My visit to Sri Lanka in 2015

Sri Lanka - Challenges of the New Generation
Jayadeva Hettiarachchy, September, 2015

Arrival:

Ceylon was the country that I left in 1980 and Sri Lanka is the new name of the country I visited recently. What is there in a name I reminisced as I arrived just after general election in the country on 27^th of September 2015 that had resulted in the overthrow of the previous ruling party by a new set of rulers? Since I had some local Sri Lankan rupees to spend during my stay in the country, I thought of utilizing my local money for my expenses rather than using US dollars. But I found that a dollar exchanged for 138 rupees, a significant jump of 23 Sri Lankan rupees from year 2012 when the exchange rate was only 115 rupees for a US dollar. I expected the country to be economically doing better after the end of the civil war; unfortunately US dollar appeared to be more stable than the Sri Lankan rupee at least in Sri Lanka. In my opinion, the economical challenges of the new generation of Sri Lanka appeared to rise above more than any other challenges. This, I thought, should be the number one important challenge of the new generation of Sri Lanka.

Wedding Drums:

Although it was a Sunday night that I landed in Sri Lanka and travelled from the airport to the hotel, the roads were severely crowded and jam-packed with vehicles. At the hotel where I stayed preparations were taking place for a wedding that was to take place on the following day. The hotel was crowded with relatives of the bride and the groom who had come to attend the wedding ceremony from all parts of the country. Although the country seems to be economically plummeting, economic problems seemed to have no bearing on the ongoing social and cultural activities. Marriage being the most important event in life, young men and women expect to have a grand wedding ceremony attended by hundreds of relatives and friends. They need to spend lots of money that they may not have, and those who attend those weddings too have to appear at their best attires whether they could afford such expenses or not. It goes without saying that the whole purpose of such grand weddings is to have a whole lot of fun and nothing but fun.

Traditional simple wedding ceremonies celebrated between families at home during my days in Sri Lanka inviting relatives and friends for a wedding ceremony conducted at home mostly in villages appear to have been altogether replaced by wedding ceremonies similar to “destination weddings” that take place in the developed world mostly among immigrants. Those grand weddings still tend to draw large number of people living in distant parts of the country. The attendees to these weddings unfortunately cannot walk to the weddings (like in the good old days of my time in Sri Lanka) or by three wheelers the most popular mode of transportation. They need to have their own cars or rentals for their transportation needs, hotel rooms reserved and paid for by them before they attend those weddings. In the hotel we stayed there were several such weddings happening almost on a weekly basis. Whether these pompous wedding ceremonies are an absolute necessity in a country that is economically going downhill, was a question that kept popping in my mind whenever I heard those loud wedding drums in the hotel where I stayed, and on the heavily crowded roads packed with vehicles not moving at all for several hours consuming petroleum that the country pays in foreign exchange with a negative foreign exchange balance. For me as an observer, it looked like a mindless activity. The young man and woman and the respective families could have had a much happier marriage ceremony in their hometowns away from the crowded city and hotel rooms without having to spend all that money which could have been used more productively. This is perhaps another challenge that most young Sri Lankans of the upcoming generation need to think about -- this in a way is one way of thinking "out-of-the-box".

Three-wheelers:

Although they are the most dangerous transportation methods, we had no choice but to use the three-wheelers to visit places within Colombo city during our first few days of stay in Colombo. This is because regular four-wheel-rentals or taxis are not efficient on the heavily congested roads while the three-wheelers could weave between other vehicles and lanes quickly and swiftly and take us to places without having to spend enormous amounts of time on commuting to places. Time and punctuality are important contributory factors for economic progress of any country, Sri Lanka included. Besides, we did not have all that time in our busy schedule to spend on the roads idling in the hot sun in traffic jams. One complaint most people that I talked to had was that they find it very difficult to travel even a few kilometers without spending sometimes hours in traffic jams in congested roads. I experienced it myself on the heavily congested roads in the morning when I had to spend at least a couple of hours to get out of Colombo on my way to Kandy. One person mentioned that he has been unable to visit his sick mother who lives only a few kilometers away from where he lives because of the time he has to spend on the congested road to see her.

Sri Lanka had 929,495 three wheelers registered by the end of 2014, according to data from the department of motor vehicles.  In July of 2015, 73,838 three wheelers have been registered thereby showing over one million three wheelers; evidently, three wheelers have become an important part of public transport network, during the night when buses stop operating (source: http://www.economynext.com/Sri_Lanka_three_wheeler_population_tops_one_million-3-2814-6.html).

