{"id":99763,"date":"2020-03-09T17:36:14","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T00:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=99763"},"modified":"2020-03-09T17:36:14","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T00:36:14","slug":"distortion-of-our-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/03\/09\/distortion-of-our-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Distortion of our History"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Prabhakaran was hell-bent on distorting Sri Lanka\u2019s history. He launched a campaign with Anton Balasingham in the helm to attack Mahavansa. The LTTE discounted Vijaya\u2019s arrival (more than 2500 years ago) and stressed that Tamils are Sri Lanka\u2019s indigenous people.\u00a0 According to them, Buddhism existed in Sri Lanka prior to Mahindagamanaya and that a Tamil Buddhist civilization existed in the ancient North and East of Sri Lanka.\u00a0 Though it is very well accepted that Ravana is mythology, the separatists stressed that Ravana did rule Sri Lanka (more than 4000 years ago) and that he was a Tamil King. Now, Wigenswaran et al propagate similar lies. The separatists have been successful in stressing their points of view; as a result, prominent websites worldwide have recorded the wrong Sri Lankan history that is favorable to Tamils. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, since recently some Sinhalese scholars seem directly or indirectly endorse what Prabhakaran and his cohorts were saying. \u00a0They include prominent Archeologists, Historians, Buddhist monks, Journalists, and Politicians. \u00a0Some academics receive financial grants\/donations from NGOs and assistance even from the Sri Lankan governments to continue with their distortions, at great detriment to the motherland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The patriotic Sinhalese\u2019 complacency has\ngreatly helped the separatists and history distorters to carry on with their ulterior\nmotives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is universally accepted that Mahavansa depicts the correct Sri Lankan history. It is acknowledged that no other nation has a so well recorded history as Sri Lanka. Sri Lankans have been proud of the chronicle, Mahavansa. The colonial rulers acknowledged Mahavansa as the \u2018gospel truth\u2019 and translated it from the original Pali to such languages as Sinhalese, English, and German.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closer to 2500 years we Sri Lankans have devotedly\nbelieved that we are descendants of Vijaya, the Prince from North India. The\nSinhalese have been proud that they have a blood lineage to Lord Buddha (upon\nVijaya\u2019s death, his nephew Panduvasudeva became the king, and his wife was\nPrinces Buddha Kachchayana of Shakya Wansha, who was a close blood relative of\nLord Buddha).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since recently, Vijaya\u2019s arrival has been removed from our school history books.\u00a0 Instead, these books say that Sri Lanka was inhabited by \u2018homo-sapiens\u2019 who migrated to the land from Africa more than 125,000 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is hard to believe that any country in the\nworld would allow such a blatant distortion of their history, but Sri Lanka has\nallowed it.  Darwin\u2019s theory of\nevaluation, which has absolutely nothing to do with Vijaya, has been used to remove\nthe true Sri Lankan history from school history books. It is Vijaya\u2019s arrival\nthat led to the beginning of the Great Sinhala Civilization that boasts Sri\nLanka\u2019s peaceful Buddhist way of life (upon Ven Mahinda\u2019s arrival) and the advanced\nhydraulic irrigation system. But, our children have been denied the right to learn\nabout them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that the world\u2019s first human being\nwas a homo-sapien should not be used as a reason to claim that therefore Sri\nLanka\u2019s foundation was laid by homo-sapiens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, this is exactly what the history\ndistorters have successfully done in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans, Indians, British, Japanese,\nChinese would never teach their student such a thing. It is a stupid argument.\nThese nations would always teach their correct history to children \u2013 how those nations\nand their people \u2018came about to be\u2019. –<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we were history students we learned through books that Vijaya landed in Thambapanni.\u00a0 Today, this is fully eliminated from school textbooks\/curriculums. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, schoolchildren learn that homo-sapiens landed in a place closer to Yala more than 125000 years ago (see Year 6 and \u00a010 history books).\u00a0 This is a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the correct history of children – \u00a0our future generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The distorters depict to our students that the unknown, unnamed homo-sapiens are the heroes, not Vijaya, Ven Mahinda, Ven Sangamitta, Pandukabhaya, Devanampiyatissa, Anuladevi, etc. Through advanced training methods,\u00a0 the country\u2019s history teachers have been indoctrinated to follow and teach students with this false concept of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who distort our history stress\/imply\nthat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. There is no archeological evidence that an Indian Prince named\nVijayaya arrived in Sri Lanka;<\/li>
  2. Even prior to Vijaya\u2019s arrival, Sri Lanka was known as Sihaladeepa (\u0dc3\u0dd2\u0dc4\u0dbd\u0daf\u0dd3\u0db4) (then\nhow and when did the homo-sapiens become Sinhalese?<\/em>);<\/li>
  3. Prior to the arrival of Vijaya\/Mihindu,\nthere existed a highly developed civilization in Sri Lanka: <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0(it is universally accepted that Kuweni\u2019s people were primitive hunter-gatherers and they did not lead an advanced\/ sophisticated lifestyle. During the Ice Age where Africa, Asia, and Australia were one continent, some Sri Lankan Aborigines walked eastwards, including Australia (thus, the Australian Aborigines<\/em>).\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Such far-fetched and fanciful claims include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n