Ancient Sri Lanka’s cultural mosaic
View(s):M. Asoka T. De Silva’s “Glorious Historical Antecedents of a Cultured Civilisation” is a mosaic of colourful events, episodes and impressions of ancient Sri Lanka which the author has retraced from works of classical and colonial historians, philosophers, voyagers, mariners and cartographers thus giving a new dimension to historical narratives. This is his second volume following “Evolution of Technological Innovations in Ancient Sri Lanka.”
The author, taking the reader through a wide compass has gone through an exhausting process of research from the classical through colonial to the present era (from Aristotle to R.L. Brohier) from recognised international digital libraries. “Ancient Notices on Ceylon” he had thus discovered, its presentation as well as the inclusion of the list of ancient names of Sri Lanka, ancient maps, old photographs, paintings and an appendix with brief biographical sketches of commentators and historians who wrote on Sri Lanka, makes this indeed a fascinating encyclopedia of sorts.
“There is no island in the world that has attracted the attention of authors in so many distant ages and so many different countries as Ceylon.” The remark of Sir James Emerson Tennent, a British Colonial Secretary of the Ceylon Government (1845) from his “Ceylon; an Account of the Island” sets the tone of the volume.In fact, Tennent has been quoted extensively throughout the book and reaffirming his sentiments was L.F. Liesching (1861) his contemporary and an officer of the Civil Service in his “Brief Account of Ceylon.” He wrote “At a time when England was unknown to the greater part of Europe….ships of Rome, Arabia, Persia, India and China floated in her water….. products of countries glittered in her marts…the splendour of her courts, the wealth of her princes… were themes which foreign ambassadors delighted the ears of their masters on their return.”The author’s digital search for references of the resplendent isle besides has brought to light the vast array of publications that had been written on Sri Lanka in the past.
Tracing references to the island in a chronological sequence, the author quotes Charles Pridham (1849.)”According to some rare reports of ancient classical writers of BCE 484 , the early Greeks probably had an indefinite knowledge of countries east of the Indus.” But by BCE 330, there were definite references made to Sri Lanka when Onescicritus – Alexander’s commander said that Taprobane was “twenty days’ sail from the Continent.” Although records of Diodorus (BCE 44) was considered to be more correct when he spoke about the position and the extent of the island the first detailed account was made by Cains Plinus Secundes (Pliny CE 23-79) who got his information of the island from traders and mariners returning to Rome.
The earliest map of Taprobane was drawn by the famed Egyptian, Ptolemy (CE 85-165)while Cosmos Indicoplustes (CE 547)was described by Tennent as the last of the Greek writers “whose pages guide us through the mist that obscures the early history of Ceylon.”He completed the revision of Ptolemy’s cosmography and was also the last Greek writer to call the island Taprobane.
Was “De Mundo”where ‘Taprobane’ is mentioned, written by the Greek philosopher Aristotle Tennent had commented that if records are authentic, it would represent the first ever pre-Christian historical reference to the island. But he did have serious doubts of it as it referred to the Naval Commanders of Alexander the Great (BCE 336-323) – Onesicritus and Nearchusas those who had heard of “Taprobane” during their Indian invasion.
Tennent had called references of Greeks and Romans to Ceylon as idiosyncratic and paradoxical as they “mingled fanciful descriptions.”Whereas, scientific geography with theoretical precision was introduced by Arabs who kept their “traveller histories” as sober narratives.These publications however, did make special mention of a great tolerance. In “Voyages of the Two Mohammedans” written by Soleyman from Bagdagin CE 851 and Abou-Zeyd- Hassan sixty years later, had stated that there was in Sri Lanka a community of resident Jews and a sect of Manicher (adherents to a sect of CE 3rd to the 5th centuries) while Arabian geographer Edrisi’s (CE 1154) records state that 16 officers – four Buddhists, four Musselmans, four Christians and four Jews constituted the Council of the Lankan King.
The author thereafter shifts focus to a strong presence of the Chinese in the island which had been recorded by Pliny – a fact Pliny had learnt from the diplomatic mission that went from Anuradhapura to the court of Emperor Claudius Caesar (CE 41-51). He had stated that Seres (reference to the Chinese) did trade in the island and that the leader of the Lankan mission had travelled many times to China through the Himalayan range.As opposed to the Arabs, the common faith with the islanders had led to the Chinese to penetrate deep into the country to indulge in religious matters as well as trade.
The author’s study of commerce and trade reveals that the location of the island had led to a thriving international trade. Pliny had spoken of a barter system and according to (the Greek) Sopator (CE 512) the port had been centres for trans-shipment of trading goods.Referring to the only southern port Godapavata (Godavaya) in Hambantota mentioned in the Chronicles, the author cites an imaginary description of Susanne Loos-Jayawickrema. She, on the strength of the findings of excavations of German archaeologists in the South, wrote of the importance Godavaya port once held in the maritime silk route, its connections with China in the East, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean in the West.
Among the glorious antecedents mentioned in the volume is the arrival of Wijaya in the island of which he gives diverse views of two experts. According to Henry Parker (1909) Wijaya arrived from Magadha – a nation of traders. They, being familiar with the coasts of the Bay of Bengal, came down the Indian coast sailing over 1600 miles to Lanka for ivory, wax, incense, pearls and gems.Whereas R. L. Brohier (1973) held the view that Wijaya’s landing signified the arrival of “one of many” nomadic bands migrating from the deltaic valleys of Indus and Ganges.
They crossed over in frail craft and having crossed the dividing sea, ceased their restless wanderings and settled down in patriarchal system of society to lead a simple agricultural existence in the lower river valleys.
| Book facts- Glorious Historical Antecedents of a Cultured Civilisation: Sri Lanka- by M. Asoka T. De Silva - A Vijitha Yapa Publication - Reviewed by by Rajitha Weerakoon |