Yakkas, Rakshasas & Nagas - ( Yakas , Yakos, Naagas )
Yakkas - in Ancient Sri Lanka
Rice grown in Lanka before 6th century B.C.
A. DENIS N. Fernando, Fellow of the National Academy of Science and leading cartographer in his lecture on, `Irrigation in Lanka ancient and modern' at the Agrarian Research Institute said recently that rice had been grown in Sri Lanka at least before the 6th century B.C. when Vijaya was fed on rice meals here. At that time the Yakkas were chiefly responsible for the irrigation system in the dry zone for the development of the famous Hydraulic Civilization of the country.The Yakkas had established cities like Sirisavastu, Lankapura, Vijitapura and occupied an extensive settlement in the Mahaweli plain covering an area of over 1,000 sq. miles. They were expert horsemen who assisted king Pandukabaya with their technical skills to upgrade Anuradhapura to a city. In the Mahaweli plain there were hydraulic structures to divert water for irrigation within their settlement area and the Maduruoya reservoir used a unique technology in binding burnt terracotta bricks with resin or tar, which was prevalent in Persia. The Mahaweli Ganga was called Phasis fluvius by Ptolemy which means the Persian river, indicating a Persian connection. Hence it is reasonable to surmise that the Yakkas who dwelt there were connected to the Persians. One of the oldest seaports of Sri Lanka at Palavakki, the ancient seaport of Jambukola was used for foreign contacts from the 6th century B.C. he revealed.
The lecturer showed several slides to illustrate the development of the early Hydraulic civilization, with the distribution of irrigation structures. Subsequently, in the 13th century the Mahaweli had changed its course which caused the collapse of the major dry zone irrigation system. This exposed the population to disease and famine and the peasant had to abandon Polonnaruwa and other centres of rice production. The capital shifted to Dambadeniya and other capitals in wetter regions.
With the decline of the Hydraulic civilization, the people migrated to the wet zone in the southwest sector of the country, reestablished and built minor irrigation structres and resorted to rainfed cultivation also.
However the large and medium hydraulic structures were restored after 1930 spearheaded by Mr. D. S. Senanayake. The first modern river basin irrigation system, the Gal Oya scheme came up in politically independent Sri Lanka in the mid 40's. In 1970 the Polgolla Barrage and Bowatenne reservoir and associated tunnels and transbasin diversions were constructed and linked to cultivate 132,000 acres of existing fields in the Anuradhapura, Polonnnaruwa and Trincomalee districts. Local engineers and construction agencies were responsible for this exercise. In economic terms, it paid for itself in five years, a viable project economically.
In 1978 the accelerated Mahaweli project based on the Mahaweli Master Plan was launched and half the original plan saw completion in 1990. And this could provide irrigation for 450,000 acres and not 900,000 acres as envisaged originally. And the emphasis for hydro-power generation and the neglect of irrigation for rice cultivation has led to crop failures.
As at present the only salvation for the local farmer is rain water and well water where available. He will have to devise methods of storing and conserving rain water for his cultivations. Sri Lanka's rivers are unable to provide scientifically any more water for further irrigation expansion, for they have been tapped to the maximum and afforestation is a must. Finally, the speaker said that he was prepared to answer any question from local or foreign experts on the statements he had made.
The original inhabitants of Lanka: Yakkas & Nagas
Sri Lanka is said to have been inhabited by Yakkas (demon-worshippers) , Rakshasas and Nagas (snake-worshippers) before the arrival of Vijaya and his men who colonized the island. They were totemic tribes not supernatural beings. There is in north-east India today a state called Nagaland the home of the Naga people. The Nagas of pre-Vijayan Lanka lived around Kelaniya and in the peninsula in the North. Nagadeepa (Nainathivu) was an island off the peninsula joined to the mainland about 30 years ago by a causeway. Does Nainamadama the name of a village in the NWP, hark back to a time when there was a Naga settlement in that area.
It was at Nagadeepa that Mani Akkhika (one with eyes like gems) met the Buddha who had come there to bring peace between two Naga chieftains Chulodara and Mahodara, who were fighting to claim a precious seat, and invited the Buddha to his homeland Kelaniya. Mani Akkhika was an uncle of the two warring Naga chieftains.
