Srilankan Diaries

  Sri Lanka is small pear shaped, tropical island barely twenty five miles to the southeast of the tip of India where the waters of the Bay of Bengal meet the Arabian Sea. For centuries, her position at the juncture of important sea routes has made Ceylon a prize for whatever sea powers held or sought control of the Indian Ocean.1 Ceylon’s proximity to India has been of fundamental import. Her principal racial stocks and her Hindu and Buddhist religion are of Indian origin. However much a distinctive quality developed within ceylon’s civilization. Indian influence has been profound. Particularly up to the fifteenth century, perhaps no important change in Indian civilization has failed to leave its impress on the island. Sri Lanka culture in the broadest sense has much in common with that of India. Ceylonese art clearly shows Indian sources although peculiarly Ceylonese qualities are also manifest. In the ruins of great cities such as Anuradhapura, where Ceylon’s early kings ruled

  The great Indian epic, the Ramayana and Ceylon’s own voluminous chronicles, written by Buddhist monks, attest to the intimate association between India’s culture and institutions and Ceylon’s. The whole culture and civilization of Sri Lanka has developed from Buddhism, which had its origin in India, during the time of King Ashoka.             Sri Lanka literature too has been the off-shot of Indian literature. The art of Sri Lanka paintings, sculpture and architecture have mostly been influenced by Indian arts. Hinduism was adopted during the time of Devdnass-piya Tissa It is difficult to assess historically whether the story is mythical or is reminiscent of Aryan invasion of Sri Lanka, but one fact is certain that Sri Lanka had intimate links with India. Sri Lanka was a part of the Chola Empire of South India in the 10th Century and since then many Tamils have settled in the Island known as “SRI LANKA TAMILS”. In fact, the Tamils of Sri Lanka are an ancient people th