User:Kanatonian/History of Jaffna peninsula
Ancient Jaffna[edit]
Jambukolapatna[edit]
The Mahavamsa also mentions that Lord Buddha used his siddhi or yogic powers to visit Jaffna by air to resolve a crisis over a jewel between the Naga chieftains and introduced Buddhism to them. It refers to the port of Jambukola Pattuna, now known as Sambalturai, where ships embarked to India. Jambukolapatna means the city of Jambu fruit tree. Jambu (naaval = purple fruit) is also the plum shaped blackberry which is found abundantly growing in the regosols of eastern coasts of Vadamaradchi and Pachchilaipalli areas. Patna means thalassocracy on the seashore. This is really an African tree growing in the bushes of Jaffna. It is found wildly growing in African bushland.
Indonesian links[edit]
Chavakacheri means the City of Javanese. It is a large city near Jaffna and is an ancient settlement of Javanese and Malays. Java is named as Jambudvipa in Buddhist religious literature. Hindu literature refers to India as Jambudvipa. It may be deduced all of Sub-continent and Java were considered Jambudvipa. The name Java may be the shortened version of Jambudvipa. Javanese King Sailendra was in possession of this small area and they used this as entry into India and for the transit of East-West trade by which they were controlling the Indian Ocean and Madagascar, a Javanese colony. Sailendra (Sanskrit:Lord of the Mountain) is the name of an influential Indonesian dynasty that emerged in 8th century Java. The migration to Madagascar accelerated in the 9th century, when the powerful Sumatran empire of Srivijaya controlled much of the maritime trade in the Indian Ocean. Present Sumatra was the ancient Swarnadvipa.
Medieval Jaffna[edit]
Sailendras and Cholas[edit]
The Sailendras were active promoters of Mahayana Buddhism and covered the Kedu Plain of Central Java with Buddhist monuments, including the world famous Borobudur.
The Sailendras were considered to be a thalassocracy and ruled the maritime Southeast Asia, however they also rely of agriculture pursuit through intensive rice cultivation on Kedu Plain Central Java. Cholas were the dominant thalassocracy who dominated the South and South-East Asia for a few centuries. Jaffna took an important place in the Cholan thalassocracy.In 1025, Rajendra Chola, the Chola king from Coromandel in South India, conquered Kedah from Srivijaya and occupied it for some time. The Cholas continued a series of raids and conquests of parts of Sumatra and Malay Peninsula for the next 20 years. Cholas controlled the whole of Bay of Bengal and ruled the southern bank of Mekong River upto Viet Nam. Although the Chola invasion was ultimately unsuccessful, it gravely weakened the Srivijayan hegemony.
Hindu Malaya and Majapahit converts to Islam[edit]
Later this was under the rule of Chandrabhanu, a Malay Thai prince who was a conqueror of Northern Sri Lanka. Parameswara ruled Singapore and converted to Islam and created a catalytic change in the thalassocracy of Malacca straits. During the time of Raja Ibrahim, tension occurred in Melaka between the growing Tamil Muslim community and the traditional Hindu Malay because Raja Ibrahim only has islamic name but did not embraced the new religion but instead adopted the traditional Hindu title Sri Parameswara Dewa Shah. As a result, Raja Ibrahim ruled for less than seventeen months and he was stabbed to death.
Raja Ibrahim's elder half-brother, Raja Kasim, by a Tamil Muslim mother, assumed the throne and taking on the Islamic title Sultan Mudzafar Shah. This signalled a new golden era for the Melaka Sultanate. [1]
The Bujang Valley has remains of a Hindu-Buddhist kingdom that dates back to the 4th century AD, making it the oldest civilization of Peninsular Malaysia. The current royal family can trace their ancestry from this time. According to Hikayat Merong Mahawangsa or the Kedah Annals, Kedah was founded by a Hindu king named Merong Mahawangsa. According to the text further, the Sultanate of Kedah started in year 1136 when the 9th King Phra Ong Mahawangsa converted to Islam and adopted the name Sultan Mudzafar Shah.
