The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c32: Chapter XXV. The Early History of Ceylon
The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c32
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Chapter XXV. The Early History of Ceylon
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¹ In this chapter names and titles usually appear in their Pāli form, and the following abbreviations are used: Mhv. = Mahāvaṃsa, Dīp. = Dīpavaṃsa, Msr. = Mahāsammata-rājāvaliya, R. = Rājāvaliya, Rvp. = Rājavikrama-pravṛittiya, Vr. = Vijaya-rājāvaliya, Vrv. = Vijayarāja-vaṃsaya. Dates in these works are given in years of the era of Buddha (A.B.) which probably began originally in 483 B.C. After the middle of the eleventh century A.D. the era of Buddha was reckoned from 544 B.C.
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LEGEND and ethnographic observation are the only materials for constructing the history of Ceylon in the early period previous to the death of Gautama Buddha (probably B.C. 483). Events from that date onward are recorded in the official chronicles kept by the Buddhist Church after its introduction into Ceylon by Mahinda (Mahendra) in 246 B.C.; and these chronicles were incorporated in the *aṭṭhakathās* or canonical commentaries upon the Pāli Scriptures, and thence into the Pāli histories known as Dīpavaṃsa, the ‘Chronicle of the Island,’ and Mahāvaṃsa, the ‘Great Chronicle.’ These records, while mainly interested in the relations of the kings of Ceylon to the Church, and often erring in important details, are nevertheless on the whole valuable sources of information, to which however the later histories or Rājāvaliyas, ‘Lists of Kings,’ and the inscriptions form an indispensable supplement.
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The oldest and purest race in Ceylon is that of the Väḍḍas, who inhabit the larger part of the Eastern Province, a small region in Tamankaduwa, and nearly one-fifth of Uva, but are known to have been formerly spread over the whole of Uva and a large portion of the Central, North Central, and North Western Provinces, and no doubt were at first undisputed masters of the island. Their ethnical affinities are somewhat uncertain; but there is good reason for classing them with the Kurumbas, Irulas, and some of the wilder tribes of the mainland as pre-Dravidian². A few of them still live under the most primitive conditions as homeless hunters; others are somewhat more civilised, and practise rude arts of culture similar to those of the Sinhalese peasantry.
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² Haddon, *Races of Man*, pp. 7, 13. Here and elsewhere the terms ‘Dravidian’ and ‘Āryan’ are used with all due reserve.
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The population of Ceylon however is for the most part a mixed race. Besides Väḍḍas, both Dravidians and Āryans have contributed to their blood; and in modern times Europeans—Portuguese, Dutch, and British—and the usual cosmopolitan visitors to their ports have all added something to the strain. The proportion of Väḍḍa blood in the stock is uncertain, but probably considerable. To judge from the legends recorded in Mhv. and Dīp. and from the vernacular ballads, it is not unlikely that in pre-Buddhist times some of the Väḍḍas had reached a fair degree of civilisation, mingling on terms of approximate equality with the Āryan and Dravidian invaders, and by this combination producing the main stock of the Sinhalese race. The relative proportion of Āryan and Dravidian blood is likewise uncertain. The stream of immigration from the Dravidian regions of India, especially the Tamil country, has been constant since the dawn of history, sometimes proceeding in drops, sometimes in great waves, and at the present day the northern part of the island is mainly Tamil; but the Sinhalese language, though marked by traces of Dravidian influence, is Āryan, and is descended from a Sanskritic tongue closely akin to the Vedic¹. This fact, and certain data of legend to which we shall recur in the succeeding paragraph, suggest that at some early date an invading band of Āryans, conquering part or the whole of Ceylon, imposed its language and perhaps something of its culture and institutions upon the mixed Väḍḍa-Dravidian population which it found there, and then gradually became fused in the racial congeries of the island.
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¹ Even the Väḍḍas now use a dialect of Sinhalese. Only the Tamils who have settled in Ceylon in comparatively modern times speak Tamil.
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Sinhalese tradition also relates that the Nāgas, or semi-divine snake-men of Hindu myth, once dwelt in Ceylon, and gives details of their wars, which are said to have been settled by the intervention of Gautama Buddha. These Nāgas belong to the realm of fiction; but as traditions record that they drove out the earlier inhabitants from the North and West, and it is a fact that the name *Nāgadīpa*, 'Nāgas' Island,' long clung in early times to these regions down to the neighbourhood of Madawachchiya, it is possible that in these legends there may lie some faint shadows of historical reality.
