Possible new civilization: Sinhalese

[Tomcelmare]

Greetings everybody 

I'm creating this topic, because I posted the suggestion for this civ in the "Honour and Glory" forum, but I came up with so many references, that the necessity of having a topic of its own became unavoidable. Also, it came to my attention when I was collecting and searching for interesting elements, that it was more relevant to put this topic here, in the rise of the east forum, than in the millenium one, because I think the geographical area I cover, and the period too are more fitting of this mod in my opinion. 

Here you'll find elements of presentation of the ancient sinhalese civilization, and if someone is interested, one can even start modding this civilization. Such a mod would cover the earlier part of the period of Anuradhapura Kingdom (4th century BC to 11th century AD):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anuradhapura

First of all, I want to give you a quick introduction to the sinhalese culture. I must warn you that the sources of ancient history of the island are mostly buddhist manuscripts, which are not the most reliable sources for historians, but nevertheless integrate some factual, proven elements.

Sinhalese people live in the Island called today "Sri Lanka", which used to be known as "Ceylon" under the rule of the british empire (this designation is still used on tea boxes, and Sri Lanka remains today the first exporter of tea in the world). The island of Sri Lanka is situated right under India, having the shape of a teardrop. The island has a very ancient, complex and rich history. I won't detail all of it, because it wouldn't be relevant for the purpose of this introduction, but I will nonetheless introduce some elements.

First of all, Sri Lanka is inhabited by three main ethnicities (there are actually more groups, but let's not complicate things!  ) First of all, it's been inhabited for thousands of years by the Vedda people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedda), an aboriginal culture that lived in harmony with nature, and who are not as many today as they used to be. During these ancient times, the Island was known as Trapobana (Ταπροβανᾶ) by the greeks, and was said to be inhabited by anthropophagous demons by indians (the Mahabharata designated Lanka as the kingdom of the legendary demon Ravana and his clan).

Then, according to a buddhist source, the Mahavamsa, Prince Vijaya and his 700 companions set foot on the Island in the middle of the 6th century BC, the very day the Buddha died. They allegedly came from a kingdom in North eastern India, in today's Bengal. Vijaya was said to descend from a lion, hence the name "sinhalese" or "sinhala": the lion people".

He founded the kingdom of Tambapanni (543 BC - 505 BC), but having no descendant to succeed him asked his nephew Panduvasdeva to come from India, and rule his kingdom after his death. However, his nephew had not arrived yet when he died, so he left his minister Upatissa to be the regent (the latter is nevertheless considered as a king, in the official list of sinhalese kings). When Panduvasdeva finally arrived, he was established as the new king and founded his own dynasty: the house of Vijaya, which was going to last until 66 AD.

During the rule of the sinhalese monarchs, the veddas fled in the forests and mountains of the center of the island, and new invaders came to test the power of the Anuradhapura Kingdom, established  in 474 BC, after several changes of capital cities.

These invaders were tamils from Southern India. They had strong armies and superior navy, and they succeeded into seizing the throne of Anuradhapura several times during its long history, sometimes for a short period, sometimes for a longer period (some kings being wise and respected even by the Sinhalese people, as King Elara- 205 - 161 BC)  only to be driven out every time by a sinhalese counterattack.

However they finally destroyed and sacked Anuradhapura for the last time in 1017 AD, occupying it for 53 years. From this moment, tamils had established a permanent foothold on Sri Lanka, and founded several kingdoms. The sinhalese would never come back in their old capital, and instead moved to Pollonaruwa, during the medieval times. 

Modern Sri Lanka has been shaped by the turbulent history between sinhalese (roughly 70% of the population) and tamils, the last chapter of this conflict being the civil war from 1982 to 2009 between the secessionist  "tamil tigers" of the LTTE, and the government of Sri Lanka (also comprising tamils in its ranks), who would finally be victorious. I'm not going to enter political debates here, I'm just summing up some facts.

