Tribes in Ancient India c38.6

c38.6

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