“There are some who say that there is a country called Sri Lanka and the corresponding state, though challenged unsuccessfully by the LTTE inspired by SJV Chelvanayakam and other Federal Party leaders of the past, not to mention the present TNA leaders who though do not "inspire" the LTTE are dancing according to the tune emanating from the bunkers thirty to forty feet underground.”_________________________________________
by Nalin de Silva
(February 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Rightfully and predictably Sri Lanka has opposed the Unilateral Deceleration of Independence by Kosovo. It has to be emphasised that the so called UN and international forces were present in Kosovo when UDI was declared and it is very likely that these forces finally helped secession and this is a good lesson for Sri Lanka. We have to oppose any attempt to bring any army under the guise of international or UN or using Right to Protect concept which is nothing but colonialism in another name. We hope that countries such as China and India also join Russia, Serbia and Sri Lanka in opposing the high handed action of Kosovo who naturally have the blessings of the westerners. We do not have to dwell at length on Kosovo and all that we wish to have on record is that not only Mani the Indian French lady at the ICES but anybody with a foreign passport whether they are of Sri Lankan origin or not should not be issued Visas to visit this country if they are for Right to Protect colonialism. We are interested in integration and not in right to protect that leads to secession.
There are some who say that there is a country called Sri Lanka and the corresponding state, though challenged unsuccessfully by the LTTE inspired by SJV Chelvanayakam and other Federal Party leaders of the past, not to mention the present TNA leaders who though do not "inspire" the LTTE are dancing according to the tune emanating from the bunkers thirty to forty feet underground. However these people are quick to point out that there is no Sri Lankan nation as such but only ethnic groups called Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malay, Burgher, Veddah etc. According to some there is no nation as such and they are busy with unmaking of the nation, though they may claim that there are nation states. These people may not be interested in the so called national integration as according to them the concept of a nation itself is a myth.
However, there are others who, may not be very consistent with their concepts, look forward to some kind of national integration, though they may not be very clear of the concept of a nation. For most of these people there has been no nation in Sri Lanka up to now and they are engaged in the noble exercise of making or building a nation, going against the unmaking people. They may be influenced by western thinking and probably of the opinion that no nation existed on the planet before the Europeans began building nations in the aftermath of capitalism. Naturally for these people existence of capitalism is a necessary condition for nation building and there would not have been any nation on the earth before the advent of capitalism.
However, we differ from their echoing of western ideas and are of the opinion that in Sri Lanka or Sinhale a nation called Sinhala with its state came into existence during the time of King Pandukabhaya or Pakundaka. The name of the King Pandukabhaya itself reflects the nation building process. Having had some connection to indigenous people of the country and having being named Pakundaka he has later acquired the name Pandukabhaya that reflects the name of the Ardha Vedic people who migrated from Bharat (Dambadiva) commencing from ninth century BC. The name Pandukabhaya itself is an integration of the indigenous names and the Ardha Vedic names that corresponds to the national integration that took place at that time.
One may wonder who these Ardha Vedic people are as this concept is not found either in the Mahavamsa or the other books either in the Sinhala tradition or in the Vedic tradition. The Ardha Vedic is a concept coined by us and used in our writings in Sinhala especially in Divaina and Vidusara in connection with the history of our region roughly equivalent to what is known as South Asia. We denote by the word Anarya (not to be confused with Dravida) the tribes who lived in this region before the Aryans came to our part of the world through the North West of Dambadiva. These Aryans brought a new culture to Dambadiva who constructed a Bharat out of Dambadiva. The new culture that gradually spread from west to east and from north to south could be called Vedic and the people of the new culture could be called Vedic people. However, complete Vedicisation would have taken a few centuries. The Ardha Vedic people were those who had been introduced to the new Vedic culture, itself a mixture of the cultures of Aryans and of the indigenous people but who had not been fully Vedicised. The people in the East and North East (not to be confused with the imaginary North East concept of the LTTE and their predecessors as well as of some of their contemporaries) of Dambadiva and the Magadha in the time of Buddha belonged to this group. Prince Siddhartha himself came from this stock and had his early gurus in that tradition. Buddhism can also be considered as a reaction against the new culture and Buddha in the process gave different interpretations to concepts such as Arya and Brahmana. It should be noted that Buddhism was originally confined to North East and Magadha of Dambadiva the regions most fertile to anti Vedic Dhamma. Buddha himself spent most of the time in this region and very rarely went to other regions.
