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Tribes in Ancient India c38: Chapter XXXIV. The Damiḷas

Tribes in Ancient India c38

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Chapter XXXIV. The Damiḷas

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The Damiḷas,¹ commonly known as the Tamils, were a powerful S. Indian tribe, frequently mentioned in Buddhist texts, particularly the Ceylon Chronicles (*Dīpavaṃsa*, *Mahāvaṃsa*, *Cūḷavaṃsa*). It is interesting to note that a Vinaya Commentary called *Vimativinodanī* was written by Kassapa Thera, an inhabitant of the kingdom of Damiḷa.² In the *Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā*, however, we are told that the Damiḷas were disrespectful to the Buddhist stūpas.³

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¹ We may note that the word ‘Dravidian’ comes from the ethnic name ‘Draviḍa’, or ‘Dramiḍa’, or ‘Damiḷa’.

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² *Sāsanavaṃsa*, 33.

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³ *Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā*, p. 447 (P.T.S. Ed.).

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From the Pāli Chronicles we find that the Damiḷas were a warlike people. From early times they made incursions into Ceylon, and we frequently find Damiḷa rulers on the throne at Anurādhapura. For instance, in 177 B.C., two Damiḷas, Sena and Gutta, are said to have conquered King Suratissa (187–177 B.C.) and ruled the island of Laṅkā (= Ceylon) for twenty-two years.⁴ In the second and first centuries B.C. the island of Laṅkā was very much troubled by the Damiḷas who became very turbulent. A Damiḷa king named Eḷāra reigned in Laṅkā from 145 B.C. till 101 B.C., and was then defeated and dethroned by the famous Duṭṭhagāmaṇi, ‘himself a great warrior, accompanied by ten great heroes’.⁵ In the *Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā* we read that Duṭṭhagāmaṇi fought with the Damiḷas, killing large numbers of them,⁷ and made a single realm of Ceylon.⁸ This story is elaborated in the *Sumaṅgalavilāsinī* (p. 640).⁹ Here we read that ‘Duṭṭhagāmaṇi Abhaya’, after defeating 32 Damiḷa kings and being crowned at Anurādhapura as undisputed ruler of Ceylon, was so highly delighted that he did not sleep for a month. The *Thūpavaṃsa* (p. 59) further says that Duṭṭhagāmaṇi defeated the Damiḷas at Mahiyaṅgana, where he built a golden cetiya and worshipped it. On another occasion, he conquered the Damiḷas ‘on the other side of the Ganges’ (Gaṅgāya paratīre).¹

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⁴ *Dīpavaṃsa*, 18, 47.

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⁵ *Mahābodhivamsa*, p. 133.

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⁶ *Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā*, p. 24.

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⁷ Ibid., p. 489—the phrase is ‘ghātetvā Damiḷe sabbe’, ‘killing all the Damiḷas’, but this is probably poetic licence.

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⁸ ‘Ekarajjam katvā’—ibid., p. 437; and see p. 100.

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⁹ Cf. *Thūpavaṃsa* (P.T.S. Ed. by B. C. Law), p. 63, and B. C. Law, *History of Pāli Literature*, Vol. II, p. 577.

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¹ Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā, p. 476. The Ganges in this case is the ‘Great River’ of Ceylon (= Mahāvālukagaṅgā).

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Many Damiḷas were also killed by Veḷusumano, a general of Duṭṭhagāmaṇī, after they had taken refuge in the city called Vijitanagara (or Vijitapura). Thereupon Duṭṭhagāmaṇī’s troops went to Giriloka, where a Damiḷa general named Giriya was slain.² King Kākavaṇṇa Tissa, Duṭṭhagāmaṇī’s father, had also fought with the Damiḷas at Mahiyaṅgana, where he built a golden stūpa.³ In order to put a check on the Damiḷas he kept guards at the fords of the Mahāgaṅgā.⁴

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² Thūpavaṃsa (P.T.S. Ed. by B. C. Law), p. 62; Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā, pp. 475, 479; and see Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, s.v. Veḷusumano, Duṭṭhagāmaṇī, and Giriya.

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³ Thūpavaṃsa, p. 58.

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⁴ Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā, p. 448.

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In 43 B.C., in the fifth month of Vaṭṭagāmaṇī’s reign, a Brahmin named Tissa rose against him, but was defeated by seven Damiḷas who landed at Mahātittha. Then these Damiḷas waged war against Vaṭṭagāmaṇī and defeated him at Kolambālaka. For fourteen years, Vaṭṭagāmaṇī and his queen Anulā were exiled, and during this period five Damiḷas ruled in succession at Anurādhapura. First came Pulahattha who ruled this city for three years, and appointed a Damiḷa named Bāhiya as his commander (senāpati).⁵ Bāhiya succeeded Pulahattha, and was followed in his turn by Panayamāra, Piḷayamāra, and Dāṭhika.⁶ Meanwhile, Vaṭṭagāmaṇī was staging a comeback, and in 29 B.C. he attacked and slew Dāṭhika, regained his throne, and reigned until 17 B.C.

