Indirapala before shooting his mouth.”
–
Both of them are Tamils, they have their own separatist agenda.
–
Bandu de Silva questioned Indrapala’s scholarly work “The Evolution of an Ethnic Identity: The Tamils of Sri Lanka C. 300 BCE to C. 1200 CE”.
The stupid sachoo, Eusence, Child historian/protege Darshanie Ratnawalli (A Historian In Focus: The Dark Side Of S Pathmanathan), Champika, Gamanpilla, ……………. Eagle Brain Dead Blind Eye, ………… condemn all scholarly work by G Obeyesekere, R A L H Gunawardana, H L Senivaratne, S Pathmanathan, …..
It appears you have conveniently restrained from commenting on their assumptions.
–
/
Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / March 13, 2020
History is not scientific, but geology, archaeology and genetics are. Geologically there was no island called Sri Lanka about 10,000 years ago. There was only a single land mass where due to sea upheaval a part of that land mass got separated into an island. Photographic evidence from NASA and Indian institute of oceanography showing structures lying under sea between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka has confirmed it. When it was contiguous land, people walked from various parts of the world and settled here. First such immigrants were Africans who came here more than 60,000 years ago. Discovery of stone and iron tools similar to those found in Africa shows that these people are of African origin. These are the ancestors of Veddhas who settled in eastern and south-eastern parts of the land. They were essentially hunter gatherers (Gal Veddhas), while some later resorted to farming (Vel Veddhas). Of the Gal Veddhas living in hinterland, some are still maintaining their original way of life and some have been assimilated as Sinhalese. While Vel Veddhas living in eastern plains from Mutur to Kumana have been assimilated as Tamils. Recently a seat of rule of these Veddahs was discovered in Vaharai suggesting that they had undergone some degree of civilization. Veddhas had been worshiping Murugan which shows that they had come under some sort of influence of Tamils because the only ethnic group in the world who worship Murugan are Tamils. Second set of immigrants were Dravidians from Indus valley who had settled in the land over 20,000 years ago. Presence of urn burial sites in parts of north and north west of Sri Lanka, the last one at Ibbankatuwa near Kurunegala and discovery of potsherds in several parts of the north similar to those found in Tamil Nadu proves that it was the same people who lived on both sides of the divide. (CONTD)
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / March 13, 2020
Other than these two ethnic groups there is no archaeological evidence of presence of any other ethnic group in the pre-historic times. Language spoken by these Dravidians was Elu which did not have a script and is considered by linguists as precursor of Tamil.
First religion that was practiced was natural worship. Ancient Dravidians worshiped Sun and they based their calendar on the Sun and all their festivals are solar related. They also worshiped birds, animals and trees. The first organized religion in the land was Saivaism, the worship of Siva the proof of which is the presence of the five Siva temples in Trincomalee (Koneswaram), Keerimalai (Naguleswaram), Mannar (Ketheeswaram), Chilaw (Munneswaram) and recently discovered by chance, the one in Devinuwara (Thondeeswaram). These five together with Kataragama temple shows that Saivaism was spread through the length and breadth of the land. Of these praise have been sung in around seventh century to Koneswaram by Saint Gnanasampanthar, Ketheeswaram by saints Gnanasampanthar and Suntharamoorthy and Kathirgamam by saint Sekkilar. Fact that these temples were revered by saints from Tamil Nadu in the seventh century, is a proof of their antiquity. This was the situation in pre-historic times and that is the reason Ramayana which is a story depicted Ravana as a Dravidian Saivite. Unfortunately Mahawamsa which is biased has completely blacked out these. These Dravidian people had several tribal heads in places like Trincomalee, Vanni, Poonagari, Mantotam and Puttalam. One such chieftain was Kuveni who is mentioned in Mahavamsa at the place where Vijaya and his comrades in crime landed. Vijaya killed Kuveni, subdued other chieftains and established a kingdom in Anuradhapura. They got down brides from Pandyan kingdom. Fact that while Pandyan brides spoke Tamil, Vijaya and his friends as well as Kuveni’s people were able to communicate with each other proves that all spoke either Tamil or some form of Tamil. Subsequently due to the influence of Vijaya and his friends, who brought their religion with them, Hinduism took root.
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / March 13, 2020
Buddhism was introduced only in the 3rd BC, but after that input was made by Buddhist priests who were expelled from Tamil Nadu and other parts of India. So there is some truth in saying that Tamils had a share in propagating Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Bhikku Mahanama who wrote Mahavamsa was a Tamil priest. At the same time a new language was developing with Elu as base and input from Tamil and Sanskrit. Sinhala grammar was copied from Tamil and Sinhala script was copied from Malayalam. The first time Sinhala appeared on stone inscription was in the 7th AD, which is taken as the beginning of Sinhala language. If you identify an ethnic group according to the language they speak, then there were no Sinhalese prior to 7th AD. They were Dravidians who spoke either Elu or Tamil. This is why that Stupid fellow Raj Somadeva has embarked on a mission to prove Sinhalese descended from Balangoda man (ancestor to Veddhas as genetically matched). In the course of time, some Tamils became Sinhalese (Karawa, Salagama and Durawa) while some Sinhalese became Tamils (Koviar). In the recently conducted DNA studies, it is proved that the closest ethnic group to Sinhalese is Ceylon Tamils and vice versa. Ceylon Tamils though they speak the same language as Indian Tamils are genetically different, demonstrating the indigenous nature of Ceylon Tamils. All these demonstrate that the first nation are the Veddhas followed by Dravidians and Tamils, the first language is Veddha dialect followed by Elu, and Tamil, and the first religion is natural worship followed by Saivaism and Hinduism. This places Sinhala ethnic group, Sinhala language and Buddhism in the fourth category in nation, language and religion respectively. On what basis of justice can the fourth placed can claim that it is a Sinhala Buddhist country over the other three just because Sinhala Buddhists are in the majority.
