THE DOMINATION OF THE MALABARS.
A.D. 515.It has been already explained that the invaders who engaged in forays into Ceylon, though known by the general epithet of Malabars (or as they are designated in Pali, damilos, "Tamils"), were also natives of places in India remote from that now known as Malabar. They were, in reality, the inhabitants of one of the earliest states organised in Southern India, the kingdom of Pandya[1], whose sovereigns, from their intelligence, and their encouragement of native literature, have been appropriately styled "the Ptolemies of India." Their dominions, which covered the extremity of the peninsula, comprehended the greater portion of the Coromandel coast, extending to Canara on the western coast, and southwards to the sea.[2] Their kingdom was subsequently contracted in dimensions, by the successive independence of Malabar, the rise of the state of Chera to the west, of Ramnad to the south, and of Chola in the east, till it sank in modern times into the petty government of the Naicks of Madura.[3]
1: Pandya, as a kingdom was not unknown in classical times, and its ruler was the [Greek: Basileus Pandiôn] mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythræan Sea, and the king Pandion, who sent an embassy to Augustus.—PLINY, vi. 26; PTOLEMY, vii. 1.
2: See an Historical Sketch of the Kingdom of Pandya, by Prof. H. H. WILSON, Asiat. Journ., vol. iii.
3: See ante, [p. 353, n.]
A.D. 515.The relation between this portion of the Dekkan and the early colonisers of Ceylon was rendered intimate by many concurring incidents. Wijayo himself was connected by maternal descent with the king of Kalinga[1], now known as the Northern Circars; his second wife was the daughter of the king of Pandya, and the ladies who accompanied her to Ceylon were given in marriage to his ministers and officers.[2] Similar alliances were afterwards frequent; and the Singhalese annalists allude on more than one occasion to the "damilo consorts" of their sovereigns.[3] Intimate intercourse and consanguinity, were thus established from the remotest period. Adventurers from the opposite coast were encouraged by the previous settlers; high employments were thrown open to them, Malabars were subsidised both as cavalry and as seamen; and the first abuse of their privileges was in the instance of the brothers Sena and Goottika, who, holding naval and military commands, took advantage of their position and seized on the throne, B.C. 237; apparently with such acquiescence on the part of the people, that even the Mahawanso praises the righteousness of their reign, which was prolonged to twenty-two years, when they were put to death by the rightful heir to the throne.[4]
1: Mahawanso, ch. vi. p. 43.
2: Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 53; the Rajarali (p. 173) says they were 700 in number.
3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 253.
4: Mahawanso ch. xxi. p. 127.
A.D. 515.The easy success of the first usurpers encouraged the ambition of fresh aspirants, and barely ten years elapsed till the first regular invasion of the island took place, under the illustrious Elala, who, with an army from Mysore (then called Chola or Soli), subdued the entire of Ceylon, north of the Mahawelli-ganga, and compelled the chiefs of the rest of the island, and the kings of Rohuna and Maya, to acknowledge his supremacy and become his tributaries.[1] As in the instance of the previous revolt, the people exhibited such faint resistance to the usurpation, that the reign of Elala extended to forty-four years. It is difficult to conceive that their quiescence under a stranger was entirely ascribable to the fact, that the rule of the Malabars, although adverse to Buddhism, was characterised by justice and impartiality. Possibly they recognised to some extent their pretensions, as founded on their relationship to the legitimate sovereigns of the island, and hence they bore their sway without impatience.[2]
1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 17; Mahawanso, ch. xxi. p. 128; Rajavali, p. 188.
2: See ante, [p. 360, n.]
The majority of the subsequent invasions of Ceylon by the Malabars partook less of the character of conquest than of forays, by a restless and energetic race, into a fertile and defenceless country. Mantotte, on the northwest coast, near Adam's Bridge, became the great place of debarcation; and here successive bands of marauders landed time after time without meeting any effectual resistance from the unwarlike Singhalese.
The second great invasion took place about a century after the first, B.C. 103, when seven Malabar leaders effected simultaneous descents at different points of the coast[1], and combined with a disaffected "Brahman prince" of Rohuna, to force Walagam-bahu I. to surrender his sovereignty. The king, after an ineffectual show of resistance, fled to the mountains of Malaya; one of the invaders carried off the queen to the coast of India; a third despoiled the temples of Anarajapoora and retired, whilst the others continued in possession of the capital for nearly fifteen years, till Walagam-bahu, by the aid of the Rohuna highlanders, succeeded in recovering the throne.
