Ceylon; an Account of the Island Physical, Historical, and Topographical with Notices of Its Natural History Part 73

Throughout the Singhalese chronicles, the notices of the aborigines are but casual, and occasionally contemptuous. Sometimes they allude to "slaves of the Yakkho tribe,"[1] and in recording the progress and completion of the tanks and other stupendous works, the _Mahawanso_ and the _Rajaratnacari_, in order to indicate the inferiority of the natives to their masters, speak of their conjoint labours as that of "men and snakes,"[2] and "men and demons."[3]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., ch. xix, p. 115.]

[Footnote 3: The King Maha-Sen, anxious for the promotion of agriculture, caused many tanks to be made "by men and devils."--_Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xvii.; UPHAM'S _Transl.; Rajaratnacari_, p.

69; _Rajavali_, p. 237.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]

Notwithstanding the degradation of the natives, it was indispensable to "befriend the interests" of a race so numerous and so useful; hence, they were frequently employed in the military expeditions of the Wijayan sovereigns[1], and the earlier kings of that dynasty admitted the rank of the Yakkho chiefs who shared in these enterprises. They a.s.signed a suburb of the capital for their residence[2], and on festive occasions they were seated on thrones of equal eminence with that of the king.[3]

But every aspiration towards a recovery of their independence was checked by a device less characteristic of ingenuity in the ascendant race, than of simplicity combined with jealousy in the aborigines. The feeling was encouraged and matured into a conviction which prevailed to the latest period of the Singhalese sovereignty, that no individual of pure Singhalese extraction could be elevated to the supreme power, since no one could prostrate himself before one of his own nation.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso,_ ch. x.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid.,_ ch. x. p. 67.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid.,_ p. 66.]

[Footnote 4: JOINVILLE'S _Asiat. Res,_ vol. vii. p. 422.]

For successive generations, however, the natives, although treated with partial kindness, were regarded as a separate race. Even the children of Wijayo, by his first wife Kuweni, united themselves with their maternal connexions on the repudiation of their mother by the king, "and retained the attributes of Yakkhos,"[1] and by that designation the natives continued to be distinguished down to the reign of Dutugaimunu.

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso,_ ch. vii.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]

In spite of every attempt at conciliation, the process of amalgamation between the two races was reluctant and slow. The earliest Bengal immigrants sought wives among the Tamils, on the opposite coast of India[1]; and although their descendants intermarried with the natives, the great ma.s.s of the population long held aloof from the invaders, and occasionally vented their impatience in rebellion.[2] Hence the progress of civilisation amongst them was but partial and slow, and in the narratives of the early rulers of the island there is ample evidence that the aborigines long retained their habits of shyness and timidity.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid.,_ p. 53.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch, lx.x.xv.]

Notwithstanding the frequent resort of every nation of antiquity to its coasts, the accounts of the first voyagers are almost wholly confined to descriptions of the loveliness of the country, the singular brilliancy of its jewels, the richness of its pearls, the sagacity of its elephants, and the delicacy and abundance of its spices; but the information which they furnish regarding its inhabitants is so uniformly meagre, as to attest the absence of intercourse; and the writers of all nations, Romans, Greeks, Arabians, Chinese and Indians, concur in their allusions to the unsocial and uncivilised customs of the islanders.[1]

[Footnote 1: See an account of these singular peculiarities, Vol. I. P.

IV. c. vii.]

As the Bengal adventurers advanced into the interior of the island, a large section of the natives withdrew into the forests and hunting grounds on the eastern and southern coasts.[1] There, subsisting by the bow[2] and the chase, they adhered, with moody tenacity, to the rude habits of their race; and in the Veddah of the present day, there is still to be recognised a remnant of the untamed aborigines of Ceylon.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Hiouen Thsang,_ the Chinese geographer, who visited India in the seventh century, says that at that time the Yakkhos had retired to the south-east corner of Ceylon;--and here their descendants, the Veddahs, are found at the present day,--_Voyages,_ &c., liv. iv. p.

200.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso,_ ch. xxiv. p. 145, x.x.xiii. p. 204.]

[Footnote 3: DE ALWIS, _Sidath Sangara,_ p. xvii. For an account of the Veddahs and their present condition, see Vol. II. P. ix. ch. iii.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]

Even those of the original race who slowly conformed to the religion and habits of their masters, were never entirely emanc.i.p.ated from the ascendency of their ancient superst.i.tions. Traces of the wors.h.i.+p of snakes and demons are to the present hour clearly perceptible amongst them; the Buddhists still resort to the incantations of the "devil dancers" in case of danger and emergency[1]; a Singhalese, rather than put a Cobra de Capello to death, encloses the reptile in a wicker cage, and sets it adrift on the nearest stream; and in the island of Nainativoe, to the south-west of Jaffa, there was till recently a little temple, dedicated to the G.o.ddess Naga Tambiran, in which consecrated serpents were tenderly reared by the Pandarams, and daily fed at the expense of the wors.h.i.+ppers.[2]

[Footnote 1: For an account of Demon wors.h.i.+p as it still exists in Ceylon, see Sir J. EMERSON TENNANT'S _History of Christianity in Ceylon,_ ch. v. p. 236.]