Three wheelers also have provided a significant employment opportunity to over one million people of Sri Lanka; owning three-wheelers seems to be rapidly growing as an inexpensive way of owning a vehicle by the people who cannot afford to own regular automobiles. As a result, there are three wheelers that are metered taxis and three wheelers owned by people for day-to-day travel plus doing part-time taxi business. Unfortunately, although one million three wheelers provide employment opportunities to one million people, they also contribute significantly to slowing down the transportation system of the major cities as well as major highways of the country. Incidents of daily three-wheeler accidents make them to be one of the most dangerous means of transportation. There appears to be no planning in process to disallow three-wheeler transportation in major highways or any attempt to set minimum and maximum speed limits on highways with the result that the highways have become the slowest and most inefficient mode of transportation in the country.

There is no doubt that three wheelers have come to stay in Sri Lanka as a major source of public and private transportation needs. The chances are that the number of three wheelers imported from India to Sri Lanka will keep soaring in the future. The major problem however as I saw it is not the soaring numbers of three wheelers jamming the roads all over the country, but as to how they should be managed in such a way that they do not clog the highways and byways wasting valuable time and petroleum that consumes a large part of the foreign exchange of the country. The most efficient use of the available network of roads in the country by the growing number of vehicles including the three-wheelers is undoubtedly a top priority of the transportation system planning that should facilitate efficient and timely movement allowing no time to waste on the highways. This is another important challenge for the new generation of Sri Lanka. Without laying the foundation of an efficient transportation system all attempts to improve the overall economy of the country may not be productive. As I see, a systematic planning process for improving the road network system of the country that restrict the three-wheelers to certain roads and unclog the highways connecting major cities is of utmost importance and a top priority to improve the country’s economy and tourism as a sustainable industry.

Agri- Business:

My travel in the central and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka was undoubtedly a delightful experience. The evergreen landscape constantly reminded me of Philippines and Bali (Indonesia) or the geography and climate of Honduras of Central America. The rich soil with coconut plantations made me think that  Sri Lankans could do much better economically by utilizing the rich soil for cultivating more coconut trees in the vast areas of land currently underutilized and/or occupied by the jungle. This vast waste land provides an excellent opportunity for commercial enterprises to make long-term investments on large coconut cultivations to meet the production needs of desiccated coconuts as well as other coconut by-products for export purposes. These waste lands reminded me of the vast stretches of land in Kansas State, U.S.A advertised for the taking as "free land." Government could be leasing such land for productive use by private enterprises willing to invest time and energy with a vision for the future.

Thinking about a vision for the future, the highest ambition of most families during the time I lived in Sri Lanka was to make their boys and girls to be medical doctors, engineers or lawyers. Even the educational system promoted the same hierarchy by screening kids in 5th grade who did well in sciences from others who had no other choice but to do humanities. From those who were chosen to do sciences the students who did well in physical and biological sciences were selected to do medicine and engineering and dentistry. The rest had no other choice but to do general sciences like physics, botany, chemistry, zoology, veterinary science or agriculture. The wealthy parents sent their children to study law at the Law College in Colombo.  Only a few of the vast majority of students who had no other choice than to study arts and humanities competed successfully to be admitted to the one and only university of the country during my time, and their greatest ambition was to join the Civil Service (Ceylon Administrative Service), university teaching, or gain an executive position in the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Those who could not achieve any of these ambitions after graduation from the university had to be satisfied with a teaching position in a remote school or a government clerical job with the result that most of the graduates of the university ended up being government employees. In a way, it was like most unemployed young people in Colombo becoming three-wheel operators of today. They just followed the example of others taking the path of least resistance. Unfortunately, many young people who could have done much better in life may have joined the government employments in which they stagnated during the prime of their life doing just repeat business, most of the time commuting hours on public transportation systems not necessarily liking or being passionate about what they did in life. It is a challenge that the new generation face today to break this mind set by taking risks that will pay back with dividends later in life. However, choosing such a life-style and work involves dedication, determination and a will to do hard work and accomplish goals. I saw a few agricultural enterprises like Hayleys in Biyagama, Alawwa, and Ampare http://hayleysagriculture.com/hjs/vision-mission.html and CIC Agri Businesses in Pelwehera http://www.cicagri.com/index.php?page_cat=home.

