{"id":109550,"date":"2013-10-11T02:32:23","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T21:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=109550"},"modified":"2013-10-15T11:27:58","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T05:57:58","slug":"tributary-overlordship-and-cakravarti-figures-in-pre-british-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/tributary-overlordship-and-cakravarti-figures-in-pre-british-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributary Overlordship And Cakravarti Figures In Pre-British Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0<\/strong>Michael Roberts<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

Darshani Ratnawalli<\/a><\/span>[1]<\/a> has recently deployed<\/a><\/span> one motif within <\/em>my book Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period, 1590s to 1815<\/em><\/a> <\/em><\/span>in a perceptive and telling manner. The motif is the concept of \u201ctributary overlordship.\u201d Details from Robert Knox and Philippus Baldaeus[2]<\/a> are presented in useful ways by Ratnawalli to underline the weight of this concept in the political relations between \u201ccentre\u201d and \u201cperiphery\u201d in the 17th<\/sup> and 18th<\/sup> centuries. The notion of centre-versus-periphery, I stress, is an adjunct concept that serves to strengthen my argument about \u201ctributary overlordship.<\/p>\n

Ratnawalli tells her readers<\/a><\/span> that tributary overlordship refers to a \u201cpolitical mechanism\u201d that linked \u201csatellite states\u201d to the \u201csuperior Chakravarti figure\u201d \u2013 thereby serving as a \u201cform of allegiance and rule that accommodated localized dominion[s].\u201d This is a succinct summary. However, one cannot be certain that the generality of readers will comprehend the import of this distillation because they do not have the benefit of the elaborations within Sinhala Consciousness<\/em> that Ratnawalli has absorbed. These amplifications, I stress, include considerable detail and also use charts and illustrative photographs (examples of the latter will embellish this article). Central to the argument was the set of meanings attached to the rite of d\u00e4kuma <\/em>in its various forms, a practice that overlapped with the personalized exchange relations that were termed panduru pakkudam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dutch d\u00e4kuma before the King of S\u012bhal\u0113, circa 1785<\/p><\/div>\n

While a d\u00e4kuma <\/em>(plural is d\u00e4kum<\/em>) literally means \u201cseeing\u201d or \u201cappearance,\u201d it is an act of obeisance involving the flow of gifts from an inferior to a superior. These gifts could be of greater or lesser value and could amount to a \u201ctribute.\u201d Thus, in specific contexts a d\u00e4kuma <\/em>signified the lordship of the superordinate party and marked the latter\u2019s political authority \u2013 thereby overlapping with the notion of panduru pakkudam<\/em>.[3]<\/a> When a Dutch Governor in Colombo called the King of S\u012bhal\u0113<\/em>\u201cHis Majesty\u201d and spoke of \u201cthe King\u2019s Castle at Colombo\u201d and even declared that \u201call the island belonged to the Sinhalese King\u201d (see Roberts 2004: 79), the verbiage was not comprehended THEN as finery of little import. The language\u00a0was politically significant. Such acts of self-subordination, after all, were bolstered by annual ambassadorial journeys to the capital at Mahanuvara where the Dutch governor paid obeisance to the cakravarti <\/em>figure on the throne of island S\u012bhal\u0113 <\/em>(or S\u012bhala<\/em>, S\u012bhaladv\u012bpa,<\/em> or Heladiv <\/em>as the island was variously referred to).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Agreen\u2019s Embassy to S\u012bhal\u0113, 1736<\/p><\/div>\n

Partly because most readers lack this background knowledge but mainly because of the nature of the internet blog-beast Ratnawalli\u2019s essay in Colombo Telegraph<\/em> has drawn the usual plethora of virulent froth, some of it coloured by Tamil or Sinhala extremism and some of it laced with vicious male chauvinism<\/span>.<\/a> However, in my reading the more insidious force and central problem is the failure of most readers to comprehend the summary that she has provided \u2013 thereby failing to understand that \u201ctributary overlordship\u201d is a conceptual challenge to those who read modern ideas of statehood \u2013 that is, post-1789, notions of state formation[4]<\/a> \u2013 into contexts and historical periods where state forms and their \u201cpolitical mechanisms\u201d were organised in radically different ways.<\/p>\n

