{"id":111253,"date":"2021-02-01T16:34:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T23:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111253"},"modified":"2021-02-01T16:34:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-01T23:34:50","slug":"a-glimpse-of-ceylon-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/01\/a-glimpse-of-ceylon-history\/","title":{"rendered":"A Glimpse of Ceylon History"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

At the very\ninception, the ‘Ceylonese’ race descended from an Aryan stock towards the 5th\ncentury BC.  Historians believe that the\nnatives in ‘Ceylon,’ before the invasion by Aryans were race called Yaksa Clan\nand the whole Island was governed according to a caste system that prevailed at\nthe time. Mahavamsa revels that Prince Vijaya, from Western India, with his\nentourage, imposed themselves on the native population of Ceylon, with the help\nof Kuveni, and settled down in various parts of the Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paddy\ncultivation was the leading agricultural farming in India during the 5th\nCentury BC.  Therefore, it appears that\nwhen Prince Vijaya and his entourage left their native land in search of a suitable\nterrestrial to settle down, the best destination that suited Vijaya as\n‘Ceylon’. Historical records disclose how King Vijaya, with his ruling\nexperience in his own country, quickly adapted similar rulership methods in\nCeylon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customs &\nTraditions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Vijaya was\naware of the customs and traditions in ‘Ceylon,<\/em><\/strong>‘. Whenever and\nwherever he established new villages as his reign, and participated in\nCoronation ceremonies, he always maintained that a Princess from his clan\nparticipated with him. To this effect, he sent messages to King Pandi<\/em><\/strong>\nin India, along with gifts of pearls and valuable jewels for princesses. It is\nalso on record how King Vijaya spent, even after his coronation, Rs.200,000\nworth of gems and precious stones annually, which affected his fortune to a\ncertain extent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upon his\ncoronation, King Vijaya led a pious lifestyle. He ruled ‘Ceylon’ for\nthirty-eight years preaching and giving sound advice to his subjects by making Tammannawa<\/em><\/strong>\na Capital City. Although no records reveal to what extent the King was wealthy,\nthe assumption was that with his management and expertise in his own country,\nthe King protected and maintained the self-sufficiency in ‘Ceylon’<\/em><\/strong>\nduring his reign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The progress or\nregress of Ceylon<\/em><\/strong> (Sri Lanka) has a vivid history both\neconomically, culturally and agriculturally. \nIt is interesting to note that metamorphoses of a degenerative nature\ninfluenced the nation over the centuries, more towards a social and economic\nfacet than a political one.  It is not\npossible to delve into detail history of an economic deterioration over two\nthousand five hundred years of history. It becomes difficult to analyse and\nconcentrate on various stages of the nation’s historical development because history\nis usually a comparison of present and the past<\/em>. Several historians have\ncategorised the past such as ‘ancient’<\/em><\/strong>  and ‘modern<\/em><\/strong>‘ history, based on\nKingdom theories, and Capital Towns. However, it is possible to classify the\neconomic change into three separate sections and view how history has changed\nfor better or worse!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ancient\nCeylon,  the transport of goods to far\nway distances became an impossibility in the absence of any vehicles and\nlogistic centres.  Consequently,\nvillagers were compelled to produce their own food that drove them into paddy\nfarming. Paddy cultivation consisted of two stages. Firstly, they had to clear\nthe jungle areas to prepare the ground and separate those into various sections\n(liyadda)<\/em><\/strong> to convert into muddy lands. Farmers depended on\nrainfall for water. They had to systematically organise themselves for each Kanne<\/em><\/strong>\nand obtained the necessary water stored in human-made drains out of the water\ncollected reservoirs from rainfall. Considering the weather patterns in the\nIsland, paddy farming seemingly became a profession and continued as an\nindustry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The King<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The King was the\nsole owner of lands in the country. Therefore, it became more or less a\npractice that every person who earned out of any vegetation from the King’s\nland had to pay a certain amount as ‘tax<\/em><\/strong>‘ to the King dependent\non one’s yield from the cultivated land. This tax became the sole income of the\nKing. To maintain a proper record of taxpayers, the King had an authentic\nrecord known as the ‘Lakam Mitiya’<\/em><\/strong>. It included details of every\ncultivated land, the owners of paddy fields, the extent of the paddy fields,\nlakes, waterways and lochs that belonged to every farmer and kept in the Royal Treasury.\nThe Royal assent declared that every official from ‘Adikarm’<\/em><\/strong> up\nto ‘Vidane’<\/em><\/strong> (ancient official titles) was responsible for their\nareas to supervise and improve agriculture ( Ref. Vandendiesen<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If one delves\ninto the past, it will be apparent that lakes, lochs, and waterways were\nconstructed systematically by our ancestors. According to the present trend in\nthe post coronavirus pandemic, we need to change our attitudes to be\nself-sufficient. We need to emulate our ancestors and learn how they expanded\nirrigation systems sophistically with forward planning as a foremost trend.\nWhat is on record in history books state as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An American\ntourist named Brigalow in  1910, after a\nsuccessful tour around Ceylon, commented on old Ceylonese irrigations systems\nas follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

