Sri Lankan Cultures, Customs and traditions
Cultural Life
The land of Sri Lanka is a land of great cultural diversity. Religion
constitutes a basic element of this diversity and pervades many aspects of
life. Hindu and Buddhist temples, as well as churches and mosques, with their
own colorful rituals, are the most readily visible features of the cultural
landscape. Varying degrees of modernizing influences, colonial impact, and
wealth and income add other shades to the cultural mosaic.
The arts
In sculpture, architecture, and painting, Sri Lanka’s traditions
extend far back into antiquity. The remnants of ancient works restored and
preserved at archaeological sites, while reflecting Indian influences, also
bear testimony to the inspiration derived from Buddhism. Classical literature,
too, presents a blend of stylistic influences from Indian country with Buddhist
themes. Since the beginning of the 20th century, with the literati being
exposed to European literature, local creative writing has acquired greater diversity
in style and has become more secular in content.
There are several Tamil and sinhalese folk traditions in the
performing arts and a host of recent imitations and imports. Among the folk
dance forms, for example, one finds the highly refined Kandyan dancing,
which has been associated over several centuries with religious ritual and
state ceremony in and around the historic hill capital of Kandy. The more
improvised devil dancing is performed at healing rites and exorcisms. In drama,
modernized versions of folk theatre share the limelight with modern original
works and adaptations from Western dramatists. Both Indian and Western
influences are strongly apparent in the popular forms of music.
Cultural institutions:
Government assistance to
the arts is channeled through several institutions under the Ministry of
Cultural Affairs. Art, music, and dancing are included in the school
curriculum. Advanced training in these and several other fields of fine arts is
provided at the Government College of Fine Arts, the Institute of Aesthetic Studies, and several private institutions.
The Department of National Archives and the National Museum, both in Colombo,
are the main repositories of historical documents and archaeological treasures
of the country.
Press / print and
broadcasting
Way of Advertisement
Print and broadcast
media reach all parts of the country in Tamil, Sinhala and English. The radio
and television broadcasting are controlled by the government and several widely
circulated daily newspapers and magazine’s. Several private institute daily and
weekly newspapers operate independently of the government and exercise
considerable freedom of expression. However, the government is empowered to
impose censorship under the Public Security Act.
For more than two millennia Sri Lanka has had a continuous record
of human settlement, and its civilization has been shaped largely by that of
the Indian subcontinent. The island’s two major ethnic groups, the Tamils and
Sinhalese, and its two dominant religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, made their
way to the island from India, and Indian influence pervaded such diverse fields as art, architecture, literature, medicine
,music and astronomy.
Despite its obvious affinities with
India, Sri Lanka nevertheless developed a unique identity over the ages that
ultimately set it apart and different from its neighbor countries. Cultural
traits brought from India necessarily underwent independent growth and change
in Sri Lanka, owing in part to the island’s physical separation from the
subcontinent. Buddhism, for instance, virtually disappeared from India, but it
is still continued to flourish in the country of Sri Lanka, particularly among
the region of Sinhalese. Moreover, the language of Sinhalese, which grew out
and developed of Indo-Aryan dialects from the mainland, eventually
became indigenous solely
to Sri Lanka and developed its own literary traditions and cultures.
Also important to Sri Lanka’s cultural development has been its
position as the nexus of important maritime trade routes
between Asia, the middle-east and Europe. Long before the European discovery of
an oceanic route to India in the 15th century, Sri Lanka was known to Greek,
Roman, Armenian, Persian, Arab, Malay, and Chinese sailors. However, the With
the coming of the Europeans, however, the strategic importance of Sri Lanka
increased, and Western maritime powers fought to control its shores. Both Sri
Lanka and India came under European influence and colonial rule. This common
experience worked to tighten the long-standing links between the two countries,
and, with the attainment of independence in the mid-20th century, Sri Lankan
and Indian social institutions and ideologies began to resonate more
closely with each other.
Prehistoric record
Geologically, Sri Lanka is an extension of peninsular India that
separated from the mainland perhaps as recently as the Miocene Epoch (roughly 25 to 5 million years ago).
Archaeological excavations undertaken since the late 20th century have
indicated that the island already supported human inhabitants some 75,000 to 125,000
years ago. The earliest occupants of the region were, like other Paleolithic peoples, hunters and gatherers who made and used fairly
rough stone tools. Finer tools made of quartz and occasionally of chert become
visible in the archaeological record about 28,000 years ago. The artifacts from
this era, which include many microliths (very small, sharp flakes of stone that
can be used individually or hafted together to make a serrated edge), have been
found throughout the country, especially among the grasslands of the hills and
the sandy tracts of the coast. By about the 9th century BCE, people had begun to experiment with food production and
irrigation and had gained access to some of the iron tools produced on the
continent.
Early settlement and the spread of Buddhism
The earliest human settlers in Sri Lanka were likely peoples of
the proto-Australoid group, perhaps akin to the indigenous hill peoples of
southern India. Links with peoples from the Southeast Asian archipelago also
are possible, however. Remnants of these early inhabitants were absorbed by the
Indo-Aryans—or, more precisely, speakers of Indo-Aryan languages—who immigrated from northern India about the
5th century BCE and developed into the Sinhalese. The Tamils were probably later immigrants from areas
of central, eastern, and southern India where Dravidian languages were spoken; their early migrations spanned a
period from about the 3rd century BCE to about 1200 CE.
Sri Lanka
possesses a historical tradition preserved in written form by Buddhist
chroniclers. The earliest of the extant chronicles is
the Dipavamsa (“Island’s
Chronicle”), compiled probably by Buddhist nuns in the 4th century CE. The Dipavamsa was
followed by the Mahavamsa (“Great Chronicle”) and its continuation, called
the Culavamsa (“Little Chronicle”).
Together, these chronicles constitute a literary
record of the establishment and growth of Sinhalese political power and of Sri
Lankan Buddhism; however, the documents must be used with caution and always in
conjunction with archaeological—especially epigraphic—material.
Legendary origins
According
to the Sinhalese tradition, as recorded in the Mahavamsa, the first Indian settlers on Sri Lanka were
Prince Vijaya and his 700 followers, who landed on the west coast near
Puttalam (5th century BCE). They had been banished for misconduct from the kingdom of
Sinhapura in northern India by Vijaya’s father, King Sinhabahu, who put them
all in a ship and drove them away. When Vijaya’s band landed on the island, it
was inhabited by yakshas (a type of spirit;
perhaps referring here to human members of a cult of yaksha devotees),
whom they defeated and chased into the interior. Vijaya married a yaksha princess
and had two children by her. Later he drove her and the children away and sent
to the Madurai court in India for a Pandu (probably referring to
the Pandya dynasty) princess and for
wives for his 700 followers. Vijaya settled down to reign as king after a
ceremonial enthronement and marriage and founded a dynasty. He had no heir to the throne, and toward the end of his
reign he sent for his younger brother at Sinhapura. The brother, unwilling to
leave his native land, sent his youngest son, Panduvasudeva, to Sri Lanka.
Panduvasudeva landed with 32 followers at Gokanna (now Trincomalee) on the east coast. He was enthroned at Upatissagama and
continued the Vijaya dynasty.
Indo-Aryan settlement
The
account of Sri Lanka’s settlement as presented in the Mahavamsa contains
an element of historical fact—the settlers were Indo-Aryan peoples from
northern India. However, controversy exists as to the exact provenance of the early settlers; the legends contain evidence pointing to both the northeastern
and the northwestern parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Vijaya’s ancestors hailed from Bengal, in the northeast, but his father established himself
subsequently in Gujarat, the area in
northwest India from which the adventurers were put out to sea. Before arriving
in Sri Lanka, their ship called at Supara, on the west coast of India. Their
landing in Sri Lanka, at Tambapanni, near Puttalam, would indicate their
arrival from western India. Some early tribal names occurring in Sri Lanka also
suggest connections with northwestern India and the Indus River region.
While
considerable evidence points to western India as the home of the first
immigrants, it seems probable that a subsequent wave arrived from the vicinity
of Bengal and Orissa in the northeast. One band of settlers landed in Sri
Lanka at the east-coast port of Gokanna, a natural port of disembarkation for
vessels arriving from the Bay of Bengal.
The traditional accounts of the arrival of Panduvasudeva may portray a second
wave of migration following the first mentioned in the Vijaya legend. Linguistic affinities between the early Sinhalese-
and Prakrit-speaking peoples of eastern
India strengthen the hypothesis of a
migration from this area.
The tradition speaks primarily of settlement by conquest, and
tribes of conquerors led by a warrior nobility would certainly have propelled
the Indo-Aryan migration southward. Also important, however, was the pursuit of
trade (as opposed to military conquest). Indo-Aryan merchants probably reached
Sri Lanka while sailing down the Indian coast, and some of these merchants,
motivated by a lucrative trade in Sri Lanka’s natural products, may have
founded settlements.
The view
that Indo-Aryan migrants laid the foundations of Sinhalese civilization
increasingly has come into question since the late 20th century. Archaeological
evidence has indicated that settled agriculture, tank irrigation, use of iron,
and pottery were features present before the Indo-Aryan migrations. During the
early phases of these migrations, a synthesis seems to have taken place between
Indo-Aryan, pre-Indo-Aryan, and possibly Dravidian elements to create the early
Sinhalese culture of the Anuradhapura period, which spanned the 3rd century BCE to the 10th century CE. The chronicled account of
Vijaya’s confrontation with the yakshas
and the search for consorts in the Pandu kingdom of Madurai (if this may be
presumed to be the Pandya Tamil kingdom
of southern India) point to such integration.