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The Mhv. (VI, VIII) and Dīp. (IX), with which a number of late histories and popular ballads agree more or less, tell a singular story. According to them, a daughter of a King of Vaṅga (Bengal) and a princess of Kaliṅga (Orissa) was carried away by a lion, who begot on her a son, Sīhabāhu ('Lion-Arm'), and a daughter, Sīhasīvalī (in Sinh. ballads Siṃhavallī). After slaying his father, Sīhabāhu reigned at Sīhapura, 'Lion's Town,' in Lāḷa (Lāṭa, i.e. Gujarāt)¹. His son Vijaya, banished for his lawlessness, departed from Sīhapura with a band of adventurers and sailed southward. After stopping at Suppāraka (Çūrpāraka, the modern Sopāra, in the Thāna District, Bombay Presidency), he continued his voyage to Ceylon, where he arrived very shortly before the death of Gautama Buddha, who in a prophetic vision learned of his coming and commended him to the care of the god Sakka (Çakra, or Indra)². He found the island in the possession of *yakkhas*, or fairies. Having overcome the wiles of the Yakkha princess Kuvaṇṇā (in Sinh. Kuveni), he took her to wife, and drove away her kinsmen. When he had established himself, he repudiated her and his children by her—who became the ancestors of the Pulinda tribes of the interior—in order to marry a daughter of the Pāṇḍyan king of Madura, and reigned for 38 years (c. 483–445 B.C.) with much righteousness in the town of Tambapaṇṇi, which he had founded. Anurādhapura, Upatissagāma, Vijitagāma, Uruvelā, and Ujjenī were founded by his followers.
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¹ The *Mhv.* vi, 4 seems to locate Lāḷa in Magadha; this may be due to a crude recollection of the extent of the early Gupta empire.
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² Buddhist legend relates that the Buddha thrice visited Ceylon, and that after his death his collar-bone was brought thither to be enshrined in the Mahiyaṅgana (Miyuguna) Thūpa; see *Mhv.* i.
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This tale seems to contain the following nucleus of fact. There were apparently two streams of immigration celebrated in the earliest legends³. The first, which probably was mainly Dravidian, came from Orissa and perhaps southern Bengal; the second, mainly Āryan, started from Sīhapura in Lāṭa (possibly the modern Sihor, in Kāthiāwār) and Sopāra⁴. The latter band belonged to the Siṃhalas (Sīhalas) or 'Lion-tribe,' and it was probably they who imposed their Āryan tongue on Ceylon (*v. sup.* p. 605). At any rate, they gave to their new home the name of *Siṃhaladvīpa* (in Pāli *Sīhaladīpa*), whence are derived its later titles, the Arabic *Sarandīb*, the Portuguese *Ceilão*, and our *Ceylon*⁵. Popular imagination combined the two movements by giving the eponymous Sīhabāhu a home on both sides of India, and so the legend shaped itself into its classical form¹. The lion, Kuvaṇṇā, and the Yakkhas are pure fiction².
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³ The same conclusion is suggested by the legends of the coming of the gods—*e.g.* of Oḍḍisa from Orissa and the Devol Deviyō from Debal in Sind.
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⁴ See the *Indian Antiquary*, vol. xvi, pp. 1 ff. and 49 ff.
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⁵ From *Siṃhala* or *Sīhala* is derived the term *Heḷu* or *Eḷu*, which is applied to designate the pure classical dialect of ancient Sinhalese literature, in opposition to *Siṃhala*, 'Sinhalese,' the Sanskritised and unclassical speech of modern times.
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¹ It is however noteworthy that there was also a Siṁhapura on the east, the capital of the ancient kings of Kaliṅga (see *Epigr. Zeylanica*, vol. i, p. 124). This fact probably contributed to the formation of the legend.
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² It is usually supposed that the Yakkhas in this legend represent the aboriginal Väḍḍas, as apparently is the case in the history of Paṇḍukābhaya (*Mhv.* x). But the legend of Kuvaṇṇā is strictly myth, being remarkably like that of Circe; and it seems likely that the Yakkhas in it arose from the same source.
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Sinhalese chronology begins with the landing of Vijaya, which, as we have seen, is made to coincide with the decease of Gautama Buddha in 483 b.c. The correctness of this synchronism may well be doubted; but probably the records on this and other points, if not absolutely reliable, are not very far from the truth. It will therefore be most suitable to base our account of subsequent events upon that of the Mhv., premising that our belief is subject to due reservations, and adding some of the more important variants and supplementary data given in other works.
