PEOPLE OF SRI LANKA 1498-2016

By
Agnes Thambynayagam

The Gentiles, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and other
Europeans colonized Sri Lanka for more than five hundred years prior
to 1948. During this period, the population of the island evolved
through the inter-mixing of people who had settled there from countries
surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, as well as from European
countries. The consequence of such an evolution over a period of five
hundred years was not only a much greater variation in the appearance
and complexion of those now living in Sri Lanka, whom we refer to as
the native population of the island nation, but it also resulted in the
evolution of language, the transformation of religious practices and the
development of social institutions. (Thambynayagam, Agnes 2009)

The lighter skinned Europeans and their descendants tanned to become

darker skinned people when they moved from cool climatic countries to
bright and hot climatic countries in the equator zone. The nature further
changed the appearance and height of people. The children of tall people
grew shorter and their noses got adjusted slowly to become wider to
inhale expanded air. The changed complexion, height and looks were
transmitted on to the descendants through genes. Marriages to the
earlier settlers added the changes more. The new Europeans to the
colony often referred to the old settlers as niggers (blacks). In 1640, a
Portuguese Franciscan friar, born of white parents in India, complained that
even he and those like him were called ‘niggers’ by their European-born
colleagues (Boxer, 1963, p66). Diffie and Winius write (1977, p.331) that
documents indicate that not all descendants of the Portuguese in
military positions and other services to the purely Portuguese families
were themselves white. The new European arrivals to Sri Lanka and
India had lighter skin than the earlier settlers. In general, due to the
close proximity to the Equator, the complexion as well as the physical
appearance of the overall European population that settled in India and
Sri Lanka became darker, and different in appearance to that of the
Europeans who lived away from the Equator.
 Agnes (author) with Sinhala Buddhists and an English Buddhist in UK- 2002

Black and white division did not work out in Sri Lanka. In the early
sixteenth century, the Gentiles, who settled before the Portuguese, were
referred to as Niggers (blacks) and the descendants of the Portuguese
were referred to as Bramanes (whites). By mid sixteenth century, the
Bramanes of southern Sri Lanka, who looked in all different complexion,
claimed themselves as ‘Chingala’ people meaning people of lion land.

In the seventeenth century, the Dutch and the north Europeans who
settled in Sri Lanka separated people according to ‘Varnam’ meaning
colour in Tamil. Soon they realized that their own white children and
grand children were born in different colors even though when they
married within their own white groups.

In the eighteenth century Sri Lanka’s first British Governor Frederick

North divided the people according to religious practices. His report
(1799) states:

“The religions professed in our part of this island are first the Christian,
both according to the Presbyterian and Romish form of worship, 2ndly
the Mohammadan, 3rdly the doctrine of Boudha and 4thly a wilder and
more extravagant system of paganism....”

Here Governor North did not use the words Catholicism, Buddhism,
Hinduism and Islam to describe the religious practices.

In the nineteenth century, William Colebrook who wrote a report on Sri

Lanka to the British Government divided the people of the island as
Cingalese, Kandyans and Malabars (Tamils). His report (1831) states:

“The latest returns that have been made up were called for in 1824, and
from these it appears that in the Southern or Cingalese provinces the
number of males and females was 399,408; in the interior or Kandyan
provinces, 256,835; and in the Northern or Malabar [Tamil] districts,
195,697; making the total population of Ceylon 851,940.”

The Portuguese, the Dutch and the North Europeans mainly settled in
the coastal cities of northern and southern Sri Lanka. Those who settled
in the coastal areas and the interior of the north and the south were
counted as Malabars and Chingalese. Malabars spoke Tamil language,
which was known as Malavar before 1658, Malabar after 1658 and
Tamil after 1831.

In the twentieth century, the people of Sri Lanka were divided into four
major communities as Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers. These
communities were divided according to the language they spoke and the
religion they practiced. The Sinhalese as well as the Tamils were further
divided into caste groups. The caste society was made up mainly
according to the work their ancestors performed during the
colonization of the Portuguese and the Dutch in the sixteenth,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

CHRISTIANS OF 1498

In 1498, when Vasco da Gama visited southwestern India, Hindus were

described as Christians. Vasco da Gama’s Journal recorded by Alvaro
Velho (1498) states:

“The city of Calicut is inhabited by Christians. They are of tawny

complexion. Some of them have big beards and long hair, whilst others
clip their hair short or shave the head, merely allowing a tuft to remain
on the crown as a sign that they are Christians . . .“

“When we arrived [at Calicut] they took us to a large church . . . Within

this sanctuary stood a small image, which they said represented Our
Lady. Along the walls, by the main entrance, hung seven small bells. In
this church the captain-major [Vasco do Gama] said his prayers, and we
with him.”

