The Story of Lanka
Many, if not all,
of us must have learnt by this time something of the Geography of Ceylon—that
is, about the position of Ceylon with regard to India and other countries,
about its size, its people and the work they do, its mountains and rivers, its
chief towns and provinces. We have now to learn how this island has come to be
in the condition in which we now find it; how it happens that so many races of
people—Sinhalese, Tamils, Moors, Malays, Burghers, English &c—are here, and
how they first came here. We shall learn what each of these races did in Ceylon
in former times, and what each race is now doing for the island. We shall learn
something about the great kings and great leaders that Ceylon has produced. We
shall read of battles and sieges; of victories and defeats; of adventures and
escapes; and also of the making of new towns and the beginning of new
industries. To study these things is to study the History of Ceylon.
In this study we
shall find much that will interest us. Stories, for instance, of brave deeds
and of great men are always pleasing; and our pleasure must be greater when
these stories are about our own land and our own people. But apart from the
pleasure, it is useful and even necessary for us to know the history of the
land in which we live and to which we belong. When we grow up to be men and
women we shall, all of us; have to take our share in making Ceylon a more
prosperous country, and the people of Ceylon a happier people. A knowledge of
our history will help us by explaining many things that otherwise we shall not
understand.
As Ceylon is so
near India it is not difficult to suppose that the people who first of all
lived in Ceylon were very like the people of Southern India; not indeed like
the educated Malabars, Tamils, and others who live there now, but like the
uncivilized tribes who live in the hills and jungles of South India, as our
Veddas like in the hills and jungles of Uya and the Eastern Province. About
three thousand years ago, a prince named Rama is said to have come with a great
army from India to Ceylon. He conquered and killed the king of Ceylon and
returned to India. This is almost the first story we know about Ceylon—or
Lanka, as it was then named—though we cannot be sure how much of the story is
quite true.
The next story is that of Vijaya who
also was an Indian prince Vijaya, with a large number of followers, sailed to
Ceylon about five hundred years before the birth of Christ, or about two
thousand four hundred years ago. He conquered the people whom he found here,
and his followers went into different parts of the country and settled down as
chiefs and rulers. Their descendants are the people who call themselves
Sinhalese. The Sinhalese became a great nation. They built large cities,
wonderful temples, and immense thanks; they divided the country into provinces,
made laws, and kept order among themselves. Buddhism afterwards became their
religion, and the kings were so attentive to religious ceremonies that they
often neglected to train armies and to build forts to defend the country from
the attacks of other nations.
Many of the
Sinhalese kings married princesses from South India, and in this way the Tamils
began to come into Ceylon. In a short time the Tamils tried to get the whole
island to themselves, and thus they were constantly at war with the Sinhalese.
Sometimes the Tamils won; at other times the Sinhalese succeeded in driving
them away. In the end the Tamils were able to settle undisturbed in the
northern and eastern parts of the island.
After a thousand
and more years of war and peace both nations were disturbed by the unexpected
appearance of a Portuguese ship. The Portuguese were the people of Portugal, a
country in Europe. They were a brave nation who sailed in their own ships into
the most distant parts of the world. No other nation had dared to do this
before. They had already conquered several towns and districts on the west
coast of India, and the ship that came to Ceylon came from Goa, their chief
town in India. There were Portuguese settlements in Malacca also, far to the
east of Ceylon, and as Colombo and Galle were convenient harbours where their
ships might halt on the long voyage between Goa and Malacca, the Portuguese
determined to get Ceylon for themselves. Not long after their first visit they
came again, and, little by little, conquered those districts of Ceylon which
were near the sea, and settled there. The Sinhalese who would not submit to
Portuguese rule went to the hill districts round Kandy, where a Sinhalese king
still reigned, and where the Portuguese could not easily reach them.
The Portuguese
were Roman Catholic Christians and brought their religion with them to Ceylon.
They held the coast provinces for about a hundred and twenty-three years and
then they were driven out by the Dutch (the people of Holland, another country
in Europe) who were Protestant Christians. The Dutch wanted to get into their
hands the profitable trade which the Portuguese had so long carried on with the
East. The Dutch ruled the coast provinces for a hundred and forty years and
then had to go away. Their descendants in Ceylon are the Burghers, a Dutch
word, still commonly applied to Dutch people.
The English took
Ceylon from the Dutch in the year 1796; that is, they took the coast provinces.
The Kandyans of the hill districts were still unconquered and still had their
own king and their own laws and customs. It was not till the year 1815 that the
English took possession of Kandy, and the whole of Ceylon then came under the
rule of a European nation.
Computer : Susworchan
