India, Sri Lanka and the SAARC Region

History, Popular Culture and Heritage

Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000205855
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: History

This book examines the historical and socio-cultural connections across the SAARC region, with a special focus on the relationship between India and Sri Lanka. It investigates hitherto unexplored narratives of history, popular culture and intangible heritage in the region to identify the cultural parallels and intersections that link them together. In doing so, the volume moves away from an organised and authorised heritage discourse and encourages possibilities of new understandings and re-interpretations of cross-cultural communication and its sub-texts.

Based on original ethnographic work, the book discusses themes such as cultural ties between India and Sri Lanka, exchanges between Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka and Satyajit Ray in India, cultural connectivity reflected through mythology and folklore, the influence of Rabindranath Tagore on modern dance in Sri Lanka, the introduction of railways in Sri Lanka, narrative scrolls and masked dance forms across SAARC countries, Hindi cinema as the pioneer of cultural connectivity, and women's writing across South Asia.

Lucid and compelling, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of cultural studies, South Asian studies, cultural anthropology, sociology, popular culture, cross-cultural communication, gender studies, political sociology, cultural history, diplomacy, international relations and heritage studies. It will also appeal to general readers interested in the linkages between India and Sri Lanka.

Part I

LESSER-KNOWN ASPECTS OF EARLIEST ECONOMIC TIES ACROSS THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT

1
INDIA AND SRI LANKA

Earliest trading connections to colonial times¹

The history of South Asia reflects an important picture of cross-cultural connections across the region. As the contacts evolved through time, the acculturation started to get reflected through several aspects of socio-cultural, religious and political ethos. Trading connections of India across the region of South Asia began as early as the 4th century BCE. The first evidence of connections with India and Sri Lanka can be traced to the time of trading contacts with eastern India, followed by various parts of South India. Textiles from India were in demand in the overseas market across the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. Across the regions of Java and Borneo, the introduction of Indian culture created a demand for aromatics and trading posts, which served as the markets for Chinese and Arab traders. The book Periplus of the Erythraean Sea mentions several ports of India – from where large ships used to sail towards the east to Chryse or ancient Greece. Various products from the present region of Maldives were sent through trade to the ports of the Middle East and also East Africa, and these ships passed through the various ports of India and Sri Lanka.

The activities of the port from the region of Kalinga – corresponding to the present region of Odisha – dominated trading connections to a great extent in ancient times, and the maritime activities of the Odisha region can be traced as far back as 350 BCE. In later years and during colonial times, the region of Kalinga was replaced by the ports of Kolkata and Bangladesh, but the trading continued up until the last century and under the British colonial rule. The trading connections across the Bay of Bengal were not only with Sri Lanka but also Maldives on the eastern side and also included Java, Sumatra, Borneo and Bali, among others, on the western side. The prominence of this trading network and the region of Kalinga in the initial years also gave rise to the region of the Bay of Bengal being referred to as Kalinga Sagara – indicating the importance of the Kalinga region in maritime activities. In the 6th century, Manjusrimulakalpa, Bay of Bengal, is mentioned as Kalingodra – also indicating the significance of the Kalinga region in trading activities in the region. In remembrance of these old trading contacts of yore, the annual festival of Bali Jatra (Bālijātrā) is celebrated in present-day Odisha. Observed across a period of five days in the Indian agricultural month of Kartik (October/November), this festival is also referred to as Bōita Bandāṇa and is held in the city of Cuttack at Gadagadia Ghata of the Mahanadi river. The festival also marks the day when ancient Sadhabas (Oriya mariners) would set sail to the distant lands of Bali, as well as other regions of South and South-East Asia – including Ceylon, Java, Sumatra and Borneo – for trade and cultural expansion. They sailed in large vessels called Boitas.

