8 October, 2024

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The Muslims Of Sri Lanka: A Quick Snapshot

By Uditha Devapriya

Uditha Devapriya

දොර ඇරලා බලපන්
පායයි තව මොහොතින් නව රැස්
ඉර සේවය කරමින්
සිරිපා කඳු මුදුනින්
සිවනදි පාදං
පාරාදීසය
භාවා ආදම් මලෙයි

Open your door and look

In a moment more sunrays will dawn

Because of the sun’s great service

There will be paradise

On the summit of

siripā kaňda

sivanoli pādam

bāvā ādamaleyi

— Mahagama Sekara, “Mak Nisada Yath”

The earliest recorded engagement of a Muslim with Samantakuta, according to Senerath Paranavitana, occurs in 851 CE in a travel account by an Arab merchant called Soleyman. However, Soleyman does not refer to it as aadam malayi, the name we see in the later Muslim reconstruction of the Peak. Instead he alludes to it as “Al-Rohoun”, a term the 9th century Indian poet Rajasekhara uses in the Balaramanaya. “Rohoun” was a corruption of Ruhuna, to which the area surrounding the mountain belonged; it was a term apparently used by Arabs and even Indians.

Marco Polo, the merchant from the Mediterranean, does not write at length about the Peak’s religious significance, and instead reports what he heard from the inhabitants of the country. A contemporary account, written much earlier, is that of the Franciscan priest Giovanni de’ Marignolli, who dwells at length on its geographic contours and cultural associations. Another contemporary, the scholar and traveller Ibn Battuta, is said to have gone on a pilgrimage under the patronage of the then King of Jaffna, after which he observed that an Imam by the name of Abu Abdallah, who died in 953 CE, was the first Muslim pilgrim to climb it. We can thus locate Muslim pilgrimages to the summit in around the 10th century CE.

Muslim Jewelers – Galle 1870’s

Muslim engagement with Sri Lanka predates these pilgrimages, and Arab engagement predates even the coming of Islam. We know from the Mahavamsa that Pandukabaya, after winning his war against his uncles, settled the Yonas at the Western gate, and that “younna” was a term used to refer to the Moors by the Portuguese and the Dutch. But while records do sketch out the existence of pre-Islamic settlements, given that these texts were occupied more with ecclesiastical conquests than the day to day lives of the people, we can’t determine whether the yonas that Mahanama Thera refers to were the same younnas who became the Moors of Sri Lanka..

So not until the 6th century AD do we come across references to their settling in the country. From the accounts of merchants we can ascertain that there were three trade routes operating in the region: the Indian to the North, the Chinese to the East, and the Arab to the West. Sri Lanka’s receptivity to the influences of all three had a great deal to do with its emergence as a distinct geographic entity, separated from India. In any case, as historians like Fernand Braudel have noted, by the 7th century trade in the Far East was mainly carried on by the three economies mentioned above.

In what form did the Arabs come here, and where did they settle? We know the answer to the first question: they came as traders, and though they gained recognition from local rulers they desisted from participating in the administration of the country. To the second, however, we don’t know, since scholars are divided.

Some believe that they originally settled in the North in localities like Alupaanthi, Usaan, and Sonakan Palu, which substantiates the claim that they rapidly became a Tamil speaking community. Other scholars contend they moved further south-west; records indicate that a landing was made at Barberyn, modern day Beruwala, in 1024 AD. In fact two of the oldest Mosques in the country, Abrar and Ketchimalai, were built in Beruwela; the Abrar, the oldest, was constructed in 920 AD, indicating that a thriving Islamic community existed even back then.

Sri Lanka was not a thriving trade based civilisation, and though Fa-Hien wrote that the country was inhabited at first by yakshas and nagas who traded with merchants and sources indicate that in the pre-Vijaya era there was a firm agricultural society we cannot take these as evidence that the country was inclined towards commerce before the Indo-Aryan colonisation. In any case this was not a maritime society. Megasthenes does observe that elephants from Taprobana were superior to those from the mainland and we do come across accounts of large Sri Lankan ships conducting trade with China, which would show that we were a thriving export economy, but we don’t really know whether the country developed sophisticated mercantile practices before the Arabs began settling here.

In contrast to the later Western colonial powers and the Muslims themselves in other parts of the subcontinent, the Arabs formed one of the most peaceful ethnic groups here. Records indicate that the kings reciprocated their goodwill by encouraging them to build settlements. They soon became intermediaries, exporting cinnamon and other minerals and importing fabric and luxury goods. For their practices, they gained such a reputation that the Janavamsa bestowed on them a Sinhala epithet they carry to this day: marakkalaya (“much shrewdness”).

The adroitness with which they conducted themselves must be contrasted with the almost Evangelical zeal with which they were able to colonise the other parts of the region. This does not mean that they were hostile towards the local cultures the way that later colonial powers were. Vinod Moonesinghe, for instance, tells me of having come across night time Quran reading sessions in the Maldives; these sessions could only have been a creolisation of Buddhist pirith chanting ceremonies, which would have been obliterated after the country was converted to Islam in 1193 AD. In fact the fusion of these two cultures, the indigenous and the Muslim, was seen in North India as well, though perhaps because Islamisation was never carried out as zealously here they did not come together in Sri Lanka.

We can conjecture, though we can never verify, that Buddhists were quite tolerant of the practices of the Muslims even if they ran counter to the teachings of their faith. Paul Pieris in his account of Portuguese rule, referring to two authorities, tells us that after the marauding invaders made friendly overtures to Sinhala people and the latter reciprocated them, the Sinhala people were angered by attempts to kill their cattle. We know that the Muslim population in the island predated the Portuguese by at least nine centuries. Therefore, we can speculate that their customs were tolerated as those of a community which had been absorbed to the country, while the slaughter of cattle by a foreign people was looked at as an act of disrespect, if not aggression.

The ties between the Sinhala people and Muslims of the time were tested, and then strengthened, by attacks made on both groups by the Portuguese. Fresh from their Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula, the Portuguese tried to exclude Muslim traders from the new country the capital of which they planned to establish a Fort at. In 1518 de Albergaria, the Governor, visited the king and asked him to move the Muslims out, but having conferred with his people, the latter was asked not to accede to it, since the Portuguese were seeking to impose their rule through deception; Pieris tells us that a case for the Islamic community was made there by Buddhist monks.

By now their reputation had transcended their position as traders; in fact, they had brought with them their renowned treatises on medicine, which no doubt endeared them to the kings: not only were they allowed to practice their religion freely, but they were also often employed as royal physicians. Owing to their widespread reputation, the rulers thus accommodated them whenever they were ostracised: Senarat of Kandy, for instance, settled some 4,000 Muslims along the Eastern coast in 1626 AD after they had been chased by the Portuguese from the Western coast.

On their part, the Muslims responded. Here we can recount two instances.

The first. It is said that Rajasinghe II of Kandy hid himself in a large tree in the village of Pangaragammana after fleeing from a failed encounter with the Portuguese, and when the Portuguese searching for him demanded of a Moor woman (who knew of his whereabouts) as to where he was hiding, and she refused to divulge the secret, they killed her immediately and cut her to pieces.

The second. There is an account of Narendrasinghe stopping at Sellankendal on his way to Navadkadu; the Moors of Sellankendal ensured his stay was as comfortable as possible. Later, when news of a would be usurper coming to assassinate the King compelled them to raise arms against the intruding forces, those who had come to pay respects to Narendrasinghe laid down their lives to protect him. For this gesture the grateful King is said to have presented the village with his personal flag, along with a horde of other invaluable symbols and items belonging to him.

All of this shows that we have to account for our history in order to bring together the ethnic, religious, and social groups of our country. Here I quote Vinod Moonesinghe: “[W]e must adjust our exclusivist historiographies. Like our ancestors, we should both emphasise the similarities and enjoy the diversity. The first step could be, as the late Regi Siriwardena suggested, highlighting ‘the diverse ethnic strands that have gone into the making of our nationhood and the various elements that these ethnic groups have contributed to our culture, and indeed to our daily existence’.”

I agree with him there. I think we all should.