Fortunately the people who came to Sri Lanka starting in the ninth century BC were Ardha Vedic and from the very beginning we have had no misgivings of the Vedic tradition. These people after five or six centuries mixed with the indigenous tribes and built the Sinhala nation during the time of King Pandukabhaya. Of course there was no capitalism at that time but the country and the nation came to be known as Sinhale and Sinhala respectively. It is a well known fact that the word Elam is derived from Sinhala. I do not have to waste time and space in the column giving references to instances where this country has been called Sinhale and people have been referred to as Sinhala not only in Sri Lanka but abroad as well. It is also known that the word Ceylon itself is derived from Sinhale through Arabic Seylan after Sinhalan. There is one aspect of only Ardha Vedics but not full Vedics coming to Sri Lanka. When Buddhism was introduced to the country the people took to it as duck taking to water. Had the full Vedics come to Sri Lanka this process would have been very difficult and taken a long time even if it became a success.
The first national integration thus took more than two thousand years ago when Europe had not thought of such integration or the concepts of nation. France where Mani is a citizen had to wait till the French revolution to achieve what we had done in the time of Pandukabhaya and India the country of origin of Mani had to wait for the British to become a nation. There are certain important characteristics of the first national integration that took place thousand of years ago in Sri Lanka. It is well known that there were many tribes living in Sri Lanka when the Ardha Vedics arrived. Of these tribes some Yakkhas (meaning their leaders) had resisted the building of the Sinhala nation. However some Yakkha leaders have supported the movement. When one goes through the historical records and also studies the Sinhala culture and the language the resistance offered by some of the Yakkha leaders is evident from their actions. The story of some Yakkhas not sympathising with Buddhism is also evident from the Mahavamsa and other sources. The Naga and the Deva tribes on the other hand had no problems in building the Sinhala nation together with the Ardha Vedics and the other tribes except for one tribe. The exception has been the Vedda tribe which aspired to be outside the Sinhala nation and most probably they were advised or even encouraged by some Yakkha leaders to do so.
The historical records and folklore could be interpreted consistently in the above sense as to the involvement of various tribes. In any event there has been a national integration and it is also evident that it is wrong to call Vedda tribe, the aboriginal tribe in Sri Lanka. Conceptually there is a problem in calling the Vedda tribe an aboriginal tribe. In regions such as Australia, North America and New Zealand the indigenous tribes were replaced by a race that came from outside. In Sri Lanka it is wrong to say that the Sinhalas came from outside (Dambadiva or Bharat). Though some Ardha Vedic people were involved in the building of the Sinhala nation, the other indigenous tribes except the Vedda tribe also participated in the process. Thus Sinhala nation unlike the British who went to the so called new world is a "home made" nation and calling the Vedda tribe the aboriginal people is conceptually wrong. I have dealt with the first national integration briefly as it would help us in the "national integration" that one may be interested at present.
by Nalin de Silva
(February 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Rightfully and predictably Sri Lanka has opposed the Unilateral Deceleration of Independence by Kosovo. It has to be emphasised that the so called UN and international forces were present in Kosovo when UDI was declared and it is very likely that these forces finally helped secession and this is a good lesson for Sri Lanka. We have to oppose any attempt to bring any army under the guise of international or UN or using Right to Protect concept which is nothing but colonialism in another name. We hope that countries such as China and India also join Russia, Serbia and Sri Lanka in opposing the high handed action of Kosovo who naturally have the blessings of the westerners. We do not have to dwell at length on Kosovo and all that we wish to have on record is that not only Mani the Indian French lady at the ICES but anybody with a foreign passport whether they are of Sri Lankan origin or not should not be issued Visas to visit this country if they are for Right to Protect colonialism. We are interested in integration and not in right to protect that leads to secession.
There are some who say that there is a country called Sri Lanka and the corresponding state, though challenged unsuccessfully by the LTTE inspired by SJV Chelvanayakam and other Federal Party leaders of the past, not to mention the present TNA leaders who though do not "inspire" the LTTE are dancing according to the tune emanating from the bunkers thirty to forty feet underground. However these people are quick to point out that there is no Sri Lankan nation as such but only ethnic groups called Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Malay, Burgher, Veddah etc. According to some there is no nation as such and they are busy with unmaking of the nation, though they may claim that there are nation states. These people may not be interested in the so called national integration as according to them the concept of a nation itself is a myth.
However, there are others who, may not be very consistent with their concepts, look forward to some kind of national integration, though they may not be very clear of the concept of a nation. For most of these people there has been no nation in Sri Lanka up to now and they are engaged in the noble exercise of making or building a nation, going against the unmaking people. They may be influenced by western thinking and probably of the opinion that no nation existed on the planet before the Europeans began building nations in the aftermath of capitalism. Naturally for these people existence of capitalism is a necessary condition for nation building and there would not have been any nation on the earth before the advent of capitalism.