Nagas were living in Kelaniya as a distinct group of people or in today's parlance as "an ethnic entity", when the poet monk Sri Rahula wrote the Selalihini Sandesa in the 15th century, and they were Buddhists. The poet points out to the Selalihini bird, the Naga maidens seated on the Sandy bank of the river, strumming their veenas and singing hymns to the Buddha (Budu guna gee).
The 'yakkas' were numerous and very powerful, and held themselves aloof and confined themselves to the mountain fastnesses of the North- Central region, whereas the 'nagas' confined themselves to the sea-board, and Maniakkhika was the 'naga' king of Kelaniya.
The luxuriantly wooded Mahanaga garden, on the right-bank of the river Mahaveli, which discharges its confluence into the sea near Trincomalee, was at that time a strategic stronghold of the 'yakkas'. When Buddha arrived at the Mahanaga garden to intercept the 'yakkas' who were assembled there, they were more surprised than alarmed, when they saw him clad in a yellow robe and shaven-headed. Being inquisitive of the intruder and to know who he was, the 'yakka' chief asked the Buddha, "Who art thou to come here and disturb us?" At once, the Buddha, to their bewilderment, performed a miracle by sitting cross-legged in the air. Now, the 'yakkas' through fear, emotional excitement and apprehensive of danger, begged the Buddha to save their lives and set them free.
Whereupon, the Buddha, addressed them saving "I shall, O yakkas,save thee from all danger, provided I am offered a place to sit down, and make known to thee my mission". The evil horde verily agreed saying "O Great Being! We shall offer thee the whole island". Buddha, having seated at the spot, where the Mahiyangana cetiya now stands, delivered to them a discourse, whereby they became spiritually evaluated and attained the stages of holiness (i.e., the fruits of Sovan, Sakadagami, Anagami and Arhat). Among them was the 'yakka' commandant Saman who, after listening to the discourse, became elevated to the first phase of spiritual eminence ('Sovan'), and came to be known as Saman deviyo, who is now propitiated as the tutelary deity of Sri Pada. The god, thereupon, appealed to the Buddha to give him something as a token of symbolic worship, in the absence of the Buddha. Buddha in accedence of the earnest request, gave the god a handful of hair from his head, which the god accepted with great devotion. The god had the hair-relic secured in a golden reliquary and enshrined it in a small tope 10 ft. high and 24 ft. in circumference (Mhv. 1:36). It is the first cetiya in Sri Lanka, built during the life-time of the Buddha. All other cetiyas were of later construction.
When the Buddha was dwelling at Jetavana in the fifth year of his Buddhahood, he saw that a war was imminent between the Nagas Mahodara and Culodara, uncle and nephew, for a gem?set throne. With compassion for the Nagas, he took his sacred alms?bowl and robes and proceeded to Nagadipa in the north of Sri Lanka. When they saw the Blessed One, they joyfully worshipped at the feet of the Master. He counseled them in the way of the doctrine and both Nagas gladly gave up their claims to the throne and instead offered it to the Buddha. The Buddha however returned the throne to the Nagas as a memorial requesting that they pay homage to it. On this second visit of the Buddha to Sri Lanka, many millions of Nagas established themselves in the three refuges (Buddha, Dhamma & Sangha) and in the moral precepts. Today they consider an islet named Nainathiu as the sacred place the Buddha so visited. (But, according to history, they had earlier considered the whole of the Jaffna peninsula and most of other parts of northern Sri Lanka as Nagadipa, and that the ancient Nagadipa temple was in what is presently Kandarode.)
The Naga king, Maniakkhika o Kalyani, who had come there to take part in the battle, became established in the refuges and moral duties. He respectfully invited the Buddha to visit the part of the country where he held sway. When the Buddha accepted it in silence, the King planted the Rajayatana tree on that very spot. The Rajayatana tree was carried as a parasol over the Buddha by the deva named Samiddhi Sumana when the Buddha was traveling from Jetavana to Nagadipa. In this way the compassionate One completed his second visit to Sri Lanka and returned to Jetavana.
