When I was browsing the net for something else I came across this article.

Out of all the replies, the one by Thusitha Jayawickrama is the most hilerious.

I am sure she must have escaped from mental assylam. Only her inmates at Angoda will be able to understand and believe all what she has written here.

Anyways, a good reading for entertainment to have a big laugh.

She talks as if she had been living during Kasup Buddha’s time. There is not even a single evidence to prove anything what she has written.

All these must have appeared to her in her dream. Anyways, good hallucinating, keep it up, please continue to entertain us.

This is such a lie and distortion of facts. Archaeological proof clearly shows that Lanka was inhabited by the human as early as 900,000 BC. Since then, there is solid archaeological evidence to prove that Lankans, who called themselves Hela people, were trying very hard to advance themselves into a civilization. Hela as Lanka was known at the time, was in the forefront of human progress in the region.

Dravidians arrived in India only around 7500 BC from somewhere in Mediterranean. Archaeologists have proof that Lankans had an established culture in existence by this time.
Meanwhile the Dravidians merged into the native Indian tribes all over India. When Aryans from the areas around Caspian Sea arrived in North India in 1500 BC, the Dravidians in the north mixed into the stronger Aryan culture. Dravidians survived the Aryan integration in South India as Aryans stopped in North India.

It is quite possible that later on, migrants and visitors arrived from all parts of India to Sri Lanka and vise versa as happens between any two countries. It is fair to say that from this point onwards there must have been some migration of South Indian Dravidians to Lanka as merchants. With them the Dravidian religion Hinduism must have arrived in Lanka just like the way other Indian religions such as Jainism arrived in Lanka. But these were NOT the native religion of the Lankans. Hela people practiced their own religions.
Prince Vijaya who landed in Lanka in 483BC, only took control of one of the towns and then mixed into this Hela civilization. Many such Indian migrants brought their religions to Lanka. Sinhalese ( derived from Sihalese – Sivu Helaya ) didn’t start from Vijaya onwards. Hela was always there in Sri Lanka, from the beginning.

Subsequently, after Sri Lanka became the centre of Buddhism, there were continuous migrations of the North Indian Buddhists from North Indian Aryan Kingdoms to Lanka. All these North Indian migrants, unlike the other migrants such as the ones from the South Indian Dravidian kingdoms, mixed into the Sihalese civilization adopting Sinhalese culture and principles of life. None of these North Indians formed ethnic ghettos in one corner of the island.

The great qualities of the Sinhalese which made Sinhalese unique people in the world, were introduced at two points of history. First, King Pandukabaya introduced the very first National qualities of the Sinhalese in 375 BC. Then, 129 years later, during King Devanampiyatissa’s reign, the great National philosophy which placed Lanka in the developed world, was introduced.

Do you know 60% of the Tamil population in Sri Lanka living in the south peacefully with Sinhalese? If they are discriminated or harassed by Sinhalese, Why don’t they go to Wanni and live with their so called hero Prabhakaran…?

Once I read your article I realized that the article was built on mythical framework. The Mahawamsa is the written history of Hela. The unwritten part is on the stone scripts in which I will show you if you come to Hela deepa. King Ravana’s scripts still visible on certain parts in the Island. King Ravana was Kasup buddhist and the donations (Dana) performed by Dasis Ravana can still be viewed. Unfortunately those are written on Brahmi letters which is the close letters to Hela Basa (Sihela)

Have you ever heard a king named Mahasen who ruled 25000 years back in Kataragama? where your people pay homage for protection was the first significant Buddhist who followed Lord Buddha Kasup. The last king who followed Kasup Buddha Dharma was Ravana. ( We have collected so much of evidence that related to this)

Have you ever know King Mahasen’s sword was transfered to Ravana then transfered to King Dutu Gemunu. King Gemunu performed a war in order to protect country from the invader Erala.

We have these footprints clearly which you cannot view with your mythical eyes. The evidence (Written evidence) are with us that we are going protect for the next generation.

We know that your people have been trying to build mythical Tamil history over Hela Island where would be in vain. First you keep you fanatic dreams away and come to a ground that we all can live in peace.

We already know that you and your pathetic fans are bribing others to encourage to prove just only 2500 years only which you still failed. The Kovils built by your people just by destroying Buddhist temples that is proved by the last Tsunami.

So doctor this is a humble appeal to elaborate the truth and say truth.