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Native Thambapanni / March 13, 2020
During the early 20th century, the German Pali scholar Wilhelm Geiger who studied the language of the Island divided the newly developed language (Sinhala) into many phases and labeled the Prakrit spoken by the people during the early period as Sinhala Prakrit because he believed that the present Sinhala language evolved into many stages from it. He classified the development of the language in the island into four periods:
* Sinhala Prakrit (until 3rd century CE)
* Proto-Sinhala (3rd – 7th century CE)
* Medieval Sinhala (7th – 12th century CE)
* Modern Sinhala (12th century – present)
Prakrit (derived from Sanskrit/Pali), a North Indian Indo-Aryan language spoken by the people in early Lanka (must have come either with Vijay and his men or North Indian traders) is what Wilhelm Geiger assumed as Sinhala Prakrit when he classified the language in the island. It was Willim Giger’s own assumption which was happily accepted by the Sinhala Archeologists/epigraphists who concluded that the Brahmi inscriptions found in the caves of Sri Lanka were an old form of Sinhala (old Sinhala). However, it was found that very similar cave inscriptions are also in existence in South India.
Today, the epigraphists and linguists do not accept Wilhelm Geiger’s classification as correct. To do a deep study of the language and history of the island he should have studied both North and South Indian languages and also the history of both North and South India. Unfortunately, he was only interested in the Indo-Aryan languages. The interpretation would have been different if Wilhelm Geiger had also learned the Dravidian languages and the history of South India.
If the Sinhala language existed in the 5th century AD, Ven. Mahanama and others would Not have written the Deepavamsa and the Mahavamsa in a language (Pali) that Sinhalese cannot understand. The Sinhala language started developing very much later and first appeared only in the 8th century CE Sigiri mirror wall writings.
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Thappu / March 12, 2020
Oh dear, SJ! Your ill-feelings towards learned men is in the domain. Do not argue without reasons that support your disagreements. CVW has welcomed serious historians to step in and resolve the issue once and for all.
.
If CVW’s views are not in line with historical statements, narrate from historians as to where you find him unacceptable.
.
Stay within your territory. Stop muddling the issues.
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Native Thambapanni / March 13, 2020
The early foreign traders from Arabia, Persia, Rome, China and so on called Sri Lanka by many different names but NONE of them mentioned about the existence of a Sinhala Kingdom or a Sinhala nation. Thousands of Prakrit Brahmi stone inscriptions have been discovered in Sri Lanka during the early period, but not a single archaeological/epigraphical evidence has been found to prove Sinhala existed during the early period. Even the word Sinhala was found only after the 9th century.
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Manel Fonseka / March 14, 2020
Strange, then, isnt it, that such early Sinhala writing is found on the Mirror Wall at Sigiriya. I need to check but I think there is even some dated to the 7th c. And people would have started writing long before that time.
–
Look at Paranavitana’s 2 volumes (ca. 1956) of nearly 700 graffiti, and Benille Priyankara’s “Recently Deciphered Records from the Mirror Wall….(7th to 13th centuries) , 2010. He deciphered another 800. I cant remember the earliest dating by Paranavitana, but Priyankara asserts that several graffiti were “initiated” in the 6th or 7th c.
—
Priyankara has an interesting background, by the way. In the ’80s he attempted a decipherment of the Harappan script (I typed his paper on it). He went on to study Ancient Egyptian and Sumerian cultures, specialising in Egyptian hieroglyphics and Sumerian scripts, and his PhD thesis was on Early Brahmi. inscriptions of Sri Lanka. I am sure that anyone interested in the development of the Sinhala language will find his 2010 book worth reading.
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Native Vedda / March 14, 2020
Manel Fonseka
–
Good to hear from you once again.
Thanks for your comment.
–
“Look at Paranavitana’s 2 volumes (ca. 1956) of nearly 700 graffiti”
–
Paranavitana lost all his credibility long ago after concocting “Inter Linear Inscription” on Sigiri Wall writing.
Please refer to
“Senarat Paranavitana as a Writer of Historical Fiction in Sanskrit” by Ananda W P Guruge, Vidyodaya J Soc Sc Volume 7 1 & 2 1996. “The Evolution of an Ethnic Identity: The Tamils of Sri Lanka C. 300 BCE to C. 1200 CE” by K Indrapala.
–
Future generation of Historians/Epigraphist should review Pranavitana’s reading of inscription.
–
“Recently Deciphered Records from the Mirror Wall….(7th to 13th centuries) , 2010.”
–
Though this book was published by Godage International Publishers I wonder how I missed this book during my frequent visits to the bookshop on Maradana Road. Thanks for the info.
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Manel Fonseka / March 16, 2020
Native, of course you’re correct to remind us of
Paranavitana’s interlinear fiasco, but I dont think he lost ALL credibility as a result. And I dont recall that any of his Sigiri graffiti readings were accused of resulting from “hallucinations” as James Rutnam (would that he were still with us) suggested produced the interlinear apparitions.
—
If only my archaeologist partner of over 50 years were still around to consult about this. I’m forgetting so much of what I learnt from him.
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K.A. Sumanasekera / March 16, 2020
Dear Native,
–
What were you doing in Maradana Road?.
–
I hope you were not enjoying the company of Ladies of the Night after a Buriyani Feed from Buhari…….
/
Agnos / March 14, 2020
SJ,
Common sense tells me that an island so close to the South Indian coast would have been easily visited by Tamils and other South Indian people long before any expelled Bengali/Bihari from North-Eastern India The island is within the South Indian sphere and influence, not the North/East Indian one. This is evidenced by the majority Sinhalese adopting South Indian customs like wearing sarong and eating Pittu and Idiyappam.
What might have happened is that Tamils in ancient India, as a seafaring people ( not only that, they were great temple builders, sculptors and artisans) always thought of the island as their backyard, but were content to stop by and settle down in the coastal regions without venturing deep into the jungle territory inland on a large scale (Perhaps only a small percentage of Tamils did so).
That probably allowed the Bihari/Bengali/Orissa immigrants who were willing to venture into the jungles to claim the land as theirs, even as Tamils continued to think of the island as one within their domain and influence.
Of course, today’s Sinhalese society is made up of a high percentage of South INdian immigrants, and only a small percentage of people have North Indian ancestry.
So when extremists among the Sinhalese try to deny Tamil claim to ancient presence in Sri Lanka, saying Tamils were brought as slaves by the Portuguese and the British, many Tamils l will inevitably hit back, and in the process may come up with their own versions of history.
This conflict can be resolved only if both Sinhalese and Tamils recognize it is ultimately pointless to argue about ancient history, work on ensuring a just society by addressing recent grievances, including justice for war crimes, economic justice, etc., and then partner to build a modern nation. The absence of any will for this is, unfortunately, found more among the Sinhalese than Tamils.
