The Sinhalese are the largest of the two native ethnic groups of Sri Lanka. The other been the Veddha. They speak Sinhala, an Indo-Aryan language and number approximately 16.5 million people with the vast majority found in Sri Lanka, while more than 400,000 live in other countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the EU.
The Sinhalese are also known as the "Hela".
History
Legendary accounts relating to the Indian epic saga, the Sanskritic Ramayana, discuss mythological stories of deities battling over the fate of the ancient island of Lanka, including that of the legendary King Rawana. The name of the island and its various peoples are often traced to the people and places named in the saga, or their supposed analogues.
The Mahabharata has many statements which show the Sinhala people and Lanka, were in fact around as far back as 3000BCE, when the events concerned are said to have taken place.
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References to Lanka in the Mahabharata
Many of the references to Lanka in the Mahabharata are found in sage Markandeya's narration of the story of Rama and Sita to king Yudhishthira, which narration amounts to a truncated version of the Ramayana. The references in the following summary are to the Mahabharata, and adhere to the following form: (book:section). Markandeya's narration of the story begins at Book III (Varna Parva), Section 271 of the Mahabharata.
Sahadeva's expedition to South
The son of Pandu, viz. Sahadeva, conquered the town of Sanjayanti and the country of the Pashandas and the Karanatakas by means of his messengers alone, and made all of them pay tributes to him. The hero brought under his subjection and exacted tributes from the Paundrayas ( Pandyas?) and the Dravidas along with the Udrakeralas and the Andhras and the Talavanas, the Kalingas and the Ushtrakarnikas, and also the delightful city of Atavi and that of the Yavanas. And, He having arrived at the sea-shore, then dispatched with great assurance messengers unto the illustrious Vibhishana, the grandson of Pulastya and the ruler of Lanka (2:30).
Presence in Yudhisthira's Rajasuya
Lanka king is listed as presnet in the conclave of kings present in Pandava king Yudhisthira's Rajasuya sacrifice.
..the Vangas and Angas and Paundras and Odras and Cholas and Dravidas and Andhakas, and the chiefs of many islands and countries on the sea-board as also of frontier states, including the rulers of the Sinhalas, the barbarous mlecchas, the natives of Lanka, and all the kings of the West by hundreds, and all the chiefs of the sea-coast, and the kings of the Pahlavas and the Daradas and the various tribes of the Kiratas and Yavanas and Sakras and the Harahunas and Chinas and Tukharas and the Sindhavas and the Jagudas and the Ramathas and the Mundas and the inhabitants of the kingdom of women and the Tanganas and the Kekayas and the Malavas and the inhabitants of Kasmira... (3:51).
Other fragmentory references
- Lanka, with its warriors, and horses, elephants and chariots (3:149).
- Lanka with its towers and ramparts and gates (3:147)
- The walls of Lanka (3:282).
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References to the Sinhala in Mahabharata
The myth about the origin of the Sinhala Tribe
- Mahabharata, Book 1, Chapter 177
When the sage Vasistha was attacked by king Viswamitra's army, Vasistha's cow, Kamadehnu, brought forth from her tail, an army of Pallavas, and from her udders, an army of Dravidas and Sakas; and from her womb, an army of Yavanas, and from her dung, an army of Savaras; and from her urine, an army of Kanchis; and from her sides, an army of Savaras. And from the froth of her mouth came out hosts of Paundras and Kiratas, Yavanas and Sinhalas, and the barbarous tribes of Khasas and Chivukas and Pulindas and Chinas and Hunas with Keralas, and numerous other Mlechchhas.
In the ancient Indian literature, cow is a symbol of earth or land. Thus the myth mentioned above simply means that, these tribes gathered for the protection of sage Vasistha's land, against the army of king Viswamitra.
