Sugath Kulatunga

The Sinhalese nation has made a series of political and strategic lapses which have influenced the fate of this nation throughout history. This note is to roughly indicate them, and hope historians fill up the details.

For strategic reasons valid at the time, all our capitals other than Kotte, were located away from the coast. Although we had many busy ports in ancient Sri Lanka like Mahathitta, Jambukola, Gokanna and Godawaya, none of them served as Capital cities. The economy of ancient Sri Lanka was based on agriculture and trade. Although the ports served as entrepôt trade hubs they were not developed as important cities and the country did not capitalize on the strategic location of the island in the Indian ocean. SL had the skills and resources to develop as a maritime power. According to Robert Knox Its forests abound with timber, fit for the construction of the most durable navy. The harbor of Trincomalee alone is an inestimable acquisition -where the whole navy of Great Britain might ride in security.

It is the dominion of the sea, which alone can afford security to commercial enterprise.”

It is on record that King Parakramabahu the Great sent successful expeditionary forces to Burma and South India.

While small nations like Portuguese and Dutch became global powers because of their seafaring dominance, SL did not make use of its maritime advantages. The lack of a marine power was the main reason that made SL subject to invasion by the three European powers. Every time they were trapped into Colombo Fort, they were rescued by help coming from abroad by sea. The non-development of a maritime strength was one of the big mistakes of the Sinhalese.

    The island has been a center of Buddhist scholarship and practices since the introduction of Buddhism in the third century BC. Sri Lanka was the depositary of Commentaries of Theravada Buddhism in Sinhala. In the 5^th Century AD with the emergence of Mahayana, Sanskrit became the dominant language in interpreting Buddhism and the use of Pali was on the decline. This made adherents of Pali language seek ways and means to get back Pali to its original glory. One strategy to do this was to translate to Pali the unique commentaries in Sinhalese on the Tripitaka to Pali. Ven. Buddhagosha from India came to Sri Lanka for this purpose. He was an exceptional translator who translated the original Sinhalese commentaries to Pali with the help of Mahavihara. This was admirable but he destroyed all the Sinhala commentaries to prevent them from superseding the Pali translations and comparing the translations with the original Sinhala commentaries. This was a selfish and unwarranted act. This prevented the Sinhala language to become a dominant language of Buddhism. Letting Buddhagosha commit this obnoxious act was a terrible mistake.

      It was the hallowed tradition in Sri Lanka that the King was the custodian of the Tooth Relic and was a devout Buddhist. What was imperative was the religion and not the race. Nissanka Malla from Kalinga became a Buddhist and became the King. In late history this tradition allowed Malabar Nayak clan to occupy the throne by becoming Buddhists. During the reign of the last Nayak king it created dissension among the Kandyan chiefs and led to the ultimate takeover of the Kandyan Kingdom by the British. Religion should not have been made a shield to justify the right to the throne.

A mistake made in the modern times is the naming of the Republic from Ceylon to Sri Lanka. This was obviously done to match with the title of the Sri Lanka Freedom party. We should have retained the name Ceylon which was a derivation of the historical name Zeylan or name the island Sinhale which was the historical name used in Prakrit *𑀲𑀻𑀳𑀮𑀤𑀻𑀯 (*sīhaladīva) and Sanskrit सिंहलद्वीप (siṃhaladvīpa. It is the name of the country mentioned in Mahabharata (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sinhala). It is also the practice adopted in countries like France of the French, Germany of Germans and England of the English.

The most recent blunder is the leasing of the Hambantota Port to the Chinese for 99 years. We are in for the indiscriminate sale of national assets on a large scale in the next few years when there is over 50 billion US dollars illegally held back abroad by our exporters.

Lapses in History

The Sinhalese nation has made a series of political and strategic lapses which have influenced the fate of this nation throughout history. This note is to roughly indicate them, and hope historians fill up the details.

For strategic reasons valid at the time, all our capitals other than Kotte, were located away from the coast. Although we had many busy ports in ancient Sri Lanka like Mahathitta, Jambukola, Gokanna and Godawaya, none of them served as Capital cities. The economy of ancient Sri Lanka was based on agriculture and trade. Although the ports served as entrepôt trade hubs they were not developed as important cities and the country did not capitalize on the strategic location of the island in the Indian ocean. SL had the skills and resources to develop as a maritime power. According to Robert Knox Its forests abound with timber, fit for the construction of the most durable navy. The harbor of Trincomalee alone is an inestimable acquisition -where the whole navy of Great Britain might ride in security.

It is the dominion of the sea, which alone can afford security to commercial enterprise.”

It is on record that King Parakramabahu the Great sent successful expeditionary forces to Burma and South India.

While small nations like Portuguese and Dutch became global powers because of their seafaring dominance, SL did not make use of its maritime advantages. The lack of a marine power was the main reason that made SL subject to invasion by the three European powers. Every time they were trapped into Colombo Fort, they were rescued by help coming from abroad by sea. The non-development of a maritime strength was one of the big mistakes of the Sinhalese.

    The island has been a center of Buddhist scholarship and practices since the introduction of Buddhism in the third century BC. Sri Lanka was the depositary of Commentaries of Theravada Buddhism in Sinhala. In the 5^th Century AD with the emergence of Mahayana, Sanskrit became the dominant language in interpreting Buddhism and the use of Pali was on the decline. This made adherents of Pali language seek ways and means to get back Pali to its original glory. One strategy to do this was to translate to Pali the unique commentaries in Sinhalese on the Tripitaka to Pali. Ven. Buddhagosha from India came to Sri Lanka for this purpose. He was an exceptional translator who translated the original Sinhalese commentaries to Pali with the help of Mahavihara. This was admirable but he destroyed all the Sinhala commentaries to prevent them from superseding the Pali translations and comparing the translations with the original Sinhala commentaries. This was a selfish and unwarranted act. This prevented the Sinhala language to become a dominant language of Buddhism. Letting Buddhagosha commit this obnoxious act was a terrible mistake.

      It was the hallowed tradition in Sri Lanka that the King was the custodian of the Tooth Relic and was a devout Buddhist. What was imperative was the religion and not the race. Nissanka Malla from Kalinga became a Buddhist and became the King. In late history this tradition allowed Malabar Nayak clan to occupy the throne by becoming Buddhists. During the reign of the last Nayak king it created dissension among the Kandyan chiefs and led to the ultimate takeover of the Kandyan Kingdom by the British. Religion should not have been made a shield to justify the right to the throne.

A mistake made in the modern times is the naming of the Republic from Ceylon to Sri Lanka. This was obviously done to match with the title of the Sri Lanka Freedom party. We should have retained the name Ceylon which was a derivation of the historical name Zeylan or name the island Sinhale which was the historical name used in Prakrit *𑀲𑀻𑀳𑀮𑀤𑀻𑀯 (*sīhaladīva) and Sanskrit सिंहलद्वीप (siṃhaladvīpa. It is the name of the country mentioned in Mahabharata (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sinhala). It is also the practice adopted in countries like France of the French, Germany of Germans and England of the English.

The most recent blunder is the leasing of the Hambantota Port to the Chinese for 99 years. We are in for the indiscriminate sale of national assets on a large scale in the next few years when there is over 50 billion US dollars illegally held back abroad by our exporters.

Sugath Kulatunga