Posted on March 8th, 2021
P.K.Balachandran Courtesy The Daily Mirror
Before Sri Lanka became predominantly Buddhist following the conversion of the 3rd. Century King Devanampiya Tissa (247 BC-207 BC), the island had an amazing assortment of religious cults, practices and faiths including animism, Jainism, Shaivism, Brahminism and Buddhism. There were many gods, goddesses and deities of local and Indian origin.
According to the ancient Sri Lankan chronicles such as the Mahavamsa and the Dipavamsa, Buddhism was introduced into the island in the 3rd., Century BC after the Third Buddhist Council by Mahinda Thera and Therini Sangamitta, son and daughter of the great Buddhist Emperor Asoka of India.
Posted on March 7th, 2021
By P. K. Balachandran/Ceylon Today
Colombo, March 8: India-Sri Lanka trade goes far into the past, to the Early Historic Era in fact. The island had also played the additional role of being a transit point, a hub, in the trade between the Eastern and Western worlds.
The story of India-Sri Lanka trade in ancient times is told by Prof. K. Rajan of Pondicherry University in his book: Churning the Indian Ocean: Maritime Trade of Early Historic Peninsular India.”
Rajan says that if the similarities between South India and Sri Lanka are striking it is partly because they were part of a single land mass in the Pleistocene Epoch. India and Sri Lanka were connected by a natural land bridge across the Palk Strait. The Pleistocene Epoch is defined as the time period till about 11,700 years ago.Stone artefacts found in Lanka which are identical to Indian artifacts have been dated between 45,000 to 80,000 BP (BP is ‘Before Present’ wit
LankaWeb – Hub of ancient East-West trade lankaweb.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lankaweb.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Posted on February 6th, 2021
By Raj Gonsalkorale
A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again;
but is he peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise. Even
as a solid rock is unshaken by the wind, so are the wise unshaken by praise or
blame – Buddha
It appears that
labelling oneself as a Sinhala Buddhist and the country as a Sinhala Buddhist Nation
is the national ethos while saying or implying that all others in the country
are accommodated in the island because of the generosity of this national ethos.
The purpose in writing
Posted on February 1st, 2021
By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando
At the very
inception, the ‘Ceylonese’ race descended from an Aryan stock towards the 5th
century BC. Historians believe that the
natives in ‘Ceylon,’ before the invasion by Aryans were race called Yaksa Clan
and the whole Island was governed according to a caste system that prevailed at
the time. Mahavamsa revels that Prince Vijaya, from Western India, with his
entourage, imposed themselves on the native population of Ceylon, with the help
of Kuveni, and settled down in various parts of the Island.
Paddy
cultivation was the leading agricultural farming in India during the 5th