Thus, in Colombo Telegraph<\/em> for instance, one \u201cRavi\u201d contends that \u201cthe Tamil chieftains of Trincomalee such as Tirukkonmalai, Tampalakmam, Kottiyram and Kattukkulam and Batticaloa district such as Mattakkalappu, Palukmam, P\u014drativu, Ntukatu, Panmai and Cammnturai \u2026. nominally acknowledged<\/strong>, the over lordship of the Kandyan kingdom\u201d (emphasis mine).\u201d<\/p>\n

Ravi does seem to be a specialist historian, but he has in fact reproduced chunks from an essay by Professor Sitrampalam<\/a><\/span> without any citation. Sitrampalam himself is an archaeologist without any expertise in the medieval period. Be that as it may, both[5]<\/a> are replicating a cardinal error that has been committed by such reputed scholars as Sinnappah Arasaratnam,[6]<\/a> TBH Abeyasinghe and A. Liyanagamage. This is the error of being guided, sometimes implicitly and thus insidiously, by modern 20th<\/sup> and 21st<\/sup> century notions of state control through formal bureaucratic channels where codified juridical practices underline such relations.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Hulft\u2019s d\u00e4kuma, 1656<\/p><\/div>\n

In the result several historians have pointed to the absence of any \u201cdirect\u00a0 exercise of authority on local matters\u2019 by the Sinhala kings of the medieval period and identified the \u201cpractical autonomy\u201d of the Vanni chieftains in moving to the conclusion that the rights of the King of S\u012bhal\u0113<\/em> were \u201cnominal\u201d (Arasaratnam 1966: 103; Liyanagamage 1968: 170). On such reasoning Abeyasinghe talks of \u201cthe fiction <\/strong>of the king\u2019s sovereignty over the company\u2019s territories\u201d and Arasaratnam sees the Kandyan King\u2019s claims over the Dutch-ruled territories as \u201ca legal fiction\u201d and \u201clegend\u201d (1958: 117, 112; Abeyasinghe 1984: 40, 57).<\/p>\n

Where such reasoning is underpinned by Marxist schemes of evaluation, as in Newton Gunasinghe\u2019s Athusserian interpretation of the \u201cKandyan social formation\u201d (his words \u2013 1990), the conclusions suffer from the standard Marxist failing of over-determined system functionalism and economic determinism. In the result one finds a devaluation of the force of cosmological thinking and meaningful rituals because they are deemed \u201csuperstructural\u201d (see Roberts 2004: 43)<\/p>\n

The first scholar to move against this strand of thinking, as far as I know, was C. R. de Silva when he referred to \u201critual sovereignty\u201d (1983) in a short essay which did not elaborate upon the idea at length. He was in fact referring to what I have termed \u201ctributary overlordship\u201d because the rite of d\u00e4kum <\/em>and acts of homage involved the presentation of tribute from inferior to superior as an act of allegiance. In Sinhala Consciousness<\/em>, one whole chapter is devoted to the clarification of this analytical concept, \u201ctributary overlordship\u201d. It is guided by the work of S. J. Tambiah on \u201cgalactic polities\u201d \u2013 a thesis that, in its turn, is informed by the widespread prevalence of the mandala <\/em>concept in Asian states and by such work as The Pivot of the Four Quarters<\/em> by Paul Wheatley (1971). Tambiah\u2019s studies emphasise the fact that many Asian states in the pre-modern era did not stress territorial boundaries (backed by cadastral surveys) to the same extent that has prevailed in the modern international arena. Rather, the capital as centre stood for the kingdom. Thus, the relations of \u201ccentre\u201d and \u201cperiphery\u201d (or \u201csatellite\u201d) were critical aspects in this scheme of things \u2013 a \u2018system\u2019 which gave scope for ambiguity and fluctuation in the power wielded by satellites and centre over time (Tambiah 1976, 1985).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

