By Raj Gonsalkorale

Legitimate questions could be asked about Prince Vijaya’s voyage. Why was he coming towards Sri Lanka? Was he actually headed to Sri Lanka? He had no known association with Buddhism, so he would not have made the voyage as a missionary to introduce Buddhism to Sri Lanka. As a trader? Very likely. If so, would he choose a relatively less attractive destination for trading, or would he choose an attractive destination worth his while and go to a place like Korkai, situated at the mouth of the Thamirabarani river in the Southern part of India which was known as a major centre for pearl fishing.

Thamirabarani River (Sanskrit: Tāmraparṇī), is located in the Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts of Tamil Nadu, South India. It is on the southeast coast of India, and it sits directly across the Gulf of Mannar from the north-western coast of Sri Lanka to the area called Tambapanni. Research confirms the Thamirabarani area was a major hub of ancient maritime connections. Tambapaṇṇī in Sri Lanka is a name derived from Tāmraparṇī or Tāmravarṇī (in Sanskrit) and it has got reference to the Thamirabarani river in India. Korkai, situated at the mouth of the Thamirabarani, was known as a legendary centre for pearl fishing. This port was a primary trade partner for Sri Lanka’s northern ports like Mantai, and findings of Rouletted Ware (a type of pottery) prove a shared maritime culture.

Archaeological Research and Findings

• Adichanallur xcavations: Just as Pathirajawela has redefined Sri Lankan timelines, the Adichanallur archaeological site near the Thamirabarani River has revolutionized South Indian history. Excavations have revealed a Megalithic burial site with urns, iron tools, and pottery dating back as far as 1000–600 BCE.
• The “Copper” Connection: The name Tāmraparṇī (meaning “copper-leaved” or “copper-coloured”) is common to both the Indian river and the landing site in Sri Lanka. In both regions, this refers to the red, iron-rich soil found along the coast. 

The Mahavamsa 

As Prince Vijaya’s arrival in Sri Lanka has a direct link to the Mahavamsa, the following narrative will be useful to contextualise the question posed in the title of this article. The Mahāvaṃsa records events starting from the 6th century BCE (the 500s BC) when Prince Vijaya supposedly landed in the island but wasn’t physically written down until the 5th century CE (the 400s AD). Because the “6th century BCE” covers 600–501 BCE and the “5th/6th century CE” covers 401–600 CE, the gap between the start of the history and the act of writing it by Ven Mahanama is roughly 900 to 1,100 years. This gap is significant because it highlights that for nearly a millennium, the earliest history of Sri Lanka was preserved primarily through an oral tradition. 

Key details regarding its composition:

• Context: It was written to record the history of Buddhism and the dynastic succession of Sri Lanka, starting from the legendary arrival of Prince Vijaya (6th century BCE) up to the reign of King Mahasena (4th century CE).
• Sources: Ven Mahānāma compiled the work based on earlier documents, specifically the Dipavamsa (4th century CE) and the Mahavamsa-Atthakatha (a 4th-century Sinhala commentary).
• Language: It was composed in the Pali language, a sacred language of Theravada Buddhism, in an epic poetic style intended for memorization.
• Subsequent Additions: While the original Mahavamsa covers up to the 4th century, the continuation, known as the Culavamsa (Lesser Chronicle), was added by subsequent authors to cover history up to the British takeover in 1815. 

The text was largely unknown to the Western world until the first printed edition was published in 1837 by George Turnour, a British civil servant

The Mahavamsa narrative relating to Prince Vijaya’s arrival in the island and landing in an area called Tambapanni (which basically means copper coloured soil), which is in the north-western coast of Sri Lanka, and almost opposite the Thamirabarani River on the other side of the Gulf of Mannar, poses some interesting speculative discussion.

Wikipedia says that from a research standpoint, the Thamirabarani region is seen as the cultural twin of early Sri Lanka on the opposite side of the Gulf of Mannar. The shared name and red soil suggest that any landing at Tambapanni in Sri Lanka may have been part of a broader migratory wave that originally targeted the pearl-rich ports of the Thamirabarani River in India, and not Tambapanni in Sri Lanka which was not known for such wealth.

Maritime archaeological information suggests that the Thamirabarani-Sri Lanka Route in the Gulf of Mannar, was notoriously shallow and filled with reefs (like Adam’s Bridge) and it had led to frequent historical accounts of ships being driven off course or wrecked.