1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 16. The Mahawanso says they landed at "Mahatittha."—Mantotte, ch. xxxiii. p. 203.
A.D. 515.The third great invasion on record[1] was in its character still more predatory than those which preceded it, but it was headed by a king in person, who carried away 12,000 Singhalese as slaves to Mysore. It occurred in the reign of Waknais, A.D. 110, whose son Gaja-bahu, A.D. 113, avenged the outrage by invading the Solee country with an expedition which sailed from Jaffnapatam, and brought back not only the rescued Singhalese captives, but also a multitude of Solleans, whom the king established on lands in the Alootcoor Corle, where the Malabar features are thought to be discernible to the present day.[2]
1: This incursion of the Malabars is not mentioned in the Mahawanso, but it is described in the Rajavali, p. 229, and mentioned by TURNOUR, in his Epitome, &c., p. 21. There is evidence of the conscious supremacy of the Malabars over the north of Ceylon, in the fourth century, in a very curious document, relating to that period. The existence of a colony of Jews at Cochin, in the southwestern extremity of the Dekkan, has long been known in Europe, and half a century ago, particulars of their condition and numbers were published by Dr. Claudius Buchanan. (Christian Researches, &c.) Amongst other facts, he made known their possession of Hebrew MSS. demonstrative of the great antiquity of their settlement in India, and also of their title deeds of land (sasanams), engraved on plates of copper, and presented to them by the early kings of that portion of the peninsula. Some of the latter have been carefully translated into English (see Madras Journ., vol. xiii. xiv.). One of their MSS. has recently been brought to England, under circumstances which are recounted by Mr. FORSTER, in the third vol. of his One Primeval Language, p. 303. This MS. I have been permitted to examine. It is in corrupted Rabbinical Hebrew, written about the year 1781, and contains a partial synopsis of the modern history of the section of the Jewish nation to whom it belongs; with accounts of their arrival in the year A.D. 68, and of their reception by the Malabar kings. Of one of the latter, frequently spoken of by the honorific style of SRI PERUMAL, but identifiable with IRAVI VARMAR, who reigned A.D. 379, the manuscript says that his "rule extended from Goa to Colombo."
2: CASTE CHITTY, Ceylon Gazetteer, p. 7.
A long interval of repose followed, and no fresh expedition from India is mentioned in the chronicles of Ceylon till A.D. 433, when the capital was again taken by the Malabars; the Singhalese families fled beyond the Mahawelli-ganga; and the invaders occupied the entire extent of the Pihiti Ratta, where for twenty-seven years, five of them in succession administered the government, till Dhatu Sena collected forces sufficient to overpower the strangers, and, emerging from his retreat in Rohuna, recovered possession of the north of the island.[1]
1: Rajavali, p. 243; TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 27.
A.D. 515.Dhatu Sena, after his victory, seems to have made an attempt, though an ineffectual one, to reverse the policy which had operated under his predecessors as an incentive to the immigration of Malabars; settlement and intermarriages had been all along encouraged[1], and even during the recent usurpation, many Singhalese families of rank had formed connections with the Damilos. The schisms among the Buddhist themselves, tending as they did to engraft Brahmanical rites upon the doctrines of the purer faith, seem to have promoted and matured the intimacy between the two people; some of the Singhalese kings erected temples to the gods of the Hindus[2], and the promoters of the Wytulian heresy found a refuge from persecution amongst their sympathisers in the Dekkan.[3]
1: Anula, the queen of Ceylon, A.D. 47, met with no opposition in raising one of her Malabar husbands to the throne.—TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 19. Sotthi Sena, who reigned A.D. 432, had a Damilo queen.—Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 253.
2: Sri Sanga Bo III. A.D. 702, "made a figure of the God Vishnu; and was a supporter of the religion of Buddha, and a friend of the people."—Rajaratnacari, p. 78.
3: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 234; TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 25.