In any
case, Indo-Aryan settlements grew in different parts of the island from about
the 5th century BCE. The
settlers came in numerous clans or tribes; the most powerful were the
Sinhalese, who eventually gave their name to the descendants of the various
groups. The earliest settlers were those on the west-central coast, who pushed
inland along the Malwatu River and founded a number of riverbank villages.
Their seat of government was Upatissagama.
Tradition
attributes the founding of the kingdom of Anuradhapura to Pandukkabhaya,
the third king of the Vijaya dynasty. With its growth as the strongest
Sinhalese kingdom, the city of Anuradhapura and
the nearby settlements flourished. Kings built up the city and developed it for
urban life as they extended royal control over villages and outlying
settlements. With the establishment of strong government, the population grew and the kingdom expanded into the north-central
region.
Conversion
to Buddhism
According
to Sinhalese tradition, Buddhism was first brought to Sri Lanka by
a mission sent out from eastern India during
the reign of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka (c. 273–232 BCE). The leader of the mission to
Sri Lanka, Mahendra (Mahinda), is described as Ashoka’s son. Mahendra and
his colleagues traveled to the Mihintale hill
(the site of some of the earliest inscriptions), 8 miles (13 km) from
Anuradhapura. There they chanced to meet the Sinhalese king Tissa, to whom they delivered a sermon on Buddhism. The king was
brought into the Buddhist fold, and he invited Mahendra and his followers to
the city. The missionaries were settled in a royal pavilion in the city park of
Mahamegha, where they preached first to members of the royal family and then to
the common people. Many embraced the new religion, some taking holy
orders and joining the Buddhist sangha (community of monks). The king donated the Mahamegha
park to the sangha. Meanwhile, the monastery of Mahavihara was established, and it became the prime centre of
Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Mahendra sent for his sister Sanghamitta, who
arrived with a branch of the Bo tree (at Bodh
Gaya), under which the Buddha had attained enlightenment. The sapling was
ceremonially planted in the city. Sanghamitta founded an order of nuns, and
a stupa (shrine), the
Thuparamacetiya, was built by the king for popular worship. Thus, with the
founding of these and other institutions, Buddhism became an established
religion in Sri Lanka.
Through
the conversion of King Tissa and the missionary activity of monks in the
villages, by the 2nd century BCE the Sinhalese had accepted Buddhism, and this faith helped
produce a unity and consciousness on which subsequent political and economic strength
was founded. However, it should be recognized that while the monastic
chronicles accord the pride of place to Buddhism, other religions also were
practiced on the island. Jainism, for
instance, probably represented another major religious tradition, and a Jain
monastery is mentioned in the Mahavamsa.
The chronicle also indicates the presence of Brahmans—Hindus of the highest social rank—in Sri Lanka.
Early growth and
political centralization, c. 200 BCE–1255 CE
Expansion
of Buddhism preceded political unification; many of the areas embraced by the
new religion were still ruled by a multitude of chiefs. The ruler of Anuradhapura, Duttagamani Abhaya (reigned 161–137 BCE), was preeminent among these
chiefs, and, as Buddhism spread, the Anuradhapura kingdom extended its
political control over the rest of Sri Lanka.
The Anuradhapura period
The Vijaya dynasty of kings continued, with brief
interruptions, until 65 CE, when Vasabha, a member of the Lambakanna royal
family, founded the Lambakanna dynasty. The Lambakannas ruled for about
four centuries. Their most noteworthy king was Mahasena (reigned 276–303), who constructed many major irrigation
systems and championed heterodox Buddhist sects.
A Pandyan invasion from southern India put an end to this
dynasty and, briefly, to Sinhalese rule
in 432. Dhatusena (reigned 459–477) defeated the Pandyas and reestablished
Sinhalese rule with the line of Moriya kings. His son Kashyapa I (reigned 477–495) moved the capital from Anuradhapura
to the rock fortress of Sigiriya. After
Kashyapa’s dethronement the capital was returned to Anuradhapura
From the 7th century there was an increase in the involvement of
south Indian powers in the island’s politics and in the presence of Tamil mercenaries in and around the
capital. Manavamma, a Sinhalese royal fugitive, was placed on the throne
in 684 with the support of the Pallava rulers
of south India.
Manavamma founded the second Lambakanna dynasty, which reigned in
Anuradhapura for about 400 years. The dynasty produced a number of
distinguished kings, who consolidated and extended Sinhalese political power.
During this period, Sinhalese involvement with southern India was even closer.
Sinhalese kings were drawn into the dynastic battles between the Pandyas,
Pallavas, and Colas. Invasions from south India to Sri Lanka and retaliatory
raids were a recurrent phenomenon. In the 10th century the island’s political
and military power weakened because of regional particularism and internecine
warfare; the Colas—hostile because of the Sinhalese alliance with
Pandya—attacked and occupied the Sinhalese kingdom in 993 and annexed Rajarata
(in the north-central region of Sri Lanka) as a province of the Cola empire.
The conquest was completed in 1017, when the Colas seized the southern province
of Ruhuna.
The Polonnaruwa
period
The Colas occupied Sri Lanka until 1070, when Vijayabahu liberated the island and reestablished Sinhalese
power. He shifted the capital eastward to Polonnaruwa, a city that was easier to defend against south Indian
attacks and that controlled the route to Ruhuna. The capital remained there for
some 150 years. The most colourful king of the Polonnaruwa period was Parakramabahu
I (reigned 1153–86), under whom the kingdom
enjoyed its greatest prosperity. He followed a strong foreign
policy, dispatching a punitive naval expedition
to Myanmar (Burma) and sending the
army to invade the Pandyan kingdom; however, these initiatives achieved no permanent success. After Parakramabahu I
the throne passed to the Kalinga dynasty,
and the influence of south India increased. Nissankamalla (reigned c. 1186–96)
was the last effective ruler of this period. The last Polonnaruwa king was
Magha (reigned 1215–36), an adventurer from south India who seized power and
ruled with severity.
Government and
society
Kingship was the unifying political institution in the
Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods, a symbol of the aims and achievements of
the Sinhalese people. The kingship was essentially Brahmanic (hereditary within
the priestly social class), with strong Buddhist influences; all the kings were
practicing Buddhists and patrons of Buddhist institutions. The support and
blessing of the clergy, moreover, were perceived as essential to a peaceful and
continuous reign. This connection between kingship and Buddhism enabled
Buddhism to flourish. Kings built, maintained, and endowed many shrines and
monasteries, and they intervened to establish order and prevent schism within
the Buddhist community. Nobles and
commoners too were lavish in their support, and thus Buddhist institutions
prospered. Many beautiful temples were built with finely carved sculpture, and
monasteries thrived as centres of learning in the Pali and Sinhalese languages
and in Buddhist philosophy.
The king was
supported by an inner administrative hierarchy consisting of members of his family and influential
nobles. The yuvaraja, the
king’s chosen heir to the throne, was given responsible office. The army was
the major prop of royal absolutism, and the senapati, or commander in chief, was the king’s
closest counselor and confidant.
Sinhalese
society was segmented into social classes—castes—each of which performed a particular occupation.
(The caste system in Sri Lanka,
however, was not as rigid as its counterpart in India.) The Govi, or
cultivators, made up the highest caste in Sri Lanka, but many other castes also
engaged in farming. Administrative officials were drawn from the Govi caste,
which was stratified into chiefs, titled men, and peasants. Chiefs were
important supporters of royal absolutism and helped administer the government.
Nonagricultural people, the Hina, were considered of lower rank and were
divided into occupational groups. These caste groups were endogamous; each
lived in its own section, along particular streets. Castes were stratified in
terms of status, with the lowest on the scale—the candala—performing the most menial of jobs.
The advent and
impact of irrigation
The
Sinhalese civilization was hydraulic, based on the storage and use of water for
the regular cultivation
of wet fields. The early Indo-Aryan settlers cultivated rice and
settled along river valleys and other suitable lands. They began with simple
schemes for damming rivers and storing water below them. Small systems for
storing water in reservoirs by tapping seasonal streams later became a feature
of nearly every village; these waterworks probably were managed communally by
the landowners of the village. With the increase in royal power, the attraction
of greater revenue through greater production made kings play an active role in
the construction of large-scale irrigation schemes. Beginning about the 1st
century CE during
the reign of King Vasabha, large perennial rivers
were blocked with massive earthen dams to create colossal reservoirs. With
increasingly sophisticated irrigation technology, water from these reservoirs
was delivered through canals to distant fields and through underground channels
to the capital city.
Further
technological progress was achieved in the 3rd century during the reign of
King Mahasena; a number of storage tanks and canals are attributed to
him, the most outstanding of which is the Minneriya tank and its feeder canals.
The construction and maintenance of monumental irrigation works became a
regular preoccupation of kings. Reservoirs and canals studded the northern and
north-central plains, tapping every source of water. Among the most noteworthy
was the magnificent Parakrama Samudra in Polonnaruwa, the crowning glory
of Parakramabahu I’s reign, with a storage area of more than 5,000 acres (2,000
hectares) for the irrigation of 18,000 acres (7,300 hectares).