/
Punchi Point / March 12, 2020
Wigneshwaran, You are not attacking our belief system, you are attacking our existence as an ancient people. But your attacks are like pus-vedi i.e shots without any impact. You are too dumb to think that the nonsensical babble you and your fellow Tamils spit out can have any effect on the Sinhalese people or our history. We actually do not need to prove any history or write books after books, our very existence as a people unique to this island is all the proof there needs to be. It is you Tamils who have problems with history, because you want to change your well proven migrant history into an indigenous one. That is never going to work. You are just making a total fool of yourself and the Tamil people. Isn’t it better to have the history you have as a diaspora of Tamilnadu, rather than trying to make useless nonsensical theories about Sinhalese kings being Tamil etc. which in no way can attack the Sinhalese people, but they just make you Tamils look like history-less lying totally comical wannabe people who are desperately trying to get an equal footing here with the Sinhalese. There is nothing wrong with being an immigrant community. Until the late 19th century Tamils didn’t have a problem with it either.
Please know that even if all the Sinhalese disappear from this earth, Tamils will still be an immigrant community here. Tamilakam is the homeland of the Tamils and this island is “molipeyar desam” i.e. one of the “other language speaking countries” as per Tamil history. Its not the fault of the Sinhalese that you Tamils don’t have a history here. You must stop scolding and insulting the Sinhalese and our language and try to live peacefully with us.
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Ahmad Nadvi / March 12, 2020
Dear Ponchi Point!
Your comment reflects your name, Mr. Wigneswaran does not want to wipe out anyone’s existence. What he simply reminds you is that your false notion of “Supremacy” built upon your false historical facts that based upon “Mahawansa”. We all are in “live and let live mode”, provided you show your readiness. This my small point Mr. Small Point.
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Native Vedda / March 13, 2020
Ahmad Nadvi
–
Punchi Point is suffering from p***s envy.
Punchi point is also suffering from Punchi Brain.
Punchi Brain is unable to retain large historical data nor it is capable of processing complex issues.
However his brain is able to repeat the same old myth again and again like an old record.
/
Punchi Point / March 13, 2020
Ahmad Nadvi, when you look at your computer monitor every single picture, letter, figure, you see is composed of small points called pixels. Hope you are smart enough to get the bigger picture from the punchi point I am making.
You say “False historical facts”. That sentence itself is dumb as facts cannot be false. Facts are per definition actual and real. This is the same kind of thing with your sentence about Mahavamsa – FYI Mahavamsa is based on the Sinhalese history and not the other way around, and besides the Mahavamsa there are numerous other vamsa literature, commentaries and narratives, anybody wanting to study this vast literature of the Sinhalese will need a good many decades.
It is the Tamils’ and Muslims’ preconceived notion that Sinhalese have a notion of Supremacy. Supremacy means that a person is asserting that he/she is superior than another. Sinhalese have never done that. Its the Tamils who are claiming supremacy over almost all cultures and languages of the world, by claiming that their language is the oldest in the world and even English, Sanskrit and Greek are supposed to be derived from Tamil! Not the Sinhalese. So its you who have a false notion. Sinhalese are a small island people. This island is the only home we have. What we are asking is that Tamils and Muslims respect this and live peacefully with us. We cannot have another war here – if that happens then you Tamils and Muslims will have to be in the “relocation mode”, because even the UN and the International Community will not tolerate another war or future border disputes/wars and this issue will be settled by relocating the Tamils and you Muslims who speak Tamil back in Tamilnadu.
/
Ahmad Nadvi / March 13, 2020
Oh my dear PP,
Fact is not always objective , it’s subjective in many sense. Also “false fact” is no fact. That means distorted fact is a false fact. Thus false fact is NO FACT. I hope this small point would satisfy Mr. Small Point.
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Native Thambapanni / March 13, 2020
“FYI Mahavamsa is based on the Sinhalese history and not the other way around”
LOL!
Mahavamsa the so called “Sinhala history” was neither written in Sinhala nor says anything about Sinhala. It is written in a language (Pali) that the Sinhalese can neither read nor understand.
Mahavamsa is NOT a Sinhala history book. It does not say anything about a Sinhala country or a Sinhala kingdom or a Sinhala king or a Sinhala civilization but it talks a lot about Tamils, Tamil kings and Tamil kingdom.
/
Nagadevan / March 14, 2020
“will be settled by relocating the Tamils and you Muslims who speak Tamil back in Tamilnadu”
I’m rolling on the floor laughing, OMG I just cannot stop laughing at this absolutely hilarious comment by this PP idiot. Ha, ha, ha….LOL! Please keep entertaining us…
/
Native Vedda / March 12, 2020
Punchi Point
Punchi Brain
Punchi Willi
–
“You are not attacking our belief system, you are attacking our existence as an ancient people. “
–
Sorry, you are not an ancient people but descendants of converted Kallathonie.
–
“Please know that even if all the Sinhalese disappear from this earth, Tamils will still be an immigrant community here. “
–
Even if you make Tamils, Muslims, Veddahs, …. disappear you will still remain descendants of converted Kallathonies. Your DNA will betray you. Science does not lie unlike your parochially motivated cowboy historians.
–
By any chance you are related to Wimal Wind Bag Sangili Karuppan Weerawansa as he is a recent converts who makes loud noise about nativeness and goes to any length to hide his South Indian ancestry.
/
K.A. Sumanasekera / March 16, 2020
Dear Native,
–
I always thought Kallathonies are your Bros, whom the Velallars and the Brahamins didn’t offer even a Stool to sit,
Neither they were given even a Glass of water in Mr SC Judge Wiggs original Homeland .
–
Those underprivileged people wete treated so bad that they decided to get in to even leaking boats to reach the Shores of Srilanka.
My Elders tell me nearly 2 Million of them landed as the first Boat People in Modern History.
–
I also heard that Mrs Gandhi took one Million back after our Politicians agreed to take the other Million.
–
See what a magnificent gesture from the Sinhala Buddhist people whom you call Sinhala Buddhist Racists and Fundamentalist Fascists..
–
When I started in my first job , there was one who used to work in the factory. Poor bugger had six kids to feed with his wages .
I couldn’t manage even without a Missus. I don’t know how he did it..
–
BTW do you and your Vellalar mates sit with them now, and have a drink at least during Elections ?..