*The writings of Premakumara de Silva, Megasthenes, Paul Pieris, Latheef Farook, and of course Vinod Moonesinghe were used for this article. Uditha Devapriya is a freelance writer who can be reached at udakdev1@gmail.com

Latest comments

  • 9
    1

    The words Yona and Yavana in Indian accounts and naratives are thought to refer to the Seleucid Greeks (A corruption of the word Ionia) who occupied Parts of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Persia after the death of Alexander the Great. They were very much the ascendant power in the Region at the time of Pandukabhaya around 320 BC. So it was more likely that the Yona settled in Anuradhapura were Seleucid Greeks from Ionia, although the term may equally have been applied to anyone from the Alexander’s empire which stretched from the Indus to Macedonia.

    • 6
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      Good writing, Uditha. Keep it up and stay away from Anagarika worship

      • 7
        4

        The gent on the extreme left with the conical hat looks like Basil!

        Do the Rajapakses have Muslim ancestry?

        Uditha why don’t you write a piece about people who change/changed their racial/ethnic identities ……… and the reasons why?

        Now, that would be very intriguing and much more interesting!

        • 10
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          nimal fernando – “Do the Rajapakses have Muslim ancestry?” On a different note, the GCE (OL) failed synthetic “lowyer” Namal Rajafucksha has the resemblance of a Malay (Muslim).

        • 5
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          They might have Muslim ancestry.
          ]
          But they certainly wouldn’t have Belgian vagabond Jewish and RanMenika ancestry, I bet.
          ]
          Sri Lankans need to worship the noblest of mulattos like us, not Anagarikas.

          • 5
            0

            Sorryeeeee if I hurt your delicate feelings buddy. :))

            Was just curious why Lankans have a history of going against their own former selves.

            Tamil Bandaranayakes going against their own Tamils. And Muslim Rajapakses going against their own Muslims.

            Is it some form of self-hatred?

            I suppose a guy like you wouldn’t realize self-loathing even if it falls on ye head, eh? You seem to enjoy it! :))))))

  • 2
    6

    O…w, Now we have the answer to the problem… from Madapatha, or some one.
    +
    God, pealse take him down for a brain next time.

  • 16
    4

    The current situation could well be described as the Proverbial Camel putting it’s head inside the Sri Lankan tent. Prior to the ’60s before the establishment of the OPEC and the introduction of the Petro Dollar, the the Arabs lived in the Middle East as Bedouins in tents. Thereafter the affluence that brought about the Middle East development with their oil, the entire world became the slaves for their money. The oil rich Arab world began to fund and invest their new found wealth in the West and other countries to insure themselves against any odds they would have faced. Large number of Muslims began to migrate to the developed world.
    In Sri Lanka we had the Moor Traders who had married in to the locals who were Muslims and spread through out the country down the ages. These Muslims established bondage with the Arab world and became a powerful body to bargain. Our Govts that were cash strapped, started to rely on some Muslim figures in the country for financial assistance. That is how in the 1970 UF govt of Mrs Bandaranayake handed an important Ministry as Education to Dr. Baddhudeen Mohamed. There after there started to spring Govt. assisted Muslim schools all over the country. In addition Mosques too began to mushroom in numbers. As the Middle East began to develop rapidly with Petro Dollars, our women folk, forgetting their 2500 year history rushed in to work as domestics in the Arab houses. Thereafter some of the skilled and semiskilled male folk too sort employment in the Middle East. This situation arose thanks to our foolish Politicians who denied an English Education to our youth. Had our youth had an English Education then our skilled labour Masons, Carpenters, Electricians, Motor Mechanic would have easily found employment in most of the Western Countries.

  • 12
    1

    Very interesting writing

    We know of a muslim village in the Udunuwara district called Daskara, the legend says that this was gifted by the Gampola era King to a Muslim physician for curing the king of some ailment.

    Sri lankan muslims are sri lankan muslims, they can have a mutual religion with the others around the world, with a history of more than 1000 years in the land as the author says, no matter what some people say or do, the Sri lankan Muslims are Sri lankan Muslims, we have to start from here for anything.

    • 12
      4

      Concerned citizen,

      Sri Lankan Muslims were Sri Lanka n, and Sri Lankan Muslims, until the Wahhabi-Salafis and clones invaded them, with the help of Saudi Wahhabi petrodollars, and made them to follow the Ideology of the Devil, SatN, Iblis, per the prescient Hadith of Najd , given in the Islamic Sources.

      Then, they stopped being Sri Lankan Muslims, and embraced the Wahhabi Salafi Satanic Ideology, and stopped thinking.

      Is Revelation above Reason? Why does cotton burn? Why did Norte Dame burn ? God or a natural phenomenon, a Propert of the materials and the environment they are in ?

      • 1
        1

        Interesting statement :

        “Wahhabism-Salafism is a Satanic, Iblisic Ideology. The data, globally and recent day from Sri Lanka support that”.

        The power to spread this ideology comes from the wealth generated by invoking the ‘Satanic Formula” (https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-satanic-formula/)

        They do represent Iblis in more ways than one.

    • 2
      2

      Uditha and concerned Citizen.

      Please read the article below. What is lacks is the counter theological argument against the Wahhabi Salafirs, given in the prescient Hadith of Najd. Just Google.

      http://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/How-Wahhabism-was-fostered-until-it%E2%80%99s-too-late/172-166180

      Wahhabism-Salafism is a Satanic, Iblisic Ideology. The data, globally and recent day from Sri Lanka support that.

    • 3
      4

      Read what I wrote I spoke about the menacing looks the majority of the Moslems cast on people who are not Moslem and especially tourists dressed for summer, the head to toe horrible dress of women, and general air of disdain with borderline hostility towards all things non-Islamic.
      As a transgender person I am especially distressed by those Moslems, who think I am a man dressed as a woman, when in fact I have undergone very expensive gender re-assignment surgery. The Moslem attitude to people like me is hypocritical, since they too practise genital mutilation.

  • 8
    3

    Uditha Devapriya,

    RE: The Muslims of Sri Lanka

    Thanks for the historical narrative. An important item you missed to mention is that it was the traders while the Muslims were Sufis and Sufi Muslims.

    At that time, the so-called Wahabism, The Ideology,was not known. Wahhabism arrived about 250 years ago, in Arabia, to wreck havoc there. Saudi Wahhabism, is the First ISIS, the Satanic Iblisic State that made it, per Hadith of Najd, the Islamic Sources . The second ISIS sprang up in Iraq and Syria around 2006 CE, and militarily defeated in April 2019, but they formed ISIS cells In different countries, including Philippines and Sri Lanka, that exploded suicide bombs in the churches, based on the Wahhabi-Salafi, Satanic Ideology.

    So, an important narrative the current Sri Lankan Muslims, is the arrival of the Wahhabi-Salafism by the travel of Muslims to Middle East for work, as well as the Wahhabi petrodollars being pumped in initially to the East, and later on to the Rest of the country, starting in the 1970s. The Wahhabi Salafies redefined, in their Satanic imageIslam, Sufi Islam, as UnIslamic, introduced the Wahhabi dress codes, and went to the extent of intimidating and attacking the Sufis, Shia and Ahmedia. The two oldest mosques you mention, Kachhimali and other, were Sufi Mosques.

    You know rest of the story. What was the Gift ( in German, poison), to the Sri Lankan Muslims from the Wahhabi Salafies and their clones? Nine, suicide bombers, 300 innocents dead including 42 tourists, our guests.

    Isn’t Wahhabism-Salafism, a Satanic Faith? The Islamic source, Hadith of Najd, says so. Unfortunately, many low UQ Muslims can’t get it.

  • 6
    4

    Sad that some comments of individuals seem to be very virulent (directed against the Muslim population). What will these individuals have to say that from as far back as January this year the Muslims themselves have been alerting the government on these violent / terrorist groups. Even other countries have brought to the attention (of the Govt) of the impending mayhem , even mentioning the names of persons involved. Can the general muslim populus be held responsible for the recent incidents. Further, I suppose these individuals will come out with their theories of the destruction in Aluthgama, Digana and other places and put it back on the Muslims. Ok – my dear sirs , why don’t you start an agitation to stop exporting our Sri Lankan females to the MIddle East. If the remittances from the middle east is delayed by over one month we will have hell to pay.

    • 4
      3

      Nandanee,

      This is an War if the ideologies. The Satanic Wahhabi-Salafi and Clones such as ISIS and NTJ who follow Satan, and the other Muslims who claim they follow god. Since, the other Muslims do not commit terrorist crimes, it can be safely ASSUMED that they follow, God, who is supposed to be merciful.