King Rajasinha II of \u201cKandy\u201d as represented in Knox, 1681<\/p><\/div>\n

The cakravarti <\/em>concept, as understood by the people living in these states, was integral to the mandala<\/em> model and the character of the \u201ccentre\u201d in the analytical clarification pressed by this political scheme. That is why H.L. Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u2019s work (1978, 1997) on the constellation of rituals that constitute the \u00c4sala Festival serves as a vital ingredient in my elaboration of \u201ctributary overlordship.\u201d While we today may focus on the magnificent pageant of drumming and dancing amidst the advance of a phalanx of elephants that constitute the Perah\u00e4ra phase of the Festival, a march whereby the Cakravarti King of S\u012bhal\u0113<\/em> symbolically conquers the whole kingdom, by itself such a focus is misleading. During the heyday of the Kingdom of S\u012bhal\u0113<\/em> (and even now) there were (are) a whole series of rituals making up the \u00c4sala Festival.<\/em>[7]<\/a> Together they were intended to regenerate the S\u012bhala<\/em> king and his kingdom. Both aristocracy and people participated actively in this act of reproduction. They were calling upon the satara varan deiyyo<\/em> to defend and regenerate the kingdom by making sure that the rains fell in time, the crops flourished and enemies of the realm were kept at bay. They all believed in their work. In those days of old they were cosmologically engaged true believers.<\/p>\n

As Seneviratne clarifies matters, the institution of r\u0101jak\u0101riya <\/em>ensured that the chiefs and people of the provinces were drawn into this work of regeneration during the \u00c4sala. In effect, the peripheral regions of the Kingdom of S\u012bhal\u0113<\/em> came to the centre at Mah\u0101nuvara<\/em> (Kandy) to engage in the work of regeneration. The V\u00e4ddas of S\u012bhal\u0113<\/em> were also encompassed, both symbolically and physically,[8]<\/a> in the \u00c4sala. A critical ritual within the \u00c4sala was (is) the Valiyak N\u00e4tuma<\/em> \u201cperformed for seven successive nights at the Visnu D\u0113v\u0101le\u201d (Seneviratne 1978: 102ff.). In one of the moments within this ritual two men mimic a fight between the Sinhalese and the V\u00e4ddas which ends with the V\u00e4ddahs being taught the civilised ways of the Sinhalese and ending up participating in the threshing of rice (1978: 103).<\/p>\n

Note, too, that the V\u00e4ddas, who normally resided in the wild forested regions of Bint\u00e4nna in the east, were an integral part of the Kingdom of S\u012bhal\u0113.<\/em> They served as archers in the king\u2019s armies and were regarded as \u201cguardians of the eastern margins;\u201d while the Bint\u00e4nna region sometimes served as a refuge for the king (Roberts 2004: 76, 86, 139, 148).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I emphasise that my elaborated summary here of the arguments and empirical details in Sinhala Consciousness<\/em> is itself a brief expose that could be inadequate for a readership enmeshed in the ways of modern states and in the forms of thinking mired within the 21st<\/sup> century milieu. To override such prejudices it is advisable for those of scholarly bent to immerse themselves in such texts as Duncan\u2019s The City as Text <\/em>(1990), John Holt\u2019s Buddha in the Crown<\/em> (1991) and Holt\u2019s more recent The Buddhist Visnu<\/em> (2004) besides the other texts referred to above. This is a pre-requisite if one wishes overcome the pitfalls of reading modern relationships into the political forms prevalent during what I have termed \u201cthe middle period\u201d of Sri Lankan history extending from 1232 to 1815\/18.[9]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A schematic chart composed by Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