In the eighth year following his attainment of Buddhahood Buddha, accompanied by five hundred disciple monks, proceeded to King Maniakkhika's dwelling city of Kelaniya in the west of Sri Lanka on the Vesak full moon day. He stayed there temporarily together with the monks under a canopy decked with gems, upon a precious throne?patterned seat. The Naga king and his followers treated the Buddha and disciples with great delight. The compassionate One preached the Dhamma there. The Kelani cetiya (stupa) was later built on this site.
From there he proceeded to the Sumanakuta (Sripada) mountains in the middle of the country. The footprint he left there is highly venerated and is still protected. It is called "Sripada " meaning the noble footprint, and `Sumanakuta " because it was the dwelling of the deva Sumana and also called "Samantakuta " because of its height.
He spent the day with the monks in a cave called Divaguha at the foot of this mountain. This sacred place is still not recovered.
As is generally known, a piratical tribe called the Nagas, who had a king and worshipped the cobra as a symbol of destructive power, inhabited the northern and western coasts during early history. So numerous were they that the country became known as Nagadipa, the "Island of Serpents."
Mudaliyar C. Rasanayagam devotes the first chapter of his book Ancient Jaffna (1926), to this fascinating subject. "The Nagas were supposed by the ancients to be serpents living underground obviously because in Sanskrit the word 'naga' means 'serpent,'" he wrote. "They were supposed to be endowed with supernatural powers by which they could metamorphose themselves into human beings at will."
In his book Ceylon: An Account of the Island Physical, Historical and Topographical (London: 1859), Sir James Emerson Tennent provides an interesting footnote to a sentence in which he likens the designation Nagadipa to the way the islands of Rhodes and Cyprus severally acquired the name Ophiusa (from the Greek ophis, meaning snake). This footnote has relevance to the supposed supernatural powers mentioned by Rasanayagam:
"Strabo (the lst century AD Greek geographer) affords us a striking illustration of the Mahavamsa in calling the serpent worshippers of Ceylon 'Serpents', since he states that in Phrygia and on the Hellespont the people who were styled ophiogeneis, or the Serpent races, actually attained an affinity with the snakes with whom they were popularly identified."
Rasanayagam also provides a footnote regarding this supposed ability of the Nagas to metamorphose that quotes a more rational explanation by Talboys Wheeler. He claimed: "In the process of time these Nagas became identified with serpents, and the result has been a strange confusion between serpents and human beings."
The scholarly Mudaliyar puts forward another reason why the Nagas might have been called so. "There have been various conjectures made as to the origin of the true Nagas," he writes. "Some thought that they were so-called because they were serpent-worshippers; and others have surmised that the name was derived from the fact that their head-covering was in the shape of a hydra-headed cobra."
Some believe that the Nagas were of Mongoloid stock and that they had migrated originally to northern India, but had later been forced by Aryan invasions to seek fresh settlements farther south. Others have cast doubt on the well-worn Aryan invasion theory of migration. Whatever their origin, it is reasonably clear that a Naga kingdom existed in the north of the island from the 6th century BC to the middle of the 3rd century AD.
After the demise or assimilation of the Nagas on the island, elements of their cobra connections were incorporated in Buddhism as well as popular folklore and superstition. For instance, cobras became associated with the incarnations of dead people, who in their new, ophidian lives guarded hidden treasure, Buddhist temples, Bo-trees and the like. As an extension of this belief, guardian cobra statues like my grandfather's began to be found in houses situated in pairs on either side of an entrance or doorway.
Veddhas - Sri Lankan Aborigines
Who are Sri Lanka's Indigenous Wanniya-laeto?
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| Wanniya-laeto ('Vedda') elders of Dambana |
Even today, the surviving Wanniya-laeto community retains much of its own distinctive cyclic worldview, prehistoric cultural memory, and time-tested knowledge of their semi-evergreen dry monsoon forest habitat that has enabled their ancestor-revering culture to meet the diverse challenges to their collective identity and survival.
With the impending extinction of Wanniya-laeto culture, however, Sri Lanka and the world stand to lose a rich body of indigenous lore and living ecological wisdom that is urgently needed for the sustainable future of the rest of mankind.
