Book Review: “The Indian Connection”
by K.S Sivakumaran
The Indian Connection is the title of a book by Nath Yogasundram released by Vijitha Yapa Publications running to 312 pages. What is the aim of the book? The author explains: “to trace the historical connection between India and Sri Lanka through the ages by setting out the main trends in the histories of both countries and exploring the many links between them.”
In the first place I would like to agree with the author that “ History, particularly ancient history, is dependent on the interpretation by historians of archaeological material that is often vague and fragmented These interpretations are opinions formed by the historian and are not unassailable facts ‘written in stone’. Unfortunately these opinions are often influenced by the racial and religious bias of the author.”
“The archaeological search for ethnic origins is notoriously prone to manipulation in the attempt to satisfy political expediency. Some writers have gone to great lengths to find the most tenuous arguments that challenge even the existence of a particular race (or racial origin) in a particular time and place merely to support the claims of another….”
There are 10chapters in the book: Prehistory Refinement of Civilization, A Transfer of Emphasis, Expansionism in South India, The Balance of Power in Peninsular India, Portuguese and Dutch Interludes, British Rule, A New Perspective, The Politics of Conflict and Another Dimension. Select Bibliography, Index, Maps System of Transliteration and abbreviation are bonus additions.
It’s not my intention to critically neither analyze the contents of the book nor quote substantial material of the book for elucidation. What I shall do is to show only those statements which I feel should be known to prejudiced readers from all communities in the island.
Justifiably I am selecting those passages from the book that pleases me from a Thamilian perspective. The veracity of ’truth’ in those statements have to be challenged by others
* The term Dravidian, like the word Indo-Aryan, refers to a group of languages rather than a specific ethnic group.
* Between 2000 and 1500 BC a southeasterly spread of Dravidians into peninsular India occurred and by 1500 BC there were three distinct dialect groups –proto-North. Dravidian, pronto-Central Dravidian and proto-South Dravidian. From proto-South Indian Thamil, Malayalam and Kannada were to evolve in the regions that now are Thamilnadu, Kerala and Karnataka respectively.
* The new migrants to Sri Lanka from Northern India not only brought a new language, a Prakrit, but also their religion, Brahmanism, with its caste system. From this culture a new ethnic group developed over the centuries and the Prakrit that they spoke evolved into Sinhala. By the third century BC they became converts to the teachings of the Buddha. Meanwhile, in Southern India, perhaps stimulated by the threat of being replaced by Prakrit Thamil in a rudimentary form had emerged as the dominant language by about 500 BC. It was patronized by the Pandyan kings whose kingdom was in existence at least by 300 BC as reported by Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador to the Mauryan court. Some scholars have dated the Tholkappiyam, a work in Thamil grammar, as being written around 300 BC.
* It is clear that whilst a new ethnic group was forming in Sri Lanka another ethnic group, with Thamil as its language, was evolving in southern India. It is also clear that until these two ethnic groups, one speaking Sinhala and the other Thamil, had evolved it would be incorrect to speak of either a Sinhalese or a Thamil ethnic identity.
* The earliest records referring to a unique Sinhala Sinhalese group occur in Thamil- Brahmi epigraphs in South India dated between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD.
* The term Ila appears and this Prakrit term, according to historic linguists, is the name applied to the dominant ethnic group in Sri Lanka at that time. Ilam was the name used in Early Thamil sources for the land in which this ethnic group lived. In Old Sinhala, at a later period the same group of people was referred to as Hela and Elu. The Sanskrit name was Simhala and in the Pali of the early Buddhist chronicles the name given was Sihala.
* Up to 500Ad, there were five recorded invasions of the Anuradhapura kingdom from South India. The Mahavamsa has labeled all these invader as being of Thamil origin but recent archaeological evidence suggests that this may not be correct.
I shall stop with those quotes. But you must read the whole book because the focus of the book is on Lanka and India relationship. The blurb clearly states: “this is a study of the close links between India and Sri Lanka from prehistoric times to the present. T is a balanced and unbiased overview providing the general reader with a lucid and readable commentary on the historic development of the connection between the two countries. His connection has undeniably moulded Sri Lanka’s economic, cultural and social evolution and is likely to continue to do so in the foreseeable future”
India watchers, China watchers, Ultra Nationalists from both ethnic groups, Sinhala Buddhists only Chinthana adherents, Separatists and others should read this book and form their opinion and judgment.
Readers might like to know who the author is. The blurb at the back of the cover adds: The author, who was born in Sri Lanka and educated at St.Thomas’College, Mt. Lavinia and the University of Ceylon, is a retired surgeon who now lives in the United Kingdom. He is the author of A Comprehensive History of Sri Lanka from Prehistory to Tsunami.”
It is high time that we think in universal terms because waddling in racial animosities is not going to take us anywhere and may even cause doom to all communities because the worlds all around is looking at us from their own perspectives.
Hopefully realization seems to dawn slowly but with firmness as the powers that be are thinking differently. I wish all success.
ks.sivakumaran@yahoo.com
