Trincomalee District

Trincomalee district (Tamil: திருகோணமலை மாவட்டம் Tirukŏṇamalai, Sinhala: තිරිකුණාමළය දිස්ත්‍රික්කය Trikuṇāmalaya) is one of the 25 administrative districts of Sri Lanka. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a District Secretary (previously known as a Government Agent) appointed by the central government of Sri Lanka. The headquarters is located in Trincomalee town.

History

Before the Birth of Christ

Naga and Yaksha were the first settlers of the island.

The local population is a mixture of Muslims, Tamils and Sinhalese.

The name Thiru-kuna (Kunru)-malay (triangular hilly region over looking the sea) comes from the fact that Trincomalee has holy hilly rock overlooking the sea. Gokarna is the Sanskrit name and is also a popular name.

This has made Trincomalee an excellent natural harbour. Ancient name of Tamiravarni derives from the colour of the soil. Tamira means red. Varni means colour. Thus the name Vanni or Varni and it is a mutated name from Tamiravarni, Tambravarni, Tambapanni or Tammanna. A river called Tamirabharani is located in Tuticorin area and there was a connection of land which kept both countries together during ancient times. The name Tamil is derived from Tamir.

Mahawamsa narrates that Prince Vijaya, a North Indian prince and 700 royals who were banished from their motherland, landed in Sri Lanka at this place around 543 B.C. and called this place Tambapanni. They married Tamil brides from Pandya Nadu.

Vijaya and his clan came from Lala Land in Sindh. They landed in Hela Diva. From that cross breeding the name Sinhala came to all the progeny of these immigrants (Sind + Hela = Sinhala).

The Mahavamsa describes the Pandyan ladies as originating from "Dakkhina Madura" or "southern Madura" which most Sinhala scholars have interpreted as modern-day Madurai in Tamil Nadu, "northern Madura" being the city of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. However, there had been more than one Madurai in Tamil history. The Tamil literary tradition holds that three academies were held to collate the poetry of the Sangam age. The last of these was held in Madurai and the second was in a city called Kapatapuram, but the first academy was held in "Then Madurai," translating to "southern Madurai." Historians believe that Then Madurai was a real city on the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu near modern Korkai, which would have been very close to the settlement of "Thambapanni" which Vijaya had constructed in Lanka. If "Then Madurai" can be equated with "Dakkhina Madura" of the Mahavamsa, then we would have evidence that the seat of the first Sangam was a historical city, and not a myth. However, some scholars disagree.

1st Century to 4th Century

Karikala Chola invaded and took thousands of prisoners. Gajabahu went to Chola Nadu and brought those prisoners and their descendents back. Along with the released prisoners, thousands of Tamils were brought and settled. They were settled in the Eastern, Western and Central Provinces.

5th Century to 9th Century

After the seventh century, the principle arena for the East-West exchange trade had shifted from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. Consequently there was an increasing interest in the north-eastern zone of Sri Lanka wherein was located Trincomalee port. It is significant that between seventh and tenth centuries A.D. four Sinhalese Kings Aggabodhi IV, Aggabodhi VII, Udaya I and Sena I left Anuradhapura and ruled from the north-eastern city of Polonnaruwa, situated on the banks of the Mahaweli Ganga within easy access to Trincomalee.

10th Century to 15th Century

Rajaraja I invaded Sri Lanka in 993 CE. The copper-plate inscription mention that Rajaraja’s powerful army crossed the ocean by ships and burnt up the kingdom of Lanka. Mahinda V was the king of Sinhalas. In 991 CE, Mahinda’s army mutinied with help from mercenaries from Kerala. Mahinda had to seek refuge in the southern region of Rohana. Rajaraja utilised this opportunity and invaded the island. Chola armies occupied the northern half of Lanka and named the dominion ‘Mummudi Chola Mandalam’. Anuradhapura, the 1400-year-old capital of Sinhala kings was destroyed. The destruction was so extensive the city was abandoned. Cholas made the city of Polonnaruwa as their capital and renamed it Jananathamangalam. The choice of this city demonstrates the desire of Rajaraja to conquer the entire island. Rajaraja also built a Temple for Siva in Pollonaruwa.^[2]

