There is 1 message in this issue.
Topics in this digest:
1. Tracing the Sri Lanka-Kerala link
From: Raveen S <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 06:58:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Raveen S <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Tracing the Sri Lanka-Kerala link
Tracing the Sri Lanka-Kerala link
COLOMBO DIARY | PK Balachandran
March 20, 2006
When one looks at Sri Lanka's historical links with
India, the focus is almost exclusively on those with
Tamil Nadu and places in Gangetic North India in which
the Buddha lived and preached.
If Kerala comes into the picture at all, it is only
when the subject is the landscape, dress or food,
where the similarity is indeed striking.
But there is more to the Kerala-Sri Lanka link than
this, says the renowned Sri Lankan social
anthropologist, Dr Gananath Obeysekere, Emeritus
Professor of Social Anthropology at Princeton
University.
Links between Kerala and Sri Lanka go back very far
into history, and have been exceptionally strong, he
says.
At least a part of what is thought to have come from
Tamil Nadu, may have come from Kerala, because in
ancient times, the Tamil country comprised what is now
Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
According to historians, the Chera (or Kerala) and the
Pandya kings were powerful influences in the Tamil
country in South India from pre-Christian times to
about the 3rd century AD.
There had been Tamil influence on Sri Lanka from the
earliest times. This was partly because the distance
between the Tamil country in South India and Sri Lanka
was only 30 kms from the nearest points.
But the influence became pronounced from the 10th
century AD onwards.
Vestiges of the relationship between the Tamil country
in South India and Sri Lanka, can be seen to this day
in Sri Lankan society and culture, be it Sinhala,
Tamil or Muslim, says Dr Obeysekere in his monograph
entitled: The Matrilineal East Coast, Circa 1968:
Nostalgia and Post-nostalgia in our troubled time
(International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo,
2004).
He looks at the Sri Lanka-Kerala link through the
"Pattini" cult and the matrilineal system, two
institutions, which are, or were, widespread in Sri
Lanka.
In the Pattini cult, the deity Kannagi is worshipped
as the Mother Goddess, and in the matrilineal system,
inheritance and residential patterns follow the female
line.
Both institutions came from the Chera country, as
Kerala was known in ancient times.
The Pattini cult is found throughout Sinhala society
in South Sri Lanka and in the Tamil areas of
Batticaloa and Amparai on the South-Eastern coast.
As for the matrilineal system, it is the norm in Tamil
and Muslim societies in the East.
According to Dr Obeysekere, the matrilineal system
existed in the Sinhala-speaking South also, but was
supplanted by the patrilineal system.
Pattini cult
The story of Pattini or Kannagi is found in the 3rd
century AD Tamil classic "Silapadikaram" located in
the Chera or Kerala country.
In Silapadikaram, the heroine, Kannagi, in a rage over
the wrongful execution of her innocent husband,
Kovalan, plucked out her breast and threw it into the
city of Madurai which then burst into flames and was
destroyed.
Kannagi's fidelity towards her husband and her fight
for justice elevated her to the position of an "Amman"
or Goddess, and a powerful one at that.
Vanchi, which the Silapadikaram mentions as the
ancient capital of the Cheras, was then a popular
centre for trade with West Asia.
Its trade was in the hands of people who followed
heterodox religions like Buddhism and Jainism.
Silapadikaram, a Jain classic, was written by a Jain
ascetic, Ilango Adigal.
Dr Obeysekere says that it was the Tamil-speaking
Kerala Buddhist traders and other immigrants from the
Vanchi area, who brought the Pattini cult to Sri
Lanka.
He points out that according to Sri Lankan mythology,
the Pattini cult was founded by King Seraman (the King
of Kerala).
He also notes that in Sri Lanka, the cult was given
high status when two trader families of Kerala origin,
namely, the Mehenavara and the Alagakonara (the
Alagakones of today are probably their descendents),
began to dominate the Western and Central parts of the
island from the middle of the 14th century onwards.
And as per an inscription dated 1344, the Alagakonaras
had come from Vanchi around the year 1100.
The Pattini cult spread in Sri Lanka with the increase
in the power of the Alagakonaras and the Mehenevaras
who had started of as court officials.
The Mehenavaras were influential in Dadigama and
Gampola (near Kandy), while the Alagakonaras
established themselves in Raigama and controlled the
ports of Beruwela, Devundara and Weligama, on the
Southern and South Western coasts.
According to Ibn Batuta, in 1344, the Alagakonaras
controlled the area now covered by the Western,
Sabaragamuwa and Southern Provinces, with the White
Elephant as the symbol of their power.
Because the two leading families from Kerala were
Buddhists, they elevated Pattini to a Bodhisattva (a
Buddha in the making).
It is noteworthy that Pattini is the only female
Bodhisattva in the Sri Lankan Buddhist pantheon. She
was also made a guardian deity of Sri Lanka.
Pattini was formally recognised as a Goddess in Sri
Lanka during the reign of Parakramabahu VI, in the
15th century. Interestingly, the king was related to
the Mehenavara family.