Sri Vijaya[edit]
In the 7th and 8th centuries, Kedah was under the domination of Srivijaya, and was under the Tamil Chola dynasty, later under Siam, until it was conquered by the Malay sultanate of Melaka in the 15th century. In the 17th century, Kedah was attacked by the Portuguese after their conquest of Melaka, and by Aceh. In the hope that Great Britain would protect what remained of Kedah from Siam, the sultan handed over Penang and then Province Wellesley to the British at the end of the 18th century. The Siamese nevertheless conquered Kedah in 1811, and it remained under Siamese control until transferred to the British by the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909. The ports of ancient Sri Lanka served as entry and exit points for traders, immigrants and Buddhist missionaries. Sri Lanka, being located in the middle of the Indian Ocean and to the extreme south of the Indian Peninsula, held a commanding position as the sea routes lining the east and west lay along the coasts of Sri Lanka.
Jambukola in the Jaffna Peninsula (Nagadipa) and now identified as Kankesanthurai and Mahatottiha the pearling port on the north-western coast off Mannar are frequently mentioned in the Mahavamsa. The pre - Buddhistic Valahassa Jataka contain the account of voyages to Sri Lanka from North India testifies to the fact that one of these ports of the many referred to in the Jatakas was situated in the north western coast namely
Mannar which was half the distance from Jambukola to Anuradhapura and emerging as the easily accessible port to Sri Lanka. However, Jambukola, served as the closest port to South India, Bengal and the Gangetic plains, and was used mainly for Buddhist missionary voyages, and other activities connected with culture, while Mahatottiha continuing as the commercial port.
Jaffna Kingdom[edit]
In northern Sri Lanka, the Jaffna Kingdom (1215-1619; also known as the Kingdom of Aryacakravarti) began with the invasion of one Magha also called as Kulankai Chakravarti claiming to be from Kalinga in India. Some historians says the Tamil word Kulangai often misspelled as Kalinga because he had a defect in one arm,[1] which is the reason he was called Kulangai. It eventually became a tribute paying client of the Pandyan Empire in India around the 1250s only to become independent with the fragmentation of the Pandyan control. For a brief period in the early and middle 14th century it was an ascending power in Sri Lanka with all major kingdoms becoming its tributaries only to become occupied by the rival Kotte Kingdom in the 1450s.
After it was reconstituted its rulers energies were directed towards consolidating its economic potential by maximizing revenue from pearls and elephant exports and land revenue. It was less feudalized than most of other Sri Lanka kingdoms of the same period. Important local Tamil literature was produced and Hindu temples were built during this period including an academy for language advancement.
The arrival of the Portuguese colonial power in Sri Lanka in 1505 and the understanding of its strategic location in the Palk Strait connecting all interior Sinhalese kingdoms to South India created political problems. Many of its kings confronted and eventually made peace with the Portuguese colonials. Eventually Cankili II (1617–1619) a usurper to the throne confronted the Portuguese and was defeated, thus bringing the kingdom’s independent existence to an end in 1619.
The Portuguese era[edit]
After lasting for over 400 years,the Dravidian-influenced Jaffna Kingdom finally lost its independence to the Portuguese in 1621. The Portuguese captured the King of Jaffna Sangili Kumaran and took him to Goa in India along with his sons. After the trial, the Portuguese found him guilty of treason and hanged him along with his sons. With the Jaffna Kingdom’s demise, the only indigenous independent political entity that was not Sinhalese and Buddhist in character came to an end in the Island. The Portuguese built the Jaffna Fort and the moat around it. Portugal was a thalassocracy and they needed Jaffna to run their spice business like Sri Vijaya rulers.