The Portuguese writings of the 15th century and early 16th century
indicate that the people of India and Sri Lanka were the gentiles and
their religious practice was Christian. In the old Christian religion of the
Gentiles, Our Lady of Calicut was Mary who took the name ‘Cali’ like Our
Lady of Fatima took the name ‘Fatima’. Cali’s infant son Murugan was
Infant Jesus and Siva or Esvara was God the Holy Spirit.

THE GENTILES

The Gentiles had settled in Sri Lanka before the arrival of the
Portuguese. The Sri Lankan ruler Bhuvaneka Bahu of Colombo Kingdom
wrote to King Joao III of Portugal that his people were the gentiles. His
letter written in 1541 states:

“When the gentile brings to his house the goods which had been agreed
upon, the Portuguese gives what he likes and claims that he has
advanced more money than he has actually given. If the gentile
remonstrates and complains for the loss caused to him, then the
Portuguese has him arrested and sent immediately to Cochin. . .”

The Jesuit priest Fr. Alessandro Valignano of Chieti, Italy who visited
many countries in Asia in the sixteenth century referred to the people
who lived in India as gentiles. He wrote in his letter to the Jesuit
Superior in 1574:

“They [the priests in India] have spent the greater part of their time in
looking after the Portuguese, reaping little fruit. And as they did not
understand the gentiles . . ..”
The two words used by the Sri Lankan ruler and the Jesuit priest in the
sixteenth century to describe the people of Sri Lanka and India were the
Gentiles and the Portuguese.

Jaffna women in 1672 – The Gentiles and the descendants of the Portuguese did
not cover their upper parts of their bodies.

VEDAR – THE HUNTERS

Most Gentiles lived in the interior forestlands as hunters. They spoke

the language that was spoken in Malavar Kingdom (Kerala) of
southwestern India. Valentijn (1726), a Dutch reformed minister, who
toured Sri Lanka in the early eighteenth century, wrote:

“Wanneweddes are wild hunters, living in the forest, with their own
princes as they do on the island of Ceylon in the land of the Wanny
[Vanni – northern Sri Lanka] though they are under the King and now
under the Company [VOC], but they are obliged no further by agreement
than to contribute yearly and appear with tusked elephants. Among
them are two sorts of Weddas [hunters]: the ones who wear leaves on
their bodies, and the other called Ritipatte or wildmen of the trees
because they wear the bark of trees, being beaten soft, round the body
and have houses fully made of leaves of trees, both men and women
eating nothing but the flesh of elk, deer, etc. which they keep in honey in
a hollow tree.”

The Portuguese Franciscan friar Fernao de Queyroz wrote in 1688:

“Though these people [hunters] are so wild, in no other has the king of
Candea [Kandy] greater confidence, for in men left to their own nature,
where shrewdness grows there grows malice. The Bedas [Vedas, or
hunters] of Vilacem [Welasse] have in their keeping the treasure of that
king, for which he chooses twelve of these men, and as a distinction he
given them twelve ear-rings of silver and canes with ornaments of silver
with garments different from others, that they may be known and
respected; and they come by night to speak with the King on what
concerns his service. In the straits of war, as on the occasions when the
Portuguese entered Candea, the Kings entrust to them their wives, and
they have made for them houses in their fashion in these jungles and
woods, very clean and with many flowers; “

Vasco da Gama’s Journal (1498) states:

“They [The Gentiles] pierce the ears and wear much gold in them. They
go naked down to the waist, covering their lower extremities with very
fine cotton stuffs. But it is only the most respectable who do this, for the
others manage as best they are able.”

