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| Sunday, 12 June 2005 |
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Reader's response : The truth about the cinnamon peelers If we look more deeply into the Ceylon history, We would discover the Govigama caste or the farmers who produced rice for the entire nation were considered the main and the most important caste in the island. But here it is important to say that some other castes, such as Karawa (fishermen), Durawa (toddy drawers), Vishwakula - Nawandanna (goldsmiths and black smiths) and Salagama (cinnamon peelers), which has a low population, compared to the Govigama caste (the majority) are not low in the social hierarchy. We can say that these castes are secondary castes but, not low castes compared to the Govigama caste. Also it is important to say that these castes played an important role in the history of Ceylon, and has a good origin because the ancestors of the Karawa caste were originally Kshasthriyas and the ancestors of both, the Durawa and the Salagama castes were originally Brahmians. Both, Kshasthriyas and Brahmians were considered nobels according to the ancient caste system. Therefore we can say that the statement that the 'cinnamon peelers were considered low in the hierarchy of the caste system, which prevailed during the time of the Sinhala kings' as stated in the article, under the heading 'Life among the cinnamon fields' in the June 5 issue of the Sunday Observer is false. It is a historically proven fact that the ancestors of the Salagama caste (cinnamon peelers) were originally Buddhist Brahmians, who settled down in Ceylon from the Saligrama (in Pali Saleyyagama) Brahmian village in South India, by accepting several migration invitations by several Sinhala kings, during various periods. The most important ancestors were the seven Saligrama Brahmians (including their chief Nambudiri or Namadiri and Weerasinghe, Edirimuni etc.) who came to Ceylon for the royal coronation ceremony of the great Sinhala King Vijayabahu I (1055-1110) during the 11th century AD. Ceylon history also indicates that King Vijayabahu I gave the seven noble Brahmians the responsibility of managing his cinnamon plantations, situated in the western and southern parts of the island. Even the banner of the Salagama caste indicates this historical story of migration from South India with the help of the Arab traders. Also according to Ceylon history, several groups of Saligrama Brahmians came from South India and joined the Sinhala community as weavers to the Sinhala royal family and as members of the Sinhala royal army. Later Portuguese and the Dutch rule in the coastal areas saw a decline in the social standard of the Salagama caste. The main aim of the foreign rulers was to increase their profits specially from the cinnamon trade, as it was the most important item in the international trade during this period. Therefore they introduced new laws to increase the cinnamon production by-forcing the innocent Salagama community to peel more and more cinnamon for the company. The Salagama cinnamon peelers were under strict military control, and many who were not able to peel the required amount of cinnamon were killed. In other words "they treated this noble Brahmian community as slaves". But some members of this community, specially the non cinnamon peeler of the Salagama group became rich and powerful during this period. Therefore we cannot identify this entire community as cinnamon peelers or the kurundu karayos. There were non cinnamon peelers called the Hewapanna community including powerful mudliers, land owners and officers in the army. It is important to say that the Kandyan Sinhala kings did not accept nor encourage the unfairness meted out to the innocent Salagama cinnamon peeling community by the western rulers. The Kandyan kings helped this community when they were in trouble. For example King Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe (1747-1782) encouraged the Salagama cinnamon peelers to protest against the unfair rules that were subjected by the Dutch government in 1757. There are also reports of the Kandyan kings employing the Salagama people even in the royal court as high ranking officers. The most significant example is the Salagama mudlier Don Cosmo Wijesekera from Brahmanawatte, Balapitiya, who served as the General in the Sinhala army of the Portuguese. Later he fought against the Portuguese in Randeniwala by killing the Portuguese General Constantine de Zaa and served King Senarath (1604-1627). Later he served in the royal court as a responsible high ranking officer! This response was written by a Swabasha arts graduate, who had read the original article titled 'Life among the cinnamon fields' at the Galle Public Library reading room, and subsequently made avail of the reference facilities for the article. Manoj de Silva, Galle.
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