Historically, for the past twenty-five centuries or more Sri Lanka's indigenous community has been buffeted by successive waves of immigration and colonization that began with the arrival of the Sinhalese from North India in the 5th century BC. Consequently, the Wanniyalaeto have repeatedly been forced to choose between two alternative survival strategies: either to be assimilated into other cultures or to retreat ever further into a shrinking forest habitat.
In the course of history, uncounted thousands of these original inhabitants of the wanni (dry monsoon forest) have been more or less absorbed into mainstream Sinhala society (as in the North Central and Uva provinces) or Tamil society (as on the East Coast). Today only a few remaining Wanniya-laeto still manage to preserve their cultural identity and traditional lifestyle despite relentless pressure from the surrounding dominant communities.
Sri lankan Gypsies: Ahikuntika
Ahikuntika: Sri Lankan gypsy clan
 Lakshman with his dancing cobra. |
Beside Lili and the huge cobra which started moving to the tune of gypsy Lakshman's flute, was a rather untidy environment around them.
Although Lili was very happy to talk about herself as a member of the so-called gypsy clan in the country known as 'Ahikuntika', a very reluctant Lucki said, "We are living like this because we have no place to live."
"I make a living by selling joss sticks. People used to call us donkeys just because we had no place to live. We speak proper Sinhala. There is another group that speaks Telugu. We were born in Sri Lanka. We are also people and we have a right to live. No one gives us land," he said angrily.
Kanmali, who looked very much a teenager, said that she doesn't go around palm reading anymore. "I look after my children. I don't go out anymore," she said, carrying an infant in her arms.
Gypsies or Ahikuntikas, are among the few isolated communities in the country like Veddahs and Rodiyas, say experts.
Prof. J. B. Dissanayake is of the view that the Ahikuntikas are also changing slowly as a result of economic and social factors.
"This cannot be called a radical change. Just like the Rodiyas, who were later absorbed into the Sinhala community, some day the Ahikuntikas will also be provided the opportunity. There is a section of these people who would prefer to remain in the clan while others want to join the Sinhala comminity like the Veddhas and Rodiyas did," he said.
According to Prof. Dissanayake, Ahikuntikas are believed to have come to Sri Lanka from Andra Pradesh in India. "We don't know when they came.
They are called nomads since they travel from place to place. 'Ahi' means serpents. This name must have been adopted because they made a living by using snakes, monkeys and palm reading or fortune telling," he said.
"It is believed that they can't stay at one place for more than seven days. This may be true because of their unhygienic lifestyle. A group of Ahikuntikas were given houses in the North Central in a village called Kuda Wewa. Since they cannot be living continually as a group of nomads this may be a good move," he said.
Anthropologist Prof. S. Hettige observed that the constant movement keeps Ahikuntikas aloof from mainstream society. "If they settle down in one place, integration and assimilation may have taken place.
They do not participate in economic activities and social practices as others when they move around. It depends on their contact with others and the media, education etc. All will help change their identity and they will tend to identify with other youth and will no longer want to engage in work that is not accorded same kind of recognition," he said.
Prof. Hettige said that it is difficult to say whether it is good or bad for them to change their lifestyle and identity. "It depends on what they want. What we do not want is their marginalisation and stigmatisation in society. In that sense, it is good that they have the same opportunities as others if they wish to make use of them. Some of their cultural practices may not disappear even if they are integrated, at least not soon.
Some may continue to engage in livelihood activities so long as there is a demand and they are not considered lowly," Prof. Hettige observed.
Orang Melayu: The story of Sri Lanka"s Malay folk
R enowned for their martial prowess and happy go-lucky attitude, Sri Lanka"s Malay folk have but a relatively short history in the country, albeit a very fascinating one.
This small Muslim community which comprises of about 50,000 persons are mainly descended from Javanese political exiles (nobles and chieftains), soldiers and convicts, who arrived in the island from Dutch-occupied Java during the period of Dutch colonial rule in Sri Lanka from 1658 " 1796.