This danger is pervasive. It extends to terminology. The English word \u201cnation\u201d is not context free. When Ravi of the Colombo Telegraph<\/em> blog parrots Sitrampalam and quotes Hugh Cleghorn\u2019s memorandum to the British Governor, Frederick North, in 1799, with its reference to \u201ctwo different nations\u201d having existed in Ceylon \u201cfrom ancient times\u201d, he is unaware that the etymology of the term \u201cnation\u201d in English speech was not fixed. This is not an innocent quotation in Colombo Telegraph<\/em> or in the original Sitrampalam presentation within The Northeastern Herald<\/em> as well as www.Tamilcanadian.com<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Centre and Periphery in James Duncan\u2019s reading<\/p><\/div>\n

Hugh Cleghorn\u2019s Minute has been a pillar in the agitation of the Tamil nationalists from the time of the Ilankai Th\u0101mil Arasu Kadchi (widely and mistakenly known as the \u201cFederal Party\u201d).\u00a0 Thus, Murugar Gunasingham, a historian residing now in Sydney, asserts that \u201cCleghorn \u2026 points to the existence of a Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern regions of the island at the beginning o British rule\u201d (1999: 54). There is some dissimulation here because Cleghorn did not quite say that. But the critical shortcoming lies in two facts: (a) Cleghorn was a greenhorn administrator with limited knowledge of the island; and (b) simply lacked the expertise to make authoritative statements about the island\u2019s history and settlement pattern.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Schematic Chart from Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Gunasingham is now a member of the Advisory Committee of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam<\/a><\/span>. Such clues are the tip of an iceberg. There is a long history of dissimulation by a chain of Tamil scholars[10]<\/a> seeking to sustain a maximalist claim to what has been set up as the \u201ctraditional homelands\u201d of the Tamils in Sri Lanka \u2013 even though the geographical reach of this assertion has been comprehensively undermined<\/a><\/span> by Gerald Peiris (1991, 1994 & 2013). When such a reputed scholar<\/a><\/span> as A. Jeyaratnam Wilson indulges in a sleight of hand<\/a><\/span> by acts of omission in his survey of Tamil history (Roberts 2005: 14-18), then surely, there is cause for alarm and a need for a careful re-examination of the material.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Perahara as painted by Lyttleton, early 19th century<\/p><\/div>\n

One facet of such a review has to be a scrutiny of the term \u201cnation\u201d and the manner in which Cleghorn, for one, deployed the term in 1799. In medieval times (i.e. pre-1500), after all, \u201cnation\u201d referred generically to \u201can extensive aggregate of people associated with each other\u201d (Oxford English Dictionary<\/em> 1993: 30). By Tudor times in the 16th<\/sup> century it was synonymous with \u201cclan\u201d and \u201ctribe\u201d. Thus, Kenneth Minogue tells us that for a long time it was synonymous with such terms as \u201ctribe\u201d, \u201cpeople\u201d and \u201crace\u201d (1968: 8-9). This form of catholic vagueness could extend into the 19th<\/sup> century even though the term began to secure a higher elevation, so to speak, as a result of intellectual currents and the world-wide implications of the French Revolution in 1789 and the consolidation of parliamentary forms of government in Britain during the 18th<\/sup> and 19th<\/sup> centuries. Thereafter, the term \u201cnation\u201d could also be implicitly or explicitly linked with \u201cstate\u201d to constitute the idea of \u201cnation state\u201d as a legitimate form or a legitimate aspiration (see Roberts 1979a: 11-61 for a review).<\/p>\n

The point is that because of these political developments the term \u201cnation\u201d secured a higher value and separated itself from the terms \u201ctribe\u201d and \u201cclan\u201d in the political vocabulary embodied within the English language. Thus, by way of an illustration from British Ceylon in the 1930s to 1950s, it was feasible for the Trotskyists of the 1930 to 1940s to lampoon those advocating the communal rights of the Sinhala and Tamil peoples as \u201ctribalists.\u201d[11]<\/a> This was a disparaging epithet that was comprehended by the English-speaking public of British Ceylon as such \u2013 namely, a demeaning characterization when set beside the concept of the Ceylonese \u201cnation\u201d as desirable goal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Wilhelm Spillbergen greets Kandyan chieftain after landing on the eastern coast near Batticaloa, c. 1603<\/p><\/div>\n