It is also interesting to mention here that the relations with Kalinga and also eastern India were not only restricted to trading activities alone and also extended to royalty and royal alliances as well. One of the earliest such examples is of King Nissanka Malla, who reigned from 1198–1207 CE and recorded in an inscription that

he was a native of Sinhapura, then apparently the capital of the Kalinga kingdom, which extended far down the east coast of India, southward from the lower part of the Ganges valley and he and his chief queen Shubhadra, a Kalinga princess, must have brought into Ceylon many of their fellow-countrymen. The queen of two earlier kings of Ceylon were also Princesses from Kalinga.²

This is mentioned in the Galpota inscription at Polonnaruwa, and H. Parker quotes³ Prof. E. Muller from his Ancient Inscriptions in Ceylon, No. 148, indicating that the king invited Parakrama Bahu I, who was his senior kinsman, to come and rule over his hereditary kingdom of Lakdiva (Ceylon), and Vira Nissaka Malla landed with a great retinue in Lanka (Ceylon). Nissanka Malla was succeeded by his elder half-brother, Sahasa-Malla, who also remarked in his Pollonaruwa inscription (Anc. Inscriptions, No. 156) that he was from Sinhpura. Parker further adds⁴ that by the beginning of the 13th century, Ceylon was ruled by two kings who claimed to have been from Sinhapura of the Kalinga country and traced their origin to King Wijeya – who was claimed to have been from the Bengal region. The story of this connection of Ceylon with Wijaya is also interesting and throws some light on the cross-country connections in the region. This is also mentioned in the religious text Mahavamsa from Sri Lanka, as well as the Dipavamsa.⁵

According to the story of Wijaya (also spelled as Vijaya) as told in the Mahavamsa, a certain king of Vanga (Banga) had a queen from the Kalinga region. Their daughter Supadevi once joined a caravan that was proceeding to Magadha. On the way, the princess eloped. There are versions which state either the princess willingly joined a group by the name Siha (meaning lion) or was carried off by a robber by the same name.⁶ After some time, the couple supposedly settled down in the western parts of the Vanga (supposed to refer to the region of Banga or present Bengal). This western part is referred to as the Lala region. This is also supposed to correspond to the present-day Radh region of western Bengal. Several Jain inscriptions from Bengal speak of Lala, corresponding to the Radh region. The couple gave birth to two children, an elder son named Sinhabahu and a younger daughter named Sinhasivali. Supadevi, along with her two children, returned to Vanga and married her cousin Anura, who was a king of Vanga. However, both Sinhabahu and Sinhasivali returned to the Lala region and founded a kingdom, the Sinhapur or Sihapura, and ruled it. Sinhabahu made Sinhasivali his consort; together, they had 32 children, and Wijaya was one of them. In due course, Wijaya was banished from the kingdom by his father for his lawless behaviour, and he was deported by sea, along with 700 men and women followers. He is supposed to have floated to Ceylon and settled there, conquering the local chiefs and establishing his kingdom. He also married Kuveni, a local yakkhini or a female devil, but she also killed many of Wijaya’s followers. Thus, though Kuveni became a queen, Wijaya’s men were always wary of her. Eventually, she was forced to leave, and she left with her two children to go to the Malaya country (the central mountain part of Sri Lanka), and Kuveni’s children gave rise to the Vedda community in Lanka. After chasing away Kuveni, Wijaya got a princess from the Pandu country in India, married her and became the first king of Lanka. He made Thambapanni the capital city of Lanka and reigned for 38 years thereafter.⁷ However, Wijaya had no other children after Kuveni’s departure. When he was old, he grew concerned about a possible heir to the throne and decided to bring his twin brother Sumitta from India. He sent a message, but unfortunately, breathed his last before the message could reach Sumitta. After Wijaya’s death, the ministers governed the kingdom and waited for a reply. In the meantime, the message had reached Sumitta, but he was too old himself, and he sent his youngest son, Panduvasdeva, to go to Ceylon. Panduvasdeva and 32 sons of Sumitta’s ministers reached Lanka, where Panduvasdeva became the new ruler.⁸ Thus, some of the stories across the famous religious texts from Sri Lanka trace the ancient contacts with the Indian subcontinent.

In later years, several other ports contributed to the trading network, weaving an important fabric of symbiotic relationships. These connections are also echoed in several other sources – especially in the region of Sri Lanka, or, as referred to during colonial times, Ceylon. Highlighting the busy trading activities across the Bay of Bengal, R.C. Majumdar pointed out:

The range of activities of sailors and merchants in the period represented by the Pali texts whose exact date is unknown was wide. This was the period of early Magadhan ascendency. We hear of sea voyages and of trading journeys to the coast of Burma and the Malay world (Suvarna-bhumi), Ceylon (Tamraparni) and even to Babylon (Baveru). The principal sea-ports in India were Bhrigukachcha (Broach), Surparaka (Sopara, north of Bombay) and perhaps Tamralipti (Tamluk in West Bengal).⁹