The vast majority of the gentiles who settled in Sri Lanka lived without
clothes. The gentile rulers exchanged spices to get clothes from Europe.
Portuguese established textile industries and made long white clothe
out of cotton. They used saffron as dye to get orange color, which the
Bramane priests wore. Most descendants of the Portuguese only
covered the lower parts of their bodies. It was the Dutch descendants
who covered their whole bodies including their heads and faces to
protect themselves from excess sunlight. The textile industry had much
advanced during Dutch rule.
Colombo women and men in 1670. The Dutch women covered their whole bodies
where as the descendants of the Portuguese covered only the lower parts of their
bodies.

MOORS AND SARACENS

The Moors who were also regarded as the Gentiles, had settled in some
parts of India and Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Portuguese in the
sixteenth century. Vasco da Gama’s Journal (1498) states,

“When the captain-major sent one of the convicts to Calicut, and those
with whom he went took him to two Moors from Tunis, who could
speak Castilian [Spanish] and Genoese [Italian].”

These Moors who helped European ships to anchor in the Indian sea
were also interpreters between the traders of Europe and the rulers of
Asia.
Moors were also mentioned as Saracens in the original writings of the
early sixteenth century. The letter King Manoel of Portugal wrote to
Pope Julius II (1507) states:

“When the affairs in Taprobane [Sri Lanka] were thus concluded, our
men [Portuguese] departed thence, attacked some maritime towns
belonging to the Saracens [Moors], situated on the mainland . . .”

The writing shows that the Portuguese were not happy with the
settlement of the Saracens in the Indian coast. During this period Moors
were not described as Muslims. In Sri Lanka Moors attended the old
Christian Church, which later became Hindu Temple. Today, in the
twenty first century, we see Muslims and Buddhists attending and
worshiping in the Kathirgamam Temple along with the Hindus.

PAGANS

After Portuguese began their settlement in Asia, the old Christian

religion of the gentiles came to be referred to as Pagan religion as
opposed to Roman religion. Pagan (Bagan) was the capital city of Burma
(Myanmar) in the sixteenth century. Bramane priests taught doctrine of
Buddha within the old Christian religion in the Pagan city by mid
sixteenth century. In 1541, the Colombo ruler Bhuvaneka Bahu referred
to the old Christian religious practice of the gentiles as Pagan. He wrote
to King of Portugal, “ If pagans were to become [Roman] Christians
while owing some money to other pagans, they ought to pay what they
owe, notwithstanding the fact that they have become [Roman]
Christians.” The word Pagan was pronounced Paa-gaan during
Portuguese rule and Pay-gan during British rule. The Dutch used the
word Heathens to describe the deviated Christian religion of India and
Sri Lanka. In the eighteenth century, Historians and Anthropologists
used the word Pagan to indicate the deviated Christian practice.

KARAYAR or KARAVAS

Portuguese settlement initially began in the coastal areas. Children who

were born to the Portuguese in the coastal areas were the first
Bramanes. People who settled along the coastal areas for fishing and
pearl diving came to be known as Karayar in Tamil and Karavas in
Sinhalese. ‘Karai’ means ‘edge’ in Tamil, and ‘Karayar’ refers to people
who live on the coast. In the mid sixteenth century, the Jesuit
missionaries began their work first along the fishery coast of northern
Sri Lanka and southern India to educate and serve the descendants of
the Portuguese. The pearl fishers, who made a good living, took care of
the churches and the missionaries in the sixteenth century. In general,
Karaiyar were very generous people. Many soldiers settled along the
coast and became Karaiyar. Children of the soldiers were trained to
become soldiers.

PARAVAR AND MUKUVAR

The Paravar and the Mukuvar are also coastal living people associated
with the Karayar and the Karava caste people. Paravar in Tamil means
people who move from one place to another and spread around. They
were the descendants of the early Portuguese settlers who first settled
along the coast of the Pandya country or Madura of southern India and
then moved to the western coastal areas of Sri Lanka. The Paravar
people lived mainly in Mannar, Chilaw, Negombo and Colombo.
Mukuvar people or Mukiyar in Tamil means important people. They
were the descendants of the early Portuguese settlers who first settled
along the coast of the Chola country or Coromandel of southeastern
India and then moved to the eastern coastal areas of Sri Lanka. They
were also regarded as ‘Cholar’ because they settled in Sri Lanka from
Chola country. The Mukuvar lived mainly in Mullaithievu, Trincomalee,
Baticoloa and Jaffna. Karaiyar, Paravar and Mukuvar were Bramanes
who spoke the Malavar (Tamil) language that was taught by the Jesuit
missionaries in the mid seventeenth century. In the twentieth century,
Parava people in Colombo and Negombo were referred to as Tamil
speaking Sinhalese.