In the name of Great King Ravana who was a Bodhisatwa blessed this Island and all the kings who ruled this Island were same.

Let them get merits which I disclosed here, and may your people’s blind eye vanished and get correct light on the eyes those who are blind on this.

May all you be well and happy.

Thusitha Jayawickrama
If you want me to contact try thusith_j@yahoo.com

Thank you!! I have been trying to tell them that the Sinhalese ethnic group is a mixture of Bengali, Tamil and Veddah, everyone knows the fact but the Sinhalese are refusing to accept it. Tamils embraced Buddhism is another fact that is undeniable in Tamil Nadu with all the historical evidence.

QUOTE: The point Dr.Nalin De Silva and some other extremist (in terms of wiping out tamils is that ) is little more nauanced than going back to Ravana.
For instance he brings out the old dutch records from 17th and 18th century to prove that the Tamils in North and East were migrant farmers who did not have roots in North /East. UNQUOTE.

These SinhalaBuddhist racists have created their own history, they say that most of the Tamils in Jaffna are coolies/slaves brought in by the Dutch from Tamil Nadu to work in the tobacco fields. The results of the genetic study which I have written above does not prove their point and they do not even have any solid evidence to prove what they say is true other than an article written by one Tamil Prof S. Arasaratnam who has picked up a few points from the article written by the colonial writer Markus Vink.

It is true that the Dutch brought slaves from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka during 17th century but what was settled in Jaffna in the Tobacco fields was a very small percentage when compared to those settled in the South from Colombo to Galle on the Southwest coast.

According to the colonial writer Markus Vink, (http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jwh/14.2/vink.html), the Dutch Indian Ocean slave trade was flourishing during 17th century.
QUOTE: In 1694, the city of Colombo alone had a slave population of 1,761. See Knaap, ‘Europeans, Mestizos and Slaves,’ p. 88. In 1661, 10,000 slaves had been put to work by the company and by private individuals on the lands in southwestern Ceylon, including 2,000 company slaves. UNQUOTE.

Ten thousand slaves from Coromandel Coast in South India were brought to the South of Ceylon (Colombo, Galle and the entire South West) by the Dutch. One of the main sources of income the Dutch had at that time was not Tobacco but Cinnamon.
The South west Coast was where cinnamon grew to perfection, during that period, and the Dutch were the monopoly in trading spices. Cinnamon was the staple export. It was ‘the Helen or bride of contest’ (as Baldaeus called it) for whose exclusive possession successive European invaders had in turn contended.

In 1740, Governor Van Imhoff, by a system of forced labor/slaves, planted the waste land along the coast south of Colombo with the Cocoa palm, the result of which is seen in an almost unbroken grove of palms for 100 miles along the south west shore.

In other words, the Sinhalese from the entire South west including Colombo and Galle are partly the decedents (5th generation) of those 10,000 slaves from the Coromandel Coast as per the article written by Markus Vink, used by our colonial masters for the cinnamon and cocoa palm plantation along the South west coast as well as for domestic purpose.

During the Dutch period, those slaves would have been domestic laborers, grown cinnamon or planted coconut but today (Within the last 350 years) they have got naturalized with the Sinhalese and become a part of them, as Sinhala Buddhists and Sinhala Catholics. A large part of the present day Sinhalese (those 10,000 would have multiplied into lakhs), both Buddhists/Catholics in the South western coast from Colombo to Galle such as Fernando, De Silva, etc were originally coolies/slaves brought in by the Dutch from Tamil Nadu and today they are the people who are talking about those very few coolies/slaves settled in Jaffna during the same period.

The most hilarious part is, these are the people who pretend to be more Sinhala (Patriots) than the original Sinhalese (if there is any such thing today).

The Sinhalese also argue that the question when you arrived or from where you arrived does not arise as long as you get naturalized with the natives who live in that place, you become a part of them.

But, when it comes to Jaffna, there argument is totally different.

This is just one (small percentage) of the many admixtures that took place in Sri Lanka between the Sinhalese and the Indian Tamils, the assimilation of Tamils into the Sinhala ethnic group took place right from the beginning with Vijay taking wives from Madurai in Pandya Nadu. As a tradition, the Kings of Sri Lanka up to the last one took wives (Queens) from Madurai in South India.

These SinhalaBuddhist racists are so ignorant, they do not even realize that Indian Tamil blood runs in their veins.

During the period from 3rd Century AD to 6th Century AD, Buddhism had spread widely in Tamil Nadu and won the patronage of the rulers.

