Vijaya and Kuveni

Sinhalese People – Kuvanna (the black female devil who cohabited with Vijaya and bore twins)

Written on June 11, 2013
By Jay Hettiarachchy

According to Mahavamsa (the Great Chronicle) Vijaya arrived in Lanka (Sri Lanka) with his seven hundred followers on the very same day the Buddha passed away. Knowing that Vijaya would arrive in the Island of Lanka where Buddhism would be established later, the Buddha in his death bed told the head of the gods,  Sakra to protect Vijaya and his followers in the island of Lanka. The Sakra came as an ascetic to Lanka and protected Vijaya and his followers from Kuvanna (the dark woman), a female devil. Kuvanna's encounter with the 700 followers of Vijaya who she took under her spell is given in chapter 7 of the Mahavamsa.  Accordingly, Vijaya unlike his followers did not fall a prey to Kuvanna (the female devil) and came to a deal with her to enlist her support to kill all her devil relatives for saving her life. Keeping her promise Kuvanna helped Vijaya to kill most of the devils that gathered for a wedding ceremony, and lived with Vijaya giving birth to a twin male and a female child.

Analysis of this myth:

The occurrence of the Buddha’s death and Vijayas arrival in Lanka on the same day is so farfetched and is contrived in order that a connection with Buddhism and the colonization of Sri Lanka is established. The entire story of the Buddha telling the head of the Gods to come to Lanka to protect Vijaya and his followers can be considered as a nice story similar to a fairy tale.

Yaksha, meaning the devil is an old Indian tribal name for a community of people who lived in India. Most probably, the yakshas referred to in the Mahavamsa signify a category of aboriginal people who the visitors to the island may have encountered. Giving birth to twins (male and female twins) seem to be a pattern that has taken place several times in the genealogy of Sinhalese people and the story appears too good to be true with no supporting evidence.

We are living in a world in which we are unable to validate the events that happened even a few days ago. Even our court system is not a hundred percent foolproof system. It would therefore be prudent for us to acknowledge the fact that we do not have the evidence about Vijaya who is supposed to be the person who established the Sinhala kingdom in Lanka. Nor do we have evidence of Kuvanna who lived with Vijaya and produced male and female twin children who later produced the Veddas (aboriginal forest dwellers) of Sri Lanka.