Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c6.42

c6.42

Tamil in- After his death there was much unpeace in the land. During the apparently beneficent vasions reign of a Tamil (Pāṇḍiyan) usurper named Parākrama, Ceylon was invaded by Tamils from Kaliṅga, led by Māgha. If the Pāṇḍiyan and Coḷian Tamils chastised the Sinhalese with whips, the men of Kaliṅga did so with scorpions. “They robbed the inhabitants of their garments and their jewels and everything that they had. . . . The rich men they tied up with cloths and tortured and took possession of all their wealth. . . They broke down the image houses and destroyed many cētiyas. They took up their dwelling in the vihāras. . . . Many books also of great excellence they loosed from the cords that bound them, and cast them away in divers places. . . . Alas, alas! even so did those Tamil giants, like the giants of Māra, destroy the kingdom and the religion of the land” (Mahāvaṃsa, Chap. LXXX). Troubled times continued, the capital being shifted from place to place, to Dambadeniya, Yapahuva (whence was brought the beautiful pierced stone window now in the Colombo Museum) Kurunēgala, Gampola, Koṭṭe, Sītāvaka and Kandy. Yet many brave and patriotic kings made strenuous efforts for their people's good. Of Vijaya Bāhu III. (A.D. 1236) it is said in the Rāja-ratnākara that he “established a school in every village and charged the priests who superintended the same to take nothing from the learners, promising that they should be rewarded for their trouble by himself. His son Parākrama Bāhu II. (A.D. 1240-1275) temporarily drove out the Tamils and brought the whole country under his rule. At this time it is said that there were nearly one and a half million villages in the three districts of Ceylon (Pihiṭi Raṭa, Ruhuṇu Raṭa, and Māyā Raṭa) corresponding at a very moderate estimate to a population of ten millions, about three times as great as the present. The distribution of the population, too, is now very different from what it was in the thirteenth century. At that time the population was densest in the eastern and north central districts, dense also in the north, but scanty on the western coast. In the eighteenth century the north central districts, including the ancient capitals of Anurādhapura and Polonnaruva had long been deserted, chiefly in consequence of the Tamil wars and the disorganisation of the great irrigation systems which alone enabled those dry regions to support a large population. Now, as Mr. Ārunāchalam points out* “The most striking change is the advance, by over 100 per cent. of the population of the western sea coast and its vicinity, and the decline by almost as much of the populations of the ancient kingdoms. . . . The change indicates clearly the difference caused in the condition of the island by the disorganisation of its great irrigation system, and the consequent decay of the great national industry, rice cultivation, and by the advent of Europeans. Population and wealth have faded away from their ancient seats and gathered towards the coast. The Island, no longer self-sufficient or self-centred, is dependent for its prosperity mainly on foreign enterprise, on the European capitalist and planter, and the South Indian labourer and tradesman.”