ROMAN EMPIRE: 1505 - 1658

Roman Empire expanded to Sri Lanka and other Asian countries in the
sixteenth century with the arrival of the Portuguese. Pope Leo X wrote
to King Manoel of Portugal (1515), “You will enlarge the empire and the
territories of the Christian commonwealth”. In this period, Pope was the
head of the Roman Empire and the Christian rulers who came under
Roman Empire were Roman Emperors. King of Portugal was a Roman
Emperor. The Sri Lankan ruler Bhuvaneka Bahu was Vassal to the King
of Portugal. Rome sent missionaries from Italy, Spain and Portugal to
the colonies to help the Roman Christian settlers in establishing villages
with churches and schools.

Roman Laws were placed where the Church became the main
administrative office of the Roman Christians. The white rulers who
controlled the land development and farming met at the church hall and
elected their headmaster, teachers and the village headman from white
rulers’ families. White rulers were ‘Vellalar’ in Tamil. ‘Vellal’ is white
and ‘arlar’ is rulers. During British rule, the word ‘Vellalar’ was replaced
by the word ‘Govi Gama’ to mean ‘village rulers’ in Sinhala language. A
caste system was introduced as a social institution for administrative
purpose. Rulers, workers and slaves worked according to the
established order. Only male children, of the white rulers (Vellalar),
were admitted in schools to study language, Arithmetic, history,
Religion, literature and Drama. These boys were also trained to become
clergy, teachers and administrators. Other skilled workers who were
brought from Portugal, Italy and Spain had to teach their skills to their
children. The jobs stayed within the caste groups and the laws made
people to marry only within their own caste groups to keep the
employment within families. Same laws applied after Dutch took over
from the Portuguese. They added some Dutch laws and codified the
Roman Dutch Laws as Thesa-Valamai meaning National custom in
Jaffnapatnam (northern Province). The laws differed in other provinces
of Sri Lanka.

PARANKI

The word that was used to refer to foreigners in the mid seventeenth
century was ‘Faranghi’, which came to be pronounced ‘Paranki’ in Tamil.
The Dutch conquered Portuguese lands by 1658. At that time, the
complexion of the Portuguese settlers had tanned to make them look
different to Europeans. The Dutch referred to the descendants of the
Gentiles and the Portuguese settlers as natives. The Portuguese soldiers
who fought the war against the Dutch were regarded as foreigners.

Fig 2: Agnes (author) with Portuguese Paranki Joe Maxion Croos in Jaffna – 2012

The last set of families of the Portuguese soldiers who lived in the
‘Portuguese Castle’, the Jaffna fort, were given homes by the Dutch to
live along the ‘Paranki Theru’ (Paranki Road) in the city of Jaffna after
the Dutch took control over northern and coastal Sri Lanka. According
to the Dutch census the widows of the Portuguese soldiers earned their
living with small profits from sewing, baking, stocking knitting, spinning
and moreover ‘from the poor’ (alms box). This group of Portuguese
families was called ‘Paranki’ even after they became citizens of Sri
Lanka. Many Paranki people who live in Jaffna speak Portuguese creole.
They also speak Tamil and English in northern Sri Lanka.

THE BURGHERS (CITIZENS) OF THE DUTCH ERA

Fig 3: L to R - 1) Agnes (author) [Sri Lankan Vellalar Catholic Tamil] 2) Donna [Sri
Lankan Catholic Burgher- A British descendant] 3) Saras [Indian Vellalar Hindu
Tamil ] 4) Sabeena [Sri Lankan Dutch Burgher] 5) Manohari [Sri Lankan Vellalar
Hindu Tamil]
Photograph was taken in 1958 at St. Theresa’s R.C. Maha Vidyalayam, Kilinochchi,
Sri Lanka - The school is now a Girl’s College

The term ‘Burgher’ stood for citizen between 1658 and 1795. In 1658,
Europeans from Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, Norway and
Denmark settled in northern Sri Lanka. Only the high-ranking people
were permitted to bring their families. Other men in service married
Portuguese women who had already settled in Sri Lanka. Those who
worked for Dutch East India Company were not able to become citizens.
Those Europeans who settled with property and earned income from
farmland or a business were granted Burghership or citizenship in Sri
Lanka. The 1694 Dutch census of Jaffnapatanam (northern Sri Lanka),
makes these notes about the people who settled in the city of Jaffna after
1658:

“In Jaffnapatnam were a total of 118 families consisting of 504 persons

and 558 slaves. Among these were 100 employees of the VOC and 5 free
citizens (’vrijburgeres’). Among the women, only 14 came from Holland,
while for the men the countries of origin were: Holland, Germany,
France, Flanders, Norway, and Denmark.”