Operation
of the large works demanded a great deal of coordination and central control;
mobilization of labour and technical skill was required at the construction
stage, and bureaucratic machinery was essential to keeping the system in
repair. Among the primary functions of the central administration was the
enforcement of regulations to coordinate cultivation of irrigated plots, to
control the flow of water, and to collect water dues from the irrigation
operators. Such effective and efficient water management led to increased
productivity, which ultimately increased the power of the king.
Many
medium and small irrigation works were, however, initiated and managed by
regional and village authorities, who became important props of royal
authority. When rights to revenue were devolved to these local notables,
a feudal
system began to emerge, with feudal relations
proliferating especially rapidly after 1200.
A grain
tax, the water dues, and trade in surplus grain were major sources of the
king’s revenue. They sustained strong political and military power for more
than a millennium and enabled the dispatch of expeditions abroad. Increased
revenue also made possible widespread religious construction, which, along with
remarkable accomplishments in the plastic arts and irrigation, was a hallmark
of the reign of Parakramabahu
I.
The fall of Polonnaruwa
When Parakramabahu I died in 1186, the throne passed to the
non-Sinhalese Kalinga dynasty—to
Nissankamalla, brother of Parakramabahu I’s Kalinga queen. Following the death
of Nissankamalla in 1196, the Polonnaruwa kingdom was weakened by a succession
of ineffective rulers. Non-Sinhalese factions such as the Kalingas and Pandyas
of India gained power in Sri Lanka
as a result of dynastic marriages with south Indian royalty; conflict between
these factions was common. South Indian notables occupied positions of
influence under Kalinga kings, and their power was buttressed by mercenaries of
various origins. In 1214 Magha of the Kalingas invaded Sri Lanka with the help
of thousands of such mercenaries, and he took control of the whole island.
Magha’s rule, a veritable reign of terror, lasted until 1255 and was marked by
bold disregard of traditional authority and of established religion.
Polonnaruwa itself fell into the hands of non-Sinhalese elements, each vying
with the others for power and office.
Drift to the southwest
(1255–1505)
Political changes
With
central control from Polonnaruwa further
weakened after the death of Magha and ruling kings of foreign descent being
unable to exercise political control over outlying provinces, members of the
traditional ruling class gravitated
to centres of Sinhalese power located away from the reach of Polonnaruwa. Such
centres generally lay to the southwest, in strategic, relatively inaccessible
areas that were defensible from attack. Dakkhinadesa, a region to the west of
the central mountains, was one such area. The first site chosen to reestablish
the Sinhalese kingdom, however,
was Dambadeniya, about 70 miles (110 km)
southwest of Polonnaruwa; Vijayabahu III (reigned 1232–36) and his three
successors (all part of the Dambadeniya dynasty) ruled from there. They made occasional successful raids
into Rajarata to attack the Kalinga and Tamil rulers but did not attempt to reoccupy Polonnaruwa.
Under Parakramabahu II (reigned 1236–70) the Dambadeniya kingdom achieved
great power; it was able to expel the Kalingas from the island with Pandyan help and to repel an invasion by Malays from Southeast Asia.
Bhuvanaika Bahu I (reigned 1272–84) moved the capital northward to
Yapahuwa, an isolated rock, which he strengthened with ramparts and trenches.
His successors moved the capital southward again to Kurunegala and then to Gampola toward the Central Highlands
about 1344. Meanwhile, the Alagakonara, a powerful Sinhalese family,
attained a strong position at Rayigama, near the west coast; the Muslim
traveler Ibn Baá¹á¹Å«á¹ah, who visited Sri Lanka in 1344, referred to one of the
Alagakonaras as a sultan named Alkonar. In 1412 the capital was taken by Parakramabahu
VI (reigned 1412–67) to Kotte, a few miles from present-day Colombo; for a brief period under this king, the Kotte kingdom
expanded and acquired sovereignty over
the island.
The effective control of the Sinhalese kings from roughly 1200 to
1505 generally did not extend far beyond their capital cities, though
extravagant claims were often made to the contrary. Taking advantage of the
collapse of the Polonnaruwa kingdom after Magha’s fall and of the drift of
Sinhalese political authority to the southwest, a south Indian dynasty called the Arya Chakaravartis seized power in
the north. By the beginning of the 14th century, it had founded a Tamil
kingdom, its capital at Nallur in the Jaffna Peninsula. The kingdom of Jaffna soon expanded southward, initiating a tradition of
conflict with the Sinhalese, though Rajarata—by then a largely depopulated
country—existed as a buffer between them.
A politically divided and weakened island was an enticement to
foreign invasions in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The second Pandyan
empire was constantly interfering in the affairs of Sri Lanka; its forces often
supported rival claimants to power and took back considerable sums in payment
and booty—including on one occasion the Tooth Relic, venerated as a tooth of
the Buddha and a sacred symbol of Sinhalese sovereignty. The
Malay ruler Chandrabhanu invaded the island in 1247 and 1258, for reasons not
altogether clear. Forces of the Vijayanagar empire
in south India invaded Sri Lanka on a few occasions in the 15th century, and
for a brief period the Jaffna kingdom became its tributary. Zheng
He, the great admiral of the third Ming emperor of China,
led a series of expeditions into the Indian Ocean. On his first expedition (1405–07) Zheng landed in Sri
Lanka but withdrew hastily; he returned in 1411, defeated the ruler Vira
Alakeshvara, and took him and his minister captive to China.
Social and
economic changes
The drift of Sinhalese political power to the southwest following
the collapse of Polonnaruwa in the mid-13th century had drastic social and
economic consequences. Population gradually shifted in the direction to which
the capital was shifting; this led to neglect of the interconnected systems of
water storage. The once-flourishing Rajarata became a devastated ruin of
depopulated villages, overgrown jungle, and dried-up tank beds as the centres
of Sinhalese population arose in the monsoon-watered lands of the south, the
southwest, and the Central Highlands. Consequent changes in agricultural
techniques, land use, ownership patterns, and ways of life followed swiftly.
Collapse of the Dry
Zone civilization
A combination of
factors brought about the demise of the hydraulic civilization that
had once flourished in Sri Lanka’s Dry Zone—primarily in the northern and
eastern parts of the island. Most notable of these factors were the depletion
of the treasury and the failure of the irrigation system. Under
Parakramabahu I the pursuit of an active foreign policy and the many
wars it involved were serious burdens on the treasury; indeed, the maintenance
of a strong standing army and navy was a great expense for all the Polonnaruwa
kings. The construction and upkeep of the magnificent Buddhist monuments of the
Polonnaruwa period also likely strained Sri Lanka’s economy.
The most visible
sign of the collapse of the hydraulic civilization was the breakdown of its
elaborate system of irrigation, on which agricultural productivity depended.
The operation of the system was disrupted when the traditional Sinhalese aristocracy was eased out of authority. In place of the
aristocracy, mercenary military officers were dispersed throughout the country
to uphold law and order and to assume administrative functions. Meanwhile, the
Sinhalese noble families withdrew from Rajarata to the courts of Sinhalese
leaders who had set themselves up in other parts of the country. Thus, the
managerial network that had maintained the agricultural and irrigation systems
disappeared, and operations broke down. The new military administrators had
neither the capacity nor the interest to maintain the irrigation system. Many
of the larger reservoirs were breached,
and smaller tanks that were fed by excess waters from them also lost their
supply. (Some of the destruction was deliberate, caused by rival armies to
flood a part of the country.) The amount of water stored for cultivation was
reduced, which in turn reduced the area of cultivable land. Agriculture became
dependent on the uncertain rains, and the people waged a losing battle against
the advancing forest. The country could not maintain its previous population
density. Consequently, people started following their leaders toward areas with
greater rainfall.
New
cultivation techniques
Population centres
formed in the hospitable areas of the south, the southwest, and the Central
Highlands. The marked difference in climate and topography required
new techniques of cultivation. Though rice cultivation continued as
an important activity, paddies had to be terraced, and the flow of water had to
be regulated to suit the undulating land. These changes in agricultural methods
demanded a different irrigation system that could not attempt to rival the
scale of the Dry Zone schemes. Other grains amenable to the highland
climate were grown as a supplement to rice, and garden cultivation—helped
by excessive rains—became significant. Coconut, easily grown in the wetlands of
the coast and the highlands, became an important food. Because of the abundance
of land, shifting agriculture was practiced along the slopes of the
hills. Farming was generally of a subsistence character.
Foreign trade
With the decline in
agricultural productivity, trade became an important source of state revenue,
and spices were the most important exports. Cinnamon, indigenous to the
southwestern forests, became an export commodity in the 14th century, while pepper
and other spices increased in export value. Trade in these items was
monopolized by the royalty; kings entered into contracts with foreign
merchants, fixed prices, and received the revenue. The people of the land were
not involved in any aspect of this trade, nor did they benefit directly from
it. Colombo and Galle became prominent ports of external
trade; smaller ports in the southwest became centres of coastal and Indian
trade. Almost all the traders were foreigners who settled in colonies in and around
these ports.
The major
international traders were the Arabs, who had been attracted by the luxury
products of Sri Lanka since about the 10th century. Arabs were interested in
cinnamon and spices, which began to fetch good prices in Western markets. In
1283 the Sinhalese king Bhuvanaika Bahu I sent an embassy
to the Mamlūk sultan of Egypt to seek a commercial
agreement.
