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The Ruin of Ancient Ceylon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Rhoads Murphey
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Extract

The study of abandoned civilizations, and of the reasons for the disaster, is a field in which many imaginations have wandered. In several parts of Southeast Asia, notably in Cambodia, northern Siam (the Kingdom of Haripunjaya), the Pagan area in the dry zone of Burma, and the dry zone of Ceylon, this pattern has been repeated. Only in Ceylon is there a more or less continuous historical record, plus numerous stone inscriptions, to assist in solving the puzzle. Otherwise the cases are suggestively alike. All arose on reasonably level plains (often the only level land in the region), in a climate of alternating wet and long dry seasons, which especially in the tropics usually means irrigation if agriculture is to be productive enough to support a more than primitive civilization. All did in fact depend heavily on extensive irrigation, and appear to have shared the characteristics which Wittfogel has associated with this kind of basis: a strong central state, massive public works, a highly structured society, and a powerful ramified bureaucracy. All were plagued with chronic invasions from nearby densely populated areas, and all collapsed with dramatic suddenness, to be blotted out by jungle so that with some even their memory was forgotten. Finally, all were abandoned at about the same period, the thirteenth century (Angkor Vat somewhat later), and with few exceptions no significant attempts were made to reoccupy them until very recent years.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , February 1957 , pp. 181 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1957

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References

1 For a thorough discussion, see Farmer, B. H., “Rainfall and Water Supply in the Dry Zone of Ceylon,” in British Tropical Lands, ed. Fisher, C. A. and Steel, R. W. (London, 1955)Google Scholar; also Cooray, P. G., “Effective Rainfall and Moisture Zones in Ceylon,” Bull. Ceylon Geog. Soc., III, No. 2 (1948), 39–42.Google Scholar

I am grateful to many people in Ceylon for help on this study, but especially to E. F. L. Abeyaratne, B. H. Farmer, and C. W. Nicholas.

2 See the studies by Farmer and Cooray cited in n. 1.

3 Ceylonese, an inhabitant of Ceylon; Sinhalese (Singhalese), the largest ethnic and linguistic group among the population, speaking an Aryan language and possibly descended from Aryan-speaking invaders who reached Ceylon about the sixth century B.C. (or possibly much earlier), but including Dravidian and other strains as well; Ceylon Tamil, the largest minority, immigrants and invaders from South India who settled in Ceylon from at least the tenth century A.D.; Indian Tamil, in Ceylon the recent immigrants (since about 1850) brought in to work the coffee, tea, rubber, and coconut estates.

4 Ceylon's total population toward the end of the Dutch period (1789) was estimated at 817,000. More accurate counts by the British showed 862,000 in 1824 and 960,000 in 1831 (Perera, S. G., The British Period, 1795–1948, 6th ed. [Colombo, 1951], p. 85Google Scholar). Even by 1789 population increases had doubtless resulted from the cinnamon and general trade stimulated by the Portuguese and Dutch. The ancient population is estimated below at between two and four million. Ceylon's population in 1956 is approximately 8,800,000.

5 The Mahavansa, trans. Geiger, W. (London, 1912)Google Scholar; The Culavansa, Parts I and II, trans. Geiger, W. (London, 1929–1930).Google Scholar

6 Wickremasinghe, D. M. de Z., Paranavitana, S. et al. , Epigraphia Zelanica, IV (Colombo, 1952), 191.Google Scholar

7 Strange, W. L., Report on Irrigation in Ceylon (Colombo, 1909), p. 13.Google Scholar

8 See Denham, E. B., Ceylon at the Census of 1911 (Colombo, 1912)Google Scholar; Farmer, B. H., Pioneer Peasant Colonization in Ceylon: A Study in Asian Agrarian Problems (London: Chatham House, 1956), Ch. iGoogle Scholar; Brohier, R. L., Ancient Irrigation Works in Ceylon (Colombo, 1935), I, 30Google Scholar; Strange, , p. 20Google Scholar; Codrington, H. W. in Ceylon Notes and Queries, I (1913), 8, and IV (1914), 62Google Scholar. (Codrington believes the ancient population never exceeded four million, and also discusses the small grain exports.) For a contemporary account of ancient Anurad-hapura by a famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, see The Travels of Fa Hsien, trans. Giles, H. A. (Cambridge, 1923), pp. 70 ff.Google Scholar

9 For a discussion of the capital and its shifts, see Paranavitana, S., “The Capital of Ceylon in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries,” Ceylon Journal of Science, Section G (Archeology), II (1935), 141–147.Google Scholar

10 For a modern historical survey, see Codrington, H. W., A Short History of Ceylon, rev. ed. (London, 1939)Google Scholar, esp. Chaps, i–iv.