–
Or should I ask that Dr Rani’s buddy Mano Ganeshan?..
/
justice / March 12, 2020
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffna_Kingdom
A Tamil Kingdom existed in Sri Lanka, later known as Ceylon by the British.
/
sach / March 12, 2020
Does this moron think, when he says such absurdities, Sinhalese will stop treating Sri Lanka as their
Sinhala homeland? Do tamil myths like Sinhala came in 6th and 7th century, Tamils inhabited pre Buddhist Sri Lanka would push the Sinhalese in renouncing the claim that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist country?
Let me teach you. Sinhala came from the womb of sri lanka, there is no other culture, language and civilisation that came from the womb of SL whether one likes it or not. So Sinhala will have that prestigious place within SL irrespective of whether this fool likes it or not. The history of SL is largely Sinhala. There is a reason why Tamil Nadu itself treated SL as a Sinhala country. Not a single european archaeologist or a historian would disagree with it.
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / March 13, 2020
Sach the bigoted racist, there is no problem if Sinhalese treat part of Sri Lanka as their homeland and not the whole island. Geological evidence shows that there was no island called Sri Lanka 10,000 years ago which was a contiguous land mass with Tamil Nadu. Archaeological evidence is surfacing that people who inhabited the northern and north-western parts of the island were Dravidians similar to those living in Tamil Nadu, who had inhabited the land for more than 20,000 years. To say that Tamils lived in Tamil Nadu only, not settling down in adjoining land which later got separated, is far from the truth.There is no proof of the existence of an ethnic group called Sinhalese of that antiquity. The first organised religion was Saivaism and not Buddhism. All theories put forward in the past about ancestry of Sri Lanka is being debunked by recent discoveries made by using modern technology. DNA studies conducted by Sinhala scholars with samples taken from the people proved that the core genetic material of Sinhalese in south Indian which shows Sinhalese were originally Dravidians who took up a different identity like the Malayalees. Since script of Sinhala was borrowed from Malayalam, it infers that Sinhala is of less vintage than Malayalam. Tamils are not asking Sinhalese to go anywhere from where they came, but only their share of the land which they can prove scientifically was occupied by their ancestors for more than 10,000 years. This is exactly what the international community say, as they are convinced that demand of Tamils for share of land is fair. Just because Sinhalese try to silence Tamils by force, do morons like you think that Tamils will stop treating Sri Lanka as their motherland.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / March 14, 2020
The Sinhalese script did not evolve from Malayalam but from Tamil, as there was no language called Malayalam at that time. The people of Kerala were still identified as Tamils. Malayalam evolved very much later from middle Tamil. Even as far as 1815 the vast majority of the population of Kerala ( 85%) were still speaking and using Tamil or their own version of Tamil called Malayalama or Malabar Tamil, written in the Tamil Vatteluttu script. Even the powerful native Syrian Christian Church of Kerala used Tamil . What is now passing off as Malayalam is the highly Sanskritised Grantha Bhasha , written in the Tulu based Tilgari script that evolved from around the 12Th century , with the arrival of the North Indian Namboothiris into Kerala through Tulu Nadu, along the western coast. With the Chera Pandian wars the Tamil Chera dynasty and the ruling local Tamil classes , gradually lost power and these Namboothris and their immigrant henchmen who migrated with them , gradually started to take over and became very powerful. They imposed their language on the rulers and this Malayalam became the court language by the 17Th century but Tamil was still simultaneously used and was still very powerful in Kerala , as this was the language of the majority Dravidian population and the Syrian Christian Church. This is the reason the so called Malabar/English dictionary published in the late 1700s is still a Tamil dictionary. The Namboothiris and their half caste Nair bastards ,became the allies of the British and at their insistence and to supress the majority of the Malabar Tamil Dravidian population who were constantly uprising against them, the British banned the use of the local Tamil language ( Malabar Tamil or Malayalama) and declared the Grantha Bhasha of Namboothiris written in their Tulu based Tilgari script as the official and only language to be used in Kerala and went about destroying all traces of the Tamil language in Kerala , printing presses , ancient Oala leaves everything.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / March 14, 2020
Then they cunningly renamed the Grantha Bhasha as Malayalam ( the original name for the local Tamil dialect) and as a sop to the Dravidian Tamil majority introduced many Tamil words into this language , that originally was a mixture of Tulu , Sanskrit and some Tamil. Talk about the British favouring the Tamils . They destroyed Tamil in Kerala and made the Tamils in Sri Lanka slaves to the Sinhalese . Openly favoured anything Aryan over Dravidian, Grantham over Tamil in Kerala and immigrant Aryan castes like the Brahmins and others over the local Dravidian populations and gave them high positions. The funny part is whilst they destroyed Tamil in Kerala and imposed the Tulu based Grantha here , In Tulu Nadu along the coast of western Karnataka , the British banned the use of the Tulu language and writing there and imposed Kannada there, again the quell the local Dravidian uprising. You can still see this Malayalis belonging to these certain castes , who helped the British to destroy Tamil in Kerala, helped the Sinhalese to destroy the Eelam Tamils locally and helped to cover it up internationally. like the Nairs. Mennons, Nambiars.
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Native Thambapanni / March 14, 2020
According to Geological evidence, Sri Lanka separated from South India only 7 thousand years ago. The people who occupied South India and Sri Lanka were of the same stock until some North Indians came as traders and migrants (around 3000 years ago) and got mixed.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / March 14, 2020
Sinhalese script is actually borrowed from Tamil and not Malayalam , as the Malayalam language and ethnicity came very much later. Even as recent as 1815 the vast majority of the Kerala’s population were still speaking their form of Tamil , that was written in the Tamil Vatteluthu script. Their Tamil was called Malayalama or Malabar Tamil . This was later banned by the British due to the insistence of their allies the Namboothiris and their half caste bastard Nair henchmen. The British banned the use of Malayalama or Malabar Tamil and destroyed all traces of it and made the highly Sanskritised Tulu dialect of the Namboothiri written in the Tulu based Tilgari script , as the official language of Kerala. They then cunningly renamed this language as Malayalam ( the name that was used for the local Tamil dialect) and as a sop to the Dravidian Tamil majority , introduced hundreds of pure Tamil words from the local Tamil dialect into this language. What they call the original split was around 12th century when these Namboothiris started to arrive and they started to write some form of literature in their Grantha dialect. The real split started to occur around the 16Th century by this time Sinhalese was fully formed and had its own alphabet. However even until the mid 19th century Tamil or its local variant Malabar Tamul or Malayalama was the language of the majority until the British banned its use.