Land control
Some significant
changes took place in land relations and land control during this period. The
grain tax—payable directly to the state in cash or in kind—that had been
central to the land revenue system in the northern regions diminished in
importance as the Sinhalese relocated southward. In part this was attributable
to a breakdown in the administration; kings could no longer maintain a
specialized machinery for the assessment and collection of the grain
tax and other land taxes. The tax system therefore was replaced by a system of
service tenure, under which a large proportion of the land was held on the
basis of an obligation of service to the state. This service could be used by
the state to various ends, including the cultivation of royal lands, the
payment of officials (through assignment of service), and the maintenance of
public utilities. Taxpaying lands and service lands were gradually merged. Each
plot had a fixed service attached to it, and anyone who enjoyed that land had
to perform a particular service. These services were extensively assigned to village
and regional notables in order to attract their support. The commutation of tax
for service also meant a decrease in the circulation of money; copper coins
replaced those of gold and silver.
Cities
Capitals
were now selected (and constructed) for their military defensibility; they were
relatively small, located in difficult terrain, and somewhat isolated from
populated areas. Communications between settlements were difficult, and
excessive mobility was discouraged for military reasons. Moreover, the
subsistence character of farming curtailed internal trade. Consequently, cities
were not centres of economic life as in the past; they no longer attracted
large groups of artisans, merchants, servants, and others dependent on the
ruling groups. Rather, they were primarily of military importance.
Religious and
ethnolinguistic changes
The Buddhist monasteries and temples had been beneficiaries of the
hydraulic system of the Dry Zone. Lands, taxes, and water dues were assigned to
temples. In addition, the temples had accumulated assets by making their own
investments in land and by excavating their own tanks. With the changes in
irrigation and agricultural practices, however, these sources of revenue declined.
Kings continued their patronage of Buddhism,
but their wealth and power diminished. Nobles and commoners were not rich
enough to make substantial benefactions. The great monasteries of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa were
disbanded. New institutions arose in and around the capitals of
Dambadeniya, Kurunegala, Gampola,
Rayigama, and Kotte, but they were not of
the size or stature of their predecessors in the Dry Zone. The absence of
strong political authority also affected the unity and coherence of the monastic organization itself. In this period
there was a greater incidence of indiscipline and schism than before, and kings
were called upon frequently to purge the sangha (monkhood) of undesirable elements.
The influence of Hinduism on
Buddhist institutions, theology, and ways of life was more marked during this
period as well. The ruling classes mixed extensively with Tamil royal and noble families, and there was an influx
of Brahmans from south India to all parts of the country. Vedic (pertaining to the religion that predated Hinduism in
the Indian subcontinent) and post-Vedic gods now assumed importance and were
worshipped by kings and commoners in elaborate festivals. For instance, the
worship of entities called devas became a prominent feature of popular Buddhism.
One of the consequences of the drift of the Sinhalese kingdoms to
the southwest and the establishment of the Tamil kingdom in the Jaffna
Peninsula to the north was the division of the island into two ethnolinguistic
areas. Before this division occurred, Tamil settlements were interspersed among
the Sinhalese throughout the island. Then the northern and eastern areas became
predominantly Tamil; their numbers were strengthened by fresh migrations from
south India after the collapse of the Pandyan kingdom
in the 14th century.
Jaffna, as the capital of the Tamil kingdom, became the seat of
Tamil Hindu culture, with a social
organization somewhat akin to that of the Tamil districts of south India.
The caste of landowning
cultivators—the Vellala—formed the pivot of the social structure, and its
members held both political and economic power. A number of lesser castes stood
in varying degrees of service relationship to the Vellala. Hindu institutions
were supported by the kings and the people and were strengthened by the influx
of Brahmans. Brahmanic temples sprang up
in many parts of Jaffna, and rituals and sessions of public worship were held
regularly. The Tamil language established
deep roots in the island and became one of Sri Lanka’s indigenous languages. Tamil
literature was fostered by the support of the
Jaffna kings and was enriched by constant contact with south India, yet it
developed an individuality in idiom and
speech and acquired some linguistic characteristics that distinguished it from
its south Indian parent.
The Portuguese in
Sri Lanka (1505–1658)
The
expansion of Portuguese control
By about 1500 trade
in the Indian Ocean was dominated by Arab, Indian, Malay, and
Chinese merchants, who together used various seafaring craft to transport a
spectrum of cargo, from spices to elephants. In the early 16th century a new
force, in the form of Portuguese ships with mounted guns, arrived in the ocean.
These vessels, with their firepower and capacity for high speeds, helped implement a
policy of control that began to undermine the region’s long-standing,
relatively open trade competition.
In 1505 a Portuguese
fleet commanded by Lourenço de Almeida was blown into Colombo by
adverse winds. Almeida received a friendly audience from the king of Kotte,
Vira Parakrama Bahu, and was favourably impressed with the commercial and
strategic value of the island. The Portuguese soon returned and established a
regular and formal contact with Kotte. In 1518 they were permitted to build a
fort at Colombo and were given trading concessions.
In 1521 three sons of
Vijayabahu, the reigning king of Kotte, put their father to death and
partitioned the kingdom among themselves. The eldest of the brothers, Bhuvanaika
Bahu, ruled at Kotte, and the two others set up independent kingdoms at
Sitawake and Rayigama. Mayadunne, the king of Sitawake, was an ambitious
and able ruler who sought to expand his frontiers at the expense of his brother
at Kotte. Bhuvanaika Bahu could not resist the temptation of seeking Portuguese
assistance, and the Portuguese were eager to help him. The more he was pressed
by Mayadunne, the greater was his reliance on Portuguese reinforcement.
Bhuvanaika Bahu defended his kingdom against Mayadunne, who in turn allied
himself with an inveterate enemy of the Europeans, the zamorin (member of the
Zamorin dynasty) of Kozhikode (also known as Calicut, in southwestern
India).
Bhuvanaika Bahu was succeeded by his grandson
Prince Dharmapala, who was even more dependent on Portuguese support. An
agreement between Bhuvanaika Bahu and the king of Portugal in 1543 had guaranteed the protection of the prince
on the throne and the defense of the kingdom; in return the Portuguese were to
be confirmed in all their privileges and were to receive a tribute of cinnamon.
The prince was educated by members of the Franciscan order of the Roman Catholic Church; in 1556 or 1557, when his conversion to Christianity was announced, he became easily controlled by the
Portuguese. Dharmapala’s conversion undermined the Kotte dynasty in
the eyes of the people. Mayadunne’s wars of aggression were now transformed
into a struggle against Portuguese influence and interests in the island, and
he annexed a large part of the Kotte kingdom. After Mayadunne’s death, his
son Rajasinha continued these wars successfully on land, though, like his
father, he had no way of combating Portuguese sea power.
At the death of Rajasinha in 1593, the Sitawake kingdom
disintegrated for want of a strong successor. The Portuguese captured much of
the land of the Kotte royal lineage and emerged as a strong power on the
island. In 1580 Dharmapala had been persuaded to deed his kingdom to the
Portuguese, and when he died in 1597 they took formal possession of it.
Meanwhile, a Portuguese expedition to Jaffna in 1560
had no lasting success. A second invasion of 1591, undertaken at the
instigation of Christian missionaries, succeeded in installing a Portuguese
protégé. Continued unrest and succession disputes prompted the Portuguese to
undertake a third expedition, and the kingdom of Jaffna was annexed in 1619.
The Portuguese now controlled a considerable part of the island,
except the Central Highlands and eastern coast, where an able Sinhalese nobleman, Vimala Dharma Surya, had established
himself and consolidated his authority. The Portuguese were eager to
establish hegemony over the entire
island, and their attempts to do so led to protracted warfare. The Portuguese
expanded to the lower reaches of the Central Highlands and annexed the east
coast ports of Trincomalee and Batticaloa.
Although Portuguese possessions in Sri Lanka became a part of the
Portuguese Estado da India (State of India),
the administrative structure of the Kotte kingdom was retained. The island was
divided into four dissavanis,
or provinces, each headed by a dissava.
Other territorial subdivisions also were retained. Portuguese held the highest
offices, though local officials came from the Sinhalese nobility loyal to the
Portuguese.
The Sinhalese system of service tenure was maintained, and it was used extensively to secure
the essential produce of the land, such as cinnamon and elephants. The caste
system remained intact, and all obligations that
had been due to the sovereign now accrued to the Portuguese state. The payment in land to
officials also was continued and was extended to Portuguese officials as well.
The Portuguese generally lacked a proper understanding of
traditional Sinhalese social and economic structure, and excessive demands put
upon it led to hardship and popular hostility. Cinnamon and elephants became articles of Portuguese monopoly;
they provided good profits, as did the trade in pepper and betel nuts (areca nuts). Portuguese officials compiled
a tombo, or land register, to
provide a detailed statement of landholding, crops grown, tax obligations, and
nature of ownership.
The period of Portuguese influence was marked by intense Roman Catholic missionary activity. Franciscans established centres
in the country from 1543 onward. Jesuits were
active in the north. Toward the end of the century, Dominicans and Augustinians arrived.
With the conversion of Dharmapala, many members of the Sinhalese nobility
followed suit. Dharmapala endowed missionary orders lavishly, often from the
properties of Buddhist and Hindu temples. After the Portuguese secured control
of Sri Lanka, they used their extensive powers of patronage and preference in
appointments to promote Christianity. Members of the landed aristocracy embraced Christianity and took Portuguese surnames at
baptism. Many coastal communities underwent
mass conversion, particularly Jaffna, Mannar, and the fishing communities north of Colombo. Catholic
churches with schools attached to them served Catholic communities all over the
country. The Portuguese language spread
extensively, and the upper classes quickly gained proficiency in it.