Dr Obeysekere says that the Sinhala songs related to
the Pattini cult were originally in Tamil.
This is acknowledged in the songs used in the
water-cutting ritual, which is part of the Pattini
cult in Matale district.
One of the verses recited in that ritual says:
"Ilango, the Pundit, composed these verses in Tamil."
The reference is to Ilango Adigal, the author of
"Silapadikaram".
Spread of Pattini cult to Eastern coast
Although basically a Tamil cult, Pattini worship is
not found in all parts of Tamil-speaking Sri Lanka.
It is a peculiarity of the Tamils of the Eastern
seaboard from Batticaloa district downwards, Dr
Obeysekere observes.
Among the Northern Tamils (of Wanni and Jaffna),
Pullayar or Ganesa is the most popular God.
This is so among the present day Tamils of Tamil Nadu
also. There is only one Kannagi temple in India and
that is not on Tamil Nadu, but in Kerala.
The Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, which wanted to
revive the Tamils' non-Sanskritic culture, did make
Kannagi an icon. But Kannagi worship never took off in
Tamil Nadu.
The Sri Lankan Eastern coast's peculiarity is
attributed to its ancient links with Kerala.
A strong Kerala influence is evident even today among
all the peoples of the Batticaloa and Amparai
districts, whether they are Tamils or Muslims.
Their social formations and their Tamil speech betray
a Kerala origin.
A comparison of social institutions between Kerala and
South East Sri Lanka shows that the Tamils and Muslims
of Batticaloa and Amparai districts had migrated from
Northern Kerala, says Dr Obeysekere.
Matrilineal descent (tracing one's descent through the
mother) and the matrilineal clan, are the dominant
modes of social organisation among the Hindus and
Muslims of North Kerala.
This is so among the Tamils and Muslims of Eastern Sri
Lanka too, where the matrilineal clans are called the
"kudi".
The matrilineal groups in South Eastern Sri Lanka do
not have the corporate identity that they have among
the matrilineal Nayars of Central Kerala, for example.
There is no equivalent of the Nayar corporate family
called the "Tharavad" here in Sri Lanka.
But matrilineal structures manifest themselves in
various important contexts, both ritual and secular,
Dr Obeysekere says.
He notes that Batticaloa Tamil and Muslim women get a
two-thirds share of the familial estate as dowry on
marriage, showing the pre-eminent place of woman in
these societies.
The other institution that the matrilineal Keralites
and the Eastern Sri Lankan Tamils and Muslims share is
"uxorilocal" residence. Under this system, the man
lives in his wife's residence.
In contrast, there is no matrilineal system among the
Indian Tamils and North Sri Lankan Tamils.
The British did call the Northern Sri Lankan Tamils
"Malabars", meaning that they were from Malabar in
North Kerala. But according to Dr Obeysekere, this is
a case of mistaken identity.
Matrilineal descent related to worship
Matrilineal descent groups come into play in worship
in Eastern Sri Lanka.
In temples and mosques, particular matrilineal clans
elect the chief, called the Vannakar in the case of
the Hindu temples, and Maraikkar in the case of
mosques.
Among the Hindus, the clans have particular roles in
the rituals connected with Pattini worship.
Both Tamils and Sinhalas play rough games during the
Pattini pujas and follow them up with a cooling ritual
to portray the high tension in the story of Kannagi
and the subsequent easing of the tension, which
becomes necessary to allow life to go on.
Since the Goddess cults in South India are associated
with curing of diseases and resistance to pestilence,
the Pattini cult in Sri Lanka is also associated with
these.
Because of this, Muslims and Sinhalas also participate
in the "cooling" rituals of the Pattini cult, Dr
Obeysekere says.
Close relations between East and South Sri Lanka
Close relations between the Tamil-speaking East Sri
Lanka and the Sinhala-speaking South Sri Lanka, were
another factor, which enabled the two sides to share
cultural traits including the Pattini cult.
"The East Coast was connected by several trade routes
running into the (Sinhala) Kandyan kingdom, mostly
from Batticaloa and Trincomalee with the hub of the
trade being Mahiyangana, also called Bintanna, which
according to Dutch sources, was one of the most
prosperous ports of Asia," says Dr Obeysekere.
Eastern Muslim traders supplied Kandyans with salt and
dried fish. The Sinhala elite of the
Bintanna-Aluthnuwara area had marriage ties with the
Mukkuvars, the dominant Tamil caste in the East.
According to Dr Obeysekere, there was a political
dimension to this too. From the middle of the 15th
century onwards, the Mukkuvar chiefs of the East had
accepted the formal suzerainty of the Kandyan Sinhala
kingdom.
He quotes the Eastern Tamil scholar, Rex Casinader, to
say that in the folk play "Kandy Raja Nadagam", which
is performed to this day, the Mukkuvars had bemoaned
the fall of the Kandyan kingdom in 1815, which led to
the establishment of British rule in Sri Lanka
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