“The ‘Citizens’ [Burgers], those who left the service of the VOC
[Vereenidge Oost-Indische Campagnie], earned their money from
property and/or alehouses.”

The vast majority of the descendants of Europeans who were granted

burghership (citizenship) in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries had become part of the mainstream caste society
of Sri Lanka. After 1871, the term ‘Burgher’ stood for the descendants of
mixed Europeans who spoke mainly English language. The number of
people who claimed to be Burghers in 1871 was 14,871. This number
increased to 45,950 in 1953 and decreased to 34,600 by 2001. By 1970,
many members of the Burgher community had migrated to Australia
and England.

MALAVAR LANGUAGE

Tamil was known as Malavar language between 1505 and 1658. The
Jesuit priest Anrriques [Henrique Henriques] studied Malavar language,
composed grammar and taught the language to the seminarians at the
Jesuits’ College of Mannar in northern Sri Lanka. The seminarians, after
becoming priests, taught the language to male Velalar children who
attended schools that were built by the Vellalar with the church in each
village in northern Sri Lanka and southern India. The priests also
preached and taught Bible to the Christians in the churches. Father
Melchior Nunes Barreto, the Rector of the Jesuits’ College in Cochin
(Kerala), wrote to Fr. Francis Borgia, the Superior General of the Jesuits
in Rome in1567:
 “... From the Punicale [southern tip of India] the bishop gave orders that
we should set for Manar, which is an island [in northern Sri Lanka]
where resides the captain with many Portuguese and with six or seven
thousand Christians. From that island the captain has to take care to
defend all the Christians of the Coast of Comorim [southern India] from
the attacks and the plundering of the Moors and of the pagans....
In that Island [Manar] the Bishop greatly desires that we should have a
college of the Society of Jesus, and, at the request of Jorge de Mello,
Captain of Manar, the Viceroy Dom Antao [Governor of India] endorsed
this plan by a provision of his own. And even before we left the place,
His Lordship gave to Father Anrriques [Henrique Henriques] a good
contribution to start collecting the stones for the building. He also
promised to find and give all the money necessary for the building and
for the expenses of the Brothers. And his Lordship desires that this
college be built not only because the Fathers, who work for the
Christians on the whole Coast [of South India and Sri Lanka], should
keep it as a quiet and tranquil house of recollection, where they could go
to recover from any sickness and from their exhausting work, but also in
order to have there always nine or ten Brothers to learn the Malavar
language, so that they might be ordained priests and be able to preach
the Faith and explain the Christian doctrine through all these kingdoms
of Malavar [Kerala], Cumurim [southern tip of India], Jaffnapatnam
[northern Sri Lanka], and Ceilao [ southern Sri Lanka] up to San –Tome
[Chennai], because there is practically only one language up to two
hundred leagues from the Fishery Coast. (Perniola, 1991, Vol II, pp.16-
18; Thambynayagam, Agnes 2009, pp77-78).

This sixteenth-century letter confirms that the Malavar language spoken

in the Malavar Kingdom (Kerala) of the southwestern India was the
language spoken in other coastal areas of South India, Northern Sri
Lanka, and Southern Sri Lanka in 1567.

