The Story of Lanka

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