      On the other hand, the Wahhabi -Salafies and their clones, follow Satan, per prescient Hadith of Najd, per Islamic Sources, one can Reason that the Terrorists follow Satan, and therefore per Islamic Theology, will end up in Hell Fire along with Satan.

      They do not learn and study, science and philosophy. Only memorize the Quran, and stupidity is a virtue for them.

      Religion is the opium of the masses, said Philosopher (lover of wisdom) Karl Marx.

  • 11
    1

    I believe sooner the better the West should assist Sri Lanka to develop. A country with a population of 22 mil is not an impossibility where Bombay in India has over 24 mil people. All domestic workers should be recalled back from the Middle East and alternate employment found and not depend on their earnings in the future. It is a damn shame boasting of a 2500 year history to be sending our women folk to work for Arabs as domestics. Where is our self respect as a Nation?

  • 8
    1

    “Like our ancestors, we should both emphasise the similarities and enjoy the diversity.”
    *
    Which ancestors?
    How tolerant was the Hinayana clergy towards their Mahayana rivals.
    Is the Mahavansa a narrative of tolerance and compassion.
    *
    There is plenty to say about other ancestors too.
    *
    Differences are tolerated as long as the hierarchy works to one’s benefit.
    *
    Talk about hate speech, there is plenty here without provocation.

  • 7
    6

    The word Yavana from which Chonakan in Tamil originated , is a corruption of the word Ionian , this meant a Greek . Greek traders or ancient Greeks were called Yavana by the ancient Indians. Yona /Chonakan are variations of this. Gradually this tern was even used for Arabs from western Asia . The so called Yavana/Yona who came to the courts of the Sri Lankan kings in ancient times , were not Muslims , most probably Christian and may not have even been Arab but others. Moors from North Africa definitely never came to the shores of the island or to South India or any part of India. They were conquering Southern parts of Europe. Iberian peninsular , Sicily. Arab traders also hardly arrived to the shores of the island and the ancient ones were Christian not Muslim. Only a few hundred Arab traders arrived to the shores of the island over a span of a few centuries and very few of them took local woman and had children. If there is any Arab or other western Asian/North Indian blood amongst the local Muslims , it occurred in their original homeland in South India. Even this is little 10% the most if I am generous. The North Indian /Afghan blood most probably came with the Delhi Sultanate that conquered looted , raped , pillaged and forcibly converted many in South India. Muslims in Sri Lanka are basically immigrants from South India who fled or migrated to the island in wooden boats called Marrakallm in Tamil, with the fall of the Delhi sultanate in South India , and the Hindu population turning against them. They are basically Tamil Dravidian Hindu converts , largely from the lower castes( not an insult but a fact) who either converted to escape the oppressive Hindu caste system or were forcibly converted .

    • 7
      9

      Oh Dear Sivasankar!

      Finally you wanted to tell us that YOU ARE A HIGH CAST. And above 75% SL Muslims are Tamil low cast convert to Islam from TamilNadu. You need more search on this topic. Go to ancient carvings in the SL national Museum to see a Chinese sea traveller, Zeine or whoever, to Gall. He carved his message on a stone plate in three languages addressing Local people, namely Sinhalese in Sinhala language, Hamabya (modern day Moors) in Persian language. It is a strong indication we lately known as Muslims have lived in SL before the written history of SL documented.

      So the Muslims of SL have different origins in SL, and one of them be your famous Tamilnadu Tamil low cast converts to Islam. But the truth is that before we embraced Islam, we have been living in Sri Lanka, well before you HIGH CAST Tamil with north Indian connection landed in SL.

      This may be my last comment to SIVA and (Tamil) Rohan until they come up with convincing proof that they are HIGH CAST and SL Muslims are new arrivals of few hundreds yeas of history.

      Enjoy your evening with new task.

      • 7
        7

        Pathetic Arab Wannabe stop lying. The Sri Lankan Muslims are low caste Indian Tamil Hindus who converted to Islam and migrated to the island a few centuries ago. A little bit of Arab or what ever ancestry amongst a few families does not make them Arab. Persian, or anything else. Pathetic Arab wannabes now badly wanting to be like their Arab masters and creating all this havoc.

      • 8
        7

        You and the rest of the Sri Lankan Muslims are recent immigrants from South India and all Dravidians with a dash of Arab. Nothing to do with the small number of Persians/Arabs or any other Western Asian people who came as emissaries to the courts of the Sinhalese and Tamil kings in the island. Many of them were here long before Islam and were not Muslim but Zorastrians /Christian or other. Trying to pathetically latch on to these non Muslim Western Asian emissaries and claim them as your ancestors . What have these people got to do with you low caste coverts from South India? Even if they were Muslim? Sinhalese call the Sri Lankan Muslims Marrakala Minissu ot Marrakalyo , as they migrated or fled to the island on shallow wooden boats called Marrakallam in Tamil. All your stupid lying posts only confirm what I and other Tamil state. A shameless pathetic people brainwashed to hate their actual Dravidian Tamil origin and worship everything Arab and now behave , dress and be like them , creating all these problems. Islam or being a Muslim is a religion that originated in the deserts of Arabia , however being a Muslim does not mean you are an Arab or have to behave like one and claim Arab heritage. No other Muslim does this other than you pathetic largely low caste immigrant Indian Tamil Dravidian converts to Islam in Sri Lanka, incorrectly called Moors.

        • 5
          2

          Siva Sankaran Sharma,

          “Recorded history of Tamils and Tamil kingdoms in the island 2300 years ago”

          Let’s be logical here. If you have been here for that many number of centuries, where is the population that goes with your claim? Do you think a kid will believe if you that and show just 13% of population?

          On the other hand, your percentage of population, 13% goes well with Dutch period. And that is when the Dutch brought in large number of slaves from TN and Kerala, then Malabar to water their tobacco plants, and then grabbed the lands of Sinhalese farmers, and settled you guys.They also created laws to make sure the grabbed lands stay with newly settled slave workers forever by creating laws. Just check yourself why Thesawalamai is described, “Thesawalamai is a collection of the Customs of the Malabar Inhabitants of the Province of Jaffna”

          And, the Dutch didn’t bring high caste laborers as slaves here. They brought few Vallala and many low castes. However, everyone identifies themselves as Vellala now. That is the reason Jaffna is full of Vellalas. So you know who your forefathers are now?

          • 3
            4

            It is recorded and Tamils have lived in the island continuously for over 2300 years especially in the north and east and ruled these lands. This is recorded even in the Mahavamsa comic book , that was trying to state, that the island’s Tamils who did not converted to Buddhism and take on the newly forming Sinhalese Buddhist identity but remained Tamil Saivites were outsiders , only proving otherwise that they were indigenous to the land and the lands to the north and east of the country were Tamil lands . It also proved many of the kings in the island were Tamils local or South Indian. That the north and east of the island is Tamil land was recognised by the Portuguese, the Dutch , the British , the Indians and even by many Sinhalese led governments after independence. Therefore we do not want some fake Arab low caste converted Tamil Dravidian immigrant from South India , posting all these false information and lies to justify his or her Wahhabi Jihad on the island’s native Hindu Tamils and take over their land. It does not matter if the native Tamils are 1% or 13% ( they were far more as 1/3 of them were forced to leave the island due to Sinhalese Buddhist Fascism and Islamic Wahhabist extremism). It is their land where they had live and ruled. The Scottish are 5% of British population but own 30% of the country’s land . The English who are around 85% do not say you are 5% and cannot own all this land, as they are not stupid like you Sinhalese Buddhists Fascists, and fake Arab low caste immigrant South Indian converts.

            • 0
              3

              I shay Sharma doan talk shit man.

      • 7
        6

        Islam is only around 1500 years old approximately and it arrived in the subcontinent around earliest around 700CE in the Sind /Punjab area but largely arrived around a 1000 years ago. Most converts during the Mughal era. Recorded history of Tamils and Tamil kingdoms in the island 2300 years ago but this will be even much earlier as per ancient Saivite ruins , Kathirkammam and the native Semi Tamil Elu language. So please do not post bullshit . Everyone states that there is a bit of Arab, Afghan and other ancestry amongst the Sri Lankan Muslims and do not deny this fact but all this contribution to their genetic makeup is miniscule , compared to the Dravidian Tamil element which is the core and predominant element . There is no denying this fact. Trying to deny this obvious fact that makes up more than 90% of your genetic and cultural makeup and only concentrate on the minute elements of your genetic make up and only claim this as you sole ancestry , smacks of sheer opportunism and nastiness or stupidity. If the Tamils were in the majority and were ruling , just like in South India , where your ancestors originated from. Your story will be different and will be jumping up and down claiming that you are a Tamil Dravidian.