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pirabakaran / March 15, 2020
sach
Are you saying Prakirit/ Pali came from the Sinhala womb ? please don’t make me laugh.
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sach / March 12, 2020
However CV’s vitriol helps the Sinhalese and others to understand the REAL root cause of the problem in the country. That is history revisionism. Sinhalese being the fools will lose this opportunity as always. Sri Lanka’s so called Sinhala Tamil conflict is not due to minority persecution. It is a conflict arose due to history revisionism!
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sach / March 12, 2020
Finally some history lesson to CV and thousands of like minded idiots,
1. Tamil is a very recent identity. There was no Tamils even in Tamil Nadu few centuries back. Tamil is infact a post colonial identity which was created by Dravidians. If anyone goes to 16 century and ask an avege person in the streets of TN, one will never find a Tamil. Because there were no Tamils. Probably the person would be confused at the question of mothertounge as most for multi-lingual.
2. Tamil is NOT an old language. It seems it saw some Renascence during 11th century.
3. Tamil is the least developed and most recently developed language among Dravidian languages, it is younger than Telugu, Kannada and even Malayalam.
4. If there were no Tamils in TN, how can there be Tamils in SL?
5. Lets agree with CV for a moment. Lets agree pre-Buddhist SL was inhabited by Tamils. What happened to them? They became Sinhalese! As CV and even GG Ponna said Sinhalese are the descendants of them. Again backing up the Sinhala homeland theory!
Tamil politicians saying ridiculous things in the field of history is not new or restricted to SL. It is part of Tamil nationalism. Imagining a non existent past for their present day mentak ejaculations is something they all do. We feel the heat, because we are closet to the epicenter of Tamil nationalism. Years ago a Malaysian Tamil went on saying Tamils came to Malaysia first and they inhabited Malaysia! He was forced to issue a public issue. So they have the same issue, the difference is the distance from epi center.
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sach / March 12, 2020
*colonial identity not a post colonial identity
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Anpu / March 12, 2020
Ignorant person.
“Tamil is one of the longest surviving classical languages in the world. It has been described as “the only language of contemporary India which is recognizably continuous with a classical past” and having “one of the richest literature in the world”. Tamil literature has existed for over 2000 years.”
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Anpu / March 12, 2020
Sach
why do not you learn some facts?
https://southasia.berkeley.edu/tamil-studies-initiative
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sach / March 13, 2020
Does it prove anything I have mentioned here? At least look at the evolution of Dravidian language! And western universities pay for Tamil language analysis because you people spend money on that!
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Anpu / March 13, 2020
It wont prove anything to idiots like you. There are so many of them in Sr Lanka. Hence the mess.
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Anpu / March 13, 2020
Would this prove anything to you? It wont.
https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/sri-lanka/
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Anpu / March 13, 2020
“I have been a Professor of Tamil at the University of California, Berkeley, ****since 1975**** and am currently holder of the Tamil Chair at that institution. My degree, which I received in 1970, is in Sanskrit, from Harvard, and my first employment was as a Sanskrit professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1969.” https://southasia.berkeley.edu/tamil-studies-initiative
Why don’t you do a google search and find out about classical languages?
You even might say google is headed by a Tamil that is why google says Tamil is a classical language.
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sach / March 13, 2020
Why should I strive to make an argument on behalf of you? Dont you know the subject you are talking about? I have done my research on Tamil language and its politics. If you want to make an argument please make it, without asking me or anyone else to do it for you. So what are you trying to say?
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Anpu / March 13, 2020
First do it for yourself and get your FACTS correct.
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Anpu / March 13, 2020
Do you know these FACTS?
Today the names of the old Pandyan kings (such as Kula Sekara, Chandra Sekara, Vira Wickrama, Parakrama and so on) are adopted by the Sinhalese (not Tamils) and they have succeeded in misrepresenting the Pandyan/Tamil foundations of Sri Lankan civilization as Sinhalese. Most of the rulers of the island Sri Lanka were either native Tamils/Vanni chieftains, or Dravidians tribes (Nagas), or Pandyans/Pandu or Cholas or at least half Tamil. Even the Pali chronicles do not call any of them Sinhala Kings. By quoting from Lord Valentia’s Travels and from an article of Joinville which was published by the Royal Asiatic Society of Ceylon, Mudaliyar Simon Cassie Chitty wrote in 1838, “The Singhalese, though forming a distinct nation, and differing in their religion, language and manners from Tamils, had no kings of their own race, but of the latter, and according to Lord Valentia and Joinville ‘a Singhalese cannot be a king of Ceylon; that is every person born of a Singhalese father or mother is excluded from the throne’.” Even though the Saivaite Tamils were living in many parts of the country such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa (a capital built by the Cholas), Padaviya, Kurunegala, Puttalam, Tissamaharama (where Tamil Brahmi potsherd inscriptions were found) and so on, it was only after the 12th century CE that the island became more divided politically and geographically between the two languages/religions with the Jaffna kingdom being established in the North East, closer to the Tamil mainland.
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JD / March 13, 2020
Anpu: but, Tamils lived in Africa and Australia can not be that intelligent. Surviving ones want Sri lanka. Those intelligent ones lived in Kumari Kandam may have gone down to the sea when the island went down.
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sach / March 13, 2020
Politicians including the likes of Modi says fairy tales because they know Tamils are crazy about their language. It is like when politicians say ‘Islam is a great religion and it means Peace!’..Just politics…..dont take them seriously
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Native Vedda / March 12, 2020
sachooooooooooooooooooooooooo
–
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to talk and remove all doubt.
– Maurice Switzer, Mark Twain, Abe Lincoln, …
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JD / March 13, 2020
As far as I know, Tamils have even a State after 1964. Until that, forget the country or state, they were even province-less.
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Native Thambapanni / March 14, 2020
sach
Are you writing from Angoda or Mulleriyawa?
If not, go and get some treatment. Your disease is called schizophrenia, where one of the symptoms is hallucinations that includes concocting fairy tales/fiction and then believing in the stories that you create as gospel.