Note, however, that against the grain of this evolution in its etymology the \u2018ancient\u2019 equivalence between \u201cnation\u201d and \u201ctribe\u2019 lingered on in some contexts. On occasions in Australia in the 19th<\/sup> century the term \u201cnation\u201d was used to refer to specific Aboriginal groups who were also depicted in synonymous manner as \u201ctribes\u201d. At that stage there were a large number of distinct, named Aboriginal groups. Though some have been rendered extinct, a considerable number remain as distinct entities today<\/a><\/span>. The point is that loose European references to a named group, say the Yolngu, as a \u201cnation\u201d during the 19th<\/sup> century could be adopted by the Yolngu as a self-description that was seen as equivalent to \u201ctribe\u201d \u2013 with both usages referring to kinship-based communities without a necessary political notion of self-determination. In short, they would not have quite understood what Philip Gunawardena and other Leftists were getting at when they wielded \u201ctribe\u201d as weapon.<\/p>\n

Therefore, our reading of statements by such visitors to Sri Lanka as Knox, Pybus and Cleghorn in the course of the middle period must be attentive to the contemporary inflections and confusions attached to such terms as \u201cnation.\u201d It is for this reason that my work on Sinhala Consciousness<\/em> contained a sub-section entitled \u201cThe Vocabulary of \u2018Nation\u2019.\u201d\u00a0 Indeed, this section is deemed so vital that I have since presented it in 2011 as a separate article<\/a><\/span> in THUPPAHI.<\/p>\n

My review bore an inherent shortcoming however. I have no competence in the Dutch and Portuguese languages. As I noted then (2004: 97), a fuller comprehension of the data on the Kingdom of S\u012bhal\u0113<\/em> called for a capacity to decipher the use of the term nacao<\/em> in Portuguese and the term natie <\/em>in Dutch. While the etymology of these terms in their respective arenas may have been parallel to that of the English term \u201cnation,\u201d one cannot be certain about this. This is, therefore, a gap that has yet to be addressed.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

In brief, it is with considerable caution and an awareness of the minefield surrounding data from the past, as well as our ways of deciphering this evidence, that one must proceed today. The cyber world has a vast potential to enhance learning. Some bloggers will probably be too enmeshed in their extremist dungeons and their slash-and-burn operations to attend to these cautions. But where there is learned text there is also hope.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that my presentation is the last word on the subject. Scholarship is not hidebound or time bound, though, hopefully, it will be free of the charlatans who thrash about and stir the pot in partisan propaganda organs<\/a> or wide-open web sites. My thesis here will be subject to the Measure of Time, extending into times beyond the point when I go to my grave. That is as it should be.<\/p>\n

EXTENDED REFERENCE LIST<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abeyasinghe, T. B. H.<\/strong> 1984 \u2018Princes and merchants: relations between the kings of Kandy and the Dutch East India Company in Sri Lanka, 1688-1740\u2019, Journal of the Sri Lanka National Archives<\/em> 2: 35-58.<\/p>\n

Amarasinghe, Y. Ranjith<\/strong> 1974 Trotskyism in Ceylon: a study of the development,t ideology and political rule of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party, 1935-1964, <\/em>University of London Ph.D dissertation in Political cience.<\/p>\n

Arasaratnam, S.<\/strong> 1958 \u2018Dutch sovereignty in Ceylon: a historical survey of its problem\u2019, Ceylon Journal of Historical & Social Studies<\/em> 1: 105-21.<\/p>\n

Arasaratnam, S.<\/strong> 1966 \u2018The Vanniar of north Ceylon: a study of feudal power and central authority, 1660-1760\u2019, Ceylon Journal of Historical & Social Studies<\/em> 9: 101-12.<\/p>\n

Bouchouwer, M.<\/strong> 1931\/2 \u2018Transactions between the \u00a0Dutch and the King of Kandy. 1600-1617. The remonstrance of Marcellus de Bouchouwer\u2019, Ceylon Literary Register <\/em>I and II, serialised from 1:1, 2639 \u00a0onwards at various moments.<\/p>\n