        • 4
          6

          Siva Sankaran Sarma,
          1. All ancient Tamil kingdoms were in Tamilakam not anywhere else. This island was the island of the Sinhalese, and the Tamils called our island as Cinkalam and Ilam, all meaning the land or country of the Sinhalese. There was never ever any ancient Tamil kingdoms in the island. The socalled “Jaffna Kingdom” was not an ancient kingdom in this context nor was it a proper authentic kingdom, but a Pandyan occupation which started in the late 13th century after the fall of the Cholas in 1278, with the Pandyan king Maaravarman Kulasekaran sending his general Aryachakravarti to invade us. The Tamil colonization of the north started in the wake of this invasion, when the Sinhalese were massacred and ethnic cleansed by the Tamils. “Jaffna kingdom” was not at all a proper authentic kingdom.
           
          2. There is no ancient Tamil God called Kathirkamam. Kathirkamam is the Tamilization of Sinhalese placename Kataragama. Also the God at Kataragama is an ancient animistic God of the Sinhalese which was later associated with Kartikeya. He is NOT Murugan. Murugan is the God of the hilly region of Tamilnadu. It was only after the Tamils started settling in the north that Murugan worship was brought here and it was only during the European colonial rule that Murugan worship spread to Kataragama.
           
          3. Lord Murugan is a Tamil God but Lord Shiva is not a Tamil God as claimed. Saivism spread to the Tamil country only in the first centuries in common era. In the entire corpus of Sangam literature there is not a single mention of the name “Siva”. The first mention is found in the post sangam Silappadikaram. So the question is what “ancient Saivite ruins” are you referring to?

          • 6
            5

            Please explain how history and DNA proved that Sinhalese are predominantly of Tamil descent 70% DNA. 35% of Sinhalese vocabulary is Tamil. Its grammar, lexicon, syntax, and alphabet is purely derived from Tamil and not from Sanskrit or Pali. Sinhalese look like Tamils behave like Tamil, dress like Tamils, Eat the same food like Tamils, worship the same gods like Tamils and even celebrate the same Tamil festivals but they are not Tamil. Go and examine your peas sized brain , instead of posting garbage here. Even your own Sinhalese scholars and historians admit to this but mad pea brained Sinhalese Buddhist fascists like you keep on denying this and come up with all sorts of concocted fairy tales.

            • 0
              3

              Siva Sankaran Sarma aka Rohan, there are no DNA studies which show any of what you claim. Why don’t you give references to these DNA studies? Maybe they used Tamil Brahmins and high caste Tamils in the study that is why Sinhalese are showing 70% admixture with the Tamils? We wouldn’t know, since you are not giving the references.
               
              Sinhala language has its own alphabet and script, why is it necessary to derive it from Tamil or Sanskrit or Pali? FYI neither Sanskrit nor Paali has their own script. Sinhala script is used to write both Sanskrit and Paali in Sri Lanka. Also FYI, all known Paali literature has been composed in Srilanka and preserved by the Sinhalese and the script used is the Sinhala script.
              The Sinhala language has borrowed some Tamil words, but not at all 35%. BTW Tamil has borrowed about 20-25% of its vocabulary from Sanskrit and other Indo-Aryan languages. Does that make Tamil into an Indo-Aryan language?
              Here is a Sinhala – English Dictionary containing about 40,000 words:
              https://books.google.com/books?isbn=812060105X
              35% of 40,000 would be 14,000 Tamil words. We don’t need so many, just pick 300 Tamil words from the dictionary and post them here in one comment.
              I know you won’t, since you cannot find 300 Tamil words in the dictionary.

      • 10
        1

        “Go to ancient carvings in the SL national Museum to see a Chinese sea traveller, Zeine or whoever, to Gall. He carved his message on a stone plate in three languages addressing Local people, namely Sinhalese in Sinhala language, Hamabya (modern day Moors) in Persian language. It is a strong indication we lately known as Muslims have lived in SL before the written history of SL documented.”

        Is that what they teach you at the Madrasa’s and mosques ?

        You people have confused two different Chinamen. Fah Hien, was a monk that visited in the 4th century. He did not carve the pillar. He was monk. The pillar in Chinese, Persian and Tamil was a carved by the Navel fleet of the Ming dynasty’s Admiral Zheng He in 1410/ 11. Plus what’s Persia got to do with Arabs. They follow a different from of Islam.

      • 2
        2

        As per the historical records Chinese marine traders last destination in Indian ocean was Lanka.They did not go beyond that. egiftions, Yemanis ,Syrians Greeks & Roman Traders met Chinese in Lanken Ports.Old records available in those countries on trading with Lanka vouch for it.Their Trading communication language was Persian. Hamabya means buyers who gather at trading spot. As such Hamabiya means Egyptians, yemanis, Syrians, Greeks & romans together. Not Moors. They all came here did trading with Chinese & Sinhalese Local traders and went. They did not bring their spouse here. It was not a overseas trip. it was a trading mission of Buying and selling. Chinese came here spent several months some times as per records available. At that periods they were buying gems visiting gem pits. Buyers did same when Chinese traders delayed. Syrians bought raw materials or oracle for Irons for making of swords. egyftions bought cinnamon It is mentioned in Damascus & Kiro Archives The Others did same. lankens were benefited As such present day Muslims are not descendants of those traders. Due to strict Sinhalese traditions ladies were not visiting those trading houses or rest houses allocated for foreigners. Present day Muslims are descendants of refugees came here with the help of Gujarati & south Pakistani marine traders who were trading in east Indies & Islaminizing that region. Refugees came collapsed of Delhi sultanate rule in south India to avoid reprisal from Hindus as they were base borne lots of occupied soldiers & dalit Tamil women. few marati People too there called mattayas as well. That is clearly mentioned in Kotte kingdom records.. Sinhalese were Buddhists & no records of selling their daughters to foreign buyers. .

    • 6
      6

      4. Elu is the term used to denote genuine unmixed Sinhalese. Tamils heard about Elu language in the 19th century when the British colonial government scholars started studying the Sinhalese people’s language and history and then the Tamils started making all sorts nonsense claims about Elu, but upto today no example of this mysterious Tamil Elu has been presented.
      Elu has NOTHING to with Tamil. If Elu is some imaginary Dravidian/Tamil why don’t you give some examples of this imaginary language?
       
      There are hundreds of literary work written in Elu.
      Some examples of Elu words:
      English  Elu  Sanskrit  Pali  Tamil
      eye      äsa   akṣi    akkhi  kan
      hand    ata   hasta     hatta   kai
      tongue   diva     jihvā      jivhā  nākku
      tooth   data    danta     danta   pal 
      mouth   muva   mukha     mukha    vāy 
      demon   yakā    yakṣa    yakkha   pēy 
      red      ratu     raktaka     ratta  civappu
      food     boduna    bhōjana   bhojana  uṇavu
       
      Can you even pronounce Elu words properly let alone write Elu and understand it?
      Why are you speaking the same Tamil as in Tamilnadu and not this mysterious semi-Tamil language? Surely if the Tamils have been here from pre-historic times then you would be speaking that semi-Tamil Elu and not the exact same language as in Tamilnadu, now wouldn’t you?

      • 8
        3

        Mad racist Sinhalese Yaka , you have made up all this lies. Go and post all this garbage that you or some other Sinhalese Buddhist Fascist made up at Lanka Lies and those Idiots there will lap this garbage.

        • 2
          2

          Siva Sankaran Sharma,
          Prof.J.B.Disanayake who is an authority in Sinhala language says Sinhala language has unique features. No doubt that smart Sinhalayo borrowed words from other languages from the Indian sub-continent and even from European languages like Portuguese, Dutch. That is how languages have flourished. Sinhala language is classified as an Aryan language by linguists not as a Dravidian Language.
          ——
          When published, Prof. Raj Somadeva’s latest findings proved by carbon dating will shatter all this Demala propaganda into pieces.