Researchers also suggest that the similarity in names—where the Indian river and the Sri Lankan island share similar titles—indicates that early seafaring groups from the Northwest of India (such as Gujarat/Sopara) may have attempted to reach Thamirabarani in India but were blown off course by monsoons, or ship wrecked, with the sea farers ultimately landing on the red sands of Sri Lanka instead. While no single Vijaya-era wreck has been positively identified to date, recent underwater surveys in the Palk Strait have found stone anchors and pottery shards that confirm the heavy usage of this “S-shaped” trade route by ancient mariners. Considering the hive of trading activity in ports in the Thamirabarani river, it is more likely and logical for sea faring traders to go to Thamirabarani in India rather than Tambapanni in Sri Lanka. Their journeys could have been treacherous at times considering the challenges mentioned earlier, some of them could have landed in Tambapanni in Sri Lanka although their intended objective was to go to Thamirabarani. Besides this, to a sailor from Northwest India, the sight of the red cliffs at Kudiramalai (Tambapanni) would look remarkably similar to the red earth of the Thamirabarani region they were searching for. Landing there might also have been a case of mistaken identity.

Given this possibility, one could ask the question whether Prince Vijaya also faced such a situation and he in fact landed in Sri Lanka and not India due to a logical maritime accident. If he was just a sea farer, a Prince or otherwise, and who was only after the opportunities that Thamirabarani offered, but got carried away to Sri Lanka and if a subsequent mythological legend was not built around him, the incident could have been considered one of those events”. 

However, had Prince Vijaya actually reached Thamirabarani as he had planned and not Tambapanni in Sri Lanka, the pivotal link between Prince Vijaya and the Mahavamsa gives rise to a very challenging interpretation to what is stated in the Mahavamsa. Sri Lankan history, particularly the early part of it as related in the Mahavamsa will be subject to challenge, because of the possibility that Prince Vijaya never arrived in Sri Lanka. The legend that the prince supposedly arrived in Sri Lanka on the day the Buddha passed away, and the many stories relating to Kuveni and her clan, the mythical devils called Yaksha and Naga will add weight to the view that the Vijaya story was indeed just a mythical legend.

No conclusions are being drawn here one way or the other, but one fact that can be stated is that there is no scientific evidence, archaeological or otherwise, that a Prince called Vijaya in fact arrived in Sri Lanka. What is available is a narrative written about 1000 years after the poetic verses depicting history that supposedly were composed and memorised and passed down verbally until they were compiled into a document by Ven Mahanama.

A more plausible history based on available research findings

Today, most secular historians view the Vijaya story as part of a natural phenomenon of a gradual, multi-wave migration of Indo-Aryan speakers that took place over centuries, rather than a single event with 700 men. There are challenges to the historical accounts in the Mahavamsa, in the form of physical evidence that actually exist from that period (c. 500 BCE), such as the Anuradhapura Citadel excavations, which show a city already thriving before the traditional founding date in the Mahavamsa. The excavations at the Anuradhapura Citadel (specifically the Gedige and Salgahawatta areas) provide the most powerful evidence that a sophisticated, urban society existed in Sri Lanka long before the traditional Vijaya arrival date of 543 BCE. While the Mahavamsa attributes the city’s founding to King Pandukabhaya around the 4th century BCE, scientific dating has pushed the city’s origins back nearly 500 years earlier.

Key Evidence from the Citadel (c. 900–500 BCE)

• The 900 BCE Settlement: Under the direction of Dr. Siran Deraniyagala, radiocarbon dating of the deepest layers (nearly 30 feet down) revealed that a large Iron Age village already existed by 900 BCE. It covered roughly 15 to 25 hectares, indicating it was more than just a small tribal camp.
• Rapid Urbanisation (700–600 BCE): By 700 BCE, the settlement had expanded to 50 hectares (about 120 acres), reaching “town” size. This growth coincided with the “second urbanisation” of the Ganges Valley in India, proving Sri Lanka was part of a major regional surge in civilization.
• Advanced Technology: Findings from these pre-Vijaya layers include:
  • Iron Tools: Evidence of a primary metal industry used for agriculture and construction.
  • Domesticated Animals: Remains of horses and cattle, which were not indigenous to the island and suggest early maritime trade or migration from the mainland.
  • Agriculture: Remains of paddy rice, black gram, and millet, proving a settled farming community.
• The Literacy Revolution (600–500 BCE): Perhaps the most controversial find was Brahmi script on pottery shards (Black and Red Ware) dating to 600–500 BCE. This makes it some of the oldest writing found in all of South Asia—predating the famous Edicts of Ashoka by centuries and suggesting a literate merchant or administrative class existed before the “founding” of the kingdom. 