De Silva, C. R.<\/strong> 1983 \u2018The historiography of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka: a survey of the Sinhala writings\u2019, Samskrti<\/em> 17: 13-22.<\/p>\n

De Silva, C. R.<\/strong> 1995a \u2018Sri Lanka in the early 16th century: political conditions\u2019, in University of Peradeniya History of Sri Lanka<\/em> Vol. II, ed. by K. M de Silva, Colombo: Sridevi, pp. 11-36.<\/p>\n

De Silva, C. R<\/strong>. 1995b \u2018Sri Lanka in the early 16th century: economic and social conditions\u2019, University of Peradeniya, History of Sri Lanka<\/em>, Vol. II, ed.. by K. M de Silva, Colombo: Sridevi, pp. 37-60.<\/p>\n

De Silva, C. R<\/strong>. 1995c \u2018The rise and fall of the Kingdom of Sitavaka\u2019, in University of Peradeniya, History of Sri Lanka<\/em>, Vol. II, ed. by K. M de Silva, Colombo: Sridevi, pp. 61-104.<\/p>\n

De Silva, D. G. B.<\/strong> 1996 [1998] \u2018New light on Vanni chiefs, based on historical tradition, palm-leaf manuscripts and official records\u2019, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society<\/em>, Sri Lanka, n.s. being the Sesquicentennial Special Number, 1996, vol. LXI: 153-204. Note that the 1996 issue appeared in 1998.<\/p>\n

Dewaraja, Lorna S.<\/strong> 1972 The Kandyan Kingdom of Ceylon, 1707-1760<\/em>, Colombo: Lake House Investments Ltd.<\/p>\n

Duncan, James S<\/strong>. 1990 The city as text: the politics of landscape interpretation in the Kandyan Kingdom,<\/em> Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

Dyche, Thomas and William Pardon<\/strong> 1972 [1740] A new English dictionary<\/em> (1740), Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag.<\/p>\n

Ferguson, Donald<\/strong> 1909 \u2018Letters from Raja Sinha II to the Dutch\u2019, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch<\/em> 21: 259-67.<\/p>\n

Ferguson, Donald<\/strong> 1998 The earliest Dutch visits to Ceylon<\/em>, Delhi: Asian Educational Services. A reprint.<\/p>\n

Goonewardena, K. W.<\/strong> 1977 \u2018Kingship in seventeenth century Sri Lanka\u2019, Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities<\/em> 3: 1-32.<\/p>\n

Gunasinghe, Newton<\/strong> 1990 Changing socio-economic relations in the Kandyan countryside,<\/em> Colombo: Social Scientists\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n

Gunasingham, Murugar<\/strong> 1999 Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism<\/em>, Sydney: MV Publications.<\/p>\n

Holt, John C. <\/strong>1991 Buddha in the crown<\/em>, New York: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n

Holt, John C. <\/strong>1996 The religious works of K\u00eerti Sr\u00ee<\/em>, New York: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n

Holt, John C. <\/strong>2004 The Buddhist Visnu. Religious transformation, politics and culture<\/em>\u00b8 New York: Columbia University Press.<\/p>\n

Knox, Robert<\/strong> 1911 An historical relation of Ceylon<\/em>, ed by J. Ryan, Glasgow: James Maclehose & Sons.<\/p>\n

Kotelawele, D. A<\/strong>. 1995a \u2018The VOC in Sri Lanka 1688-1766: problems and policies\u2019, in University of Peradeniya, History of Sri Lanka<\/em>, vol II, ed. by K M de Silva, Colombo: Sridevi, pp. 233-80.<\/p>\n

Kulasuriya, Ananda S.<\/strong> 1978 \u2018The minor chronicles and other traditional writings in Sinhalese and their historical value\u2019, Ceylon Historical Journal<\/em> 25: 1-33.<\/p>\n