        • 2
          1

          SSS Do you think whole Asia is a Darvadian cage. No that is not true. Tamils & sinhalese were & are traditional ,historical enemies.Tamils always try to show supremacy over Sinhalese. Sinhalese try to show supremacy over Tamils .Tamil language belong to Tamils. . Sinhalese language belong to Sinhalese. if you think otherwise let’s fight yet another Elam war until one race totally eliminated from earth.That is only sensible thing to do I suppose. you can get help from your darvadian lot in south India. we can get help from our friends like China.. .

          • 3
            1

            Ranjith you are an ultra racist. Do not call for a war with Tamils. Go through history Sinhalese never won a war with Tamils. To keep Cholas away they had to go behind Pandyans giving Kappam and offering to marry their brides. Even the battle between Dutugemunu and Elara was not a proper war but a duel between and old man and a youngster. Even to defeat LTTE, Sinhalese had to get the help of several countries in the world. Sri Lanka is in one piece because India does not want a Tamil state here. The day they reverse it, the result may be different, and Sri Lanka will go the Yemen way if there is any attempt to bring in other counties.

        • 1
          3

          This name calling and insults show that you have nothing to come up with. Everything I have written is available freely in the scholarly article databases and books. You Tamils trying to lay claims on the Sinhalese people’s island, culture, religion, language and each and every thing that is precious and dear to us should stop. You people simply do not have a case here. You are an immigrant community wanting to be native here. That will never work. You have absolutely NOTHING here. I repeat – you Tamils have absolutely NOTHING, no history, no nothing here. Everything Tamil is in Tamilnadu. So stop shouting and whining and harassing the innocent Sinhalese people and try to live peacefully here with us, sharing everything equally without demanding unjust and undue demands.

      • 9
        2

        What an Idiot, has taken Sinhalese words and changed them slightly and is trying to pass this off as Elu. Listed Little willy. There was hardly any Aryan or other Indo European or Indo Aryan influence in the island until the arrival of Buddhism , with Sanskrit/Pali accompanying it . Elu would have been a Dravidian language and semi Tamil . Sinhalese is a mixture of Elu, proper Tamil , Pali and Sanskrit, that gradually evolved over the centuries , when the Tamil/Elu speaking Dravidian Yakka in the south of the island largely converted to Buddhism and gradually started to corrupt their spoken Tamil with the Pali and Sanskrit of Buddhist and a new language called Sinhalese evolved by the 7-9AD. What do you take us for idiots?

        • 1
          4

          ‘What do you take us for idiots?’

          Of course. Who else would face 70+ years of discrimination, state violence and civil war, lose and then claim to be intelligent?

        • 1
          4

          Darvadians came to godavary around six thousand years ago. Read Ramayanaya It says nobody lived in south India but Lanka. Their Language was ELU. People of Lanka did not wait until Darvadians come to Godavary to start speaking. Even Papua new genia more than 900 languages evolve within few hundred thousand people. No human waited for somebody else to put language to their mouth. Even Animals have their own communication mechanism with sound system. Elu is the derivative of Vedda language. Vedda came here around 500 thousand years ago from Mozambique coast. developed their own language. Not waited for somebody to put language into their mouth.Compare old ELU & Vedda language. Almost same.Tamil is not evolved language. It is a derivative of proto Darvadian from south west Iran. Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam & Tamil as well as few other languages in Baluchistan & Tamilnadu itself is Derivatives of proto Darvadians ..From Godavary to south point of India to colonized it took at least 1000 years. That means Tamil is not older than five thousand years. Sinhalese even if they came from Odessa or Madagascar came with own languages. as such ELU is not a Darvadian Language. With Arrival of Buddhism lot of changes took place Pali become dominated factor. English french has similar words same as German & Dutch but never consider derivatives of one another. Tamils or Tamilnadu people did not visit Lanka till 350 BC. Even a trader did not come before that but Austronesian visited with Paru. Vedda or makhuva tribes came that way People did not wait until arrival of Darvadians & got Tamil derivative of proto darvadian evolved for their communications. They married expressed love. Tamils did not come as interpreters.

          • 2
            3

            Ramayana is a myth and this proved beyond doubt not by you or me but Indian Professors of Anthropology. If you read the Ramayana story itself you will know what an idiotic mythology. For example when Rama wife seetha was abducted by Ravana, Rama was roaming all over the place for 10-12 years searching his wife and it was Hanuman (Monkey god) who gave the information she was abducted by Ravana. Now if Rama was a god he should have all the super powers to know what happened to her and to rescue her and beside how a god’s wife can be abducted? Anybody reading Ramanaya will understand it is a pure donkey myth unless he has an intelligent brain.

            • 4
              1

              Ramayana is better than that stupid Koran which says earth is flat. If Allah was a god he should have all the powers to stop his followers being killed.

        • 1
          4

          Aiyoo….. You are the idiot, coming here and trying to lay claim on every thing, but you have no idea about what you are up against even. I didn’t ask for another comment full of baseless statements. I asked for references as to whether Elu is mentioned in any Tamil literature, and if so what is the oldest mention and to please give us an examples of this mysterious Elu, and you write another stupid comment. The problem Tamils have is you have never even heard of Elu until the 19th-century when the British scholars started linguistic studies on the Sinhala language. Some of the early British scholars wrongly applied the term Elu to Sinhala prakrit i.e Old Sinhala language in the Brahmi inscriptions and declared Old Sinhala which they called Elu as the original language of the island. Which is ofcourse erroneous, since Sinhala in any form is not the original language of the island. The original language or languages of the island is/are some pre-Indo-Aryan and pre-Dravidian language(s) which the tribes, including the Vaeddas spoke. This/these language(s) are now lost, only the Vaedda language, which has got heavily corrupted with Sinhala is still spoken. Sinhala language developed indigenously from a primitive Indo-Aryan dialect incorporating these non-Indo-Aryan and non-Dravidian indigenous languages of the island. There is a whole range of words in Sinhala, including core vocabulary and some sounds (ä and the pre-nazalized stops) which are from these original languages as they are untraceable to Indo-Aryan or Dravidian roots.
           
          Tamils not knowing any of this just take the name Elu and started making all sorts of claims about Elu being Tamil starting from the late 19th-century, because you think its the original language of the island. It is not. Elu is just another form of Sinhalese.

        • 0
          4

          You say that I have changed Sinhalese words slightly and trying to pass them off as Elu. I don’t have to change anything or pass anything as Sinhala, as the words listed are Elu Sinhala words, i.e pure Sinhala words. You are the one who has difficulty showing what this mysterious Elu you are talking about, which there is no record or reference to anywhere, not even in Tamil literature.
           
          Please understand that the Elu is just a form of Sinhalese, without any foreign loans. This was first defined in the late 10th century the earliest, and its grammar is given in Siddathsangarawa of the 12th century. The need to discard foreign loans particularly Sanskrit loans arose starting from the 5th-6th century since alot of Sanskrit words crept into Sinhala. The need to guard oneself of excess use of Sanskrit is already mentioned in the Siyabaslankara of the 9th century (some date Siyabaslankara a couple of centuries earlier). Elu is not some very ancient language as you think. Elu or Helu simply means naked or pure or discarded. For example: “Eya Heluwen giya” means “He went naked”.
           
          Elu Sinhala is what is called pure or genuine Sinhala, which has discarded foreign loans. The Sinhala we usually talk and write is Mishra Sinhala or Mixed Sinhala, since there is alot of Sanskrit loans. The words I have listed under Elu are the only forms accepted in Elu Sinhala, while one can use some of the Sanskrit forms in Mishra Sinhala, which is the usual practice. Example: one can write the Sanskrit word “akshi” meaning eye as it is, in the usual Sinhala (i.e Mishra Sinhala) but in Elu only “äsa” will be correct. Do you understand?

      • 4
        0

        Punchi I don’t get your point
        What do you mean?
        Sanskrit came from Elu or Elu Came from Sanskrit?

        Could you give me the dates when Sanskrit first appeared in Ceylon or Elu Appeared in Northern India?