The major urban centers of Kanchi, Kaveripattinam, Uraiyur, and Madurai were centers of Buddhism and Jainism. These were also important centers of Pali learning.

The Tamil Buddhist monks of South India used Pali languages in preference to Tamil in their writings. This is because the Buddha spoke in Magadi Prakrit (Pali) which was considered to be the sacred language of the Buddhists.

It was at this time that Tamil Nadu gave some of its greatest scholars (both Theravada and Mahayana) to the Buddhist world.

Three of the greatest Pali scholars of this period were Buddhaghosa, Buddhadatta, and Dhammapala and all three of them were associated with Buddhist establishments in the Tamil kingdoms. Two of them, Buddhadatta, and Dhammapala were Tamils. The third and the most celebrated, Buddhaghosa is one about whom reliable biographical details are not available but a large number of Pali works are attributed to him.

Buddhadatta was a senior contemporary of Buddhaghosa. He was born in the Cola kingdom and lived in the 5th Century AD. Among his best known Pali writings are the VINAYA-VINICCHAYA, the UTTARA-VINICCHAYA and the JINALANKARA-KAVYA. Among the commentaries written by him are the MADHURATTHA-VILASINI and the ABHIDHAMMAVATARA. The author of NETTIPAKARANA is another Dhammapala who was a resident of a monastery in Nagapattinam.

One more example is the Cola monk Kassapa, in his Pali work, VIMATTI-VINODANI, this Tamil monk provides interesting information about the rise of heretical views in the Cola Sangha and the consequent purification that took place.

There are so many other Tamil monks who are attributed to the Pali works some of them were resident at Mayura-rupa-pattana (Mylapore, Madras) along with Buddhagosha. The well known Tamil Buddhist epics on the other hand were MANIMEKALAI and KUNDALAKESI.

As Buddhism was one of the dominant religions in both Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, naturally there were very close relations between the two regions. The monks from Sri Lanka too, went across to the Tamil kingdom and stayed in the monasteries.

As Dr. Leslie Gunawardana says, ‘The co-operation between the Buddhist Sangha of South India and Sri Lanka produced important results which are evident in the Pali works of this period’. He also says that the Tamil Buddhist monks were more orthodox than their counterparts in Sri Lanka.

Indeed, the relations between the Tamil and Sinhala Buddhist monks were so close that the latter sought the assistance of the former in political turmoil.

In Sri Lanka, the Tamil Buddhists who followed Theravada Buddhism shared the common places of worship with the Sinhalese but there were also Tamil Buddhists who were following the Mahayana Buddhism and they had there own Mahayana temples.

There are still some Tamil Mahayana Buddhist establishments (Palli) in the east and possibly in the Jaffna peninsula. The best known was Velgam Vehera (see details below), which was renamed Rajaraja-perumpalli after the Cola emperor. Another was the Vikkirama-calamekan-perumpalli.

Some ten miles northwest of Trincomalee off the Trincomalee – Horowupothana road is an ancient Buddhist shrine with origins dating back to the years before the second century. It is a historical fact that among the many ancient Buddhist shrines in Sri Lanka Velgam Vehera which was renamed Rajaraja-perumpalli, also called Natanar Kovil by the present day Tamils stands out as the only known example of a ‘Tamil Vihare or Buddhist Palli’ or as the late Dr. Senerath Paranavithana described it in his book ‘Glimpses of Ceylon’s Past’ as an ‘Ancient Buddhist shrine of the Tamil people’. Some of the Tamil inscriptions found at the site record donations to this shrine and are dated in the reigns of the Chola Kings, Rajaraja and Rajendradeva. It was his view that the date of the original foundation of the vihare was no doubt considerably earlier than the reign of King Bhatika Tissa II.

The situation in Tamil Nadu, however, began to change towards the beginning of the 7th Century AD when the rise of Vaishnavism and Saivism posed a serious challenge to Buddhism and Jainism. There was a significant increase in Brahmanical influence and soon the worship of Siva and Visnu began to gain prominence.

The Buddhist and Jaina institutions in Tamil Nadu came under attack when they began to loose popular support and the patronage from the rulers. One result of this was the migration of Buddhist and Jaina monks and devoted lay members to kingdoms where they could find refuge. While the Jainas were able to go to Kannada and Telugu regions, the Buddhists turned to Sri Lanka and assimilated with the local Buddhist population.

