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Sri Lanka Caste among the Sinhalese
The dominant caste among the Sinhalese population is the
Goyigama. Although the government keeps no official statistics on
caste, it appears that the Goyigama comprise at least half the
Sinhalese population. The traditional occupation of this caste is
agriculture, and most members are still peasant farmers in
villages almost everywhere in Sri Lanka. In traditional Sinhalese
society, they monopolized the highest positions at royal courts
and among the landowning elite. In the democratic society of the
twentieth century, their members still dominate the political
scene. In most villages they might be no richer than their nonGoyigama neighbors, but the richest landlord groups tend to be
Goyigama, while the poorest agricultural laborers tend to include
few Goyigama.
In the Central Highlands, some traditions of the Kingdom of
Kandy survived after its collapse in 1818, preserved in unique
forms of the caste system until the postindependence period. The
most important feature of the old system was rajakariya,
or the "king's work," which linked each caste to a specific
occupation and demanded services for the court and religious
institutions. The connection of caste and job is still stronger
in the Central Highlands, and at events such as the Kandy
Perahera, an annual festival honoring gods and the Buddha, the
various castes still perform traditional functions. The Goyigama
in the highlands differ from those of the low country because
they preserve divisions within the caste that derive from the
official ranking of noble and commoner families in the old
kingdom. Honorific titles hearkening back to ancestral homes,
manors (vasagama), or noble houses (gedara) still
marked the pedigrees of the old aristocracy in the 1980s, and
marriages between members of these families and common Goyigama
were rare. In the low country, these subcastes within the
Goyigama have faded away, and high status is marked by European
titles and degrees rather than the older, feudal titles.
There are still major differences between the caste
structures of the highlands and those of the low country,
although some service groups are common to both. The southwest
coast is home to three major castes whose ancestors may have
immigrated but who have become important actors in the Sinhalese
social system: the Karava (fishermen), the
Durava
(toddy tappers--see Glossary),
and the Salagama (cinnamon peelers). Originally
of marginal or low status, these groups exploited their
traditional occupations and their coastal positions to accumulate
wealth and influence during the colonial period. By the late
twentieth century, members of these castes had moved to all parts
of the country, occupied high business and academic positions,
and were generally accorded a caste rank equal to or slightly
below the Goyigama. The highland interior is home to the
Vahumpura, or traditional makers of jaggery (a sugar made from
palm sap), who have spread throughout the country in a wide
variety of occupations, especially agriculture. In the Kandy
District of the highlands live the Batgam (or Padu), a low caste
of agricultural laborers, and the Kinnara, who were traditionally
segregated from other groups because of their menial status.
Living in all areas are service groups, such as the Hena (Rada),
traditional washermen who still dominate the laundry trade; the
Berava, traditional temple drummers who work as cultivators in
many villages; and the Navandanna (Acari), traditional artisans.
In rural environments, the village blacksmith or washerman may
still belong to the old occupational caste groups, but
accelerating social mobility and the growing obsolescence of the
old services are slowly eroding the link between caste and
occupation.
Data as of October 1988
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