In both these places farming of crops are done scientifically with a vision employing and training hard working people who are willing to learn the business of agriculture from farming to processing/production. Both companies are privately owned profit making enterprises exporting Sri Lankan products contributing significantly to Sri Lanka's GDP and training Sri Lankan workers to be productive.  They do set an example for other entrepreneurs interested in doing business in Sri Lanka. Admittedly, Sri Lanka has promoted coconut industry by establishing a coconut research institute as well as a ministry of coconut development and Janatha estate development. A few private companies like Adamjee Lukmanjee & Sons Ltd had been scientifically growing coconuts on a large scale and processing coconuts and exporting processed coconut products to foreign countries since mid-19th century.Source(http://www.adamjeelukmanjee.com/about-us/our-journey.html) There are few other innovative companies processing coconut products for the global market researching on adding value to coconut products beyond traditional use.

Understandably, most people do not have the money to invest in starting up new businesses like a coconut plantation. They would rather find a government job which pays them a monthly salary. This is one reason as to why about three million Sri Lankans are living as expatriates all over the world. Undoubtedly they do contribute significantly to uplift the GDP by bringing in foreign exchange to Sri Lanka. Systematic investment on start-up family business by earnings of expatriates could be one way expatriates could build a nest egg back in Sri Lanka while working and earning living in a foreign country. Such an investment in a family business could pay dividends eventually if done systematically.

Tourism

I stayed in the eastern coast of Sri Lanka in Batticaloa for 5 days in a hotel that fit my travel budget. Although Batticaloa is the poorest area of Sri Lanka there are a large number of luxurious hotels overlooking the ocean in Batticaloa, Pasikuda and Kalkuda beaches that provide tourists with all comforts, exotic food and superb house-keeping facilities. Although flies and mosquitoes are not a problem inside the hotel rooms, they are plentiful in the open air, especially where food is served in open spaces. Hotels spray chemicals to keep the insects away especially if you complain about their presence inside your room. Most economical hotels do not have central air and heat for the entire hotel but only in a few rooms equipped with heating and cooling units fixed inside the rooms as well as hot water heating units fixed in the bathrooms for bathing.

Tourism being one of the important GDP generators, it is one area that needs systematic and coordinated planning between the government and private companies catering for tourism. While the government owned and maintained tourist hotels have services that are far below the expectations of the average tourists, there is a need to keep the tourists satisfied and willing to come back and give good reviews of their stay in Sri Lanka. The privately owned hotels seem to be doing excellent advertizing promoting their facilities and services on the Internet. Nevertheless, today's tourists who are mostly retired professionals are very conscious about what they get out of the packages they buy. Some of them shop around for the best value for the price they pay. Bad reviews regarding bad services and bad food has a way of hurting tourist business anywhere in the world. Some reviews regarding poor service, bad food and dishonest tourist drivers catch the eye of most tourists. Responses given by the patrons to reviews are also an important aspect of maintaining a good image of the business by organizations that value their service. In most moderately priced hotels I stayed during this and my previous several visits to Sri Lanka, the service at the front desk was great but the food and the room service left much to be desired. In one rest house where I stayed there was only one waiter to serve all the guests who were waiting to have their dinner to be served on time. According to official reports, tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka exceeded 1.5 Million in 2014 and is expected to exceed 2.5 Million by 2016 (source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Sri_Lanka#Tourism_industry).
There is therefore certainly a need for Sri Lankan Tourist Board and the private companies to join hands in providing a quality service not only promoting the completive spirit among the tourist hotels to attract tourists but also those tourists to be satisfied with their experience of a fun vacation that Sri Lanka is capable of providing.

Concluding Thoughts:

Lastly, it goes without saying that the political stability of a country is of paramount importance to the economic and social growth of a country. Sri Lanka has had too many civil wars as well as political upheavals that present serious challenges to the new generation in the years to come. A genuine understanding of the evils of holocaust could be a starting point for a new beginning of the new generation. We may not be able to solve all human problems, but it is far better to learn to manage them than be mired in them.