Although the vast majority of Sri Lankan Malays are of Javanese ancestry, there are also considerable numbers descended from the folk of other islands in the Indonesian archipelago such as the Balinese, Tidorese, Madurese, Sundanese, Bandanese and Amboinese.
Thus the ethnic term "Malay" should not be misconstrued as indicating their origin from the Malayan peninsula. Although there do exist Sri Lankan Malays descended from the folk of the Malayan peninsula, their numbers are very few indeed.
The local Malays refer to themselves as orang Java (people of Java) and orang Melayu (Malay people) while the majority Sinhalese community call them Ja-minissu (Javanese people).
Indonesian political exiles comprised a significant portion of the early Malay population brought hither by the Dutch.
These exiles posed a serious political threat to the Dutch East India company (or "vereenigde oost indische compagnie", known as the VOC for short) which had its headquarters in Batavia (the Dutch name for Jakarta). Sri Lanka and the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa were the principal centres of banishment for such exiles. According to B.A. Hussainmiya (Lost cousins, the Malays of Sri Lanka. 1987) there must have been at least 200 members of this eastern nobility including the younger members of aristocratic families born in the island, in the latter part of the 18th century.
This is indeed a significant number considering the fact that during this time, the entire Malay population in the island amounted to about 2400 persons. However, during the early British period, Governor Maitland (1805 " 1811) who believed the exiles to be "a great pecuniary burden to the colonial revenue, besides being a danger to the British interests in the island", took measures to expel them.
Although the Dutch authorities in Batavia were reluctant to take back the exiles, Maitland"s threat that he would forcibly "send them in one his Majesty"s cruises to the Eastward to be landed among these islands", sufficed to change their minds. However, a few exiles who had espoused local women stayed back and gave rise to a small community of Malays claiming aristocratic status.
However, it was the Malay soldiers brought hither by the Dutch to garrison their strongholds, who comprised the bulk of the Malay community in the island. By the turn of the 18th century, there were about 2200 Malay soldiers in the island. Malay troops are said to have taken part in the wars of the Dutch against the Portuguese such as the storming of Galle (1640), the siege of Colombo (1656) and the capture of Jaffna (1658).
The Malays also served in the Dutch wars against the Kandyan Kingdom (17th "18th centuries). With the surrender of the Dutch to the British in 1796, the Malay soldiers were absorbed by the British military, and so served them as they had done their predecessors, the Dutch. The British authorities who were not unaware of the martial prowess of the Malays, imported over 400 Madurese soldiers and about 228 Javanese soldiers along with their families from 1813 " 1816. This was during the brief period of British rule over Java from 1811 " 1816. Following the Dutch takeover of Java in 1816, the British had to turn elsewhere for the supply of Malay soldiers and set up recruiting offices, which were however a miserable failure. Captain Tranchell"s mission (1856 " 1857) which travelled extensively in the East Indies including stopovers in Brunei, Lubuan, Pahang and Kelatan, managed to recruit only seven Malays, which prompted a contemporary British officer, Cowan, to remark: "The expedition and the expenditure as compared with the proceeds of it must show these four of five (Malay recruits) to be about the most expensive in the British army." He says that everyone of them were subsequently set at liberty as they were physically unfit for fighting when they arrived at headquarters.
As for convicts, these comprised petty officials and commoners deported by the VOC. However, these were very few compared to the soldiers. It has been shown that in 1731, there were 131 of these convicts serving the VOC in Sri Lanka, besides those convicts serving in the army and those who had been set free. Although it appears that the majority of Malays did not bring their womenfolk with them, there is evidence to show that a good many of them did.
Christopher Schwitzer, a German resident of Dutch Ceylon alludes (1680) to Amboinese soldiers in the Dutch service who had Amboinese Sinhalese, and Tamil wives, so that we may assume that some of the Malays, especially the soldiery, brought their wives with them. However, as borne out by later Dutch records, the Malays preferred to marry local Moor women, due to their common religious background.