Why this challenges the Myth

This physical evidence directly contradicts the “Vijaya” narrative in two ways:

1. Chronology: It shows that Anuradhapura was already a thriving proto city for nearly 400 years before Vijaya is said to have landed.
2. Sophistication: The Mahavamsa describes the original inhabitants (Yakka/Naga) as “demons” or primitive spirits to justify the North Indian “civilizing” mission. Archaeology, however, shows they were already iron-using, horse-riding, literate farmers with international trade links. 

The discovery of Black and Red Ware (BRW) pottery is the single most important archaeological link between pre-Vijaya Sri Lanka and South India, particularly the Thamirabarani region. This pottery proves that the two regions were part of a single, unified cultural and economic zone long before the periods described in the Mahavamsa. In Anuradhapura, BRW appears in layers dated to 10th Century BCE (900 BCE), nearly 400 years before the traditional Vijaya date. It was used for both daily domestic life and specialized burial rituals in Megalithic tombs (cist burials and urns). 

The Thamirabarani/South Indian Connection

The BRW found in Sri Lanka (at sites like Anuradhapura, Pomparippu, and Kantarodai) is reportedly virtually identical to that found in the Thamirabarani River basin (sites like Adichanallur and Korkai). 

• Oldest Writing: High-quality BRW flat dishes found at Tissamaharama on the southern coast feature Tamil-Brahmi script dating back to the 3rd Century BCE, referencing a merchant guild (tiraLi muRi).
• Burial Practices: The Megalithic burial culture (using stone circles and urns) that used this pottery is identical on both sides of the Palk Strait, suggesting a shared ancestry between the early “Hela” tribes and the South Indian populations. 

Because this pottery and its associated lifestyle (iron use, paddy farming) are dated to 900–600 BCE, it proves that the civilization Vijaya supposedly “founded” was already fully operational and trading across the ocean centuries before he arrived. In essence, the archaeology suggests that if a “Vijaya” did land, he didn’t land in a wilderness of demons; he landed in a sophisticated, international trade network that had been using Black and Red Ware to exchange goods with South India for generations

Another archaeological factor that supports this view are the Ibbankatuwa Megalithic Tombs (near Dambulla). These are mentioned as the “silent witnesses” to the people who lived in Sri Lanka between 700 BCE and 400 BCE with excavations proving the existence of a well-organized human society. This is a massive cemetery covering over 13 hectares with burials in tombs (stone boxes made of granite slabs). Experts are of the opinion that this level of organized burial indicates a settled society with clear social hierarchies and respect for ancestors and they included thousands of beads made from carnelian, agate, and quartz, some of which are not native to Sri Lanka and would have been imported from North and West India. Archaeologists had also found fine jewellery, including gold wire and copper rods, proving they were skilled in metallurgy, and farming implements and weapons, showing they had mastered the Iron Age technology long before the “Vijaya” arrival.

Conclusion

There seems to be a substantial amount of archaeological evidence to support the existence of an organised, literate, well-functioning society in Sri Lanka long before Vijaya’s arrival which has no supporting evidence, and therefore more mythical than factual. The discussion and debate is not, and should not be about whether he arrived or not, but about the myths and folklore embedded in the early periods covered by the Mahavamsa using his arrival to virtually spin” a story around him. The origin of the Sinhala race, it embracing Buddhism and making the island a Sinhala Buddhist country, when there is archaeological evidence to support the fact that the island was inhabited as described, that it included people from other parts of the world, perhaps mostly from the South of India considering its proximity to the North West of Sri Lanka, that its inhabitants followed a diverse mix of indigenous animism, spirit worship, and early Indian faiths, where the religious scene was not a single, organized system, but a “hodgepodge” of cults that existed among the early Sinhalese and other ethnic groups like the Nagas. (International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science-  https://rsisinternational.org /virtual-library/papers/the-pre-buddhist-religious-beliefs-in-ancient-sri-lanka/#:~:text=We%20can %20categorized %20the%20pre,such%20as%20Chitrar%C4%81ja%20and%20K%C4%81lav%C4%93la)

While it may be too late to change the converted” who subscribe to the traditional Vijaya based Sinhala Buddhist literary narrative in the Mahavamsa, a logical, plausible, researched history should define the narrative relating to the ancient inhabitation of the island. A substantial amount of such researched information is available to recast the islands ancient history into a model that depicts it as one that consisted of several well-functioning, sophisticated human societies when Vijaya supposedly arrived in the island, if indeed he did arrive in Sri Lanka.