Citta -- What a story..who borrowed from whom

Panduvasudeva had 10 sons and a daughter.The eldest son was Abhaya. The daughter was Citta. She was called Ummadacitta because she drove men insane by her good looks.  The soothsayers predicted that Citta's son will kill his nine uncles (except Abhaya) to become the king of Lanka. Therefore,  King Abhaya kept Citta in seclusion  in a chamber build on a pillar.  However, in spite of all the precautions taken to keep Citta from seeing men, she had a love affair with a first cousin and was pregnant. The royal family then decided to give Chitta in marriage to her lover but to kill the off spring if it happened to be a boy. The story as narrated by the author of Mahavamsa about Chittas son Pandukabhaya is  another fairy tale embellished by many such popular stories involving non-humans helping Citta's son to survive and fight and kill all his nine paternal uncles and gain the throne of Lanka. The detailed stories belong in the realm of folklore and are omitted in this write up.

According to Mahavamasa author, Pandukabhaya established the village boundaries over the whole island of Lanka ten years after his consecration. Pandukabhaya had two non-human associates Kalavela and Cittaraja who were visible in bodily form. He also had devils (yakkas) and non-humans (bhutas) as his close friends.  Pandukabhaya ruled for 70 years in Lanka living in Anuradhapura that he made the capital city of Lanka. Pandukabhaya was succeeded by his son Mutasiva and he reigned for 60 years in Anuradhapura. Mutasiva had ten sons and two daughters. The second son Devanampiyatissa became king after Mutasiva's death.

Analysis:
The prophesy of the soothsayers that Citta's son would kill all his uncles and their various attempts to kill him in his childhood are similar to the biblical narrative of infanticide by Herod the Great. While attempting to find out who borrowed these yarns from whom at what point in time could be a futile effort, it is prudent to discard these attempts to connect the dots of Sri Lankan history with no substantial supporting evidence, as they  are at least 800 years separated from the time they are supposed to have occurred from the time they were written by the author of the Great Chronicle. However, the great pains taken by the Mahavamsa author to narrate the lineage of the early rulers by these stories apparently show that successive waves of warriors and their kinsmen arrived and settled in the northern part of Lanka during the pre-historic times of Sri Lanka. The non-humans referred to as yakshas (devils), as shown earlier could be the tribal people who the warriors brought along with them for colonizing the newly found land of Lanka. The names of the humans as well as the devils mentioned in these stories clearly indicate a south Indian (Pandyan) connection Sri Lanka had during the time of colonization of Lanka by the Indian people.

Ravana -- The brahmarakshssa (cross between a brahmin and a devil)

The Villan Lankeshvara – Emperor of (Sri) Lanka Ravana
Written on August 17, 2013
By Jay Hettiarachchy

Ravana is portrayed as the “bad guy” and enemy of Rama who was the heir to the throne of Ayodya in North India (the good guy) in Ramayana  a classical epic believed to have been authored by Valmiki during the period approximately between 5^th and 4^thcentury B.C. in Northern India. Ravana, according to Ramayana is a Brahmarakshasa (of mixed birth between a Brahmin father and a Rakshasa mother) king of Lanka (Sri Lanka). Rama and Ravana are the central characters depicted in Ramayana.

Ramayana is not only a narrative of the “war” between Rama and Ravana, but also a war between North India and Lanka (Sri Lanka of today). According to Ramayana, Ravana kidnapped Rama’s wife Seeta, in retaliation of Rama and his brother Lakshmana for having cut off the nose of Ravana’s  sister Suparnakha who tried to seduce Rama when he was in exile. In the war that ensued in Lanka, Ravana was finally killed by Rama in battle and Seeta was rescued.

Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, is one of most popular deities worshipped in the Hindu religion. Each year, many devout pilgrims trace his journey through India and Nepal, halting at each of the holy sites along the way. The poem is not seen as just a literary monument, but serves as an important component of Hinduism, and is held in such reverence that the mere reading or hearing of it, or certain passages of it, are believed by Hindus to free them from sin and bless the reader or listener. Rama's return to Ayodhya and his coronation are celebrated as "Diwali" also known as the Festival of Lights.

Ravana is described as having 10 heads and 20 arms and is vividly portrayed in Rajasthani painting of incidents of the Ramayana, flying away with Seeta, fighting with Rama, and sitting with his demon councilors (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravana)

Ironically, the epic Ramayana is not as popular in Sri Lankan society as in India. On the contrary, Ranvana is as much worshiped as a popular deity in India as Rama and not as much or as enthusiastically in Sri Lanka. There are many popular places of worship of Ravana in India than in Sri Lanka. In the Buddhist variant of Ramayana, Dasaratha was the king of Benares (Varanasi) and not of Ayodhya. Nonetheless, there is an extensive tradition of oral story telling based on the Ramayana in Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Vietnam, and Maldives.