Kings present in Yudhisthira's Rajasuya Sacrifice
- Mahabharata, Book 2, Chapter 33
King Bhagadatta of Pragjyotisha accompanied by all Mlechcha tribes inhabiting the marshy regions on the sea-shore; and many mountain kings, and king Vrihadvala; and Vasudeva the king of the Paundrayas, and the kings of Vanga and Kalinga; and Akastha and Kuntala and the kings of the Malavas and the Andhrakas; and the Dravidas and the Singhalas and the king of Kashmira, and king Kuntibhoja of great energy and king Gauravahana, and all the other heroic kings of Valhika; and Virata with his two sons, and Mavella endued with great might; and various kings and princes ruling in various countries; and, king Sisupala accompanied by his son, all of them came to the (Rajasuya) sacrifice of Yudhisthira.
- Mahabharata, Book 2, Chapter 51
The Kings of Chola and Pandya, brought numberless jars of gold filled with fragrant sandal juice from the hills of Malaya, and loads of sandal and aloe wood from the Dardduras hills, and many gems of great brilliancy and fine cloths inlaid with gold. The king of the Singhalas gave those best of sea-born gems called the lapis lazuli, and heaps of pearls also, and hundreds of coverlets for elephants.
- Mahabharata, Book 3, Chapter 51
Vasudeva Krishna to Yudhisthira
All kings, even those of the Vangas and Angas and Paundras and Odras and Cholas and Dravidas and Andhakas, and the chiefs of many islands and countries on the sea-board as also of frontier states, including the rulers of the Sinhalas, the barbarous mlecchas, the natives of Lanka, and all the kings of the West by hundreds, and all the chiefs of the sea-coast, and the kings of the Pahlavas and the Daradas and the various tribes of the Kiratas and Yavanas and Sakras and the Harahunas and Chinas and Tukharas and the Sindhavas and the Jagudas and the Ramathas and the Mundas and the inhabitants of the kingdom of women and the Tanganas and the Kekayas and the Malavas and the inhabitants of Kasmira, were present in obedience to your invitation, performing various offices (during Yudhisthira's Rajasuya Sacrifice).
Sinhalas in Kurukshetra War
- Mahabharata, Book 7, Chapter 20
The Kalingas, the Singhalas, the Easterners, the Sudras, the Abhiras, the Daserakas, the Sakas, the Yavanas, the Kamvojas, the Hangsapadas, the Surasenas, the Daradas, the Madras, and the Kalikeyas, with hundreds and thousands of elephants, steeds, cars, and foot-soldiers were stationed at the neck of Drona's Garuda Military Formation.
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According to local legend though, the Sinhalese are descended from the exiled Prince Vijaya and his party of several hundred who arrived on the island between 543 to 483 BCE of an Aryan ethnicity after having been made to leave their native regions of Orissa and the Sinhapura kingdom in north west India. The origin legend and early recorded history of the Buddhist Sinhalese is chronicled in two historic documents, the Mahavamsa, written in Pāli roughly around the 4th century BCE, and the much later Chulavamsa (believed to have been penned in the 13 century CE by a Buddhist monk named Dhammakitti). These are unique sources with regard to age and longevity, and cover the histories of the powerful ancient kingdoms of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. The Mahavansa describes the existence of fields of rice and reservoirs, indicating a well developed agrarian society.
The oral tradition of the Sinhalese people also speaks of many royal dynasties prior to the Sinha royal dynasty: Manu, Tharaka, Mahabali, Raavana, etc. Many Sinhalese had been mixed from colonization of the Portuguese and the English but more likely the Portuguese, similar to the Burghers of the country where so much ancestry still lives in the country to date. As noticed there is also a large mix of Afro-Sinhalese shown towards many and has mixes of different ancestry of black not at all similar to the dravidian/ tamils of who came to Sri Lanka with the slaves sent around the world from India to countries spreading from South Africa to Mauritius to Guyana to Trinidad by the British. Sinhalese are genuinely quite a unique looking race and can also be found spread in countries like the Maldives and Mauritius.
Buddhism was introduced to the Sinhalese from India by Mahinda, the son of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great, during the 3rd century BCE. It has since been closely tied to both the Sinhalese identity and the history of Sri Lanka.
Most Sinhalese, like most Indian populations show a high degree of genetic similarity that stems from a population that formed on the island roughly 12,000 years ago. A 2003 Stanford study analyzing the origins of various South Asian populations (including 40 Sinhalese and over 90 Tamils from Sri Lanka) found that most of the population of the island and India in general: taken together, these results show that Indian tribal and caste populations derive largely from the same genetic heritage of Pleistocene southern and western Asians and have received limited gene flow from external regions since the Holocene.