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pirabakaran / March 15, 2020
sach
I am worried that you may have forgotten to take your medication as you are hallucinating now. Before you start to write take your medicines that were given to you by your doctors at Angoda, otherwise your brain is letting you down. you are a confused individual
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Native Vedda / March 12, 2020
sachoooooooooooooooooo oooooooooo
–
“colonial identity not a post colonial identity”
–
Of course it is not colonial identity however it is post Anagarika Homeless Dharmapala’s identity.
–
Stupid is as stupid does.
So what is it then?
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K.A. Sumanasekera / March 12, 2020
Dear Native,
–
Are you also a Naga?..
–
Because our Ravana who nicked Sita does not look like a Raksha..
According to the photos painted on the walls of the dinning hall at the Kovil, where I go for my Vegan Feed.
–
How does he looks like in the paintings in Jaffna?..
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vithura / March 13, 2020
So the saivaite Ravana, is Sinhalese according to you, the Indians must have got their history all wrong! Some can’t help but reveal their ignorance!!
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Richard Kaz / March 13, 2020
“Because our Ravana …”
That’s funny! you should take up comedy writing.
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Ahmad Nadvi / March 13, 2020
Dear K.A.S
” our Ravana who nicked Sita…,” So it’s your people’s habit of nicking somebody’s. So it’s a clear proof that you’ve snatched someone else’s land
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sach / March 13, 2020
Was there a Tamil ethnic identity before colonial period? If there was, please provide examples.
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Douglas / March 12, 2020
Mr. Wigneswaran: I am most certain that if a DNA test is carried out, our ancestral connections would be traced as far as Africa, to that group of humans who ventured out to the rest of the land mass. So far, the research done both on Migration and DNA tests have proved that human expansion took place from Africa. So all these “Tribal Classifications”; “Religious Classifications”; “Caste & Creed Classifications” have to be set aside and all who dwell on such “Divisional” methods for “Personal Gain & Glorification” have to STOP and LOOK BACK to assess “WHO WE ARE” and “FOR WHAT WE ARE” and “WHERE WE WOULD GO FROM HERE”. Shouldn’t that be the “MISSION” and “VISION” of the “Intellectuals”?
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Thappu / March 13, 2020
Dear Douglas, CVW was NOT trying to trace migration of humans. If he does, deliver your lecture. What CVW is trying to show is that Sri Lanka is NOT a Sinhala Buddhist enclave. Did Sinhalese evolve from nothing? What is that ‘something’ to which they belong. If you wish to differ from his line of arguments kindly come up with your own.
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Douglas / March 13, 2020
Thappu: Thank you. I drew attention to “First Migration” in order to show our “Expansion” from one source to every corner of the planet Earth. After that and “Settlements” in various parts of one planet, these “Belief Systems” (as referred to be Mr.Wigneswaran) arose. Why and How are the relevant questions for those “Belief Systems”. In my opinion, an answer to those two questions is, “Power Greediness” embedded in “Dominance” over one segment by the other. However, what is a “BELIEF”in a “System” or “Systems”? We “Believe”, simply because, we “DON”T KNOW”” and we “DON’T WANT TO PROGRESS” to find what “IT IS”. So, we “Believe” of what we “Don’t know” and start a “STRUGGLE” to “DOMINATE” over one another. Where does that “struggle” takes us? Nowhere, but “MISERY” and “DESTRUCTION”. That is the “SITUATION” we are in today. Please think of what I would like ALL to think, “INTELLECTUALLY” but not “INTELLIGENTLY” (intelligence is Knowledge): “WHO WE ARE”. Simply, we are “ONE” (look at the Biological composition) So what makes the “DIFFERENCE” (Divide) Simply put: “DOMINANCE”on a “BELIEF SYSTEM” Dear Thappu: Try to think of these few words. No “BELIEF SYSTEM” works, because it is “COMPOSED” of “Knowledge”(information) only, but not “INTELLECT”.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / March 13, 2020
It will certainly prove that the ancestors of most Sinhalese did not arrive on boat from somewhere in North India but were either native Dravidians or Dravidian immigrants from South India. . Everyone knows that all humans originated from Africa. You are just another Sinhalese racist , trying to belittle and ridicule Tamils and shut them up from stating the truth. Vigneswaran was a learned high court judge and an intellect , you have proved not to be one , so it is his job to state who we really are and were we should go. Definitely not to a Sinhalese Buddhist Fascist destination , that you and most Sinhalese want the island to move to. Every time a Tamil states the truth these Sinhalese extremists will either come out openly and attack them with stupid arguments or come with these type of comments, to belittle the Tamils , again stupid
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The Sinopian / March 12, 2020
The Mahavansa et al are nothing but historized mythology
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JD / March 13, 2020
The Sinopian, Sinhala people who came after 6th and 7th century have written even Mahavamsa too. What do you people have, seelapatikaram, Manimekala are all Indian poems. Mr. wigneswaran says they were buddhists, but British had forced them to wear White Verti to become Svethambres. what about Digamberans ?
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vithura / March 13, 2020
Oh dear JD, you must be a real inverted loof, Mahavamsa was not written by the Sinhalese, the fiction was written in Pali long before the word Sinhala and its people originated!
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Eagle Eye / March 13, 2020
The Sinopian,
Descendants of Malabar slaves who pretend as ‘Ceylon Tamils’ ridicule Mahawamsa because they do not have such a document.
As Jane Russel points out “The Ceylon Tamils had no written document on the lines of the Mahavamsa to authenticate their singular and separate historical authority in Sri Lanka, a fact which Ceylon Tamil communalists found very irksome”. (Russel, Jane: Communal Politics under the Donoughmore Constitution, Tisara Prakasakayo, Dehiwala, Sri Lanka, 1982. p.131)
In addition to Mahawamsa, Sinhalayo have Chulawansa, Deepawamsa, Bodhiwamsa and several other books that provide the heritage of Sinhalayo.
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Native Thambapanni / March 14, 2020
“In addition to Mahawamsa, Sinhalayo have Chulawansa, Deepawamsa, Bodhiwamsa and several other books that provide the heritage of Sinhalayo.” LOL!
The biggest joke is, all the above (so called “heritage of Sinhalayo”) were written in a language (Pali) that the Sinhalayo can neither read nor understand. Only after the British (George Turner) translated it from Pali to English in 1837, the very first Sinhala translation was done in 1883 by Ven. Hikkaduwe Sumangala thero (aka Don Niculas Gunawardhana) and Don Andris de Silva Batuvantudave.