Kandy and
its struggle with European powers
Rajasinha occupied Kandy, a Sinhalese kingdom in the Central Highlands, about 1580, and its
ruler took refuge with the Portuguese. In 1591 the Portuguese launched an
expedition to Kandy to enthrone Dom Philip, an heir of the dispossessed ruler.
They were accompanied by an ambitious and distinguished Sinhalese military
nobleman, Konnappu Bandara. Dom Philip was installed as king but died under
suspicious circumstances, and Konnappu Bandara enthroned himself,
proclaiming independence from the Portuguese and taking the regnal name of
Vimala Dharma Surya. The demise of
Sitawake after Rajasinha’s death left Kandy the only independent Sinhalese
kingdom.
The Portuguese launched another expedition to Kandy, in 1594,
under Gen. Pedro Lopes de Sousa, planning to enthrone Dona Catherina, a
baptized Sinhalese noblewoman. Popular hostility soon built up toward the
seemingly ever-present Portuguese troops. Vimala Dharma Surya took advantage of
the agitated atmosphere and, making use of guerrilla warfare tactics, routed the Portuguese army in 1594. He
captured Dona Catherina, made her his queen, and legitimized and consolidated
his rule. He expanded into the old Sitawake kingdom and emerged as the leader
of resistance to the Portuguese. The Portuguese made a few subsequent attempts
to subjugate Kandy, but none were successful.
Vimala Dharma Surya realized that without sea power he could not drive the Portuguese out of Sri Lanka.
He saw the arrival of the Dutch as
an excellent opportunity to gain naval support against his adversaries. The
first Dutch envoy, Joris van Spilbergen, met the king in July 1602 and made
lavish promises of military assistance. A few months later another Dutch
official, Sebald de Weert, arrived with a concrete offer of help and, in
view of favourable terms offered by the king, decided to launch a joint attack
on the Portuguese. However, a misunderstanding between the king and de Weert
caused an altercation between the Kandyans and the Dutch, and de Weert and his
men were killed.
King Senarath (Senarat) succeeded to the Kandyan throne in
1604 and continued to solicit Dutch support. In 1612 a Dutch envoy, Marcelis
Boschouwer, concluded a treaty with Senarath. The king granted the Dutch
extensive commercial concessions and
a harbour for settlement on the east coast in return for a promise of armed
assistance against Portuguese attack. The Dutch ultimately were unable to offer
adequate assistance, and so Senarath turned to the Danes. By the time a Danish
expedition arrived in May 1620, however, Senarath had concluded a peace
agreement with the Portuguese. The truce was short-lived, and in 1630 the
Kandyans, taking the offensive, invaded Portuguese territory and laid siege
to Colombo and Galle.
Again the absence of sea power proved a handicap, and another peace was
concluded in 1634.
In 1635 Senarath was succeeded by his son Rajasinha II. The
Dutch were now firmly established in Batavia (now Jakarta) in Java and
were developing their trade in southern Asia. The king sent emissaries to meet the admiral of the Dutch
fleet, Adam Westerwolt, who was then blockading Goa, India. The fleet
came to Sri Lanka and captured Batticaloa.
Westerwolt and Rajasinha II concluded a treaty on May 23, 1638, giving
the Dutch a monopoly on most of Sri
Lanka’s cinnamon and a repayment in
merchandise for expenses incurred in assisting the king. In May 1639 the Dutch
fleet captured Trincomalee, and in
February 1640 the Dutch and the Kandyans combined to take Negombo. But
differences arose over the occupation of captured forts. The Dutch refused to
give Trincomalee and Batticaloa to the king until their expenses were paid in
full, and Rajasinha II realized that what the Dutch really wanted was to
replace the Portuguese as the rulers of the coast.
Rajasinha II nevertheless continued to work with the Dutch to
expel the Portuguese. In March 1640 Galle was taken, but the progress of the
allies soon was temporarily halted by a truce declared in Europe between
the Dutch
Republic and Spain, which at that time
ruled Portugal and its overseas
possessions. In 1645 the boundaries between Portuguese and Dutch territory in
Sri Lanka were demarcated. Jan Thijssen was appointed the first Dutch governor.
The Dutch peace with the
Portuguese and occupation of captured territory incensed the Kandyan king and
strained relations between him and the Dutch. In May 1645 war broke out between
them. Though Rajasinha II could not conquer the occupied lands, he made them
worthless to the Dutch by destroying crops and depopulating villages. The Dutch
then realized the advantage of coming to terms with the king. In 1649 a revised
treaty was signed. The Dutch agreed to hand over some of the lands but again
delayed it because of the immense debt the king was held to owe them.
The Dutch truce with the Portuguese expired in 1652, leaving the
Dutch free to resume the war. Kandyans launched attacks on Portuguese positions
in the interior provinces of Seven Korales, Four Korales, and Sabaragamuwa and
pushed the Portuguese back to their coastal strongholds, despite fierce
resistance. Rajasinha II was anxious to attack Colombo, but he was put off by
the Dutch. He tried to secure guarantees from them for the return of that city
after its conquest, and the Dutch made lavish promises. In August 1655
the Dutch were strengthened by the arrival of a large fleet under Gen. Gerard
Hulft, and they laid siege to Colombo by sea and by land. In May 1656 the
Portuguese surrendered the city to the Dutch, who shut the Kandyans out of its
gates. Requests for the cession of Colombo met with evasive replies. Highly
incensed, Rajasinha II destroyed the lands around Colombo, removed its
inhabitants, and withdrew to his mountain kingdom.
After a brief respite the Dutch resumed the expulsion of the
Portuguese from Sri Lanka. Adm. Ryckloff van Goens arrived with a fleet to
continue the attack on Portuguese strongholds in northern Sri Lanka. The Dutch
took Mannar in February 1658 and Jaffna in
June. They had replaced the Portuguese as masters of coastal Sri Lanka.
Dutch rule
in Sri Lanka (1658–1796)
Dutch rule in Sri Lanka was implemented though
the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde
Oost-indische Compagnie; commonly called VOC), a trading company established in
1602 primarily to protect Dutch trade interests in the Indian Ocean. Although the VOC first controlled only the coastal lands,
the Dutch gradually pushed inland, occupying considerable territory in
southern, southwestern, and western Sri Lanka. In 1665 they expanded to the
east coast and thus controlled most of the cinnamon-growing lands and the
points of exit and entry on the island.
Government
The Dutch governor, residing
in Colombo, was the chief executive; he was assisted by a council of the
highest officials. The country was divided into three administrative divisions
(named after their principal cities): Colombo, Galle, and Jaffna.
Colombo was ruled by the governor, Galle and Jaffna by commanders. The three
divisions were subdivided into dissavanis (provinces) and, further, into korales (districts) in
the traditional manner. The ruler of each dissavani was invariably
a Dutch officer; subordinate offices were held by Sinhalese or Tamils
loyal to the Dutch.
Economy
The period of Dutch
rule was of great significance to Sri Lanka’s economic development. It was
during this time that decisive steps were taken toward the incorporation of the
island into the emerging world economy. Rain-fed commercial crops such as cinnamon and betel had
become important items in the export trade, as had high-value gemstones from
mines in the Central Highlands and pearls from fisheries on the northwestern
coast. Because the processing of cinnamon demanded a moderately skilled labour
force, many workers were recruited from the neighbouring subcontinent. Miners
were drawn from the local population, but a good number of divers came
from south India to participate in pearl-collecting operations. Exports also
included other spices, lacquer, coconut oil, ropes of coconut fibres, and
such sea products as cowrie and conch shells. Elephants were among the most
important items of trade during this period; there was consistently a high
demand, especially in Golconda in south India and Bengal in the
northeast, where elephants were valued as war vehicles.
The link between trade and agriculture, which strengthened
considerably during this period, was evident especially in the increased
production of two new cash crops, tobacco and coffee—the cultivation of which
was encouraged by the VOC. Tobacco, which thrived in the Jaffna Peninsula, found good markets in the kingdom of Travancore in south India as well as in Southeast
Asia, especially at the port of Aceh (Acheh) in northern Sumatra and at various ports in the southern Malay
Peninsula. Production of coffee, grown extensively across Sri Lanka, rose sharply in the
first half of the 18th century; the island’s coffee found markets in Europe,
the Middle East, and the neighbouring
subcontinent.
The Dutch continued the Portuguese policy of respecting the
traditional land structure and service relationship but used it more
methodically to enhance revenue.
Taxes in kind collected for the state were used in trade. Remuneration of
Sinhalese officials in land and obligatory services to the state were
continued. The Sinhalese nobility also was retained because the Dutch depended
on the rural nobility for knowledge of the system.
Although the Dutch tried to promote trade with neighbouring
countries, it was under a strictly controlled system. They sought to monopolize
the export of major commodities, but this effort led to a decline in trade with
India, which, in turn, resulted in a shortage of essential goods, such as rice and textiles. In the early 18th century some
relaxation occurred, and private traders from India were admitted into the
island’s trade system. Nevertheless, the Dutch retained their export monopolies
in some areas, and they continued to control trade commodities and prices
through a system of passes and inspection.