During the 9th Century AD, when the Cholas who were strong Hindus (Saivism) were ruling Sri Lanka, they did everything in their power to destroy Buddhism and they managed to convert many Buddhists (Tamils and Sinhalese) into Tamil Hindus (Saivism). These Tamil Hindus later settled from Anuradapuram to Jaffna.

Since the Cholas were Tamils, most of the Sinhalese, due to their ignorance, still believe that the Tamils attacked the Sinhalese religious sites. Actually, the Cholas attacked and damaged the Buddhist sites which belonged to both Sinhalese and the Tamils of Sri Lanka.

Today there is no Buddhism in Sri Lanka. It is monopolized by the Sinhalese and they call it Sinhala Buddhism. The Maha Sangha today is the Sinhala Maha Sangha and they will not accept any Tamil Buddhist monks or a Tamil Maha Sangha in Sri Lanka.

If the Tamil people look different from the Sinhalese, how easy it will be for the Sri Lankan Army/police to identify the Suicide bombers in Colombo. If a Tamil girl removes her pottu or if a Tamil boy shave his mustache, can they be differentiated as Tamils and Sinhalese?

According to the recent genetic study conducted by Gautam Kumar Kshatriya and a team of genealogists who were inspired by the University of Texas, Houston on the Genetic affinities of Sri Lankan populations came to the following final conclusion,

The Bengalis, the Tamils, and the Veddahs are considered parental populations for the Sinhalese. The Bengali contribution is 25.41%, the Tamil (India) contribution is 69.86%, and the Veddah contribution is only 4.73%. Thus the Sinhalese have a predominantly Tamil (India) contribution followed by the Bengalis and the Veddahs.

By studying the Sri Lankan Tamils, one can see that the Sinhalese, the Bengalis, and the Indian Tamils can be considered ancestral populations. The contribution of the Sinhalese to the Sri Lankan Tamils is 55.20%. Similarly, the Bengali contribution is 28.17% and that of the Indian Tamils is 16.63%. The results indicate a predominant influence of the Sinhalese (who already have a high contribution from the Indian Tamils) and the Bengalis to a lesser extent.

In conclusion, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka were the Veddahs, who have had little admixture with the Sinhalese and possibly none with the Tamils. The Veddahs is distinct because they were confined to inhospitable dry zones and were hardly influenced by the neighboring inhabitants. Furthermore, the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan Tamils are an admixed population genetically.

As per the research done by the archeologist Prof Deraniyagala, the present-day territories of Sri Lanka and South India comprised a single region in which the pre-historic ancestors of the modern Sri Lankans and South Indians moved freely along with their cultures, languages, religions, artifacts and technologies with the sea dividing the two land masses acting as a unifier rather than a divider. There is ample archaeological evidence for the cultural interaction between Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka from PREHISTORIC times.

The Nagas who occupied both South India and North Sri Lanka (Nagapuram, Nagarkovil, Nagarcot, Nargapattinum, Nagakulam, Nagadivpa, etc) were considered as the native Ila/Eela/Hela, the ancient Elu speaking inhabitants of the region.

Some Tamil Sangam poets were Nagas from Jaffna. Among the Sangam poets mentioned is Illattup Putantevanar, who composed some verses in Kuruntokai, Akananuru and Narrinai. The Mahavamsa states that in the 6th century B.C. there existed Naga strongholds at Nagadipa under Mahodarai, the Naga King. Among the Sangam works, a few personalities who were referred to as ‘chieftains’ appear to have come from Jaffna. For example Elini and Pittankorran about whom verses appear in the Purananuru, appear to have come from Kudiraimalai, now identified with Kantherodai in Jaffna.

During the Early Historical Period, South India and Sri Lanka were not considered as two separate countries. The Pali chronicles and the early Brahmi inscriptions talk about the Naga, the Dameda/Damela/Damila and the Pandu/Pandya. These people were moving back and forth between Sri Lanka and South India. The idea of looking upon them as outsiders or aliens was surely not prevalent in the Early Historical Period. Some historians believe that the Dameda/Damela/Damila were Dravidians, the Pandu/Pandya were Aryans and the Naga were the original natives of the Sri Lanka/South India region, but they all assimilated together to form the Tamil race and later the Sinhala race.

Prof. S. Paranavitana says, the vast majority of the people who today speak Sinhalese or Tamil must be ultimately be descended from those autochthonous people of whom we know next to nothing.