11 As indicated by the large number of old Tamil place names in the Wanni.

12 Markandaya, Kamala, Nectar in a Sieve (New York: John Day, 1954), p. 57.Google Scholar

13 For notable examples, see Tennent, J. E., Ceylon, 2 vols. (London, 1859)Google Scholar, passim; Codrington, H. W., A Short History of Ceylon.Google Scholar

14 For a discussion of this general problem, see my “The Decline of North Africa since the Roman Occupation: Climatic or Human?” Annals of the Assoc. of Amer. Geographers, XLI (06 1951), 116–132.Google Scholar

15 Brohier, R. L., Ancient Irrigation, I, 3Google Scholar; idem, The Tamankaduwa District and the Elahera-Minneriya Canal (Colombo, 1941), p. 2Google Scholar; Cook, E. K., “A Note on Irrigation in Ceylon,” Geography, XXXV (1950), 75–85Google Scholar; and others.

16 See among others, Report of the United Kingdom and Australian Mission on Rice Production in Ceylon, 1954, Sessional Paper 2 (Colombo, 1955), p. 33Google Scholar; Spencer-Shrader, R. H., “The Secret of the Tanks,” Loris (Colombo), III, No. 6 (1945), 215–218, and IV, No. 1 (1945), 291–292Google Scholar; Thirlaway, H., “Ruhuna and Soil Conservation,” Loris, III, No. 6 (1945), 210–214Google Scholar; Strange, Report (see n. 7).

17 On soils, see the articles by Joachim, A. W. R., Kandiah, S. et al. ,: “Studies on Ceylon Soils,” Tropical AgriculturistGoogle Scholar, a series of articles in Vols. LXXXIV (1935) through XCVIII (1942), and their several references; “A Review of Progress in the Study of the Soils of Ceylon,” Proceedings First Annual Sessions, Ceylon Association of Science, 1945; “The Effect of Shifting Cultivation and Subsequent Regeneration of Vegetation on Soil Composition and Structure,” Tropical Agriculturist, CIV (1948), 3–11.Google Scholar

18 See inter alia Grist, D. H., Rice, 2nd ed. (London, 1955)Google Scholar, Ch. xvi and passim; Gourou, Pierre, The Tropical World, trans. Laborde (London, 1953), p. 100Google Scholar and passim.

19 The Rajavaliya, trans. Gunasekera, B. (Colombo, 1900), pp. 52–53.Google Scholar

20 Spencer-Shrader and Thirlaway (see n. 16) argue forcibly that this is the answer.

21 E. F. L. Abeyaratne's experiments in this connection at the Government Dry Farming Research Station at Maha Illuppallama (near Anuradhapura) are illuminating—sec Pioneer Peasant Colonization (see n. 8), Ch. iv.

22 Brohier, , Ancient Irrigation Works, II, 37.Google Scholar

23 Wittfogel, K. A., “Die Theorie der orientalischen Gesellschaft,” Zeitschrift für Sozial-forschung, VII (1938), 90–123CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “Oriental Society and Oriental Despotism” (forthcoming).

24 Paranavitana, S., “Glimpses of the Political and Social Conditions of Medieval Ceylon,” in Sir Paul Pieris Felicitation Volume (Colombo, 1956), pp. 69–74.Google Scholar

25 See Reimers, E., “Feudalism in Ceylon,” JCRAS, XXXI (1928), 17–54Google Scholar; deSilva, W. A., “A Contribution to the Study of Economic and Social Organization in Ceylon in Early Times,”Google Scholaribid., pp. 62–76; Codrington, H. W., Ancient Land Tenure and Revenue in Ceylon (Colombo, 1938)Google Scholar; Brohier, R. L., “Land Tenure and Land Laws,” Bull. Ceylon Geog. Society, V, No. 2 (1950), 124–135.Google Scholar

26 Mahavansa (see n. 5), p. 199.Google Scholar

27 Paranavitana, S., Epigraphia Zelanica, V (1955), 160Google Scholar; “Lanka” means island, and is a traditional name for Ceylon.

28 See Lattimore, Owen, The Inner Asian Frontiers of China (New York, 1940)Google Scholar; Stein, Aurel, Innermost Asia, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1928).Google Scholar

29 Nicholas, C. W., “The Irrigation Works of King Parakramabahu I,” The Ceylon Historical Journal, IV (04 1955), 52–68.Google Scholar

30 Culavansa (see n. 5), II, 125.Google Scholar

31 Epig. Zelan., II, 81.Google Scholar

32 Strange, (see n. 7), p. 16.Google Scholar

33 The Culavansa, trans. Wijesinha, (Colombo, 1889), Part 2, p. 147.Google Scholar

34 Dunn, C. L., Malaria in Ceylon (London, 1936).Google Scholar

35 Knox, Robert, An Historical Relation of Ceylon (London, 1681).Google Scholar

36 Jones, W. H. S., Malaria in Greek History (Manchester, 1909)Google Scholar; Scott, H. H., A History of Tropical Medicine (London, 1939), 1, 155, 179.Google Scholar

37 Reimers, E., Constantine de Sa's Maps and Plans of Ceylon (Colombo, 1929), p. v.Google Scholar