The expansion of Sri Lanka’s trade called for the development of a
more extensive infrastructure and more-sophisticated transport facilities. The VOC
developed three major canal systems in the western, southern, and eastern parts
of the island. The western system, which linked the city of Colombo with
Kalpitiya to its north and Bentota to its south, was the most complex. Somewhat
less complex was the eastern system, which linked the commercial centre
of Batticaloa with the Vanderloos
Bay to the north and the minor port of Sammanturai to the south. The least
intricate of the systems was in the south, where canals linked the city
of Matara with the township of
Valigama. While the three canal systems attested to the technological
achievement of the hydraulic engineers of the VOC, a chain of solidly built and
well-equipped forts displayed a matching level of accomplishment among the
VOC’s military engineers.
The
use of cannons, as well as guns and other smaller firearms, was introduced by
the Portuguese and spread rapidly once the rulers of local kingdoms grasped the
significance of the new technology. Guns enabled the centralization of storage
and control of commodities and thus represented a strategic resource by which
to boost the power of the rulers. The new military technology also
created a demand for specialists, who were recruited from among the Europeans;
under the direction of such specialists, the island’s metalworkers developed a
capacity for the production of high-quality guns.
Law
The
Dutch judicial system was well organized. There were three major
courts of justice, in Colombo, Galle, and Jaffna; appeals were heard
by the Colombo court. In the various districts, the provincial head (the dissava) presided over
the circuit court, called the Land Raad. Native chiefs were invited to
hear cases involving local custom. The customary law of the land was
administered in the courts, unless it clashed violently with Dutch
jurisprudence.
Increasingly
in the 18th century, Roman-Dutch law was used in the Sinhalese areas
of the southwest and south. This had important social consequences.
Private property rights in land spread more widely in these areas,
and property transfers were subject to Roman-Dutch law. Moreover, where
Sinhalese society had been polygynous to some degree, a gradual shift toward
monogamy occurred under the influence of the new legal system.
Some
attempt was made to codify customary law. The Thesawalamai—laws and
customs of the Tamils of Jaffna—was codified in 1707. Because of the
difficulty in codifying Sinhalese law and custom in view of its regional diversity and
complexity, Roman-Dutch law was increasingly applied to the Sinhalese of the
cities and the seacoast, especially to those who professed Christianity.
Religion
The Netherlands was ardently Protestant—specifically, Calvinist—and in the early years of Dutch rule an enthusiastic effort was made to
curtail the missionary activities of the Roman Catholic clergy and to spread the Reformed church in Sri Lanka. Roman Catholicism was declared illegal, and its priests were banned
from the country; Catholic churches were given to the Reformed faith, with
Calvinist pastors appointed to lead the congregations. Despite persecution,
many Catholics remained loyal to their faith; some nominally embraced Protestantism, while others settled within the independent Kandyan
kingdom. In their evangelical activities the Protestant clergy were better
organized than their Catholic counterparts; in particular they used schools
to propagate their faith.
During the period of Dutch rule in the coastal areas there was a
revival of Buddhism in the Kandyan kingdom and in the southern part of the island. While the
Dutch felt great antipathy toward
Catholicism, they indirectly contributed to the revival of Buddhism by facilitating transport for Buddhist monks between Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the Arakan (Rakhine) region in southwestern Myanmar (Burma). Such services helped the Dutch maintain good
relations with the king of Kandy.
Representing a new strand in the traditions of both Sinhalese
and Tamil
literature, Christian writings began to appear during
the Dutch period. Although most of these new works were translations of
basic canonical texts, some were
polemics that targeted both Buddhism and Hinduism. The 18th-century writer Jacome Gonƈalves was among the
most notable figures in Sri Lankan Christian literature. The VOC’s
establishment in 1734 of the first printing press in Sri Lanka—used to meet the needs of missionaries
as well as administrators—aided the proliferation of Christian texts.
British Ceylon (1796–1900)
The British East India Company’s conquest
of Sri Lanka, which the British called Ceylon, occurred during the wars of
the French Revolution (1792–1801).
When the Netherlands came under
French control, the British began to
move into Sri Lanka from India. The Dutch, after a halfhearted resistance,
surrendered the island in 1796. The British had thought the conquest temporary
and administered the island from Madras (Chennai)
in southern India. The war with France revealed
Sri Lanka’s strategic value, however, and the British consequently decided to
make their hold on the island permanent. In 1802 Ceylon was made a crown
colony, and, by the Treaty of Amiens with
France, British possession of maritime Ceylon was confirmed.
Control of Kandy
Not long after their
arrival in 1796, the British established contact with the king of Kandy and
contracted to replace the Dutch as protectors of the kingdom. As they began to
organize the administration, the British realized that the continuing
independence of Kandy posed problems: the frontier with Kandy had to be guarded
at much expense; trade with the highlands was hampered by customs posts and
political insecurity; and land communications between west and east would be
quicker if roads could be built through the centre of the island. The
advantages of political unification were obvious to the British, but the
Kandyans remained deeply suspicious of all foreigners.
The first attempt by
the British to capture the kingdom, in 1803, ended in failure; the king was
popular with the nobility, who united behind him to rout the British forces.
Subsequently, though, growing dissensions within the kingdom gave the British
an opportunity to interfere in Kandyan affairs. With the help of local Kandyan
chiefs whose relations with the king had been deteriorating, the British
succeeded in taking over the kingdom in 1815. Soon after the acquisition the
British guaranteed Kandyans their privileges and rights, as well as the
preservation of customary laws, institutions, and religion. Initially, Kandy
was administered separately, without any abrupt change from traditional
patterns. However, the trend toward reducing the status of the nobility and of
the Buddhist faith was unmistakable; this led to a popular rebellion against
British control in 1818. After it was suppressed, the Kandyan provinces
were integrated with the rest of the country.
Social and
administrative reforms
Though reluctant to upset traditional Sinhalese institutions, the British quickly began a reform
process. They abolished slavery, an institution that existed primarily as a
consequence of unpaid debt (although in Jaffna, it was part of the caste system), relieved native officials of judicial
authority, paid salaries in cash, and relaxed the system of compulsory
service tenure. Agriculture was
encouraged, and production of cinnamon,
pepper, sugarcane, cotton, and coffee flourished. Internal communications were
extended. Restrictions on European ownership of land were lifted, and Christian
missionary activity became intensive.
The early changes under British rule were systematized by a series
of reforms enacted in 1833, which laid the foundation for the subsequent
political and economic structure of Ceylon. Steps were taken to adopt a unitary
administrative and judicial
system for the whole island. The reforms reduced
the autocratic powers of the governor and set up Executive and Legislative
councils to share in the task of government; unofficial members (not officials
of the government) were gradually appointed to the Legislative Council. English
became the language of government and the medium of instruction in schools.
Emergence of
capitalist agriculture
The British eliminated restrictions on Ceylon’s economy by
abolishing all state monopolies and eliminating compulsory labour service. They
also promoted the liberation of the economy, which led to new economic
enterprises. Land belonging to the British crown was sold cheaply to
cultivators to encourage plantation agriculture, and the enterprise proved
lucrative. Coffee plantations were particularly profitable.
From about 1830 through the mid-19th century coffee production
spearheaded Ceylon’s economic development. Acreage under coffee cultivation
expanded, and roads were constructed to fulfill the needs of coffee planters.
Because of a labour shortage on the plantations, indentured workers came from
southern India in large numbers beginning in the 1840s. In the 1870s, however,
coffee was destroyed by a leaf disease. Experiments with tea as a plantation crop in the 1880s were immediately
successful, and tea spread along the upper and lower slopes of the hill
country. About the same time, rubber and coconuts also were cultivated as plantation crops.
Tea and rubber attracted extensive capital investment, and the
growth of large-scale industries created a demand for a permanent workforce.
Steps were taken to settle Indian labour on the plantations. Ancillary services soon arose in response to these
developments. Increasing export trade led to the expansion of the harbor
at Colombo and to railway and road
construction. Opportunities were created for Ceylonese entrepreneurs, and for the English-educated, employment was readily
available.
Capitalist enterprise introduced changes in agricultural practices
and horticultural techniques, but these developments were essentially
restricted to the urban areas and the plantation country. The rest of the
country continued with subsistence farming, using
traditional methods. However, roads and railways helped to reduce the isolation
of the villages, and increased trade gradually pulled the rural population into the monetary economy.
Constitutionalism and nationalism (c. 1900–48)
By the end of the 19th century a nationalist sentiment had
come to permeate the social, religious, and educational fronts of Ceylonese
society. Meanwhile, revivalist movements in Buddhism and Hinduism sought
to modernize their institutions and to defend themselves against Christian
inroads by establishing schools to impart Western education unmixed with Christianity. This agitated atmosphere set the stage for social and
political changes in the first half of the 20th century.
Constitutional reforms
Nationalist consciousness gradually
spread to the political arena in the early 1900s. Regional and communal
associations were founded within formally educated communities, and they
began to voice proposals for reform. They asked for Ceylonese participation in
the executive branch, a wider territorial representation in the legislature,
and the adoption of the elective principle in place of nomination. These
demands showed a common ideology and approach and revealed a desire
to advance within the framework of the colonial constitution.
Because demands
were neither coordinated nor vociferous, the imperial government generally ignored them, and constitutional reforms passed in 1910 retained the old structure,
with an appointed executive and a legislature with an appointed majority. There
was, however, a limited recognition of the elective principle; an “educated
Ceylonese” electorate was established to elect one member to the Legislative
Council. Other Ceylonese members were to be nominated on a communal basis.