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⁵ Ibid., p. 617.

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⁶ This Dāṭhika must be identical with the Sāṭhika or Dāṭhika who is mentioned in the Dīpavaṃsa (19, 16) as having been killed by ‘Abhaya, son of Saddhātissa’, i.e. by Vaṭṭagāmaṇī.

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Some years later (between 12 and 16 A.D.), the wicked queen Anulā poisoned all her husbands in succession; among them were two Damiḷas, namely Vaṭuka and Niliya.⁷ Though there must have been Damiḷa incursions during the succeeding four centuries, we have no definite dates until 433 A.D. when a Damiḷa usurper named Paṇḍuka reigned in Ceylon for five years, after killing King Mittasena.⁸ A little later, another Damiḷa usurper named Pithiya ruled at Anurādhapura for seven months, and was then killed in battle.⁹

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⁷ Mahāvaṃsa Ṭīkā, p. 626.

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⁸ Cūḷavaṃsa (P.T.S.), p. 22.

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⁹ Ibid., p. 24.

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More Damiḷas were killed by Māna,¹⁰ eldest son of Kassapa II (641–650 A.D.). We then have another gap in the chronology, until the time of Parakkama-bāhu I of Ceylon (1153-1186 A.D.). During this period, Kulasekhara, a Cholian king of S. India, besieged the Pāṇḍyan king, Parakkama of Madhurā, and the latter appealed for help to Parakkama-bāhu who sent an expeditionary force to S. India where they carried on a prolonged campaign against Kulasekhara and his allies, in the course of which the fortress of Semponmāri was conquered by the Sinhalese.¹ Meanwhile, the Pāṇḍyan king had been killed, but the Sinhalese defeated Kulasekhara and installed Parakkama’s son on the throne of Madhurā.² About a century later, a powerful Damiḷa general named Āriyakkavattī laid waste the kingdom of Ceylon, entered the town of Subhagiri, seized all its sacred treasures, including the Buddha’s tooth relic, and returned with them to the Paṇḍu kingdom, then ruled over by another Kulasekhara (1268-1308 A.D.).³

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¹⁰ Ibid., p. 71.

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¹ *Cūḷavaṃsa* (P.T.S.), p. 402.

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² See Malalasekera, *op. cit.*, s.v. *Kulasekhara*.

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³ *Cūḷavaṃsa*, p. 512.

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A study of the Buddhist texts clearly shows that the Damiḷas were a fighting people, engaged in constant strife with the Sinhalese. They are described as ‘anāriyā’ or uncultured. They were defeated and mercilessly massacred in almost all their battles with the Sinhalese; on one occasion, as we read in the *Mahāvaṃsa Commentary*,⁴ the Damiḷas were killed in such large numbers that the water of a pond became red on account of the profuse flow of Damiḷa blood. They are said to have used red-hot iron balls and molten pitch against their enemies.⁵

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⁴ p. 482.

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⁵ *Ibid.*, p. 477.

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The literary tradition of Ceylon does not clearly indicate who these Damiḷa invaders were. But, as we have seen above, the general Āriyakkavattī, for example, came from the Paṇḍu kingdom, i.e. the land of the Pāṇḍyas in the southernmost part of India; and we may perhaps conclude from this that the Damiḷas who made predatory excursions into the island of Ceylon from time to time were natives of Pāṇḍya. We cannot tell, however, whether those Damiḷas who invaded Ceylon in early times were sent on their expeditions by the king of Paṇḍu, or whether they were a race of marauders who undertook those expeditions on their own initiative. The Commentaries of Buddhaghosa distinguish the Damiḷas from the Yavanas and Kirātas on the one hand, and from the Andhras on the other.

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The relations between the Damiḷa country and Ceylon were not always inimical. For instance, the account of Vijaya in the *Mahāvaṃsa*⁶ distinctly brings out that a matrimonial alliance existed between the rulers of Laṅkā and Pāṇḍya. It is also mentioned that there was a very early settlement in Ceylon of skilled craftsmen and families of the eighteen guilds, all from Pāṇḍya. There existed a close cultural relationship and constant intercourse between S. India and Ceylon; notable centres of Buddhist learning mentioned in Pāli works being Kāverīpaṭṭaṇa, Madhurā and Kāñcipura (modern Conjeeveram).

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⁶ VII, 72.

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