MALABAR LANGUAGE

Rev. Philip Baldaeus, the first Dutch minister to Sri Lanka became the
head of all Dutch Reformed Churches in Sri Lanka and South India in
1658. Baldaeus who lived in Northern Sri Lanka took charge of all
schools and churches built by the Portuguese. The village teachers from
Vellalar families continued teaching in the schools. Baldaeus who
studied the Malavar language wrote Malavar as Malabar and thus the
Malavar language became Malabar language during Dutch rule in India
and Sri Lanka. The Dutch replaced the letter ‘V’ with ‘B’. Baldaeus
(1672) wrote:

“The Malabars [Tamils] write upon the Leaves of the wild Palm-Trees
with iron Pencils; their Letters are very ancient... and seeing that the
Malabar letters have hitherto not appeared in puplick Print, either in
Holland or Germany, it will not be amiss to alledg that this language is
no less worth our care now-a-days, than the Hebrew, Chaldean, Arabian,
Persian, Samaritan and other Languages.... “

Tamil that was spoken by the people of South India and Northern Sri
Lanka was known as Malabar language during Dutch rule after 1658. In
the nineteenth century, after Colebrook’s report, Malabar was named,
‘The Mal’ which took the spelling ‘Tamil’.

CHINGALA PEOPLE

In the late sixteenth century, the children and grand children of the
Portuguese and gentile women, who practiced Pagan religion and
rebelled against the Portuguese government called themselves the
Chingala people. ‘Chingam’ meant ‘lion’ in Malavar Language (Tamil).
The Portuguese descendants used ‘la’ to refer to the land. Chingala
people were ‘people of Lion-land’. Chingala appears in original
correspondences of the late sixteenth century. The Franciscan priest
Father Paulo da Trindade wrote:

“During the term of office of D. Jeronimo de Azevedo [between 1594 and

1612] there were many revolts.... Our [Portuguese] army consisted of
four hundred soldiers, while the enemy had twelve thousand actually
taking part in the fight out of an army of thirty thousand, which could at
any moment send reinforcements and replacements. For as the rebel
was the Chingala Domingos Corriea, who was posing as the liberator of
the Chingala people, it was difficult to find a person in the island who
was enlisting him.” (Perniola, 1991, Vol II, p.182-3)

The Jesuit priest Father Queyros wrote that Manoel Gomez, a native of
Goa and captain of some lascarins (native soldiers), dressed himself as a
Chingala and aligned with the enemies of the Portuguese, pronouncing
himself to be a Bramane (Perniola, 1991, Vol II, p.184). Queyros further
wrote, ‘He [Manoel Gomez] came as far as Caymel and, in order to show
himself a good pagan, he burnt that church and that of Palanchena,
killing the Father, Fra Francisco de Cananor’.

The Chingala people (Sinhalese), in the late sixteenth century such as

Domingos Correia who fought against the Portuguese government, were
children and descendants of the Portuguese men and tanned Malavar
speaking women of the gentiles. Domingos Correia was the son of a
Portuguese interpreter for the ruler of the Colombo kingdom. Domingos
was a Christian like his father Edirille.

Pieris, P.E. (1920;p127) wrote:

“Alboquerque, the mother of whose only son [Domingos Correia] was a

negress [A Sri Lankan woman with darker complexion], had recognized
that Portugal by herself would prove unequal to the task of supplying
the men whom the East demanded from her, and he [Domingos Correia]
deliberately set about creating a new Portuguese nation in Asia. Like
Alexander the Great at Susa, he encouraged inter- marriage, and had
obtained the sanction of Dom Manuel [Captain Major of Colombo from
1594 to 1604] to the custom of permitting this as a special reward in the
case of men of good character and exceptional services, for whom
dowries were provided out of the conquered territory.... Edirille’s own
daughter and nieces were married to Portuguese husbands.”

The above passage points out that Domingos Correia was an example of
a mixed descendant of the lighter-skinned Portuguese and the darker-
skinned Gentile who fought for a separate identity – the Sinhala nation.
The passage also points out how the dowry system and arranged
marriage system began amongst the Portuguese descendants in Sri
Lanka during the sixteenth century.

THE SINHALA LANGUAGE

The language spoken by Chingala people of southern Sri Lanka came to

be known as Sinhala language. This language developed as a dialect out
of Malavar and Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Later it was written
with grammar and with its own script as Sinhala language. Tamil script
was used to write the dialect ‘Pali’ prior to the nineteenth century.
Jayasuriya (2001), a Sinhalese linguist, writes that the Sinhala speaker is
not conscious of the Portuguese words in his or her daily speech, as
these words have replaced their Sinhala synonyms. Jayasuriya (2001)
writes that these words are now indistinguishable from Sinhala and that
their etymology is identifiable only by linguists. Alan Strathern (2002:
19-20) found no archives traces of Sinhala writings before the sixteenth
century. He writes that the aim of his research trip in 2000 to Sri Lanka
was to search for Sinhala material other than the epic Chronicles, which
may have come to light – although nothing had. Ironically, he says, a
trawl through the extensive catalogue of the Hugh Nevil collection of ola
(palm-leaf) manuscripts back in London proved to be more illuminating,
revealing a mass of folk material appearing to be particularly useful for
tracing family histories back to the sixteenth century.