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The death of Vijaya was followed by an interregnum of one year (c. 445–444 b.c.).
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The Mhv., a Rājāvaliya, and several other Sinhalese histories fill up this interregnum by stating that Tissa, a minister of Vijaya, who built Tissanuvara or Upatissagāma north of Anurādhapura, near the Kolon Oya (now Malwatta Oya), reigned for that time.
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The next king was Paṇḍu-Vāsudeva³, the youngest son of Vijaya's brother Sumitta. He married Bhaddakachchānā⁴, daughter of the Çākya Paṇḍu, who bore to him ten sons and a daughter, Chittā. After reigning 30 years (c. 444–414 b.c.) he died, and was succeeded by his son Abhaya, who after ruling for 20 years (c. 414–394 b.c.) in Upatissagāma was deposed.
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³ In Sinh. Paṇḍuvas.
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⁴ The *Mhv.* (ix) relates that her brothers Rāma, Uruvela, Anurādha, Vijita, Dīghāyu, and Rohana founded Rāmagōṇa and other towns bearing their names. As regards the second, third, and fourth of these heroes the story is obviously a duplicate of the legend mentioned in *Mhv.* vii (above, p. 605).
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The Msr. states that Paṇḍu-Vāsudeva died a.b. 74, and assigns 16 years to the reign of Abhaya.
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An interregnum of 17 years (c. 394–377 b.c.) then followed, after which Paṇḍukābhaya, an illegitimate son of Chittā by her cousin Dīgha-Gāmaṇī, established himself after a long struggle as king in Anurādhapura, and reigned 70 years (c. 377–307 b.c.) (*Mhv.* viii–x). He was succeeded by his son Muṭasiva⁵, who had a reign of 60 years (c. 307–247 B.C.). The latter was followed by his second son Devānampiya Tissa¹ (*Mhv.* XI).
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⁵ Moṭasiva or Moṭa Tissa, in some Sinhalese histories.
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¹ In Sinh. Devenipä Tisa.
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The Msr. states that Paṇḍukābhaya, whom it calls the son of Abhaya, built Anurādhapura and reigned 37 years, and that his son Muṭasiva constructed the Mahāmegha-vana (see below) and died A.B. 187. The Rvp. allots a reign of 40 years to Gaṇapa Tissa, a son of Paṇḍukābhaya, whom it places after Muṭasiva. A R. agrees in making Tissa the son of Paṇḍukābhaya and giving him a reign of 40 years; but the Vr. places him between Abhaya and Paṇḍukābhaya.
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In the month Jeṭṭha of the year of Devānampiya's coronation (c. 246 B.C.) the Buddhist apostle Mahinda², son of the Maurya King Açoka (Dhammāsoka), miraculously travelled to Ceylon in company with the four friars Iṭṭhiya, Uttiya, Sambala, and Bhaddasāla and the novice Sumana, son of his sister Saṅghamittā. He alighted at Mahindatala³, where he met Devānampiya and converted him and his people (*Mhv.* XIII, XIV). The Mahāmegha-vana, a park south of Anurādhapura, was assigned to the service of the new Church, and the buildings erected in it were known afterwards as the Mahāvihāra (*Mhv.* XV). On the spot where Mahinda had alighted was built the Chetiyapabbata-vihāra (*Mhv.* XVI). A *thūpa* (Skt. *stūpa*) and a monastery in connection with it, the Thūpārāma, were constructed at the south of Anurādhapura to receive the collar-bone of the Buddha (*Mhv.* XVII), and the southern branch of the famous Bodhi-tree of Gayā was brought and planted at Anurādhapura in the eighteenth year of Asoka's reign (*Mhv.* XVIII–XX).
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² In Sanskrit Mahendra, Sinh. Mihiňdu.
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³ Mihintale, about eight miles east of Anurādhapura.
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After a pious reign of 40 years (c. 247–207 B.C.) Devānampiya died, and was succeeded by his brother Uttiya, who ruled for 10 years (c. 207–197 B.C.) (*Mhv.* XX).
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According to the Msr. Uttiya died in A.B. 237.
