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Sri Lanka A Weakened State: Invasion, Disease, and Social Instability
The Sinhalese withdrawal from the north is sometimes
attributed to the cumulative effect of invasions from southern
India (a rationale that has been exploited against the Tamils in
modern Sinhalese politics). This interpretation has obvious
weaknesses because after each of the south Indian invasions of
the preceding centuries, the Sinhalese returned to the dry zone
from the hills and repaired and revived the ancient irrigation
system. K.M. de Silva suggests that the cumulative effects of
repeated invasions "ate into the vitals of a society already
losing its vigour with age." A civilization based on a dry-zone
irrigation complex presupposes a high degree of organization and
a massive labor force to build and maintain the works. The
decline of these public works mirrored the breakdown in the
social order. Another factor that seems to have retarded the
resettlement of the dry zone was the outbreak of malaria in the
thirteenth century. The mosquito found ideal breeding grounds in
the abandoned tanks and channels. (Malaria has often followed the
destruction of irrigation works in other parts of Asia.) Indeed,
all attempts at large-scale resettlement of the dry area in Sri
Lanka were thwarted until the introduction of modern pesticides.
During the thirteenth century, the declining Sinhalese
kingdom faced threats of invasion from India and the expanding
Tamil kingdom of northern Sri Lanka. Taking advantage of
Sinhalese weakness, the Tamils secured control of the valuable
pearl fisheries around Jaffna Peninsula. During this time, the
vast stretches of jungle that cover north-central Sri Lanka
separated the Tamils and the Sinhalese. This geographical
separation had important psychological and cultural implications.
The Tamils in the north developed a more distinct and confident
culture, backed by a resurgent Hinduism that looked to the
traditions of southern India for its inspiration. Conversely, the
Sinhalese were increasingly restricted to the southern and
central area of the island and were fearful of the more numerous
Tamils on the Indian mainland. The fact that the Hindu kingdom at
Jaffna was expending most of its military resources resisting the
advances of the expansionist Vijayanagara Empire (1336-1565) in
India enhanced the Sinhalese ability to resist further Tamil
encroachments. Some historians maintain that it was the arrival
of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century that prevented the
island from being overrun by south Indians.
Foreign rulers took advantage of the disturbed political
state of the Sinhalese kingdom, and in the thirteenth century
Chandrabhanu, a Buddhist king from Malaya, invaded the island
twice. He attempted to seize the two most sacred relics of the
Buddha in Sinhalese custody, the Tooth Relic and the Alms Bowl.
In the early fifteenth century, the Ming dynasty Chinese
interceded on behalf of King Parakramabahu VI (1412-67), an
enlightened monarch who repulsed an invasion from the polity of
Vijayanagara in southern India, reunited Sri Lanka, and earned
renown as a patron of Buddhism and the arts. Parakramabahu VI was
the last Sinhalese king to rule the entire island.
During this extended period of domestic instability and
frequent foreign invasion, Sinhalese culture experienced
fundamental change. Rice cultivation continued as the mainstay of
agriculture but was no longer dependent on an elaborate
irrigation network. In the wet zone, large-scale administrative
cooperation was not as necessary as it had been before. Foreign
trade was of increasing importance to the Sinhalese kings. In
particular, cinnamon--in great demand by Europeans--became a
prime export commodity. Because of the value of cinnamon, the
city of Kotte on the west coast (near modern Colombo) became the
nominal capital of the Sinhalese kingdom in the mid-fifteenth
century. Still, the Sinhalese kingdom remained divided into
numerous competing petty principalities.
Data as of October 1988
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