A.D. 515.The Malabars, trained to arms, now resorted in such numbers to Ceylon, that the leaders in civil commotions were accustomed to hire them in bands to act against the royal forces[1]; and whilst no precautions were adopted to check the landing of marauders on the coast, the invaders constructed forts throughout the country to protect their conquests from recapture by the natives. Proud of these successful expeditions, the native records of the Chola kings make mention of their victories; and in one of their grants of land, engraved on copper, and still in existence, Viradeva-Chola, the sovereign by whom it was made, is described as having triumphed over "Madura, Izham, Caruvar, and the crowned head of Pandyan;" Izham, (or Ilám) being the Tamil name of Ceylon.[2] On their expulsion by Dhatu Sena, he took possession of the fortresses and extirpated the Damilos; degraded the Singhalese who had intermarried with them; confiscated their estates in favour of those who had remained true to his cause; and organised a naval force for the protection of the coasts[3] of the island.
1: Mahawanso, ch. xxxvi. p. 238.
2: DOWSON, on the Chera Kingdom of India.—Asiat. Journ. vol. viii. p. 24.
3: Mahawansa ch. xxxviii. p. 256. and xxxix. TURNOUR'S MS., Trans.
But his vigorous policy produced no permanent effect; his son Mogallana, after the murder of his father and the usurpation of Kasyapa, fled for refuge to the coast of India, and subsequently recovered possession of the throne, by the aid of a force which he collected there.[1] In the succession of assassinations, conspiracies, and civil wars which distracted the kingdom in the sixth and seventh centuries, during the struggles of the rival branches of the royal house, each claimant, in his adversity, betook himself to the Indian continent, and Malabar mercenaries from Pandya and Soli enrolled themselves indifferently under any leader, and deposed or restored kings at their pleasure.[2]
1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 29; Rajavali p. 244.
2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 31; Rajavali p. 247.
A.D. 523.The Rajavali, in a single passage enumerates fourteen sovereigns who were murdered each by his successor, between A.D. 523, and A.D. 648. During a period of such violence and anarchy, peaceful industry was suspended, and extensive emigrations took place to Bahar and Orissa. Buddhism, however, was still predominant, and protection was accorded to its professors.
A.D. 640.Hiouen Thsang, a Chinese traveller, wno visited India between 629 A.D. and 645[1], encountered numbers of exiles, who informed him that they fled from civil commotions in Ceylon, in which religion had undergone persecution, the king had lost his life, cultivation had been interrupted, and the island exhausted by famine. This account of the Chinese voyager accords accurately with the events detailed in the Singhalese annals, in which it is stated that Sanghatissa was deposed and murdered, A.D. 623, by the Seneriwat, his minister, who, amidst the horrors of a general famine, was put to death by the people of Rohuna, and a civil war ensued; one result of which was the defeat of the Malabar mercenaries and their distribution as slaves to the temples. Hiouen Thsang relates the particulars of his interviews with the fugitives, from whom he learned the extraordinary riches of Ceylon, the number and wealth of its wiharas, the density of its population in peaceful times, the fertility of its soil, and the abundance of its produce.[2]
1: Histoire de la Vie de Hiouen Thsang, et de ses Voyages dans l'Inde depuis l'an 629 jusquèn 643. Par HOEI-LI et YEN-THSANG, &c. Traduite du Chinois par STANISLAUS JULIEN, Paris, 1853.
2: "Ce royaume a sept mille li de tour, et sa capitale quarante li; la population est agglomérée, et la terre produit des grains en abondance."—HIOUEN-THSANG, liv. iv. p. 194.
For nearly four hundred years, from the seventh till the eleventh century, the exploits and escapes of the Malabars occupy a more prominent portion of the Singbalese annals than that devoted to the policy of the native sovereigns. They filled every office, including that of prime minister[1], and they decided the claims of competing candidates for the crown. At length the island became so infested by their numbers that the feeble monarchs found it impracticable to effect their exclusion from Anarajapoora[2]; and to escape from their proximity, the kings in the eighth century began to move southwards, and transferred their residence to Pollanarrua, which eventually became the capital of the kingdom. Enormous tanks were constructed in the vicinity of the new capital; palaces were erected, surpassing those of the old city in architectural beauty; dagobas were raised, nearly equal in altitude to the Thuparama and Ruanwelli, and temples and statues were hewn out of the living rock, the magnitude and beauty of whose ruins attest the former splendour of Pollanarrua.[3]
1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 33.
2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, A.D. 686, p. 31.