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JD / March 12, 2020
Most of my Sinhala and Sinhale history, I learned in those EELAM WAR IV days. Those days, both Tamils and LTTE journalists explained it. Sri Lankan govt (politicians) just took salaries, cars, foreign trips, all the perks and benefits and taught us what British left. Then appointed even Muslims to head the education. Now, even O/L failed politicians are EDUCATION MINISTERS. Some how what Mr, wigneswaran says fascinates me. Sinhala people have a history of about 1650 years. Yet they have a country, language (now the politicians have destroyed it probably by former Tamils converted to sinhala politicians), an advanced religion buddhism and Tamils are second to us.
Tamils were the oldest people on earth. they had been in Africa, Iraq etc., too, Yet, they can not have a country. so, why do not you accept that Tamils are not that lucky, not intelligent and just live subservient to us sinhala people. Because, that has been the Tamil history.
Unfortunately, Mr. wigneswaran has Male children, so, the progeny still will be Tamils.
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Eagle Eye / March 12, 2020
Justice C.V. Wigneswaran,
What bloody discrimination? Can you please tell us:
• What is it that the Sinhalayo are enjoying that the other communities are not enjoying because they are not Sinhala?
• What is it that the minorities do not enjoy because they are the minority which the majority enjoys because they are the majority?
• What is legally, constitutionally and legislatively given to the majority that is not given to the minorities”?
—
It is high time that someone write a book on ‘How ‘Para’ Malabar Wellala Demalu Oppressed and Discriminated Native Sinhalayo During British Rule’.
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john / March 13, 2020
Eagle Eye (HLD Mahindapala),
It is high time that someone write a book on ‘How ‘Para’ Malabar Wellala Demalu Oppressed and Discriminated Native Sinhalayo During British Rule’
————-
I agree. But we should go further. We should talk about caste oppression in both sinhala and tamil communities. No use exposing tamil wellalars, brahmins etc and then ignoring the sinhala govigama behaviour is there?
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Pandi Kutti / March 13, 2020
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.
For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2
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Ahmad Nadvi / March 13, 2020
Dear Eagle Eye,
“What is it that the Sinhalayo are enjoying that the other communities are not enjoying because they are not Sinhala…,”
I think you haven’t got sharp eye like eagle. Because of that you’re not able to see what is going on around you. You enjoy religious freedom to vandalise other’s religious places. You have freedom to dress like American or Italians, whereas other aren’t allowed. You enjoy speaking your language anywhere in Sri Lanka, but we cannot speak our language . list is not exhausted.
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Ajay / March 13, 2020
Jaffna people are eternally grateful to Sinhala-Buddhist ideologues for spooking this Wiggy dude even further off course with their bizarre stories. This will help the long suffering people to get this irrelevant wacko leader off their backs so they can pursue a just and meaningful solution that addresses their immediate, pragmatic needs.
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Jegan / March 13, 2020
Sinhalese are children of tamils. But tamils in ancient times were oppressing and killing their own through dynastic divisions and caste. Sinhalese descended from a group of tamils who had bad relations with the chola tamils. This is due to dynastic rivalries and also religious differences between hinduism and buddhism. At one point the tamil buddhists (ancestors of sinhalese) even teamed up with the pandyan tamils to fight against the chola tamils. This was distorted into ‘sinhala vs tamil’ today and being portrayed as a racial problem when it never was and still isnt.
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JD / March 13, 2020
Sinhalese are children of tamils.
TAMILS SAY TAMILS KILL EVEN THEIR CHILDREN.
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JD / March 13, 2020
Because of the sri Lankan Army, kilinochchi, Mullativu, visvamadu peoples are said to very happy. Only the TNA politicians do not like they are being helped. I heard politicians want even the KOVILs to continue caste discrimination. Sri lankan govt should break this barrier and broadcast and televise the genuine thoughts both in the TV and in the Radio. Govt should produce programs that civilians are talking their true feelings and not what the politicians say. I say Muslims have of the same feeling.
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Abhaya Premawardena / March 13, 2020
This guy is the mayor of crazy town.
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Richard Kaz / March 13, 2020
“I knew the energetic activities of Professor Malalasekera in bringing North Indian words from Delhi to enhance the Sinhalese Vocabulary.”
There must be a lot of truth to this, most Sinhalese, in particular older Sinhalese struggle to understand official Sinhalese spoken/written on TV, radio, official documents etc. Official Sinhalese is quite new.
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Rohan / March 13, 2020
Just like official Malayalam , Kannada and Telugu all now deliberately Sanskritized , just to prove that these languages did not originate from Tamil. Really a bunch of pathetic wankers with some sort of inferiority complex. Sanskrit is good but Tamil or old Tamil , in the case of Malayalam Middle Tamil , that gave birth to their languages in bad. Just because Tamil is still a living language and Sanskrit is dead and gone. Therefore Sanskrit good , Tamil bad.
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Lawrence / March 14, 2020
In fact, most of the Buddhist Sinhalese Kings of the island were having close connection/relationship with Pandya (Tamil Madura region), Chera (Kerala region), and Kalinga (Bengal-Orissa-Telugu region) and the Cholas were their enemies. Even their brides (Queens) were mostly from these kingdoms. Whenever a Sinhala king of Sri Lanka was waging a war against the invading Chola, it was these kingdoms (Pandya, Chera, or Kalinga) that came to help.
In fact, until the 7th century A.D. there was no difference between Tamil and Sera (Malayalam). The name Malayalar itself is a Tamil word for the people from the hills (Malai in Tamil means Hills). The region covered by one of the Three Tamil dynasties, the ‘Sera Kingdom’ became Kerala later.
Only after the 7th century A.D, their speech got Sanskritised and Malayalam emerged as a different language and the script too changed due to the influence of Sanskrit from the North. (It is the South Indian Grantha script used in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Grantha script was used to write Sanskrit texts, inscriptions on copper plates and stones of Hindu temples and monasteries).
However, Malayalam has retained more of the old (classic) Tamil words. The old Tamil is still spoken in Sri Lanka too which is different from the present day Madras Tamil. That may be one of the reasons why Jaffna Tamil sounds a bit similar to Malayalam.