These findings are corroborated by numerous other studies including a 2004 Biomedical Central Study: Gene flow from West Eurasia - broadly, the average proportion of mtDNAs from West Eurasia among Indian caste populations is 17% (Table 2). In the western States of India and in Pakistan their share is greater, reaching over 30% in Kashmir and Gujarat, nearly 60% in Indian Punjab, and approximately 50% in Pakistan (Table 11, see Additional file 6, Figure 11, panel A). These frequencies demonstrate a general decline (SAA p < 0.05 Figure 4) towards the south (23%, 11% and 15% in Maharashtra, Kerala and Sri Lanka, respectively) and even more so towards the east of India (13% in Uttar Pradesh and around 7% in West Bengal and Bangladesh). The low (<3%) frequency of the western Eurasian mtDNAs in Rajasthan may be in part a statistical artifact due to the limited sample size of 35 Rajputs.
Overall, the evidence supports the strong possibility that the Sinhalese are largely indigenous to Sri Lanka and adopted the Indo-Aryan largely by cultural diffusion. Ultimately, the genetic evidence also shows substantial genetic drift that corresponds to geography and in the case of Sri Lanka supports the notion that most Sinhalese stem from very early migrants, rather than later invaders: Modern Pakistani, Indian, and Sinhalese donors, examined for combinations of mini- and microsatellite loci, along with a number of Y chromosome and mtDNA markers (24), show varying degrees of diversity, which is expected from their geographic position and ability to receive waves of migrants pulsing from Southwest Asia and West Asia at different times. DYS287 or Y chromosome Alu insertion polymorphism also clearly demonstrate the gradual decline in insert-positive Y chromosomes from Africa to East Asia, reaching a transition point from polymorphic levels (1 to 5%) to private polymorphism in Pakistan.
Thus, not surprisingly other studies done from different perspectives and goals substantiate these findings. In a 2003 American Journal of Human Genetics study entitled The Genetic Heritage of the Earliest Settlers Persists Both in Indian Tribal and Caste Populations, the 'West Asian', presumably Indo-Aryan and other, genetic indicators show that, their frequency is the highest in Indian and Pakistani Punjab, 60%, and diminishes threefold, to an average of 7%, in the rest of the caste groups in India... These findings all include sample groups from Sinhalese populations in Sri Lanka who were thus compared to other South Asians and other Eurasian groups. From an anthropological perspective, the modern Sinhalese represent a fusion of a wide variety that nonetheless is overwhelmingly indigenous to the island of Sri Lanka and the genetic variations (based on Y-chromosomes and MtDNA only) between the Sinhalese and their Tamil and Veddah neighbors appears to be largely marginal and may be restricted to a small degree of sporadic differences rather than anything universal although some genetic drift has taken place that corresponds to language barriers.
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Ethnic Sinhalese in Sri Lanka. The numbers shown is the percentage of sinhalese in the district. Based on the 2001 census data except for the districts with numbers in cursive; these are from 1981 census instead. Between 1981 and 2001 large-scale population movement has occured, but no accurate data exists. The census data is available from Department of Census and Statistics. The most horrifing statistic is in Battecalao, which in the 1840 was 99% was Sinhala but today only make up 0.01% of the district. |
Sinhala, also known as "Helabasa", has two forms: spoken and written. The written form uses many words of Sanskrit origin, whereas the spoken form is unique. Many early Sinhala texts such as the Hela Atuwa were destroyed after their translation into Pali. Other significant Sinhala texts include Amar Wathura, Kavu Silumina, Jathaka Potha and Sala Liheeniya.
The development of the Sinhala language is divided into four periods:
* Old Sinhala, otherwise called Brahmi (until 3rd century AD)
* Proto-Sinhala (3rd - 7th century AD)
* Medieval Sinhala (7th - 12th century AD)
* Modern Sinhala (12th century - present)
Their are though evidences from such sites as Mawenella, that the Sinhala script might be as old as 10,000yrs.
TO BE CONT....