” Many\ncenturies ago, when the Western civilisation was only in the pipeline or a\ndream, what Arians had constructed in Ceylon made western engineers shudder. As\nfar as irrigation system was concerned, \nwater management towards cultivation was astonishing. Compared with the\nPanama Canal,  what Ceylonese\nengineers  had  created appears only as Child’s play.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceylon was under\nthe British Rule and a Colony for approximately one and a half centuries.  Up to date, what we see and benefit is out of\nwhat the British had achieved in Ceylon – except very recently modern road\nworks and motorways have come up. Unfortunately, since the British left Ceylon<\/em><\/strong>,’\nlocal  leaders ‘ became intolerant when\nsorting good from bad<\/em>! During the \nBritish era, many British citizens did several tours round the country, both\nofficially and as  pleasure  trips during their free time to study the\ncountry. The following is such an array of examples of those Britishers whose\nideas were exposed publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1815, the Government Agent in Badulla, Mr Bailey<\/em>,\npublished a worthy report, with the consent of the ‘Government of Ceylon’<\/em>.\nIt rerecords  as follows:  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

” It is\nimpossible to witness how those massive water projects constructed by Ceylonese\nengineers in comparison with any other part of the world. It <\/em>based\non my own opinion. The gigantic irrigation work done by Ceylonese\nengineers is certainly a rare task.  It\nis impossible to imagine,  in a tiny\ncountry like Ceylon, how such advanced \nirrigation engineering had taken place!”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir Emerson Tenant had to say about the irrigation in\nCeylon in the following manner<\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Out\nof all the gigantic projects in  Ceylon\nwhat brings to memory are gargantuan old lakes, which are prominent and\nmysterious. These are incomparable with any other lakes in foreign countries.\nFor example, the ruins that remain in Ceylon can be compared with the Morris\nCanal, Egypt’s main town that destroyed. Al Aram lake is considered  as the grandest engineering marvel of the\nancient world.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marub:<\/strong>   ”\nThe enormity of lochs  and lakes bring\nastonishment to any observer.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 A recent study shows that what the old\nengineers in Ceylon had done on lake construction were very useful and much\nmore advanced than waterway construction with modern and up-to-date equipment\ntoday. It is interesting to note that during the 20th Century Mahaweli\ndevelopment<\/em>, Maduru Oya project<\/em><\/strong>, the modern engineers faced a\nproblem in locating the Aniket. When they were exhausted, they suddenly came\nacross the sluice used during the Anuradhapura-Polonnaruwa era covered with\nsoil and mud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generally, old\nlakes were constructed so that water naturally flowed from one to another, and\nthe gradient was only one foot over a mile. In certain areas, the slope was\nonly up to six inches per mile. It goes to show how skilful Ceylonese ancestors\nwere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History further reveals how the old folk did not entirely\ndepend on rain for the water. Farmers found other ways of diverting lake water\nby cutting drains manually to delay the necessary water supply to their paddy\nfields. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nmysterious occurrence was how our ancestors managed to let water flow from\nlower to higher elevations. For instance, Tissa Wewa is on a much higher hill\nthan the Kala Wewa. However, our ancestral genii managed to let the flow of\nwater to Tissa Wewa<\/em><\/strong> by constructing a 56-mile-long ‘Yoda Wewa’<\/em><\/strong>\nwith the gradient of only one inch per mile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

tilakfernando@gmail.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

courtesy: G.H.Perera, Christy de Silva, C.Mendis and R.\nBrohier<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando At the very inception, the ‘Ceylonese’ race descended from an Aryan stock towards the 5th century BC.  Historians believe that the natives in ‘Ceylon,’ before the invasion by Aryans were race called Yaksa Clan and the whole Island was governed according to a caste system that prevailed at the time. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-drtilak-s-fernando"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}