Growth of nationalist power
During World
War I (1914–18) the forces of nationalism in Ceylon gathered momentum, propelled largely by
civil disturbances in 1915 and subsequent political repercussions. British arrests of prominent Sinhalese leaders during what was at first a minor communal
riot provoked widespread opposition. Leaders of all communities, feeling the need for a common platform from which to
voice a nationalist viewpoint, came together in 1919 to form the Ceylon
National Congress, which united Sinhalese and Tamil organizations. In a series of proposals for constitutional reforms, the Congress called for an elected majority
in the legislature, control of the
budget, and partial control of the executive branch.
A new constitution was promulgated in
1920 under the governor Sir William Manning, and in 1924 it was modified to
satisfy nationalist demands. The revised document provided for an elected
majority in the legislature, an increase in the number of territorially elected
members, and the election of communal representatives. Ceylon thus attained
representative government. A finance committee
of the legislature, consisting of three unofficial and three official members,
also was formed; the committee had the authority to examine the budget.
However, no major concessions were
made in the executive branch, which remained under the British governor and the
official Executive Council.
The allowance of greater power to the nationalists produced the
first fissures among them. While Sinhalese leaders wanted to do away
with communal representation and make territorial representation universal,
minorities aimed to retain it to secure power for their own communities.
Minorities broke away from the Congress to form their own organizations.
A
new constitution, framed in 1931 on the recommendations of a commission
appointed to examine constitutional reform, gave Ceylonese leaders
opportunities to exercise political power and to gain governmental experience
with a view toward eventual self-government. It provided for a State Council
with both legislative and executive functions. In addition to being a
legislative council with an overwhelming majority of territorially elected
members, the State Council was divided for executive work into seven
committees, each of which elected its own chairman. These chairmen, or
ministers, formed a board of ministers to coordinate the activities of the
council and to present an annual budget. The constitution, which remained in
effect for more than 15 years, also granted universal suffrage, thus bringing
all Ceylonese into the democratic political process.
Social and cultural changes
Economic development
and the spread of education brought about changes in society,
including changes in the relationships between social groups. Upper elements of
the dominant castes solidified their positions by taking advantage of
new developments. Castes traditionally of lower status also made use of these
opportunities to move upward, creating tensions within the caste system.
A community of capitalist entrepreneurs and
professionals who were proficient in English emerged as a new class that transcended caste
boundaries. Generally referred to as the “middle class,” this group produced
the leaders of many political and social movements in the 20th and 21st
centuries.
Social change since
1915 also included the intensification of interethnic rivalries. Although
clashes in the early 20th century involved relatively small groups of people,
these conflicts marked the beginning of a trend that was to grow progressively
in scale and momentum. The growing distrust and mutual antipathy between
ethnic groups was reflected in (and exacerbated by) the formation in
1936 of a board of ministers composed entirely of Sinhalese members of the
State Council.
Dominion status
In response to
Ceylonese nationalist leaders—who exerted pressure behind the scenes while
cooperating with British efforts during World War II (1939–45)—the
British in 1944 appointed the Soulbury Commission to develop a new
constitution for Ceylon. The Soulbury constitution gave the colony internal
self-government but retained some imperial safeguards in defense and external
affairs. In 1947 the Ceylon Independence Act conferred dominion status
on the colony, whereby Ceylon was recognized as an autonomous entity
with allegiance to the British
crown.
Ceylon held elections
for the parliament outlined in its new constitution in August 1947, shortly after its acquisition of dominion status.
The United National Party (UNP), a coalition of a number of
nationalist and communal parties, won the majority; it chose Don Stephen Senanayake as prime minister and advocated orderly and conservative progress. The UNP was dominated by the English-educated
leaders of the colonial era, who were familiar with the British type of parliamentary democracy that had been established on the island,
and it included people from all the ethnolinguistic groups of Ceylon. Its
members were bound by the common ideals of Ceylonese nationalism, parliamentary democracy, and gradual economic progress through free enterprise.
Independent
Ceylon (1948–71)
Actual independence for
the dominion of Ceylon came on February 4, 1948, when
the constitution of 1947 went into effect. The constitution provided for a
bicameral legislature with a popularly elected House of
Representatives and a Senate that was partly nominated and partly elected
indirectly by members of the House of Representatives. A prime minister and his cabinet, chosen from the largest political group in the legislature,
held collective responsibility for executive functions.
The governor-general, as head of state, represented the British monarch. In
matters that the constitution failed to address, the conventions of the United Kingdom were observed.
The UNP had a
substantial majority in the legislature and attracted support as it governed.
There were, however, some basic weaknesses in the political structure. The consensus that
the government represented embraced only a small fraction of the population—the
English-educated Westernized elite groups that shared the values on which the
structure was founded. To the great mass of Sinhalese- and Tamil-educated
residents and unschooled citizens, these values appeared irrelevant and
incomprehensible. The continued neglect of local culture as
embodied in religion, language, and the arts created a gulf that divided the
ruling elite from the ruled. Inevitably, traditionalist and revivalist
movements arose to champion local values.
The island’s
three export products—tea, rubber, and coconuts—were doing well in world
markets, providing some 90 percent of foreign exchange earnings. Nevertheless,
the country began to face economic difficulties. A rapidly increasing population and the free import of consumer goods swiftly ate
into earnings from foreign trade. The
falling price of Ceylon’s rubber and tea and the increase in the price of
imported food added to the acute foreign
exchange problem. Additionally, the expanded school system produced a large
number of educated persons who could not find employment.
The various
factors of political and economic discontent converged after 1955, and a
new Sinhalese nationalism was unleashed. It found a spokesman in S.W.R.D.
Bandaranaike. In the 1956 elections the UNP was
defeated, and Bandaranaike’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) came to power. The new government immediately
set about changing the political structure. With the Sinhala Only
Bill, it made Sinhalese the sole official language,
and it took measures to provide state support for Buddhism and for Sinhalese culture. It also wedded the
new nationalism to a form of socialism, in which the state was given a powerful role in economic
development and the creation of economic equality.
The period of
Sinhalese nationalism was also a time of political instability. The language
policy alienated the Tamils, who, under the Federal Party, carried on a bitter opposition. Educational policies angered
the small but influential Christian community. Reforms of Buddhist and other cultural practices offended
different factions within the Sinhalese community.
Bandaranaike was
assassinated in September 1959, and the nationalist movement suffered a setback
and languished for want of a leader. After a period of political instability,
his widow, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was
persuaded to gather together the fragments of the SLFP. In 1960 she formed a
government, thus becoming the first woman in the world to hold the office of
prime minister. Continuing the program of Sinhalese nationalism, she implemented policies to nurture and protect local industry and to
extend the state sector. Partly in response to pressure from the Buddhist
community to reduce the prominence of Christian missions in the country’s educational system, most private
schools were nationalized, and state subsidies to any remaining private schools
were discontinued.
By 1965 the tide
of Sinhalese nationalism had begun to recede. Language and religion had become
less important as political issues. An economic crisis—caused by increasing
unemployment, the rising cost of living,
an acute shortage of consumer goods, and the failure of state
enterprise in industry and trade—made people
look back to the UNP. This party gained the support of minorities, and in 1965
it returned to power under Dudley Shelton Senanayake, who, as the son of Don Stephen Senanayake, had served as prime minister (1952–53) after his father’s
death and briefly in 1960. Senanayake’s government enjoyed a five-year term of
office, during which it encouraged private enterprise and made an effort to
extend agricultural productivity. These measures, while having moderate
success, also tended to create inflation and to increase social inequality. The
SLFP formed an alliance with Marxist parties and waged a campaign against the
government that called for increased state control of the economy. In 1970 this
coalition won a landslide victory, and Sirimavo Bandaranaike again became prime
minister.
The Bandaranaike
government enacted reforms that restricted private enterprise and extended
nationalization to embrace various private industries and foreign-owned
plantations as well as a large part of the wholesale and distributive trade.
Measures aimed at reducing social inequality were enacted, and an ambitious
program of land reform was put into
effect. Although these reforms benefited the vast majority of the
underprivileged, they did nothing to address basic economic problems such as
the mounting trade deficit. The educated youth, impatient for radical change,
became disillusioned. Their discontent was mobilized by the People’s
Liberation Front (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna; JVP), a group of revolutionary
youth who launched an unsuccessful armed rebellion in 1971.
The Republic of Sri Lanka
In a new constitution proclaimed in 1972, Ceylon became the
Republic of Sri Lanka, while maintaining its link with the British Commonwealth. The constitution changed the bicameral legislature to a unicameral body and replaced the
governor-general (who had been an extension of the British crown) with a
president as head of state. Effective executive power, however, remained with the prime
minister and cabinet, and all existing restraints on the lawmaking powers of
the new unicameral legislature were removed. Buddhism was given “the foremost place,” and Sinhalese again was recognized as the official language.
As Sri Lanka’s economic decline continued, the immense economic
power held by the state provided the party in power with the opportunity for
patronage, nepotism, and corruption. By 1977 unemployment had risen to about 15
percent. In July of that year the SLFP was defeated by a reorganized UNP under
the leadership of J.R.
Jayawardene, who became prime minister.
