A search for Vijaya’s origins
“Finding Sinhabahu”- Dr. Ajith Amerasinghe. Vijitha Yapa Publications. Price: Rs 1100. Reviewed by Tissa Devendra.
In this fascinating book Ajith Amerasinghe , a practising paediatrician, has ventured into a field that does not seem to have greatly interested many other historians. Most studies have focused on the date and location of the landing of Vijaya and his troop of migrants (exiles? refugees?) from somewhere in India. Our great Sinhala chronicles the Mahavansa and Deepavansa, written centuries after this event embroider their account, derived from oral myth, with names of cities and kingdoms in India which have confused scholars attempting to physically locate them in the map of modern India.
Author Amerasinghe has boldly stepped into this ‘black hole’ in Sri Lanka’s history and uses lesser known records from Indian, and other sources as well as personal exploration in his attempt to physically identify the city of ‘Sinhapura’ the capital of Sinhabahu, Vijaya’s father. Incidentally, he gives a credible explanation of this ruler’s name, stripping it of its mythical lineage from the king of the beasts. Complicating this search has been the liberal use of the titles of ‘king’ and ‘kingdoms’ to refer to areas of authority ruled by scions of powerful noble families, later defeated or assimilated by more powerful neighbours.
Another problem that the author had to overcome was that these new ‘conquests’ often involved a re-naming of old towns – a tendency that we Sri Lankans are all too familiar with.
The author establishes, quite convincingly, that most of the early Indo-Aryan speaking waves of immigrants to Sri Lanka, from Vijaya onwards, have been from the north eastern regions now covered by Orissa and Bengal. This explains the marriage alliances and cultural ties that Sinhala royalty had with the kingdom of Kalinga. Interestingly these ‘royal’ immigrants brought along, in their entourages, minor nobility whom they installed in powerful positions. The last example of this peculiar tendency is the influx of “nobles’ from Madurai commencing with the Kings of the Kandyan kingdom preferring to marry into the South Indian “Royal” Nayakkar clan instead of non-royal Sinhala aristocracy.
Amerasinghe bases his findings on documentary, archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence which he quotes extensively and convincingly. This work is an altogether fascinating foray into a little studied aspect of the history of the Sinhala people and their distant roots. Regrettably, I am compelled to comment on the many typos that mar the text.