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Next reigned Uttiya's younger brother Mahāsiva for 10 years (c. 197–187 B.C.), and another brother, Sūra Tissa, previously known as Suvaṇṇapiṇḍa Tissa, likewise for 10 years (c. 187–177 B.C.). The latter was conquered by two Tamils named Sena and Guttaka, sons of a horse-dealer (*assa-nāvika*), who reigned justly for 22 years (c. 177–155 B.C.), and were then overcome by Asela, the youngest of Muṭasiva's nine sons. Asela then reigned in Anurādhapura for 10 years (c. 155–145 B.C.), and was then ousted by Eḷāra, a Tamil from the Chōḷa country, who ruled for 44 years (c. 145–101 B.C.), and was famous for his justice (*Mhv.* XXI).
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A Rājāvaliya inserts after Sūra Tissa an Upatissa with a reign of 10 years, and makes the two brothers Sena and Guttaka into one person, whom it describes as *aviçchāri* (perhaps for *açvāchāri*) *devi kenek*; the printed R. describes them as 'two brothers who were horsemen.' The Dīp. (XVIII, 47) assigns to them only 12 years. Asela is not said by the Vr. to be a son of Muṭasiva. His successor's name is usually given in Sinhalese as *Elāla*; the same R. calls him a Malala (Malabari) from Soli (Chōḷa-deça), and says that he brought over 1,080,000 Tamil soldiers and behaved with great impiety, desecrating the monasteries of Devenipä Tisa.
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Devānaṃpiya Tissa had a brother, Mahānāga, who resided in Mahāgāma¹ and governed the province of Rohaṇa². He was succeeded in this office by his son Yaṭṭhālaya Tissa, the latter's son Abhaya or Goṭhābhaya³, and the latter's son Kākavaṇṇa Tissa⁴. The last had two sons, Gāmaṇī-Abhaya, better known as Duṭṭha-Gāmaṇī⁵, and Saddhā-Tissa⁶.
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¹ Magama, north-east of Hambantota.
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² Sinh. *Ruhuna.*
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³ Sinh. *Golu Abhā.*
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⁴ Sinh. *Kāvan Tisa.*
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⁵ Sinh. *Duṭugämunu.*
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⁶ His original name was Tissa Abhaya (see below); inscriptions style him *Devanapiya Maharaja Gamini Tisa.*
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The Vrv. states that Yaṭṭhālaya Tissa reigned in Kälaniya and built there a sanctuary; his son Golu Abhā ruled in Ruhuna, and was followed by his son Kāvan Tisa. The Vr. gives the succession as Mahānāma, Kälani Tissa (apparently meant for Yaṭṭhālaya Tissa), Goṭhābhaya, and Kāvan.
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When Kākavaṇṇa Tissa died at the age of 64 years, Duṭṭha-Gāmaṇī, who had previously quarrelled with him (whence his name, meaning 'Wicked Gāmaṇī') and taken refuge in the interior, set himself up as king in Mahāgāma and waged a successful war against Saddhā-Tissa (*Mhv.* XXII–XXIV). He then embarked upon a series of campaigns against the Tamils, which ended in the conquest of Eḷāra in Anurādhapura (*Mhv.* XXV). Duṭṭha-Gāmaṇī was now master of the island. To make amends for a somewhat questionable past, he proceeded to patronise the Church royally. He founded the Marichavaṭṭi Vihāra⁷, the Lohapāsāda⁸, and the Great Thūpa, in which he enshrined a casket full of relics said to have been brought from the land of the Nāgas by the Thera Soṇuttara, and performed many other pious works. His reign lasted for 24 years (c. 101–77 B.C.) (*Mhv.* XXVI–XXXII).
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⁷ Mirisväṭi Vehera, south-west of Anurādhapura.
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⁸ In the Mahāmegha-vana, north of the Mahāvihāra.
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His brother Saddhā-Tissa ('Tissa of the Faith,' so styled from his pious works, one of which was the rebuilding of the Lohapāsāda after it had been burnt), then ruled for 18 years (c. 77–59 B.C.).
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He is said by the Msr. to have died in A.B. 492.
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Saddhā-Tissa was followed by his younger son Thūlathana¹, who after a reign of 1 month and 10 days (c. 59 B.C.) was ousted by his elder brother Lañja Tissa², who ruled for 9 years and 15 days (c. 59–50 B.C.). His younger brother Khallāṭanāga³ then reigned for 6 years (c. 50–44 B.C.).
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¹ Sinh. *Tulnā* (for Pāli Thūlanāga ?).