        Elu Sanskrit
         äsa akṣi
        ata hasta
         diva    jihvā 
        data   danta 
        muva   mukha 
         yakā   yakṣa 
         ratu    raktaka  
        boduna  bhōjana

        Hasta is Karam in Tamil.
        Danta is Thantham in Tamil; other than in poetical usage Thantham is Tusk or tusk like large tooth. Only used in poetry to mean human teeth.
        Mukha is Muh(k)am in Tamil; it is mouth and the parts around mouth; face.
        As many Sanskrit words went from Tamil, I have a feeling that bhōjana and akṣi have their Tamil base.
        yakṣa is Northern(Sanskrit) creation, the death God Yaman came to Tamil, I believe, when the Persian god Ideas speared in Tamil. Original Tamil is very poor in God’s word as they depended on Siva Brahmin(Dravidian Monks) for their Meditation.
        Elu is Tamil a form of Tamil or Tamil

        • 0
          4

          I really do not know what the Tamil claim as Elu. Can you please give us an example of this mysterious Elu so that we can see what it is. Please also give a reference to the earliest mention to this mysterious Elu.
           
          As for the Sinhalese Elu – Elu is the term used to denote unmixed pure Sinhala. Grammarians defined Elu Sinhala as Sinhala devoid of Sanskrit loans. Old Sinhala in the Sinhala Brahmi inscriptions would be closest to Elu or pure Sinhala, but as Elu was first defined about a millennia and a half later than the first Sinhala Brahmi rock inscriptions of the 3rd century BC, it is based on the Sinhala of around 9-10th century.
           
          I do not think there is any connection between Sanskrit and Elu other than they have had a common ancestor language in the remotest past.
          There’s no record of as to when Elu or pure Sinhala first appeared in northern India or whether it really had a long existence in northern India at all, but linguistic reconstructions have shown that Sinhala is at least 2.5 millennia old in Sri Lanka, besides the Sinhala Brahmi inscriptions found at Anuradhapura dating from 540 BC.
           
          I totally disagree that the Sanskrit words hastha, danta, mukha, bhojana and askhi have anything to do with Tamil. These words have cognates in other Indo-European languages. Examples:
          tooth(English), dens(Latin), odon(Greek), danta(Avestan), dants(Baltic), det(Celtic)
          eye(English), augo(Gothic), asi(Avestan), akis(Baltic)
          Surely these languages didn’t get these words from Tamil or?

      • 5
        0

        What about Divehi, the language of Maldives, which has also similar words. Elu is a Dravidian language considered by international linguists to be proto-Tamil. But the first evidence of Sinhala is only 1500 years. Vijaya and his followers did not speak Elu and Pandyan brides spoke Tamil. But all of them including Kuweni’s people were able to understand each other. This corroborates with the finding that those living in Sri Lanka at that time spoke either Tamil or some form of Tamil. 10,000 years ago Sri Lanka and India were a single land mass. There had been several urn burial sites which are hall marks of Dravidian civilization found in north western parts, last being in Ibbankatuwa near Kurunegala. There are also several sites of potsherds found in north, last being in Nanattan school ground similar to those found in Tamil Nadu, suggests that it was the same people who lived on both sides of the divide. Recently two sites of civilization of over 10,000 years have been found in Mannar, at Settikulam and around Giant’s Tank, where the government has not taken any measures to unearth more. The third factor that seals the presence of Tamils prior to the advent of Sinhala race is the genetic discovery, where it has been found that the core genetic material of Sinhalese in south Indian and that they have no resemblance to Veddhas. With all these evidence and more to come it is your rank racism that is making you to come out with anti-Tamil propaganda denying Tamils ownership of the land.

        • 0
          4

          Sankaralingam stop your idiotic lies.
          1. No “international linguist” whoever that might be ever said that Elu is Tamil. Elu is nothing but a form of Sinhala. That is what is written in all documents. There is a whole corpus of ancient literature written in Elu and we have Tamil idiots making these dumb claims.
           
          2. First evidence of Sinhala comes in the form of Sinhala Brahmi inscriptions at the citadel of Anuradhapura. Dated to 540 BC.
           
          3. Vijaya story is probably a myth. Even if Vijaya hora did come to Srilanka he would have come to a non-Dravidian speaking place.
           
          4. Pandyans are none other than the Pandus. Nowhere in the Mahavamsa is it said that Vijaya hora married a Pandyan or Tamil woman. What is said is that he married the daughter of king Pandu of south Mathura. The British scholars interpreted this south Mathura as Madurai and king Pandu as Pandyan king despite protests from the Sinhalese scholars, and starting from the 19th century we have these dumb claims about the bride of Vijaya being a Tamil princess.
           
          5. Urn burials are found all over the world and is not a hallmark of any so-called “Dravidian civilization”.
           
          6. There are no such genetic studies as you claim and we don’t need genetic studies to find out who the Tamils in Srilanka are, now do we? LMAO. And how dumb is finding out “the core genetic material of Sinhalese is south Indian” going to prove “the presence of Tamils prior to the advent of Sinhala race”!? Also in all genetic studies Sinhalese and Vaeddas show some admixture/affinity while out of all the genetic studies done there has never been found any affinity between the Tamils and the Vaeddas.

          • 2
            0

            Punchi Point
            Punchi Brain
            Punchi Willi

            “Elu is nothing but a form of Sinhala. “

            Could you let us have solid evidence and refer us to literatures/articles on Elu by scholars. If you can’t then just ignore my request.

            “First evidence of Sinhala comes in the form of Sinhala Brahmi inscriptions at the citadel of Anuradhapura. Dated to 540 BC.”

            Again reference please –
            If you can’t find then just ignore my request.

            “Vijaya story is probably a myth. Even if Vijaya hora did come to Srilanka he would have come to a non-Dravidian speaking place.”

            Are you sure? If you are state your reasons. I know reasoning for you is the most difficult of your natural abilities.

            “Pandyans are none other than the Pandus.”

            I have heard this argument (?) from most notorious racists.
            If you consider yourself a noted public racist, go ahead own it up.

            “Urn burials are found all over the world and is not a hallmark of any so-called “Dravidian civilization”.

            Good, please confirm it with Professors Sudharshan Seneviratne .

            “There are no such genetic studies as you claim and we don’t need genetic studies to find out who the Tamils in Srilanka are, now do we?”

            We need to know who these Kallathonies are therefore we need to check the genetic makeup of each and every person living in this island especially those zealous Sinhala/Buddhist fascist noisy minority for example yourself, Udhaya, Champika, Wimal, Fonseka, Sarath, ………. Gota, ….

          • 4
            0

            There is no point in trying to educate an idiot like you who is bigoted. You are unable stomach the truth as you have been brain washed with racist propaganda. None of the views of so called biased Sinhala scholars will be accepted in any of the international forums. It is time you update your knowledge of facts derived by scientific methods without making a fool of yourself.

        • 0
          4

          Sankaralingam, please note that you stand out as somebody very dumb. Putting Dr. in front of your name, and writing all sorts nonsense. The stuff you write is most unscientific and you can’t even construct an argument in a logical manner. I doubt it very much that you were ever allowed near the gates of a Medical faculty let alone inside one. I have told you repeatedly that there is nothing called “core genetic material” in humans, as the only genetic material in humans is DNA, but you keep writing the same nonsense.
           
          As for your most dumb comment above about the “genetic discovery” LMAO! – Whether you like it or not, Tamils here are a relatively recent diaspora of Tamilnadu and we don’t need genetic studies to find out who the Tamils are. When it comes to Sinhalese the story is more complicated, since Sinhalese clearly speak a very ancient Indo-Aryan language and show genetic affinity to a wide range of people, including the Tamils who are the nearest neigbhours. The Vaeddas are not only close neigbhours but both the Vaeddas and Sinhalese acknowledge each other as kinsfolk, and this is reflected in both the linguistic and genetic affinity they share.
           
          Quoting from a recent article by Professor Gyaneshwer Chaubey: “The first genetic study of Vedda along with other Asian populations suggested their long period of isolation. However, the analysis of alpha-2-HS-glycoprotein allele frequencies supports the view that the Veddas are biologically most closely related to the Sinhalese.” Not only Chaubey but all geneticists studying Srilankan people have found to varying degrees that the Vaeddas and Sinhalese are related populations, while at the same time the geneticists have found that the Vaeddas and Tamils do not have any genetic affinity. So stop your dumb lies.

      • 3
        0

        Punchi Point
        Punchi Brain
        Punchi Willi
        Punchi Tamilan.

        How many of the above Elu words were coined by D V Richard De Silva?
        What are the differences among, Hela, Helese, Elu, Sinhala, Demela, . …………..?
        Why did Hela Haluva fail?