Analysis:

There is no historical evidence of a Lankeshvara Ravana (emperor Lankeshvara) who lived in (Sri) Lanka or usurped a wife of the heir to the throne of Ayodhya in North India although some attempts have been made by some people in Sri Lanka  to make believe the Ramayana story of a war that took place between a Rama and a Ravana. Moreover they believe that Rama was aided by a monkey king Hanuman who built a bridge between south India and (Sri) Lanka to bring an army of monkeys to fight with Ravana and kill him and save Seeta from captivity.

Such stories are prevalent in most primitive societies in which gullible people live and pass them down to the younger generations who continue to propagate them generation after generation.

The Second King of Sri Lanka

Sinhalese: The second king Panduvasudeva and his consecration.
Written on June 13, 2013
By Jay Hettiarachchy

According to the great chronicle of Sri Lanka, Vijaya, the first king of the Sinhalese people did not have a son to succeed him as the king of Lanka. Therefore he sent a letter to his brother Sumitta in Bengal in northeast India asking him to come and take over the kingdom of Lanka after his death. Before his brother could respond to the letter, Vijaya died and Lanka was without a king for one year. Vijaya’s brother was too old to accept the invitation of his brother to go to Lanka but wanted one of his three son's born from his wife from Madras to accept Viyaya’s invitation to take over the kingdom and rule Lanka. The third son Panduvasudeva accepted the invitation and went to Lanka and accepted the kingdom. 

When the time came for Panduvasudeva’s consecration his ministers wanted a maiden from the Sakya family of kings who had now migrated to another area of Ganges river basin due to the destruction of the original kingdom established by Sakyas from whom the Buddha descended.

According to this story, seven royal families in India wanted to marry this Sakya king’s daughter Bhaddakaccana because she was very beautiful. Her father was very fearful of displeasing any of the contenders. Therefore he sent her into the sea by ship proclaiming that whosoever rescued her could marry her. As the story goes, Bhddakaccana landed in Lanka with many other maidens in the guise of mendicants. She was consecrated as the queen of Panduvasudeva the second king of Lanka.
 

Analysis:

This episode is surrounded by many unbelievable sooth sayings and predictions. These were left out in our above summary as they do not have a place in history or reality. 

Surprisingly, Vijaya’s brother Sumitta too married a queen from Madras (Madda) and her third son's name was Panduvasudeva showing that he had a Pandyan (a south Indian clan of rulers) affiliation in the name given to him. The story is convoluted to such an extent that no historical facts regarding the real genealogy of the earliest Sinhalese kings could be squeezed out of the available story as it is recorded in the Mahavamsa about Panduvasudeva, his queen Bhaddakaccana and his consecration as well as most other predictions that were uttered by soothsayers before the events actually took place.

The only trace of information that may be gathered is the matrimonial relationship that may have taken place between south Indian royal families and the rulers of Lanka during the time of the writing of the great chronicle of Sri Lanka (Mahavamsa). The Mahavamsa author may have naturally recorded what was happening between the royal families in Lanka and South India in trying to reconstruct a history of an island about which no one had any clear idea or reliable evidence. However, the tradition continues on in Sri Lanka in the form of lullabies even to this day. Following is one I have heard during my child hood in Sri Lanka.

තව්සෙකුසේ ඇඳ පැලඳා
පඬුවස්දෙව් මහනිරිඳා
මාකඳුරින් ගොඩබටදා
මගුලක්විය ලක මුලුදා

එදා පටන් මෙසිරිලකේ
සම්මා සමබුදු මැණිකේ
දම් එළියෙන් අඳුර මැකේ
මිසදිටු විස කටු නොරැකේ

The South Indian Wife of The First King of Lanka

Vijaya – The First King of the Sinhalese
Written on June 12, 2013
By Jay Hettiarachchy

The Origins of the Sinhalese People -- Story of the consecration of the first Sinhalese king, Vijaya as narrated by the chronicler of Mahavamsa (the great genealogy)   

After Viyaya’s followers settled in the northern area of Lanka they wanted Vijaya to be consecrated as their king. But Vijaya did not wish to be consecrated “unless a maiden of a noble house was consecrated as his queen.” Then Vijaya’s ministers went back to southern India and brought the daughter of the Pandu king of Madhura (Chennai, or Madras) and 100 other maidens as wives for Vijay’s ministers. 