To complete the task began by his father, of conquering the island of Srilanka, Rajendra Chola I invaded the island in 1018 C.E. As a result of the campaign, Rajendra claimed to have captured the regal jewels of the Pandya kings, which Parantaka I tried in vain to capture. Rajendra also captured the crown of the Sinhala king, his Queen and daughter. The Sinhala king Mahinda V was taken prisoner and transported to the Chola country. He was held prisoner for over twelve years and died in captivity. Mahavamsa gives a graphic illustration of the carnage wrought by the pillaging Chola army in the Sinhala country, claiming the invading army destroyed monasteries seeking treasure. Chola inscriptions however are silent regarding the details of this campaign and draws a veil over the pillage.

Mahinda’s son Kassapa became the centre of Sihalese resistance against the Tamil Power. The war between the Cholas and the Sinhalese raged for over six months in which a great number of Tamils were killed. At the end of the battle Kassapa managed to drive out the Chola army from the southeast corner of the island and ruled as Vikramabahu I.

Remains of a number of Hindu temples have been discovered around the Polonnaruwa area attesting to the presence of the Tamil army.

In 1041 C.E. Rajendra had to lead another expedition into Sri Lanka to quell the continuing attacks against the Chola army by Vikramabahu. Vikramabahu died soon after and anarchy reigned outside the Chola territories. An assortment of adventurers including Sinhalese, dispossessed Pandya princes and even a certain Jagaitpala from distance Kanauj asserted authority over portions of the island. Chola army had to fight and defeat them all.^[2]

It was the most important port for vessels coming from South India and there was a strong Tamil element in the population of this port during most periods of history. Mannar located at the mouth of the Aruvi Aru had easy access to the capital Anuradhapura, which was located on the banks of the same river. However with the increased emphasis on the South-East Asian Sri Vijayan Kingdom as the main centre of entrepot trade after the seventh century A.D. the importance of the port of Mannar had diminished to some extent. Owing to this change even the capital Anuradhapura lost much of its attractiveness.

Thus, the emergence of Polonnaruwa and the port of Trincomalee is significant in terms of the changing patterns of trade in the Bay of Bengal and Sri Lanka's interest in it. The South Indian Chola occupation of Polonnaruva (1017–1070) was partly motivated by the commercial policy of the Cholas aimed at controlling the western seaboard of Bay of the Bengal. The importance of Trincomalee for the Bay of Bengal and South-East Asian trade was realized also by the Sinhalese rulers of Polonnaruva particularly Vijayabahu I (1070–1110) and Parakramabahu (1153–1186).

However Mannar did not completely lose its glamour in the period between the seventh and the twelfth centuries and it functioned as an important trading centre where South Indian merchants flourished. In addition to the ancient temple of Tiruketisvaram at Mathottam another temple named Rajarajavarattu Mahadeva was constructed near the port in the eleventh century for the worship of the trading communities and soldiers living there by the Chola conqueror Rajaraja Chola I.

The new commercial policy of the southern Sung dynasty (1127–1278) of China deviated from the "tributary trading system" in south East Asian and South Asian waters. As a result, the role of the intermediaries in the Bay of Bengal trade declined drastically. Once again the coastal ports in India regained their eminent position in trade and the theatre of activity shifted from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. Mathottam continued as the chief port of Rajarata at least up to the middle of the thirteenth century. The Rasavahini written in the Polonnaruva period implies that traders collected various commodities from Mahatittha and sold them in the interior. The Saddharmalankara refers to a merchant of Mavatupatuna who went eastwards for trade. However, by the fifteenth century Mathottam appears no longer to be an important port. The Kokila Sandesa written during the reign of Parakramabahu VI of Kotte, in giving a description of the important places along the western littoral of the Island does not mention Mathottam.

