Monday, June 8, 2009

Jaffna was occupied by the Sinhalese earlier than by the Tamils- Mudaliyar C. Rasnayagam

With the total decimation of the LTTE the most abused phrases of Sri Lanka's history: "Tamil homeland and the grievances against Tamils" are being shouted from roof tops with a renewed vigor. These total illusions, products of Elite Tamil politicians from Jaffna (most of them are Singaporeans and Malaysians by birth) have been a Trojan horse to make an attempt to carve out a mono-ethnic entity in a large part of Sri Lanka
This article that appears in today's island (08.06.09') sheds more lights to this monumental myth "the Tamil Homeland". It quotes some works by the Tamil and non-Tamil historians. It basically proves that the Tamils in the North and East were the most recent immigrants from India and the areas were primarily inhabited by Sinhalese.
Some of the extracts from the article are quoted below for your easy reference:
"Even Tamil writers have contributed to the view that the Jaffna Peninsula was originally inhabited by the Sinhalese people from the 6th Century BC up to the Portuguese Period. Rev. S. Gnana Praksar, O.M.I., has said: "Mr. Horsburgh's article on Sinhalese Place Names in the Jaffna Peninsula [C.A. Vol. 11 Part 1, pp54-58] places beyond doubt the fact of "a Sinhalese occupation of the Jaffna Peninsula antecedent to the Tamil period". Mudaliyar C. Rasnayagam says "That Jaffna was occupied by the Sinhalese earlier than by the Tamils is seen not only in the place names of Jaffna but also in the habits and customs of the people. The system of branding cattle with the communal brand by which not only the caste but also the position and family of the owner could be traced, was peculiarly Sinhalese. The very ancient way of wearing the hair in the form of a konde behind the head, was very common among the people of Jaffna till very recent times" (Ancient Jaffna, p. 384).
Even the Wanni District did not seem to have a sizable Tamil population at that time: "If the deserted fields and solitudes of the Wanni are ever again to be re-peopled and re-tilled, I am inclined to believe that the movement for that purpose will come from the Tamils of Jaffna" (p.98.8). The population of North Central and Eastern Provinces was so depleted that there had been also a proposal to effect "colonisation from the coast of India... but the suggestion is uncongenial of attempting the revival of agriculture through the instrumentality of Tamils, the very race to whose malignant influence it owes its decay; and any project, to be satisfactory as well as successful, should contemplate the benefit of the natives, and not strangers in Ceylon" (p.903). Therefore even as late as 1859, this British scholar considered Tamils from India as strangers to Sri Lanka.
The inhabitants consisted of two distinct races of people. The savage Bedas [Beddhas, the Jungle Folk or Veddahs] then, as now, occupied the large forests, particularly in the northern parts; the rest of the island was in possession of the Cingalese" (p. 05). He repeats this remarkable statement again in chapter VIII of his book. "When the Portuguese first arrived on the island, the whole of it, with the exception of the woods inhabited by the wild Bedas, was possessed by one race" (p. 122).
Although Sankili was a Tamil on his mother's side, he did not make Tamil the official language of Jaffna. For all purposes, Sinhala was considered to be the official language throughout the island, including the Jaffna Peninsula. When Sankili's conduct became intolerable, the people of Jaffna (mostly Sinhalese) petitioned the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa, asking him to replace Sankili with a Sinhalese Prince 'because Jaffna belonged to the Kingdom of Kotte'. This led to the genocide of the Sinhalese inhabitants of Jaffna by Sankili. "After the massacre of the Christians, Sankili's, insane fury longed for more victims and he fell upon the Buddhists of Jaffna who were all Sinhalese. He expelled them beyond the limits of the country and destroyed their numerous places of worship," says Rasanayagam, quoting Yalpana Vaipava Malai."
Rebel of kandy will deal with the other monumental myth: "the grievances of Tamil" in a future post.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good series of articles rebel. It is time we make some bold decisions against this Tamil racist problem. I am astonished why you haven't been branded a extremist by the elitist kuruduwaththa crowd.

Anonymous said...

wonder what Tamilnet and Groundviews has to say about this?
you need to explore more on this and write in main stream media too..

ShanakaJM said...

Government decided to use 1983 elections list as the basis for future resettlement ,citing statistics and demographics during LTTE times were too unreliable for use.
a very wise and bold decision but will attract instant critique from 'human rights' activists and the 'international community'..
but i have all the confidence in the Governments intentions and political hindsight over resettlement.
Rebel has picked a very good time to come up with these valuable facts and back ground history..
a good job mate.

tinker777 said...

interesting read.. thanks Rebel for discussing these historical facts and making us aware of such..
awaiting your next posts too..

SAH said...

hi,
i find your article very interesting..can you pls post sources/references for all these historical claims..this will be good for research purposes..
thank you.
SAH

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I have read your blogposts, and I agree with much of what you say. Tamil extremists have now infested Wikipedia, and are writing their version of Sri Lankan history. All Sri Lankan history is distorted and their trying to make Sri Lankan history Tamil and also trying to give a Tamil identity to the Sinhalese. When you read some of what they are writing there, you get the impression that Sri Lanka is actually Tamil. They are even using the Tamil alphabet to write Sinhala words, just to confuse the people. I am a Tamil myself, but I disagree with their version of the history of our country and I don't like what their trying to do.

I have been editing some articles, but they are many, and I think they are very organised and are probably sponsored by a Tamil organisation.

There are almost no Sinhalese editing and contributing to Wikipedia articles. Wikipedia articles are very important today, since a lot of people use it, and that's the first result which comes up in all searches, whatever the search word is. Also reference.com and many other sites, publish these articles. So it is very, very, very important, that the real and documented history of our country is written there.

The few pro-srilanka editors who are there can't keep up with the Tamil extremists. Could you and others who read this, start contributing a little? If nobody does anything their version of the history is the one people will know in time to come.

Take a look at the articles on Sri Lanka, Jaffna Kingdom, Sri Lankan caste system, Karava, Durava, Salagama, Tamil loanwords in Sinhala etc. They are distorting the whole history and lieing like nothing. As said it is very important what is written in Wikipedia, and they know it, and are using it to the maximum.

Regards.

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Great article!!

Its quite fun how tamil extremists, never seem know how to talk properly. Always angry and swearing lol. They always seem to get upset when people are actually qouting from history from archeology or historical literature. I guess its because, they only quote what some writer had written a couple of decades ago lol.

The majority of the tamil populace in Lanka are arrivals due to the British. Their are many records to this effect and can be proved. If ever the SL gov or even civil groups decides too.

Anyways...Keep up the good work!!