But Vijaya had one little problem according to the chronicler. He had a son and a daughter from the yakkhini (the woman devil Kuvanna). According to the good chronicle, Vijaya told the yakkhini to leave behind the children and go back to her folks (the devils) since he had to wed the princess and get himself ready for the consecration.   But the yakkhini feared that her folks would kill her if she went to them. Finally when Viyaya forced her to leave, she took the children with her and went to the forest where the devils suspected her to be a spy. One ferocious devil killed her with one blow with his fist. Kuveni’s brother having learnt that her sister was killed informed the children about it and warned them to run away to the Sumana kuta (Adams peak) mountain where they lived together and had children together. They were the originators of the Pulinda tribe or the Veddha’s  (the barbarous people) of Lanka who later inhabited Sabaragamuwa district according to tradition.

Analysis:

What a story!

If this story was believable, it talks about the very first king to be consecrated in Lanka married a Pandyan queen from Chennai/Madras. This myth woven during the time when Mahavamsa was written by this Buddhist monk may have reflected the practice of some Sinhala kings having had matrimonial relations with the royal family of the contemporary neighboring south Indian Tamil kingdom.

There are too many brothers and sisters having had incestual relationships bearing twins in these myths. There is apparently no reliable history of the origin of the aboriginal people known as Veddhas of Sri Lanka. However, anybody could have come up with any story at a time when a willing audience was ready to believe whatever was told to them.

It is a shame that some people of the present day too fall a prey to such myths that have been fabricated by some people having had ulterior motives for creating them.

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.

Did the Buddha Visit Sri Lanka?

Buddha’s Visits to Lanka
July 10, 2013
Jay Hettiarachchy

According to Mahavamsa, the Buddha visited Lanka in the ninth month of his Buddhahood. A vivid description of how the Buddha struck terror in the hearts of the Yakka’s who he later transferred to Girideepa (rocky island) by performing a miracle can be found in this account. The Buddha then preached the doctrine to the devas (the gods) at the spot where the Mahiyangana Stupa would be constructed. Many millions of people accepted Buddhism having listened to this sermon.

Buddha visited nagadipa (snake island) again when Culodara (small belly) and Mahodara (big belly) nagas were fighting over a gem-set thrown. The Buddha created fear in the minds of the nagas (snakes) and won them over by dispelling the darkness that he brought over them. Eighty million nagas (snakes) were converted to Buddhism by the Buddha on this visit.

In the eighth year after Buddha’s attainment of Nibbana, once again he came to Kalyani (Near Colombo) accepting the invitation of the naga king maniakkhika (gem-eyed snake king). Where the Buddha sat in Kalyani, the Kalyani stupa was built at a later time. The Buddha then went to Samanthakuta (Adam’s peak, Sripada) and laid his footprint there and after having spent one day there, went to many other places where Buddhist stupas (topes) and monasteries would be built later including the location where the sacred Bodhi-tree would be planted.

Thus according to Mahavamsa the Buddha came three times to Lanka knowing that Lanka will be a haven for his doctrine.

Analysis:

Real historians have had real trouble about these mythical accounts. Some historians discard all these accounts as ecclesiastical stories created by the Buddhist monks to serve an ecclesiastical purpose, others are more forgiving in trying to accommodate these accounts to connect the dots of early history of Ceylon.

Historically speaking, the author of Mahavamsa seems to have had real trouble trying to make Vijaya’s (the first Sinhala king of Lanka) landing on the island on the very same day the Buddha passed away. This is because it was important to the Buddhist monks in Ceylon during the time Mahavamsa was written (5^th Century A.D) to make Lanka the strong-hold of Buddhism when Buddhism was on the decline in India where it originated due to the revival of Hinduism. The Mahavamsa author was obviously trying to narrate events that took place nearly 1000 years before his time. His purpose in writing the Mahavamsa cannot be considered as writing a “history” of Sri Lanka.

Most people in Sri Lanka even today believe whole heartedly that the Buddha visited Sri Lanka and left his foot print on Adams peak to symbolize his visit. Their belief is purely based on the accounts narrated in Mahavamsa about the Buddha’s visit to Lanka. However, we need to admit that there is no real evidence or possibility that the Buddha could have visited Sri Lanka unless we want to accept the story given in the Mahavamsa as absolute truth.