        If you haven’t got any idea please ignore my comment.
        Please feel free to type.

  • 8
    8

    Contd: I am a Brahmin Tamil whose ancestors originated from north west India, this does not mean I am North Indian. I am still ethnically a Tamil. Just look at the photos of the so called Sri Lankan Moors , do any of them look Arab/Moor . They look typically Dravidian that they really are. Just like more than 95% of the present day Sri Lankan Muslims. When the Portuguese used the word Moor to describe all South Asian Muslims, not just Sri Lankan, it was used in the context of religion and not race, as the only Muslims , they encountered prior to their journeys , were the Moors from North Africa who had ruled them for around 1000 years and they hated them. This term was used very derogatively by them. This is why they persecuted the Muslims more than the others.

  • 9
    1

    The Dravidian element is neglected, which was an important factor not only in the evolution of the local agricultural, maritime and mercantile practice, but also in the genetic makeup of the Sinhalese and the Muslims.
    Both the Indo-Aryan and Islamic cultures were originally nomadic.

    • 8
      4

      This is they acknowledge this , the Sinhalese and Muslims are admitting to the fact that they are descended from Tamils and they do not want to this, so come up with this Arab origin Aryan origin fairly tales but 99% of them look like and behave South Indian Dravidians. Funny people claiming Arab/Western Asia ancestry look like Tamil , speak Tamil and until 20 years ago behaved like Tamils dressed like Tamils and were even following a very tolerant form of Sufi Islam from South India.

      • 5
        8

        Siva Sankarna Sharma,
        Who said Sinhalayo are admitting to the fact that they are descendants from Tamils? Sheer BS!

      • 5
        7

        Siva Sankarna Sharma & Rohan,

        SL is undergoing such a worst situation, someone’s descent seems to be important topic for you

        Why can’t you two comic characters donate your working organs to someone worth living and say good-bye to this civilized world? Your brains are real insults to those functioning organs.

        • 4
          2

          How can you talk about Sri Lanka’s post-independence history without talking about the evolution of ethnic (and religious) identities? It is not the Eelam Tamils who are in denial of their origin but the Sinhalese and Muslims who are busy building a mythical Aryan and Arab origin, respectively, which is crux of the problem.

  • 4
    0

    Ancient history of Muslims will not decide their future.
    Now, they have to look forward to living in fraternity, not in isolation, says a Muslim
    scholar from Kattankudy.

    • 9
      10

      My proposal is to remove those garments (head coverings) of all Muslim girls and give them marriage to Sinhalese boys.

      • 12
        3

        Muslim girls will remove their top, but will force Sinhalese boys to remove their tip.

      • 6
        4

        while Sinhalese ladies are busy servicing Arabs in the Gulf…what a way to earn foreign exchange.

        • 3
          4

          no one wants the black-color tamil ladies. they r only good for suicide bomb.

          • 2
            4

            Charith,

            You’ve got to be joking son. I reckon you have never visited the North. Sure, Tamil girls are as ugly as hell. They could give dracula a run for it’s money, but Tamil girls are very active in bed.

            They want to make up for the lack of their beauty with better action. You’ve got to try it son. If you go to Jaffna you perhaps will never come back.

            • 2
              0

              Retarded Shameless Prera

              ” Sure, Tamil girls are as ugly as hell.”

              Do they look exactly like your mother, your grandmothers, your great grandmothers, your sisters, your aunts, your daughters, nieces, grand daughters, daughter in laws, Sister in laws …. your fathers’ mistresses, your step sisters, … ?

        • 4
          3

          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

          • 2
            1

            CT
            Is allowing such racist-sexist abuse part of your editorial policy?
            This person has written such filth in the past and I thought that he gave up after he was told where he got off.

            • 1
              3

              SJ,

              I am fine with that as long as it applies to everyone fairly and squarely. Tamizh posted right above my post a Sexist and Misogynist statement but obviously you find that acceptable.

              Keep in mind also that before the Easter Sunday attacks, I had warned here many a times about the impending Muslim massacre. But my posts were censored.

              • 2
                0

                Mate, you are the very exhibit of Sinhala masculine psyche, who wants to exercise control over the body of the ‘other’ below you, as seen by your suggestions to de-robe Muslim women to your other comments. Well, it seems my comment has provoked you but at least it serves to prove the point.

              • 2
                0

                (contd) and problem is you are not an exception; you only explicitly state your views, including the censored comment, in which you openly acknowledge the impunity the Sinhala military has, given your association.

          • 2
            1

            shamal perera
            You are mentally retarded person who licks arses of the arabs to earn a living. do you know the identity of your biological father? I doubt even your mother knows.

        • 3
          1

          thamizh,
          :
          Sinhalese ladies Servicing Arabs in the Gulf??? Fact is, they are servicing those lonely south Indians doing menial works there (those who have been to Kuwait, Bahrain, Dubai know). Arab bosses keep min 3 meters gap when talk to them for hygienic reasons.
          :
          One reason SL still has maid market is Arab wives are convinced by gifted displeasing appearance of these women, so they can avoid getting an east asian, Pinay or Indonesian who can attract their hubbies easily.
          :
          This retired LT modaya still doesn’t realize because of racists like him, the fellow had to waste those good years of his functional knob as a little bumboy of seniors in the north.

      • 2
        4

        Rtd. RSP – You are really retarded, no wonder you took early retirement!

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          @mike, the ‘retarded bugger’ did not retire but he was fired for being too stupid for military service. He was so stupid, he did not even know which way to hold the gun to shoot, many times he almost pointed the gun backwards and shot himself. He was dumb and also dropped out of grade 2 after being in that same class for 15 years………………he has a PhD in Grade 2.

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    Violently suppressed and tortured communities will not promote recovery from terrorism, says a former UN Rapporteur who had visited Sri Lanka.

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    Dear Siva Sankar!

    you ‘ve come up with some suggestions, therefore you need an answer, but not (TAMIL) ROHAN, who claimed to be a high cast with low level languages. I’m proud that my low cast Tamilnadu convert mother has taught me some decency in writing, speaking and of course in dealing with people.

    Siva, you readily accepted that SL Muslims have a lot of mixture of here and there, including Tamil low cast connection. A good start.

    Q 1: Why you then want us to inherit Dravidian (Tamil) identity?

    Q 2: why Tamil tiger ,your leader Brabharan , a low cast fisherman, chased all the Muslims from north,north-west and north-east, didn’t he considered us as Tamils.

    Q 3: why your dear leader Brabha didn’t touch other low cast Saiver Tamils and Catholic Tamils of the same area.

    Q 4: While we( or at least I) respect your self determination claim, you are not prepared to have us own name for our ethnicity. What sort of fair play is that and FINALLY,

    Q 5: How you became a HIGH CAST Tamil ??????????????

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    Dear Siva S.S, You look bloody a low cast Tamils. Hindu have got five or more cast categorisation: Go and see how people in India. You bloody look like badly affected by this cast system. You inferiority complex of mistreated Hindi culture shows you are badly treated like many others in India. It is crime against to humanity to divide people like this in name of religion.? It is Brahmans who have done this to exploit people and still scare of your up bringing from this low cast system is seen in your writing. Stop this cast games. Sri Lankan Muslim community is a mixture of many races and many ethnic groups. Historical evidences tell us some Are Arabs, Some are Malabar Indians, Some are Sinahalese, Some are other subcontinent groups Memons, Borahs, Afghnis, and others. Do not bring your dirty argument here. You and your Bramins have this habits of divide and rule. Shame on you. You lost your humanity by enslaving people

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      Everything proves all other elements or mix contributing to the Sri Lankan Muslim genetic makeup, Arab, Afghan , Camel , Sheep , Dung beetle are very miniscule or minimal . All this mixture happened in their original homeland in South Indian and not when they migrated to the island. The core and predominant Genetic make up is low caste Indian Tamil Dravidian 90% or more 95% on an average . This why you speak Tamil and followed Tamil customs , dress modes and even the beautiful tolerant Tamil Sufi Islam that you brought from your original South Indian homeland not any other form of Islam , as you were from there until money from the Gulf states poured in and you were brainwashed by your elite and opportunistic politicians that you were indeed Arabs and not Tamils and should hate your Tamil origin and heritage and worship everything Arab and decided , to Arabize yourselves within the last 20-30 years , follow the extremist radical Wahhabism and dress and behave like some pathetic Gulf Arab clones. However these opportunistic selfish , backstabbing Sri Lankan Muslims for political and economic benefits choose to ignore this fact and claim all this miniscule amounts that is part of your ancestry like Camel , Sheep, Dung betel and Arab as your sole ancestry and heritage and ignore the 90-95% of your Tamil Dravidian ancestry and heritage.