The early colonists (Europeans) did not see the difference between Malayalam and Tamil and due to their early familiarity with the Malabar Coast, termed even Tamils as Malabars and the Tamil language as Malabarish Language.
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JD / March 13, 2020
Mr. Wigneswaran: By attacking the very foundation of what ever, you know what you are doing. Do you want to be just another Tamil politician. Just look at the faces of poverty stricken Tamils. Check your own conscience.
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vithura / March 13, 2020
Keep to the subject matter, no diversion please!
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Sri-Krish / March 13, 2020
Justice Wigneswran has presented a well-articulated article on the ethnic relations in Sri Lanka.
He had presented in point form to facilitate easy discussion.
Unfortunately, this is not the time for raising such a controversial subject, especially, when the country is facing a General Election that will create unnecessary tensions.
The actions of yalpanaya government and the role played by NGOs,TNA and the Tamil nationalistic political groups including that of C.V.Wigneswaran had only helped Gotabbaya to obtain a massive resounding electoral victory in the recent Presidential election.
If these Tamil nationalistic groups continue in this trend, the ruling party will simply obtain 2/3 majority in the coming general elections and it may be harmful to the entire country.
Nevertheless, let me acknowledge the magnificent contribution made by the Sinhala Buddhist community in the past in Sri Lanka in creating a unique distinct beautiful language and culture that is indigenous to the country.
I consider this to be the starting point for any healthy discussion.
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Siva Sankaran Sharma / March 13, 2020
Every language is unique in their own way and also beautiful. You mean to say the ancient Tamil/Dravidian people , from whom the Sinhalese people evolved and the Tamil language from which the Sinhalese language , evolved ,are not unique or beautiful , and they do not belong , just because another language and culture evolved in south of the island , due to the arrival of Buddhism. The original which is now declared the oldest classical living language in the world , and the people who speak it and retained it are not unique, beautiful and do not belong but the hybrid that evolved from it and the people who speak are unique , beautiful and belong ( indigenous) , as the language is not spoken anywhere. As if the Tamils are to blame for this. What sort of stupid logic is this from this person. This is like some idiot stating that English evolved in England , there for it is unique and belongs but the older Celtic languages are not and do not belong. This Sinhalese appeaser blames the victims (Tamils)and not the perpetrators ( Sinhalese ) for everything and wants them to keep quiet, as if they protest too much their Sinhalese masters/tormentors will torment and discriminate them more . Most probably some Colombo/Kandy based Tamil opportunist , who only cares for himself. Must be that nasty opportunistic , selfish cricketer’s close relative/friend. 99%of the ethnicities and languages are only spoken in one nation , however other than a few, none of them behave like the Sinhalese and call themselves unique , indigenous and others sharing the country outsiders.
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K.Anaga / March 13, 2020
It is not attacking the ‘VERY FOUNDATION’, but ERADICATING THE MYTH AND ENLIGHTENING THOSE WHO LIVE IN ‘FOOLS PARADISE’.Buddhism will become stronger and acceptable by none Buddhist.
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JD / March 13, 2020
Sri Krish: Looks like Wigneswaran’s speech writer.
What ever it is, Wigneswaran has to think, irrespective of caste discrimination among tamils, irrespective of some Tamils are from shoulders of the Brahman while some others are from the leg bones of the Brahman( you must have read some Buddhism too) are you genuinely happy for Tamils as human beings, as just another human being. You know What I am talking. Is this the only way you can help tamils or are you helping yourself ?. What about those weaklings ?
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Vijaya Lekamge / March 13, 2020
Search Results
Web results
C. V. Vigneswaran – Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org › wiki › C._V._Vigneswaran
He was a magistrate and a judge of the District Court, High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. He was Chief Minister of the Northern Province from October 2013 to October 2018. Vigneswaran is leader of the Tamil People’s Council and Tamil People’s Alliance.
Thank you for the above article Mr.Justice C.V. Vigneswaran
I wonder whether you could write another article to the Colombo Telegraph,
setting down your achievements as the :
Chief Minister of the Northern Province from October 2013 to October 2018.
After the war ended, you were elected by the Tamils to serve the Tamils.
Did you serve them?
I would love to read of your achievements on behalf of your people.
A request to all Jaffna Tamils :
The Provincial Councils is expected to be held soon after the General Elections.
Could you all ,please unite and elect people to develop the North?
For the poorest of the poor to find employment by developing the North ,with the help of all
people who wish the Tamil people in the North to be prosperous.
If you succeed , the Eastern province too may want you to help them to develop the East too,
at the next provincial council election.
I am a minority, of the minority Sinhalese-
I am a non R C -Christian.
When I say , I am Christian,
what I mean is that , I am a sinner, who deserved to go to the lowest part of hell
and the highest suffering.
However the creator of this world was born as a human baby
and commenced His service to His creatures at the age of 30
and was handed over by the Jews to be crucified by the Romans at the age of 33,
died on the cross for our sins, was buried but rose again the third day,
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Dr. Gnana Sankaralingam / March 14, 2020
Dear Vijaya, Wigneswaran was a prefect at Royal in 1959 and is the last Tamil to hold the post of president of law students union. He had a good carrier in the judicial service with no charge of corruption, bending down to politicians or biased verdicts. However He was an utter failure as a chief minister of northern province. It is because during his life he had never been head of government department or business organisation, let alone president of social or sporting association. His administrative skill is nil, which was demonstrated in his tenure as chief minister. He will do well as an MP, as he has an in depth knowledge to confront others. Your request for Tamils to unite and elect people to serve north is a noble one, but I must say that no Sinhala government will ever allow Tamil North to prosper by putting obstacles, as it will create political unrest in the backward areas of the Sinhala south. Are you aware that north is not allowed to raise funds on its own, and the funds voted by parliament to the north is deliberately delayed and sent only a few months before the end of a financial year which makes it impossible for funds to be utilized fully and need to be sent back to the center. Secondly Tamils will never be allowed to develop their areas according to their wish and will have to do what the Sinhala government in Colombo want them to do. All talk of developing north by Sinhala politicians is for international consumption and not with genuine intention to uplift the living standards of Tamils. Sri Lanka will not have adequate resources to be spent equitably and there will be discrimination of Tamil areas. This is a reality which as a true Christian you should appreciate.
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Arnold / March 14, 2020
Vijaya this is not the place for fairy stories. If Santa Claus was in the Bible you would believe in him too.
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