[Footnote 2: CASIE CHITTY'S _Gazetteer, &c.,_ p. 169.]

CHAP. VIII

EXTINCTION OF THE "GREAT DYNASTY."

[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]

From the death of Dutugaimunu to the exhaustion of the superior dynasty on the death of Malta-Sen, A.D. 301, there are few demonstrations of pious munificence to signalise the policy of the intervening sovereigns.

The king whom, next to Devenipiatissa and Dutugaimunu, the Buddhist historians rejoice to exalt as one of the champions of the faith, was Walagam-bahu I.[1], whose reign, though marked by vicissitudes, was productive of lasting benefit to the national faith. Walagam-bahu ascended the throne B.C. 104., but was almost immediately forced to abdicate by an incursion of the Malabars; who, concerting a simultaneous landing at several parts of the island, combined their movements so successfully that they seized on Anaraj.a.poora, and drove the king into concealment in the mountains near Adam's Peak; and whilst one portion of the invaders returned laden with plunder to the Dekkan, their companions remained behind and held undisputed possession of the northern parts of Ceylon for nearly fifteen years.

[Footnote 1: Called in the _Mahawanso_, "Wata-gamini".]

[Sidenote: B.C. 104.]

In this and the frequent incursions which followed, the Malabar leaders were attracted by the wealth of the country to the north of the Mahawelli-ganga; the southern portion of the island being either too wild and unproductive to present a temptation to conquest, or too steep and inaccessible to afford facilities for invasion. Besides, the highlanders who inhabit the lofty ranges that lie around Adam's Peak; (a district known as Malaya, "the region of mountains and torrents,")[1]

then and at all times exhibited their superiority over the lowlanders in vigour, courage, and endurance. Hence the petty kingdoms of Maya and Rohuna afforded on every occasion a refuge to the royal family when driven from the northern capital, and furnished a force to a.s.sist in their return and restoration. Walagam-bahu, after many years'

concealment there, was at last enabled to resume the offensive, and succeeded in driving out the infidels, and recovering possession of the sacred city, an event which he commemorated in the usual manner by the erection of dagobas, tanks, and wiharas.

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ALU WIHARA NEAR MATELLE.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 89.]

But the achievement by which most of all he ent.i.tled himself to the grat.i.tude of the Singhalese annalists, was the reduction to writing of the doctrines and discourses of Buddha, which had been orally delivered by Mahindo, and previously preserved by tradition alone. These sacred volumes, which may be termed the Buddhist Scriptures, contain the Pittakataya, and its commentaries the Atthakatha, and were compiled by a company of priests in a cave to the north of Matelle, known as the Aloo-wihara.[1] This, and other caverns in which the king had sought concealment during his adversity, he caused to be converted into rock temples after his restoration to power. Amongst the rest, Dambool, which is the most remarkable of the cave temples of Ceylon from its vastness, its elaborate ornaments, and the romantic beauty of its situation and the scenery surrounding it.

[Footnote 1: _Rajaratnacari_, ch. i. p. 43. Abouzeyd states that at that time public writers were employed in recording the traditions of the island: "Le Royaume de Serendyb a une loi et des docteurs qui s'a.s.semblent de temps en temps comme se reunissent chez nous les personnes qui recreillent les traditions du prophete, et les Indiens se rendent aupres des docteurs, et ecrivent sous leurs dictee, la vie de leurs prophetes et les preceptes de leur loi."--REINAUD, _Relation, &c.,_ tom. i. p. 127.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 62.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 50.]

The history of the Buddhist religion in Ceylon is not, however, a tale of uniform prosperity. The first of its domestic enemies was Naga, the grandson of the pious Walagam-bahu, whom the native, historians stigmatise by the prefix of "chora" or the "marauder." His story is thus briefly but emphatically told in the _Mahawanso_: "During the reign of his father Mahachula, Chora Naga wandered through the island leading the life of a robber; returning on the demise of the king he a.s.sumed the monarchy; and in the places which had denied him an asylum during his marauding career, he impiously destroyed the wiharas.[1] After a reign of twelve years he was poisoned by his queen Anula, and regenerated in the Lokantariko h.e.l.l."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xiii.; _Rajarali_, p. 224; TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, p. 19; _Rajaratnacari_, ch. i. p. 43, 44.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, ch. x.x.xiv. p. 209.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 47.]