Tamil immigration to Sri Lanka

Tamil speakers, 1961

Tamil immigration to Sri Lanka theory refers to Tamil people moving to Sri Lanka from the Tamil areas in India. All the people of Sri Lanka including the Sinhalese were came from India only. Presently there are two major Tamil communities, the Sri Lankan Tamils, who have been settled in the island for centuries, and the more recent Plantantion Tamils, who were brought as indentured labourers brought by the British.

Communities

Assimilation with the Sinhalese people

Historically Sri Lankan monarchs have used the services of South Indian labor since centuries BCE. According to the primary source Mahavamsa, number service groups from Pandyan kingdom in present day Tamil Nadu accompanied the settlement of Anuradhapura by Prakrit speakers. There is epigraphic evidence of traders and others self identifying as Damelas or Damedas (Sinhala and Sinhala prakrit for Tamils) in Anuradhapura and other areas of Sri Lanka as early as 2nd century BCE. The idea of looking upon the Demedas as aliens was not prevalent in the Early Historical Period.[1]

South Indian soldiers were brought to Anuradhapura in ever larger numbers in the seventh, eight, ninth and tenth centuries ACE leading to number of rulers relying on their help to consolidate and rule, Raja Raja Chola (Who had a Hon.title UDAYAR was from the Raja Kula Agammudayar caste) created a town called Jananathamangalam,near Anuradhapura and settled Velakkara(Maravar), & Agampadi (Agampu+adi) soldiers(Agammudayar),(These two Castes were sub divisions from the Tamil Mukkulathor caste),they eventually got assimilated to Sinhala society,the sinhala family name Palihakkara (Palaikkarar) originated from the Velakkara soldiers and the suffix Agampodi in front of some names of the Salagama sub caste "Hewapanne"(militia)originated from the agampadi soldiers,who married Salagama Hewapanne women, There was also large scale mercantile activity from peninsular India primarily from the Coromandel Coast.[2]

The majority Sinhalese caste structure, which is a flexible system with no religious sanctions attached to it, has accommodated the recent Hindu immigrants from South India leading to the emergence of three new Sinhalese caste groups-the Salagama, the Durava and the Karava.[3][4] This migration and assimilation happened until the eighteenth century.[3] Salagamas whose caste legends allude to South India, came as Nambudiri Brahmins from Kerala, for the coronation ceremony of King Vijayabahu I, & for the coronation ceremony of Prince Wathhimi,& also as specialized service providers as weavers & as mercenary soldiers (Agampadi soldiers) "Agampadi"Mercenary Soldiers(mercenaries who were deployed in the army and as coast guards from Dambeniya rule onwards).from Tamil Nadu, but some of them, were punished by the King of Kotte who imposed cinnomon as a tax, eventually a section of them became cinnamon peelers. How and when this happened is unclear, but according to some historians it was in 1406 by the King of Kotte.[3]& another section is called "Hewapanne" or soldiers.

See also

Notes

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  1. ↑ Indrapala, K The Evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils of Sri Lanka, p.157
  2. ↑ Indrapala, K The Evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils of Sri Lanka, p.214-215
  3. 1 2 3 de Silva, A History of Sri Lanka (2005), p.121
  4. ↑ Spencer, J, Sri Lankan history and roots of conflict, p. 23
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