After that there was a local ruler who ruled from Digavapi. Later the capital shifted to Anuradhapura. When Anuradhapura was destroyed the capital changed from Anuradhapura to Pollonaruwa. When Pollonaruwa was destroyed the capital moved to Kotte and then to Kandy. Anuradhapura was destroyed by Rajaraja Cholan and Pollonaruwa was destroyed by Kalinga Magha.

As a catalyst for change, Kalinga Magha is arguably one of the most significant rulers in Sri Lankan history. His invasion marks the final - cataclysmic - destruction of the kingdom of Rajarata, which had for so long been the heart of native power on the island. The great cities of the ancient kings were now lost and disappeared into the jungle, and were not rediscovered until the 19th century. Native power was henceforth centred on a kaleidoscopically shifting collection of kingdoms in south and central Sri Lanka. The north, in the meanwhile, eventually evolved into the Jaffna Kingdom, which was subjected colonial rule by the Portuguese in 1619.

Kalinga Magha's geopolitical impact is reflected in the changing language of the Culavamsa as well. The traditional divisions of Sri Lanka, into Rajarata, Dhakkinadesa, and Ruhuna, first undergo a change of names (Rajarata becomes Pathithadesa, Dhakkinadesa becomes Mayarata), and then slip into obsolescence altogether. Their successor kingdoms tended to be geographically smaller and centred on a strong citadel-capital, such as Yapahuwa or Gampola; they also tended to be much short lived, like Sitawaka.

The bitter memory of Magha's invasion also tainted the previously close relationship between the Sinhalese and the Chola, Chera and Pandya inhabitants of southern India. Whereas the great families of Rajarata had invariably been polity-spanning clans, with extensive intermarriage between Indian and Sri Lankan branches, the royal families of the Middle Ages became more distinctive and recognisably Sinhalese in the modern sense of the word. This is not to say however that south Indian influence in Sri Lankan politics ended altogether - witness the Nayakkar dynasty of Kandy. However the age of the great, Indo-Lankan clans like the Moriya and Lambakanna was over.

Native authority on Sri Lanka, already in decline before Magha's invasion, never fully recovered from the invasion; the next three centuries were marked by near-anarchy. This period of Sri Lanka's history ended only with the arrival of a foe that would eventually subsume both the great empires of south India and the kingdoms of Sri Lanka under its authority - the forces of colonial Europe.

The Kandyan Kings have ruled Eastern Province throughout history. Thus the racial mixture was ensured by the Kandyan kings marrying into the families of Batticaloa rulers. Dutch invasion took place through Batticaloa with the alliance of Batticaloa rulers and Kandyan king Rajasinghe. Both were Tamils and Hindus. even though the Kandyan Kingdom was Sinhala Buddhist to the core, the kings were Tamil Hindus of Madurai Nayakkar origin.

Since Kandyan kings were of Madurai origin they brought ship loads of Mappilla Muslims from Kerala as the trading partners of the kingdom and granted asylum when the Portuguese launched the Holocaust against the Muslims in Sri Lanka. Thus the Eastern Province is the residence of majority of Muslims and a safe haven for them during the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Places like Karadiyan Aru and Urugam contain stone inscriptions in Brāhmī script which are still in existence.

History after the fall of Polonnaruwa

With the decline of the Rohana sub-kingdom and the defeat of Polonnaruwa, coming with the rise of Chola power, i.e., from about the 13th century CE, these regions became wild. The many irrigation works (tanks etc., which exist even today) became home to malaria( see History of Sri Lanka). In the meantime, the eastern coastal region remained less affected by Malaria and began to be occupied. Thus sea faring people who had begun to settle down along the coast since the Anuradhapura times, circa 6th Century CE began to flourish. The forests continued to be dominated by the Veddha population which claimed kingship ("cross-cousins") with the Sinhala kings of Kandy.^[3]

Parakramabahu's coronation took place in 1236. He turned his attention to the recovery of Polonnaruwa from the Tamils, and achieved this purpose by 1244. In this connection two kings are mentioned, Kalinga Magha and Jaya Bahu, who had been in power forty years, apparently reckoned from the time of the military rule after Sahasa Malla. As the Tamil war' and the `Malala war' as specifically mentioned by contemporary chronicles the two kings may have held different parts of the country. In the king's eleventh year (1244/5) Lanka was invaded by Chandrabhanu, a Javanese (Javaka) from Tambralinga, with a host armed with blow-pipes and poisoned arrows: he may have been a sea- robber, and though now repulsed descended on the Island later on.

