topics: |  sri-lanka | history | south-asia

Quotations

[around 2nd c. BC]
Dravidian influence had been felt in considerable extent in Ceylon from the
earliest Aryan colonization.  After Tissa, the first Buddhist king, some
Tamil adventurers seized the throne at Anuradhapura, thus interrupting the
succession of Sinhalese rulers who traced their descent to the legendary
Vijaya.

The defeat of one of these Tamil rulers, Elara, and the restoration of
Sinhalese sovereignty has been regarded as an epic event in Sinhalese
historical tradition.  The victor, Duttugemunu, is treated as a hero in
national lore, and his name is remembered upto modern times.  His defeat of
Elara in the final personal combat dramatizes this recapture of power at
Anuradhapura.

The myth of the Duttugemunu-Elara combat was nurtured in the monkish
tradition to feed a religio-communal nationalism of the still scattered
Sinhalese people.  The story emphasizes that Duttugemunu was a champion of
Buddhism and fought to re-establish this faith and extirpate Hindu heresy...
p.52