3: The first king who built a palace at Pollanarrua was Sri Sanga Bo II., A.D. 642. His successor, Sri Sanga Bo III., took up his residence there temporarily, A.D. 702; it was made the capital by Kuda Akbo, A.D. 769, and its embellishment, the building of colleges, and the formation of tanks in its vicinity, were the occupations of numbers of his successors.
A.D. 640.Notwithstanding their numbers and their power, it is remarkable that the Malabars were never identified with any plan for promoting the prosperity and embellishment of Ceylon, or with any undertaking for the permanent improvement of the island. Unlike the Gangetic race, who were the earliest colonists, and with whom originated every project for enriching and adorning the country, the Malabars aspired not to beautify or enrich, but to impoverish and deface;—and nothing can more strikingly bespeak the inferiority of the southern race than the single fact that everything tending to exalt and to civilise, in the early condition of Ceylon, was introduced by the northern conquerors, whilst all that contributed to ruin and debase it is distinctly traceable to the presence and influence of the Malabars.
A.D. 840.The Singhalese, either paralysed by dread, made feeble efforts to rid themselves of the invaders; or fascinated by their military pomp, endeavoured to conciliate them by alliances. Thus, when the king of Pandya over-ran the north of Ceylon, A.D. 840, plundered the capital and despoiled its temples, the unhappy sovereign had no other resource than to purchase the evacuation of the island by a heavy ransom.[1] Yet such was the influence still exercised by the Malabars, that within a very few years his successor on the throne lent his aid to the son of the same king of Pandya in a war against his father, and conducted the expedition in person.[2] His army was, in all probability, composed chiefly of Damilos, with whom he overran the south of the Indian peninsula, and avenged the outrage inflicted on his own kingdom in the late reign by bearing back the plunder of Madura.
1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 35; Rajaratnacari, p. 79.
2: A.D. 858; Rajaratnacari, p, 84.
A.D. 954.This exploit served to promote a more intimate intercourse between the two races, and after the lapse of a century, A.D. 954, the king of Ceylon a second time interposed with an army to aid the Pandyan sovereign in a quarrel with his neighbour of Chola, wherein the former was worsted, and forced to seek a refuge in the territory of his insular ally, whence he was ultimately expelled for conspiracy against his benefactor. Having fled to India without his regalia, his Cholian rival made the refusal of the king of Ceylon to surrender them the pretext for a fresh Malabar invasion, A.D. 990, when the enemy was repulsed by the mountaineers of Rohuna, who, from the earliest period down to the present day, have evinced uniform impatience of strangers, and steady determination to resist their encroachments.
A.D. 997.But such had been the influx of foreigners, that the efforts of these highland patriots were powerless against their numbers. Mahindo III., A.D. 997, married a princess of Calinga[1], and in a civil war which ensued, during the reign of his son and successor, the novel spectacle was presented of a Malabar army supporting the cause of the royal family against Singhalese insurgents. The island was now reduced to the extreme of anarchy and insecurity; "the foreign population" had increased to such an extent as to gain a complete ascendency over the native inhabitants, and the sovereign had lost authority over both.[2]
1: Now the Northern Circars.
2: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 37.
A.D. 1023.In A.D. 1023, the Cholians again invaded Ceylon[1], carried the king captive to the coast of India (where he died in exile), and established a Malabar viceroy at Pollanarrua, who held possession of the island for nearly thirty years, protected in his usurpation by a foreign army. Thus, "throughout the reign of nineteen kings," says the Rajaratnacari "extending over eighty-six years, the Malabars kept up a continual war with the Singhalese, till they filled by degrees every village in the island."[2]
1: In the reign of Mahindo IV.
2: Rajaratnacari, p. 85.
A.D. 1028.During the absence of the rightful sovereign, and in the confusion which ensued on his decease, various members of the royal family arrived at the sovereignty of Rohuna, the only remnant of free territory left. Four brothers, each assuming the title of king, contended together for supremacy; and amidst anarchy and intrigue, each in turn took up the reins of government, as they fell or were snatched from the hands of his predecessor[1], till at length, on the retirement of all other candidates, the forlorn crown was assumed by the minister Lokaiswara, who held his court at Kattragam, and died A.D. 1071.[2]
1: TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 39.
2: Mahawanso, ch. lxi.