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² Also called Lajji Tissa, and in Sinh. Lämäṇi Tissa from his family, the Lämäṇi (Pāli Lambakaṇṇi). Inscriptions style him *Devanapiya Tisa Abaya*.
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³ Sinh. *Kalunnā*.
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The Vrv. gives the succession : Sädähä-Tissa (i.e. Saddhā-Tissa), Tulla, Rälāmin Tissa (*sic*), Khallātha Tissa. Lañja according to the Dīp. (xx, 9) reigned 9 years and 6 months. The Msr. states that Khallāṭanāga died in A.B. 444.
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Khallāṭanāga was ousted by a general named Kammahārattaka, who in his turn was slain by Khallāṭanāga’s younger brother Vaṭṭa-Gāmaṇī Abhaya⁴, who now became king.
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⁴ In Sinh. he is styled *Valagambāhu* (or *ºbā*) *Abhā*; in inscriptions his title is *Devanapiya Maharaja Gamiṇi Abaya*.
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The date of Vaṭṭa-Gāmaṇī’s accession is given by the Vr. as A.B. 439, and by the Vrv. as 441. Kammahārattaka is called Mahārattaka in the Dīp. (xx, 13), where he is said to have reigned one day.
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After Vaṭṭa-Gāmaṇī had reigned 5 months (c. 44 B.C.) he was defeated by seven Tamil adventurers and fled, remaining in hiding in the interior of the island for 14 years and 7 months (c. 44–29 B.C.), while the throne was occupied successively by five Tamil usurpers, named Puḷahattha (3 years), Bāhiya (2 years), Panayamāra (7 years), Pilayamāra (7 months), and Dāṭhika (2 years). Vaṭṭa-Gāmaṇī then conquered and slew Dāṭhika, and reigned in Anurādhapura for 12 years (c. 29–17 B.C.). One of his pious foundations was the Abhaya-giri monastery (*Mhv.* xxxiii).
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Khallāṭanāga’s son Mahāchūli Mahātissa⁵ then reigned righteously for 14 years. He was followed by Vaṭṭa-Gāmaṇī’s son Choranāga, who had previously been an outlaw, and now ruled impiously for 12 years (c. 3 B.C.–9 A.D.). He was then poisoned by his queen Anulā. The next king was Mahāchūli’s son Tissa⁶, who after a reign of 3 years (c. 9–12 A.D.) was poisoned by Anulā, who raised to the throne Siva, one of the guards of the palace. Siva reigned for 14 months with Anulā as his queen, after which she transferred her affections to a Tamil named Vaṭuka, and poisoned Siva. When she had reigned with Vaṭuka for 14 months, she wearied of him and poisoned him, choosing for her new consort a wood-carrier (*dāru-bhatika*) named Tissa. After 13 months she poisoned him also, and elevated a Tamil chaplain named Niliya, but 6 months later removed him in the same manner, and reigned alone for 4 months. Mahāchūli's second son, Kuṭakaṇṇa Tissa¹, who had fled from the court and taken orders in the Church, now raised an army, overthrew and killed Anulā, and reigned with justice and piety for 22 years (c. 16–38 A.D.).
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⁵ This name appears in Pāli as Mahā*chūli*, º*chūlika*, and º*chūla*; in Sinh. as *Mahasīlu* and *Mahadäliya* (the former implying a Pāli º*chūli*, the latter a Pāli º*jāliya*).
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⁶ Known as *Kuḍā Tissa*.
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¹ Also called *Kālakaṇṇi Tissa*, in Sinh. *Kalan* or *Makalan Tissa*.
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There is much discrepancy in the accounts of this period. The Msr. gives the names and dates thus: Balat Sivuvā, 14 months; Vaṭuka, 14 months; the chaplain, 6 months; Vāsuki, an astrologer, 13 months; Bälä Tisu, 13 months; Anulā alone, 4 months; Kalan Tisa, 20 years. The Vr. has the variant names Balavat Siṭuvāya and Bälani Tissa, and calls Kuṭakaṇṇa Kalantika Tissa. One R. gives Sūra for Siva, with 14 months (but 1 year in the Rvp.), and places after him a Tamil named Mukalan with a reign of 14 months (in the Rvp. called Mukhanandi, with a reign of 1 year), the chaplain with 6 months (1 year in the Rvp.), Anulā with 4 months, Mukalan Tissa with 1 year, etc. The Dip. assigns 3 months to Niliya (xx, 29).