The rest of the reign according to the contemporary records was spent in pious works; the king also held a convocation for the purpose of reforming the priesthood, whose discipline had been relaxed during the Tamil occupation. The chronicles make no mention of a great Pandyan invasion which seems to have taken place between 1254 and 1256, in which one of the kings of Lanka was slain and the other rendered tributary. From this it is clear that Parakramabahu- never had recovered the north of the Island, which certainly had been held by his great namesake.

15th Century to 20th Century and the Advent of the Europeans

From Cape Comorin the Dutch Admiral Spitzburgen steered his course to Point de Galle ; but, without landing there or at any of the other places which were strongly fortified by the Portuguese, he sailed round the south coast of the Island and made for Batticaloa, where he anchored on the 31 May 1602.

He learnt that the town of Batticaloa, where the chief of the province resided, was about three miles (5 km) inland ; so he sent him a messenger proposing to enter into trade with him. In the meantime he learnt from some Tamils who came on board that there was plenty of pepper and cinnamon to be had, but that it was to be obtained from the chief of the place. These Tamils brought with them a Portuguese interpreter; for Portuguese was the only European language then heard or spoken in Ceylon, and the natives of the Island had no idea that there were other white people who spoke a different language.

The Admiral was taken from Batticaloa to Kandy and was given a liberation hero's welcome as King Rajasinghe seized the opportunity to get rid of the Portuguese, the oppressors who were slowly encroaching the island systematically and promoting subversion against Rajasinghe.

Historical sites

There are several Buddhist historical sites around the Trincomalee, meaning that there had been a Buddhist inhabitance in the area for many centuries. These include the famous Seruwila Mangala Raja Maha Vihara (Seruwila Temple), south of the trico town, which is under consideration to be declared a UNESCO world heritage site dating back to 2nd century B.C.^[4] the Sri Gajaba Len Vihara (Sri Gajaba Cave Temple), Tiriyay temple and the Welgam temple.^[5]

Geography

Trincomalee district is located in the east of Sri Lanka in the Eastern Province. It has an area of 2,727 square kilometres (1,053 sq mi).^[6]

Administrative units

Trincomalee district is divided into 11 Divisional Secretary's (DS) Divisions, each headed by a Divisional Secretary (previously known as an Assistant Government Agent).^[7] The DS Divisions are further sub-divided into 230 Grama Niladhari (GN) Divisions (villages).^[7]

Demographics

Population

Trincomalee district's population was 334,363 in 2007.^[1]

The population of the district, like the rest of the North and East, has been heavily affected by the civil war. The war has killed an estimated 70,000 people.^[9] Several hundred thousand Sri Lankan Tamils, possibly as much as 400,000,^[10] have emigrated to the West since the start of the war. There are a further 800,000 internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka, many of them living in refugee camps in the North and East and depending on aid provided by NGOs.^[11] There are approximately 100,000 Sri Lankan refugees is India.^[12] Many Sri Lankan Tamils have also moved to the relative safety of Colombo. The war has also caused many people from all ethnic and religious groups who lived in the district to flee to other parts of Sri Lanka.

Ethnicity

Population of Trincomalee District by ethnic group 1827 to 2007

¹ Sri Lankan Moors and Sri Lankan Malays. ² Sri Lankan Tamils and Indian Tamils. ³ 2001 Census was only carried out partially in Trincomalee district.

Politics and government

Local government

Trincomalee district has 13 local authorities of which two are Urban Councils and the remaining 11 are Pradeshya Sabhas.^[14]

References

External links

• Trincomalee District Secretariat