Liyanagamage, A.<\/strong> 1968 The decline of Polonnaruwa and the rise of Dambadeniya (c. 1180-1270 A.D.)<\/em>, Colombo: Government Press.<\/p>\n

Malalgoda, Kitsiri<\/strong> 1976 Buddhism in Sinhalese society, 1760-1900<\/em>, Berkeley: University of California Press.<\/p>\n

Malalgoda, Kitsiri<\/strong> 1997 \u2018Concept and confrontations: a case study of agama<\/em>\u2019, in M. Roberts (ed.) Sri Lanka. Collective identities revisited<\/em>, vol. I, Colombo: Marga, pp. 55-78.<\/p>\n

Minogue, Kenneth<\/strong> 1969 Nationalism<\/em>, London: Methuen.<\/p>\n

Peiris, Gerald H.<\/strong> 1991 \u00a0\u2018An appraisal of the concept of a traditional Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span>\u2019 Ethnic Studies Report<\/em> 9: 13-39.<\/p>\n

Peiris, Gerald H. <\/strong>1994 \u2018Irrigation, land distribution and ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka: an evaluation of criticism, with special reference to the Mahaveli programme\u2019, Ethnic Studies Report<\/em> 12: 43-88.<\/p>\n

Peiris, Gerald H.<\/strong> 2013 \u2018An appraisal of the concept of a traditional Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka<\/a>\u2019, <\/span>a reprint, 26 April 2013, <\/strong>http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/04\/26\/an-appraisal-of-the-concept-of-a-traditional-tamil-homeland-n-sri-lanka\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

R\u0101j\u0101valiya<\/strong> 1954 R\u0101j\u0101valiya or a historical narrative of Sinhalese kings<\/em>, ed. by B. Gunasekara, Colombo: Govt. Printer.<\/p>\n

Rambuewelle Siddhartha Thero<\/strong> (ed and trans.) 1937 \u2018Letters from John D\u2019Oyly\u2019, Historical Manuscripts Commission<\/em>: Bulletin No.2.<\/p>\n

Ratnawalli, Darshani<\/strong> 2013 \u2018You can\u2019t have jam yet, Professor Sitrampalam!\u2019 http:\/\/www<\/a>. colombotelegraph. om\/index.php\/no-you-cant-have-jam-yet-professor-sitrampalam\/<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong> 2005 Narrating Tamil nationalism: subjectivities and issues<\/em>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications \u2013 a reprint from South Asia 27<\/em>(1), 87-108.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1979a \u2018Meanderings in the pathways of collective identity and nationalism,\u2019 in Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka<\/em>, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp.1-96.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>1979b \u2018Stimulants and ingredients in the awakening of latter-day nationalisms,\u2019 in Roberts (ed.) Collective identities, nationalisms and protest in modern Sri Lanka<\/em>, Colombo: Marga Institute, pp. 214-42.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2011 \u2018The vocabulary of \u2018nation\u2019 in the English language in the early modern period,\u2019 10 July 2011, http:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/10\/the-vocabulary-of-nation-in-english-in-the-early-modern-period\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seneviratne, H. L.<\/strong> 1976 \u2018The alien king: Nayakkars on the throne of Kandy\u2019, Ceylon Journal of Historical & Social Studies<\/em> 6: 55-61.<\/p>\n

Seneviratne, H. L<\/strong>. 1978 Rituals of the Kandyan State<\/em>, Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

Seneviratne, H. L.<\/strong> 1978b \u2018Religion and legitimacy of power in the Kandyan Kingdom\u2019, in Bardwell L. Smith (ed.) Religion and legitimation of power in Sri Lanka<\/em>, Chambersburg, Penn.: Anima Books, pp. 177-87.<\/p>\n

Seneviratne, H. L.<\/strong> 1997 \u2018Identity and the conflation of past and present\u2019, in H. L. Seneviratne (ed.) Identity, consciousness and the past<\/em>, Delhi: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-22.<\/p>\n