The Jayawardene government sought to reverse trends toward state
control of the economy by revitalizing the private sector and attracting
foreign capital. It also set about writing a new constitution, promulgated in 1978, which renamed the country the Democratic
Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and introduced a system under which the
president remained head of state but was given new executive power as head of
government. Although Sinhalese and Tamil were recognized as the national languages, Sinhalese
was to be the official language. In 1978 Jayawardene was elected the first
president under the new constitution, and Ranasinghe Premadasa, also of the UNP, became prime minister.
Civil war
However, political unrest escalated in the 1980s as groups representing
the Tamil minority moved toward organized insurgency. Tamil
bases were built up in jungle areas of the northern and eastern parts of the
island and increasingly in the southern districts of the Indian state of Tamil
Nadu, where Tamil groups received official and
unofficial support. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)—popularly known as the Tamil
Tigers—was the strongest of these, but there were
other competing groups, which were sometimes hostile to each other.
The Sri Lankan government responded to the unrest by deploying forces to the north and the east, but the eruption of
insurgency inflamed communal passions, and in July 1983 there were extensive
organized anti-Tamil riots in Colombo and
elsewhere. Sinhalese mobs
systematically attacked Tamils and destroyed Tamil property, and the riots
forced refugees to move within the island and from Sri Lanka to Tamil Nadu.
Peace accord and
discord
The Jayawardene government, facing a simultaneous resurgence of
Sinhalese militancy by the JVP, became receptive to initiatives by the Indian government.
After prolonged negotiations, an accord signed between India and Sri Lanka on July 29, 1987, offered the Tamils
an autonomous integrated province in the northwest within a united Sri Lanka.
Later that year, Tamil was recognized as an official language (alongside
Sinhalese) by constitutional amendment. Meanwhile, the accord provided for the introduction of
an Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF)
to enforce the terms of the agreement. However, the Sri Lankan government, the
LTTE, and the IPKF disagreed over implementation of the accord, and the LTTE
resumed its offensive, this time against the IPKF, which was trying to disarm
it.
Sinnappah
Arasaratnam
In January 1989 Jayawardene retired and was succeeded by Premadasa, who had defeated Sirimavo Bandaranaike in the December 1988 elections. Premadasa negotiated
a withdrawal of the IPKF, which was completed in March 1990, and the battle
against Tamil insurgency was taken
up by the Sri Lankan army. On May 1, 1993, Premadasa was assassinated by a
suicide bomber, who allegedly was linked to the LTTE. The prime minister, Dingiri
Banda Wijetunga, was appointed acting president. In
1994 Chandrika Kumaratunga, the daughter
of S.W.R.D. and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, became the country’s first female
president. Rebel activity continued, and in 1999 Kumaratunga was injured in an
assassination attempt blamed on the LTTE. She won reelection later that year.
In 2002 a landmark cease-fire was negotiated between the war-weary LTTE and the
government. Within just a few years, however, violence had resumed, and the
cease-fire had virtually dissolved.
In addition to struggling with ongoing political unrest in the
early 21st century, Sri Lanka was rattled by a tremendous natural disaster. In
December 2004 the island was struck by a large tsunami that had been generated by an earthquake centred in
the Indian Ocean near Indonesia. The wave killed tens of thousands of people and severely
damaged the country’s northern, eastern, and southern coastal areas. Recovery
was steady in the eastern and southern zones but was slower in the north
because of the ongoing conflict there.
End of the war
Meanwhile, in 2005 Mahinda Rajapaksa,
known for his strong stance against the LTTE, was elected president as head of
a broad coalition of parties called the United People’s Freedom Alliance
(UPFA), which had gained a plurality of legislators in parliamentary elections
the previous year. The conflict between the Tamil rebels and the government
raged on, and in 2006 the LTTE was declared a terrorist organization by
the European Union. In January 2008 the
government formally abandoned the 2002 cease-fire agreement, and the fighting
intensified. Over the following months, the government captured major
strongholds of the LTTE. The town of Kilinochchi, the administrative centre of
the LTTE, came under government control in January 2009. Government troops
continued their advance into LTTE-controlled territory, cornering the remnants
of the rebel fighters along the northeast coast by late April. The army
launched a final offensive in mid-May and succeeded in overrunning and
occupying the rebels’ last stronghold. The LTTE’s leaders (including founder
Vellupillai Prabhakaran) were killed during the operation, and the LTTE
effectively ceased to exist as an organization. The number of civil-war-related
deaths in Sri Lanka since the early 1980s was estimated at between 70,000 and
80,000, with many tens of thousands more displaced by the fighting.
Aftermath and
recovery
The government’s victory over the LTTE was highly popular with the
country’s Sinhalese voters, and the UPFA won several provincial and local
elections during 2009. However, in the January 2010 presidential election,
Rajapaksa faced stiff opposition from Sarath Fonseka, the
former general who had commanded the Sri Lankan military during the civil war.
Rajapaksa won a second term, although the results were challenged by Fonseka.
In early February Fonseka was arrested while discussing with members of the
opposition the upcoming April parliamentary elections. The charges against him
allegedly stemmed from events before his retirement as general. Rajapaksa
dissolved Parliament the following day. In the April legislative elections,
UPFA candidates won a majority of seats, and in September Parliament voted
to amend the
constitution to give the president greater powers and also to remove the
restriction that a president could serve for only two terms.
Reconstruction
Sri Lanka began to recover from its 26-year civil war during
Rajapaksa’s second term. The economy showed sustained growth and reduced
poverty levels, though some were concerned about ballooning debt and
overreliance on foreign investment, especially from China. The government continued to enjoy the strong support of the
country’s large Sinhalese majority, which was reinforced by a string
of UPFA victories in provincial council elections in 2012. Rajapaksa’s
administration, however, became increasingly associated with strong-arm tactics
and other repressive measures against political opponents and various forms of
dissent, as he centralized greater power in the executive branch and among his family members. A key
development project was an expensive port in his home district of Hambantota,
funded by loans from China but which had low returns on
investment. In addition, relations with Western countries were strained over
allegations of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka and the government’s
refusal to allow independent investigations of the military’s treatment of
Tamils at the end of the civil war in 2009.
Rajapaksa’s domestic popularity appeared to wane during 2014, as
UPFA candidates won by considerably smaller margins in local elections than
they had two years earlier. Late in the year he again called for an early
presidential election, confident that he would easily win a third term if he
held the election ahead of schedule. Unexpectedly, however, one of his cabinet members, Maithripala Sirisena, defected to the opposition and ran against him. Other UPFA
members defected as well. In the early January 2015 polling, Sirisena scored an
upset victory over Rajapaksa and was sworn in as president.
In April 2015 Parliament amended the constitution
to restore the presidential two-term limit that had been removed in 2010. Having won
the most seats in parliamentary elections held on August 17,
the UNP formed a six-party coalition government. In June 2016, along with acknowledging that some 65,000 people
who had gone missing during the civil war remained unaccounted for, the
government approved legislation providing for the issuance of certificates of
absence to the families with missing relatives, thereby allowing them to finally
settle issues of inheritance, guardianship, and other related matters.
Country in
crisis: growing debt, political wrangling, and terror attack
The country’s enormous debt led to a balance-of-payments crisis in
2016. The government arranged a $1.5 billion bailout with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and set out to increase its
tax revenue. It continued to have difficulty paying its debt, however, and
found itself falling more indebted to China. In 2017 Sri Lanka leased its newly
built Hambantota port to China for 99 years, and in 2018 it accepted a $1
billion loan from China to help repay maturing loans.
As the economy struggled to sustain growth amid the debt crisis and as political tensions brewed, Sirisena fired
his prime minister, Ranil
Wickremesinghe, and appointed Rajapaksa in his place
in October 2018. Wickremesinghe charged the move as unconstitutional and
refused to step down. When it became clear in early November that Rajapaksa did
not have Parliament’s support, Sirisena attempted to dissolve Parliament and
call for early elections. Days later the move was suspended by the Supreme
Court until it could rule on the legality of Sirisena’s action, thus allowing
Parliament to convene and pass two
votes of no confidence against Rajapaksa. The votes were rejected by Rajapaksa
and his allies, and he continued to argue that he was the legitimate prime minister. After the Supreme Court ruled in
early December that Sirisena could not dissolve Parliament, Rajapaksa stepped
down to avoid further stalemate, and Sirisena reappointed Wickremesinghe.
Months later the country was shaken by its worst violence since
the civil war. On April 21, 2019—Easter morning—eight explosions occurred
in the vicinity of churches and hotels, leaving hundreds dead and hundreds more
wounded. Another blast occurred near a church the next day, while other
explosive devices were discovered and neutralized before being detonated.
Authorities, who had been warned about the attack about two weeks in advance,
identified a little-known Islamist militant group as the orchestrator of the
attacks. The manner and sophistication of the attacks, however, suggested
involvement from international networks. In the days that followed, the Islamic State in Iraq
and the Levant (ISIL; also called ISIS) claimed
responsibility, though the waning organization offered no evidence of its
direct involvement.
As elections approached later that year, Sri Lankans were cognizant of the outgoing government’s ineffectiveness in
addressing the debt crisis, its political instability, and its inability to
prevent the Easter attacks. For many
Sinhalese, Mahinda Rajapaksa and his
brother Gotabaya offered a promise
of progress, stability, and security. In November Gotabaya was elected to the
presidency along ethno-religious lines—he lacked support from Tamil and Muslim voters, who were fearful of restoring to
power a family known for its brutality in the civil war. Days after taking
office, Gotabaya appointed Mahindra to
be prime minister.
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