From the times of ancient India and during the times of Mauryan India, the subcontinent had direct trade relations with several countries, and a considerable part of the state revenue came from the traders. In records of the period, sulka (revenue) is mentioned as an important source of royal income, along with bali and bhaga. The Mauryan empire had trading contacts with Syria, Egypt and other countries of the Hellenistic world, and as early as the 1st century BCE, India had relations with the Roman Empire. In the early centuries of the Christian Era, there is epigraphic and literary evidence to support connections with China, the Hellenic world, Ceylon and farther India. These are recorded in the Nagarjunakonda inscriptions and the Milindapanho. The Nagarjunakonda inscriptions make mention of the fraternities of monks who had contacts with or travelled to Kashmir, Gandhara, China, Chilata, Tosali, Aparanta, Vanga, Vanavasi, Yavana, Damila, Palura and the island of Ceylon.

The contacts with Sri Lanka continued through the golden ages of the Gupta period. The Chinese writer and pilgrim Wang-hiuen-tse refers to an embassy sent by Sri Meghaarma (Vanna), king of Ceylon, to seek permission to build a monastery for Ceylonese pilgrims at Bodhgaya. From ancient Indian history, both rulers Emperor Ashoka and later on Samudragupta from the Gupta ages highlighted the concept of parakrama, and both had established connections with ancient Sri Lanka through different ideologies and influences. During the Mauryan times, the cultural influence came through the propagation of the special teachings of Lord Buddha. During the subsequent time of the Gupta ages in India, the connectivity came through economic, political and military aspects. During the time of the Pallavas in southern India, some evidence points to furthering political connections with ancient Ceylon. In the south of the Vakatakas lay the realm of the Pallavas of Kanchi. One of the early kings, Vishnugupta, was captured and liberated by Samudragupta around the mid-4th century CE. By the 6th century CE, under Simhavishnu, the Pallavas defeated the Cholas as well as their southern neighbours, including the ruler of Ceylon. The conquest of Ceylon is also mentioned in the achievement of his grandson Narasimhavarman. Evidence of Simhavishnu was found in Varaha cave at Mamallapuram. The epoch of the Pallavas of Kanchi is important, as they are said to have built an important realm in the south of the Penner and the Tungabhadra river region and carried their arms as far as Ceylon (Mujumdar et al.).

By the 5th century CE, the cross-cultural connections between the two countries can also be witnessed across arts and aesthetics. The fresco of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka – executed at the close of the 5th century CE – bears a resemblance to those of Ajanta. A different time witnessed further changes under the Cholas of southern India between the later half of the 9th century and the beginning of the 13th. It was within this time that almost the entire of Madras region came under a single rule, under the able leadership of Cholas of Tanjore and Rajaraja I and Rajendra Chola I. The generals of Rajendra carried their arms as far as the Ganges, while Chola admirals asserted their authority over several overseas territories, including Ceylon, the Nicobar Islands and parts of the Malay Peninsula and the archipelago. Rajendra also defeated Mahipala I of Bengal. After the fall of the Cholas – after Rajendra Chola Kulottunga – the southern part of the Chola dominions fell into the hands of the Pandyas. The home provinces formed a battleground between the Hoysalas, the Kakatiyas and other powers. In the country between the Godavari and the Ganges, which had once been overrun by Ranjendra Chola I, rose the empire of the eastern Gangas of Kalinga and Orissa. Much later, after the Cholas, the Sailendras suffered a great defeat at the hands of the Ceylon king in the 13th century.

During the Vijayanagar empire, an Italian traveller, Nicolo Conti, and Abdur Razzaq (an envoy from Persia), who visited the Vijayanagar empire during 1420 and 1443, respectively, left important records to read about the further connections between the two countries. Their records mention the empire of Vijayanagar extended over the whole of South India, reaching down to the shores of Ceylon and attaining the zenith of its prosperity during the rule of the first dynasty. Many years later, at the beginning of the colonial period in the r...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I Lesser-known aspects of earliest economic ties across the Indian subcontinent
• Part II Stories of uncharted routes of communication through history and popular culture across the SAARC region
• Part III Correspondence across intangible cultural heritage: India, Sri Lanka and the SAARC region
• Part IV Popular culture ties: India, Sri Lanka and the SAARC region across the last century
• References and further reading
• Index