Intermarriage with Sinhalese women has however also been considerable since the 19th century. It is for this reason that local Malays somewhat differ physically from their brethren in the Indonesian archipelago. As for Malay culture, we know that the Malay language (known to local Malays as "bahasa Melayu") is still a living one and is spoken in Malay homes, though there is evidence to show that it is being fast replaced by Sinhala. The local Malay language which somewhat differs from standard Indonesian (bahasa Indonesia) and standard Malaysian (bahasa Malaysia) was however a thriving one in the olden days, so much so that two Malay newspapers, Alamat Lankapuri and Wajah Selong in Arabic script (known to local Malays as the Gundul script) were published in the latter part of the 19th century. As Hussainmiya (Lost cousins 1987) has noted, Sri Lanka"s Malays have belonged to a fairly literate society. Although a great part of their literature, which includes "Hikayats" (prose works) and "Syairs" (works in verse) have had their origins from classical Malay works popular throughout the Malay world, a considerable number of such works have had their origins amongst the local Malay community. The Hikayats which have derived from Arabian, Persian, Indian and Javanese sources, comprise of fantastic tales including romances, legends and epics. Some of the notable Hikayats found in Sri Lanka are the Hikayat Amir Hamzah, Hikayat Isma Yatim and Hikayat Indera Kuraisy. According to Hussainmiya (1987) the Hikayat Indera Kuraisy is peculiar to Sri Lanka. This fantastic Malay romance, which is interspersed with pantuns (traditional Malay quatrains) relate the adventures of the hero Indera Kuraisy who departs from his homeland Sarmadan in order to win the heart of the inapproachable princess, Indera Kayangan.
The Syairs are Malay classic poetry that have for long captured the fancy of local Malay folk. Two notable local syairs are the syair syaikh Fadlun, a romance-epic narrating the story of the pious Fadlun who lived in Arabia during the times of the Caliph Omar, and the syair Kisahnya Khabar Orang Wolenter Bengali which describes the armed skirmish between Malay and Bengali soldiers in Colombo on New Years Day 1819. These Hikayats and Syairs were also written in the Gundul script. However, despite attempts at reviving the Malay language, it is fast dying out and giving way to Sinhala.
The vast majority of vernacular- educated Malay youth today speak Sinhala at home. In spite of all this, it can still be said that the local Malays have been much more conservative than their brethren domiciled in South Africa (Cape Malays) who have had similar beginnings but have ceased to speak that Malay language long ago (as far back as the 19th century, as evident from John Mason"s "Malays of Cape Town" 1861). This is despite the fact that the Cape Malays constitute a community three times as large as the Sri Lankan Malay community. There have of course been numerous attempts at reviving the local Malay language and culture by such organizations as the Sri Lanka Malay Confederation, an umbrella organization of the local Malay community. The second Malay world symposium held in Colombo in August 1985, and co-sponsored by the Malay Confederation and Gapena, the Malaysian Writers Federation, is a case in point.
To this day, the Malays have jealously retained certain aspects of their culture, examples being the honorific Tuan which precedes the names of Malay males, their family names, social customs and culinary habits. Today there exist many Malay family names that have fiercely resisted the inroads made by Islamic Arab names; these include Jaya, Bongso, Tumarto, Kitchil, Kuttilan, Kuncheer and Singa Laksana. Although Malay social customs such as those pertaining to births, circumcisions and marriages are not significantly different from those of their Moorish co-religionists, there nevertheless do exist a few practices that do differ. A practice peculiar to the Malays until fairly recent times was the singing of pantuns on such festive occasions. The Malays have also retained some of their traditional fare such as nasi goreng (Fried rice), satay and Malay Kueh (cakes and puddings). Pittu (rice-cake) and babath (tripe) is another favourite dish that has found much favour amongst other communities as well. Traditional Malay dress has however ceased to exist for some time. Local Malay women, like their Moorish sisters, dress in sari (Indian-style with a hood left at the back to cover the head when going outdoors) instead of the traditional Malay Baju and Kurung. However, it is possible that the sarong which Malay men as well as those of other communities wear at home is a recent introduction from the archipelago.
It appears that in the olden days, Sinhalese, Moor and Tamil folk wore a lower garment similar to the Indian dhoti and not exactly the same garment we know as the sarong, whose name itself is of Malay origin. The arts of batik printing and rattan weaving, both lucrative cottage industries in the country, also owe their origins to the Malay.
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