Sitrampalam, S. K.<\/strong> 2003 Tamils of Sri Lanka: historical roots of Tamil identity<\/em>, August 2003, The Northeastern Herald<\/em>, http:\/\/www.tamilcanadian.com\/page.php?cat=52&id=1962<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Strathern, Alan<\/strong> 2004 \u2018Theoretical approaches to Sri Lankan history and the early Portuguese period\u2019, Modern Asian Studies<\/em> 38: 189-226.<\/p>\n

Strathern, Alan<\/strong> 2006a<\/em>, \u2018Towards the source-criticism of Sitavakan heroic literature, part one. The Alake\u015bvara Yuddhaya<\/em>: notes on a floating text\u2019 in Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities<\/em> 32: 23-39.<\/p>\n

Strathern, Alan<\/strong> 2006b<\/em> \u2018The royal \u2018We\u2019: Sinhala identity in the dynastic state\u2019, a review of \u2018Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period 1590s to 1815\u2019 <\/em>by Michael Roberts\u2019, reprinted from Modern Asian Studies<\/em> 39 (2005): 1013-1026, as a pamphlet for the Social Scientist\u2019s Association, Colombo.<\/p>\n

Strathern, Alan<\/strong> 2007 Kingship and conversion in sixteenth-century Sri Lanka<\/em>, Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

Tambiah, S. J.<\/strong> 1976 World conqueror and world renouncer<\/em>, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

Tambiah, S. J.<\/strong> 1985 Culture, thought and social action: an anthropological perspective<\/em>, Cambridge: Harvard University Press.<\/p>\n

Wheatley, Paul<\/strong> 1971 The pivot of the four quarters. A preliminary inquiry into the origins and character of the ancient Chinese city<\/em>, <\/em>Aldine Publishing Company.<\/p>\n

Wilson, A. Jeyaratnam<\/strong> 2000 Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism<\/em>, London: Hurst and Company.<\/p>\n

Young, R. F. and G. S. B. Senanayaka<\/strong> 1998 The carpenter-heretic. A collection of Buddhist stories about Christianity from Sri Lanka<\/em>, Colombo: Karunaratne & Sons.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

[1]<\/a> Ratnawalli is a writer and independent researcher.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Baldeaus was a source I did not utilize because I had enough data for my thesis and the constraints of time precluded a reading of every which source.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Panduru pakkkudam<\/em> refers to a tribute from a subordinate and\/or gifts associated with propitiations.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> The date 1789, of course, is a shorthand term that marks the outbreak of the French Revolution and all that it signifies in the evolution of popular sovereignty in its modern forms.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ravi, of course, could also be Sitrampalam in another guise.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Sinnappah Arasaratnam was one of my revered teachers at Peradeniya University and a lovely person who subsequently became a friend and colleague in the university circuit abroad.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Mistakenly renamed the Kingdom of Kandy in British times and thus into modern times.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Thus they provided as a contingent in the Perah\u00e4ra.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> This is a challenge directed at the imposition of European terminology within Sri Lankan history-writing. Traditionally the period after the collapse of the Rajarata civilisation, that is from 1232 onwards, has been referred to as the \u201cmedieval period\u201d which is framed as 1232-1796. My revision extends the endpoint to 1815\/18 when the Kingdom of S\u012bhal\u0113 <\/em>was subdued; and calls it the \u201cmiddle period.\u201d<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> From personal knowledge as well as the contents of the essay<\/a> which Ravi quoted wholesale, I conclude that Sitrampalam (2003) is an activist in the contemporary Tamil nationalist cause in ways that raise doubts about his evaluations and honesty of purpose. Please form your own opinion by reading the hyperlink reference.\u00a0Maximalist and expansionist limits of the \u201ctraditional homelands\u201d claimed by the LTTE and other Tamil nationalists in recent decades<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Amarasinghe 1974 35-41 and Roberts 1979b: 219.<\/p>\n

[12]<\/a> However the topic has been addressed in other pertinent and comprehensive ways by a scholar with a mastery of Portuguese, viz., see Alan Strathern 2007, 2006a, 2006b and 2004.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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