K. M. de Silva (1981, p.188) writes that the impact of Dutch rule on Sri
Lanka was seemingly much more limited than that of the Portuguese,
whose language and religion showed remarkable powers of survival.
Silva, who writes about the Tamil influence on the Sinhala language, also
writes that the Sanskrit language of the Hindu scriptures has left more
of an impression upon the Sinhala language than Pali and Buddhism.
Silva writes:

“Sinhalease as a distinct language and script developed rapidly under

the joint stimuli of Pali and Buddhism.... But Pali did not remain for long
the only or even the dominant influence on Sinhalese. Sanskrit, the
language of the Mahayanist and Hindu scriptures, which was richer in
idiom, vocabulary and vitality, left a strong impression on the Sinhalese
language.... There was also a considerable Tamil influence on the
vocabulary, idiom and grammatical structure of Sinhalese.” (Silva, 1981,
p.58)

Baldaeus (1672) writes that Sanskrit is Latin Malabar, which is

Latinized Tamil. He writes about the learned Bramanes of the fishery
coast who moved into the inner land of Achuvelli in Jaffna and wrote
poetry in Sanskrit. He writes:

“As divers old Brahmans live in this place [Jafanapatnam]. . . Among

others there lived here a certain Brahman, a Learned Person, with
whom I used to have frequent Conversation, whilst I liv’d at Achiavelli;
he was baptized at last in the 46th year of his age, and afterwards write
the History of the life and Passion of our Saviour, in a lofty Poetical Stile,
in the Latin Malabar, called Hanscreet [Sanskrit], which is quite different
from the common Malabar Characters . . .” (Baldaeus, 1672, p.801;
Thambynayagam, Agnes, 2009, p93).

The dialects that came out of native languages and Portuguese were
called ‘Pali’ in the sixteenth century. ‘Parli’ in Italian is what you speak.
The missionaries who came from Rome used the word ‘Parli’ or ‘Pali’ for
dialect. The ‘Pali’ that was spoken in southern Sri Lanka and in
southwestern India came out of Malavar language and Portuguese. The
Holy Scripture or San Scrit of Hinduism was written in this Pali and it
was named ‘San-Scrit language. The dialect or Pali that came out of the
native language of Nepal and Portuguese was used to write the Doctrine
of Buddha and this dialect with proper grammar was written and
named ‘Pali’ language. Many Pali words and Sanscrit words are found in
both Sinhala and Tamil languages in Sri Lanka.

CONCLUSION

The plural society we see in Sri Lanka today came about due to the
colonization of the Gentiles, the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and
other Europeans. Currently, these people are divided by language and
religion. The people who now live in Sri Lanka are descendants of those
people. South Indians who were brought as laborers in the nineteenth
century to work in the tea plantation were descendants of the gentiles
who might have mixed with the Europeans who settled in South India.
The complexion and appearance of the gentiles and the Europeans
changed when they lived in the equator zone where bright sunlight and
heat tanned their skin and changed their appearances. Language
changes occurred slowly from Malavar language to Tamil and Sinhala
languages between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. While the
Tamil language was structured with grammar and taught in schools as
the Malavar language in northern Sri Lanka during Portuguese rule, and
the Malabar language during Dutch rule, and eventually the Tamil
language during British rule, the language in southern Sri Lanka
remained as a dialect and became the Sinhala (Chingala) language after
it was given proper grammar, script and vocabulary. The free flow of
Latin words into the dialect set the evolutionary path of this language
differently than that of the Tamil language. The origin of both Tamil and
Sinhala languages of the people of Sri Lanka, however, is Malavar
language.

Agnes Thambynayagam conducted an extensive research into Sri Lanka’s

History during her tenure at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford,
England, in 2003-2007. Her book, ‘The Gentiles, a History of Sri Lanka
1498-1833’ was published in the USA in October 2009.

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