What distingues the most sinhalese people from tamils and other indians, are their attachment to buddhism (theravada buddhism). They always (at least since the reign of Devanampiya Tissa) have seen their island as a holy sanctuary for buddhist tradition. They possess numerous relics from the buddha (for example, a tooth from the buddha, and a sacred tree born from an offspring of the famous tree under which the budha attained the enlightenment) and feel a great pride abour it. The island remained a buddhist fortress during the times where the Mauryan empire collapsed in India (thus considering the kingdom of Anuradhapura as the true heir to Ashoka's legacy would not be inappropriate), during the Shunga, and Gupta dynasties, and even if it has been conquered since by the Portuguese, which brought catholicism, the Dutch, and the English, which brought protestantism, and also received the influence of muslim merchants, bringing Islam into the island, the inner core of the country remained the sinhalese buddhist community. It's because of this attachment of buddhism as part of their destiny, that Sinhalese were fierce and indomitable fighters when invaders threatened their soil, because they considered themselves as guardians of this sacred legacy, and some still feel this way today...

Therefore, as far as the mod is concerned, my proposal would depict the Sinhalese during the time of the early Anuradhapura Kingdom (267 BC to 60 AD) which mostly covers the era of Vijaya Dynasty. It could also be possible to cover the middle Anuradhapura Kingdom (66 AD to 515 AD) which would cover the first part of the era of Lambakanna dynasty, and the rise of the Moriya dynasty. Here's the list of sinhalese monarchs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Sinhalese_monarchs

I will post more elements soon.

Regards.

Edited February 14, 2017 by Tomcelmare

[Tomcelmare]

Sinhalese civilization draft (first part): Anuradhapura Kingdom (also known as Rajarata Kingdom):

Possible Kings/Heroes: 

- Early Anuradhapura Kingdom (0ad empires ascendant timeline): Historical sources are debatable, because the main source of documentation is the "Mahavamsa" a semi-historical chronicle of the early kings deeds, written by buddhist monks, with some mythical elements mixed into it...There are still some unquestionable facts, such as the very existence of the kings, and their conquests and military feats, which have been historically established.

+ Devanampiya Tissa (307 BC - 267 BC): introduced Buddhism in his kingdom through establishing a diplomatic relationship with Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, from which he supposedly received a seed from the Sacred tree where the Buddha attained enlightenment, and Ashoka's own son Mahinda which became the founder of the first Sangha (buddhist monk community) on the Island.

+ Dutugamunu (161 BC - 137 BC): Defeated King Elara, an usurping Tamil prince from the Chola Dynasty who conquered the throne of Anuradhapura in 205 BC. He allegedly had under his command legendary warriors: "ten giant warriors": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Giant_Warriors

+ Valagamba (103 BC and 89-77 BCE): He defeated tamil invaders, after 14 years of occupation from the latters, and built the Abhayagiri Dagoba (Stupa)

Other important kings (later period):

+ Gajabahu I (114 AD - 136 AD): Very devout king, invaded tamil lands to save his captured soldiers.

+ Dhatusena ( 455 AD - 473 AD): repulsed numerous indian invasions, and established the first navy. He increased the water distribution capacity by building eighteen irrigation tanks. Also famous for having being murdered by his own son:

+ Kashyapa I "the patricide" , or "the mad king" (473 AD - 495 AD) who would finally been slain by his brother Moggallana, true heir to the throne, after an epic battle. During his reign, the capital city was moved from Anuradhapura to Sigiriya ("The Tooth rock"), an impregnable fortress where he felt safe (that didn't save him though):

[Sundiata]

Interesting stuff.. What do you know about early Tamil history (chola dynasty)? Seems like a nice complementary civ...

[DIYARAKUZA]

Greetings! I'm from Sri Lanka. I speak Sinhalese and a little Tamil. I'm happy to help you if you plan on developing this civ in the future and I think adding the Tamils is a great idea because they were the biggest power in Southern India. However they don't achieve the height of their power until until the medieval age (900 AD - 1300 AD). The same could be said about the Sinhalese. In my opinion both these civs would be more fitting in a millennium AD mod. But still they both did exist in the 500 BC - 500 AD time frame and had a good level of sophistication.

Edited January 1, 2022 by DIYARAKUZA