The Dutch era[edit]
The Tamils and the Kandyan Kingdom collaborated and conspired with the Dutch rulers of Batavia (today's Jakarta in Indonesia).The Dutch invasion from Batavia brought religious freedom for Tamils and Muslims.The Dutch and later the colonial English ruler reigned for approximately three centuries, with each ruling for approximately 150 years. The Jaffna Tamil has several Portuguese and Dutch words still in usage.
During the Dutch rule the islands of the Palk Straits were renamed after Leiden, Kayts and other cities in the Netherlands. The Dutch priest Rev Philippus Baldeus wrote a great historical record similar to Mahawamsa on the Jaffna people and their culture and it was immediately published in Dutch and German with several beautiful pictures. A granite stone inscription at the Point Pedro Market Square still marks the place where Rev Baldeus preached to the Tamils under a big tamarind tree. This tamarind tree was uprooted during the cyclone of 1963.
The Dutch were a thalassocracy and they needed Jaffna to run their spice business like Sri Vijaya and Portuguese rulers.
The British era[edit]
With the Treaty of Amiens all maritime territory under Dutch rule became a part of the British Crown. This included the what is today, Jaffna district. In 1815, the Kandyan Kingdom was brought under British with signing of the Kandyan Convention.
British rule began in 1798. Many educational institutions were established during this period. The English language was taught to the locals. The Jaffna Tamils were given higher ranks in government institutions. At this time
American missionaries and Anglican missionaries were in close competition with Catholic missionaries in establishing churches and schools in every nook and corner. The Hindu Board of Education in turn established its own network of schools. Several high schools and western style education became the hallmark of Jaffna. Jaffna Tamils became loyal subjects of the ever-expanding British Empire and took the middle-level positions in public service throughout the South East Asian countries of the British Raj (Burma, Malaya, Borneo and Singapore) in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Christian missionary activity[edit]
Jaffna also played an important role in the Roman Catholic religious administration of Sri Lanka. It also plays an important role in the administration of the Church of South India in Sri Lanka, a group of Protestant denominations.
20th Century Jaffna and Civil War[edit]
Due to the civil war, the city has witnessed wholesale massacres, disappearances of the civilian population and a deterioration in the human rights situation. Currently it is occupied by the Sri Lankan Army, with full government control; between 1992 and 1995 it was under the control of the LTTE before that the Indian Army IPKF had captured it first in 1989 and handed over to Sri Lankan Army after a hard fought battle before its withdrawal from Sri Lanka. Due to ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, many residents moved out of the city, and thus the population was reduced dramatically. According to the 2001 census, the population of the municipality is about 145,600 [citation needed]. The population of the district is currently estimated by the district administration at 600,000. Jaffna also functions as the economic and cultural capital of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Jaffna was once a stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a separatist outfit that seeks to set up an independent Tamil Eelam for Tamil-speaking people in Sri Lanka. Jaffna currently is under the occupation of the government of Sri Lanka.
The Jaffna Public library was burnt down by an organized mob in June 1981, when ethnic tensions in the country were building steadily towards war. The Sri Lankan government (United National Party) at that time was accused of letting the paramilitaries loose in Jaffna, following an incident where two Sinhalese policemen were killed by a Tamil group. The library was renovated in 2003 by the government of Sri Lanka.[2]
Mass exodus and ethnic cleansing[edit]
Many of the Tamils from this region moved out to other parts of the island or to foreign countries. This exodus of Tamils from Jaffna occurred for a number of reasons.
The mass exodus of Tamils from Jaffna to Vanni is a significant incident in the history of Jaffna. This happened several times. The entire Muslim population of Jaffna was forced to leave within 48 hours in 1990 due to an order by the LTTE allegedly to avenge the ethnic cleansing of Tamils in the East by Muslims. When Sri Lankan Army captured Jaffna from LTTE occupation in December 1995. Nearly 450,000 Tamils displaced during at that time.[3] There have been claims of human rights violations on both sides. Due to Jaffna becoming a constant battleground between the Sri Lankan military and the LTTE, many people have been displaced. The tight security measures loosened as the war ended.