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        SSS you must be crying looking at your own picture at the mirror having Australoid face. When people from Aryan race poured into India from the west the inhabitants were dark and ugly and they fled toward southward. As you know there were mixture because of rape and your women working as slaves but this brought lot of changes to their features. If you go to South India you can see better featured people as a result of mix and unmixed ugly Australoid feature. You are one of them so you are pouring your hatred toward Muslims to make them as ugly as you. Well any race if they feel superior will not try to degrade other races, this is a natural instinct. But that won’y come to you low caste Australoid. Be happy with your face and race and if you jump up and down until your death Moors won’t change their stance.

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          “Moors won’t change their stance” – what a stupid statement. Go to some of the police stations and army camps. Already lots of moors are hanging upside down.

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        Oh dear Siva Shankar,
        Your language has gone bad to worse. Camel, Got etc cannot be a human calcification of ethnic devide. Anyway I’ve put five questions for you to reflect. But you redirect the direction of an important face direction.. How decided you as HIGH and SL Muslims altogether or in your calculation more than 95% low cast? Any answer? You can’t give one simple answer for everyone to understand. You’re like the Jihadees, one dimensional. Try to get some help to sort out your. HIGH CAST
        claim from (Tamil) Rohan, another HIGH CAST product of SL Tamil.

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    Who cares where all of us came from? What matters is where we are going to. With leaders like ours, we and the country are all going to hell in a handcart. (BTW we all came from Africa)

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    Dear Uditha Devapriya
    Let me give you some additional information.

    Barbosa in his account of the Island in 1519 in his book ‘Economic, Political and Social Geography of Maritime Asia’ says, a large numbers of ‘Moors’ from the South Indian (Malabar and Coromandel) Coasts resorted constantly to Sri Lanka. Barbosa speaks of their heads covered with handkerchiefs and of their earrings so heavy that they hang down to their shoulders. A handkerchief was necessary to cover their shaven crowns, while the earrings indicated most emphatically their South Indian origins. They lived primarily in coastal trading and agricultural communities, preserving their Islamic customs and the South Indian language/culture. (There is much more about them, I cannot type all of them here).

    The fact is that Islam had come to South India (Chera/Kerala) direct from the country of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in the 7th century, while it reached North India much later. Arab traders used to visit the western coast of India (Coastal Malabar) as early as the 7th century AD. Malabar region in South India was a link between them and ports of South East Asia to trade. They intermarried with local people (Hindus) in Malabar and with this admixture the large Muslim community of Kerala evolved. The first Indian mosque (Cheraman Juma Masjid) was built in 621 CE by the last ruler of the Chera Kingdom, who converted to Islam and facilitated the proliferation of Islam in Malabar.

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      Those who adopted the religion of the Arabs in the Tamil country (Kerala/Tamil Nadu) came to be referred to as ‘Sonakar’ (Jonakar or Chonakar) irrespective of their racial origin. The ‘Sonakar’ were not Arabs but Malabars/Tamils (Hindus) from the Malabar and Coromandal coasts of South India who were the earliest converts to Islam in South India. Writers such as Humayun Kabir (Indian Heritage) has pointed out that the majority of the Muslims of South India are converts to Islam (from Hinduism) and not Arabs or Arab mixed.

      Continued…

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    Dear Uditha Devapriya

    A good number of Malabar Muslims (Sonakar) were enlisted in the naval force of Zamorin and given the title of Marakkar (so named because they were using wooden boats). The Marakkar established a monopoly in the commercial activities in the Indian Ocean and one of their main trade was spices. The South Western coast of Sri Lanka where the premium quality spices (such as cinnamon) were grown was the first landing/settling place of the Marakkar (Marakkala Minissu) in Sri Lanka. They are the people who brought the banana known today among the Sinhalese as Koolikutu (from Kozhikode/Malabar), in Jaffna they call it Kappal palam (because they brought it in the ship/Kappal from the Kozhikode port). Vattil Appam is a Malabar dish introduced to Sri Lanka by these Marakkar/Sonakar Muslims (Moors). Since then it has got modified in Sri Lanka as Watalappam and certain amount of its taste has changed.

    One of the famous Malabar Merchants who traded in cinnamon with Sri Lanka and sold them to the Portuguese in Calicut/Kozhikode (before the Portuguese came to Ceylon) was the Markar family. Some members of the Markar family, the Marakkar/Sonakar Muslims (Moor) families settled in the Island. It is the members of the Markar family who took the ‘Parangiya to Kotte’ when the Portuguese wanted to meet the King of Kotte and we all know how the Parangiya went to Kotte.

    The settlement at Beruwala (South-West coast of Sri Lanka), which the Sri Lankan ‘Moors’ generally admit to be the first of all their settlements, took place not earlier than the 14th century (after 1344). Ibn Batuta visited the Island in 1344, but makes no mention of any ‘Muslims/Moors’ at Beruwela (or anywhere else in the Island) though it lay directly on his route from Galle to Colombo.
    Continued…

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    The South Western coast of Sri Lanka where the premium quality spices (such as cinnamon) were grown was the first landing/settling place of the Marakkar/Jonakar (Muslims/Moors) of Malabar in Sri Lanka in the 14th century. The affairs of Sri Lanka (economy) during the time of Bhuvanaike Bahu (King of Kotte) was in a most critical condition. Within a short period, all the trade in the Island was in the hands of the Moors and they were more powerful than the natives. The wealth which this trade had brought to the country rendered them powerful and gave them ascendency over the Sinhalese rulers. Their aim at that time was to become the absolute rulers of Sri Lanka.

    The arrival of the Portuguese saved the Sinhalese from the Moors becoming the rulers. When the Portuguese arrived, it was the Moors who first organised resistance against them and urged King Bhuvanaike Bahu, and his brothers Mayadunne and Vijayabhu to oppose the Portuguese. However, the Portuguese not only took over the trade but also persecuted the Moors and saved the Sinhalese from the slavery of the Moors. The Portuguese treated them harshly, they suffered widespread persecution because (1) they refused to become converts to Christianity (2) they were their rivals in trade. Professor Courtnay in his ‘History of Ceylon’, (pp. 13-14) says that had not the Portuguese come to Sri Lanka the entire Island would have come under the control of the Moors. Due to the Portuguese persecution, the Moors were seeking help from King Senarat of Kandy who settled them in the North-Eastern Coasts of Sri Lanka.
    Continued…

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    Every Muslim (Moor) village in Sri Lanka from South-West to North-East carries with it a Tamil/Malabar name (Peruveli aka Beruwela, Sammanturai, etc), a pointer to the fact that the original Moor occupants had hailed from Malabar and spoke from the beginning the Malabar/Tamil language, whatever their present ‘nationality’, ‘race’ and ‘language’ might be. Some of them still bear Malabar names like Periya Marikkar, Sinna Lebbe, Pitchai Thamby and so on.

    It is wrongly believed in Sri Lanka that the Sri Lankan Muslims (Moors) descend from Moorish Arab merchants who married native (Sinhalese & Tamil) wives after having them converted to Islam. The fact is, bulk of the ‘Moors’ in Sri Lanka, as it has been amply demonstrated, are not Moorish Arab Merchants but Tamil/Malabar speaking Sonakar/Marakkar who came from South India. Except for a few visitors like Ibn Battuta, the Arabs did not come direct to Sri Lanka. If they had come to Sri Lanka (South Western coast) direct from the Middle East and married to Sinhalese women, today their descendants (Sri Lanka Moors) should be speaking Arabic or Sinhala as their mother tongue but throughout the island even today their mother tongue is Malabarish Tamil.

    This is the brief history of the Tamil speaking Moors/Muslims of Sri Lanka also known as Sonakar/Jonakar (in Tamil) or Marakkala (in Sinhala). They are actually a mixture of Malabar/Tamil Hindus and Arabs who came from Malabar for spice trading and settled in Sri Lanka in the 14th century.

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