However, we differ from their echoing of western ideas and are of the opinion that in Sri Lanka or Sinhale a nation called Sinhala with its state came into existence during the time of King Pandukabhaya or Pakundaka. The name of the King Pandukabhaya itself reflects the nation building process. Having had some connection to indigenous people of the country and having being named Pakundaka he has later acquired the name Pandukabhaya that reflects the name of the Ardha Vedic people who migrated from Bharat (Dambadiva) commencing from ninth century BC. The name Pandukabhaya itself is an integration of the indigenous names and the Ardha Vedic names that corresponds to the national integration that took place at that time.
One may wonder who these Ardha Vedic people are as this concept is not found either in the Mahavamsa or the other books either in the Sinhala tradition or in the Vedic tradition. The Ardha Vedic is a concept coined by us and used in our writings in Sinhala especially in Divaina and Vidusara in connection with the history of our region roughly equivalent to what is known as South Asia. We denote by the word Anarya (not to be confused with Dravida) the tribes who lived in this region before the Aryans came to our part of the world through the North West of Dambadiva. These Aryans brought a new culture to Dambadiva who constructed a Bharat out of Dambadiva. The new culture that gradually spread from west to east and from north to south could be called Vedic and the people of the new culture could be called Vedic people. However, complete Vedicisation would have taken a few centuries. The Ardha Vedic people were those who had been introduced to the new Vedic culture, itself a mixture of the cultures of Aryans and of the indigenous people but who had not been fully Vedicised. The people in the East and North East (not to be confused with the imaginary North East concept of the LTTE and their predecessors as well as of some of their contemporaries) of Dambadiva and the Magadha in the time of Buddha belonged to this group. Prince Siddhartha himself came from this stock and had his early gurus in that tradition. Buddhism can also be considered as a reaction against the new culture and Buddha in the process gave different interpretations to concepts such as Arya and Brahmana. It should be noted that Buddhism was originally confined to North East and Magadha of Dambadiva the regions most fertile to anti Vedic Dhamma. Buddha himself spent most of the time in this region and very rarely went to other regions.
Fortunately the people who came to Sri Lanka starting in the ninth century BC were Ardha Vedic and from the very beginning we have had no misgivings of the Vedic tradition. These people after five or six centuries mixed with the indigenous tribes and built the Sinhala nation during the time of King Pandukabhaya. Of course there was no capitalism at that time but the country and the nation came to be known as Sinhale and Sinhala respectively. It is a well known fact that the word Elam is derived from Sinhala. I do not have to waste time and space in the column giving references to instances where this country has been called Sinhale and people have been referred to as Sinhala not only in Sri Lanka but abroad as well. It is also known that the word Ceylon itself is derived from Sinhale through Arabic Seylan after Sinhalan. There is one aspect of only Ardha Vedics but not full Vedics coming to Sri Lanka. When Buddhism was introduced to the country the people took to it as duck taking to water. Had the full Vedics come to Sri Lanka this process would have been very difficult and taken a long time even if it became a success.
The first national integration thus took more than two thousand years ago when Europe had not thought of such integration or the concepts of nation. France where Mani is a citizen had to wait till the French revolution to achieve what we had done in the time of Pandukabhaya and India the country of origin of Mani had to wait for the British to become a nation. There are certain important characteristics of the first national integration that took place thousand of years ago in Sri Lanka. It is well known that there were many tribes living in Sri Lanka when the Ardha Vedics arrived. Of these tribes some Yakkhas (meaning their leaders) had resisted the building of the Sinhala nation. However some Yakkha leaders have supported the movement. When one goes through the historical records and also studies the Sinhala culture and the language the resistance offered by some of the Yakkha leaders is evident from their actions. The story of some Yakkhas not sympathising with Buddhism is also evident from the Mahavamsa and other sources. The Naga and the Deva tribes on the other hand had no problems in building the Sinhala nation together with the Ardha Vedics and the other tribes except for one tribe. The exception has been the Vedda tribe which aspired to be outside the Sinhala nation and most probably they were advised or even encouraged by some Yakkha leaders to do so.
The historical records and folklore could be interpreted consistently in the above sense as to the involvement of various tribes. In any event there has been a national integration and it is also evident that it is wrong to call Vedda tribe, the aboriginal tribe in Sri Lanka. Conceptually there is a problem in calling the Vedda tribe an aboriginal tribe. In regions such as Australia, North America and New Zealand the indigenous tribes were replaced by a race that came from outside. In Sri Lanka it is wrong to say that the Sinhalas came from outside (Dambadiva or Bharat). Though some Ardha Vedic people were involved in the building of the Sinhala nation, the other indigenous tribes except the Vedda tribe also participated in the process. Thus Sinhala nation unlike the British who went to the so called new world is a "home made" nation and calling the Vedda tribe the aboriginal people is conceptually wrong. I have dealt with the first national integration briefly as it would help us in the "national integration" that one may be interested at present.
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