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Sri Lanka THE CLASSICAL AGE, 200 B.C.-A.D. 1200
Early Settlements
The first extensive Sinhalese settlements were along rivers
in the dry northern zone of the island. Because early
agricultural activity-- primarily the cultivation of wet rice--
was dependent on unreliable monsoon rains, the Sinhalese
constructed canals, channels, water-storage tanks, and reservoirs
to provide an elaborate irrigation system to counter the risks
posed by periodic drought. Such early attempts at engineering
reveal the brilliant understanding these ancient people had of
hydraulic principles and trigonometry. The discovery of the
principle of the valve tower, or valve pit, for regulating the
escape of water is credited to Sinhalese ingenuity more than
2,000 years ago. By the first century A.D, several large-scale
irrigation works had been completed.
The mastery of hydraulic engineering and irrigated
agriculture facilitated the concentration of large numbers of
people in the northern dry zone, where early settlements appeared
to be under the control of semi-independent rulers
(see Sri Lanka - Land Use and Settlement Patterns
, ch. 2). In time, the mechanisms for
political control became more refined, and the city-state of
Anuradhapura emerged and attempted to gain sovereignty over the
entire island. The state-sponsored flowering of Buddhist art and
architecture and the construction of complex and extensive
hydraulic works exemplify what is known as Sri Lanka's classical
age, which roughly parallels the period between the rise and fall
of Anuradhapura (from ca. 200 B.C. to ca. A.D. 993).
The Sinhalese kingdom at Anuradhapura was in many ways
typical of other ancient hydraulic societies because it lacked a
rigid, authoritarian and heavily bureaucratic structure.
Theorists have attributed Anuradhapura's decentralized character
to its feudal basis, which was, however, a feudalism unlike that
found in Europe. The institution of caste formed the basis of
social stratification in ancient Sinhalese society and determined
a person's social obligation, and position within the hierarchy.
The caste system in Sri Lanka developed its own
characteristics. Although it shared an occupational role with its
Indian prototype, caste in Sri Lanka developed neither the
exclusive Brahmanical social hierarchy nor, to any significant
degree, the concept of defilement by contact with impure persons
or substances that was central to the Indian caste system. The
claims of the Kshatriya (warrior caste) to royalty were a
moderating influence on caste, but more profound was the
influence of Buddhism, which lessened the severity of the
institution. The monarch theoretically held absolute powers but
was nevertheless expected to conform to the rules of dharma, or
universal laws governing human existence and conduct
(see Sri Lanka - Religion
, ch. 2).
The king was traditionally entitled to land revenue
equivalent to one-sixth of the produce in his domain.
Furthermore, his subjects owed him a kind of caste-based
compulsory labor (rajakariya in Sinhala) as a condition
for holding land and were required to provide labor for road
construction, irrigation projects, and other public works. During
the later colonial period, the Europeans exploited the
institution of rajakariya, which was destined to become an
important moral and economic issue in the nineteenth century
(see Sri Lanka - European Encroachment and Dominance, 1500-1948
, this ch.).
Social divisions arose over the centuries between those
engaged in agriculture and those engaged in nonagricultural
occupations. The
Govi
(cultivators--see Glossary) belonged to the
highest Sinhalese caste (Goyigama) and remained so in the late
twentieth century. All Sri Lankan heads of state have, since
independence, belonged to the Goyigama caste, as do about half of
all Sinhalese. The importance of cultivation on the island is
also reflected in the caste structure of the Hindu Tamils, among
whom the Vellala (cultivator) is the highest caste.
Data as of October 1988
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