The history of Lakdiva - The foundation for misdirection

ලක්දිව පුරාණය නොමඟට අත්තිවාරම

The Lord Buddha came to this world in a time period where the views of the teachings of Brahmins were established well in the society. The teachings of the Buddha were totally different to their teachings. But, they did not join with the king and attempt to create obstacles to Lord Buddha.

The Brahmins knew their uncertainty over the truth of the Buddha Dhamma which would last for a long time in the world and they made their strategies to deface it. The strategies used by them were so subtle and no one could understand that they are real strategies.

The real identity of Lord Buddha and the Hela Deepa (2) cannot be perceived even to this date due to the subtleness of the strategies adopted by those Brahmins. But, if someone carefully analyses the texts written by Brahmins, it is not impossible to find out the relevant facts hidden in them which would help to figure out its identity.

The respective officials who are supposed to figure out and reveal this truth to the world have limited their researches only to fulfill their own objectives. That is the major hindrance for this information not to come in to the being. A viewpoint of this nature can be highlighted through a statement made by Professor Senarath Paranavithana (3)  in 1946.

“ It is pointless to find out historical information from Ramayana (4). The country called Lanka mentioned in Ramayana is not this country. The Ramayana is a great epic based on theological stories. The main characters found in it such as Sithaa, Rama, Rawana and Hanuman are the figures of imaginations. By means of signs, an eternal fight in the nature done for the survival is depicted in it. Sithaa - Janaki is the plough. Rama is nothing but the growth and the fruition of the vegetation. Rawana is the drought. The paddy fields are ploughed and seeds are planted. When they grow up, the drought comes to destroy them.  Then the sky gets covered with the rain-clouds. That is the visit of Hanuman with his crowd. Then this leads to a fight. The thundering and the lightening occur. What is explained in Ramayana is nothing but this fight. Hence it is not possible to talk about people coming from a reign of a mythical king called Rawana”.

It is very visible that a story of this nature had been created, presented, covered and placed limitations on the story of Rawana. Because of that Lanka has lost its rights which could have been used to claim its Hela heritage over the story of Rawana. The information related to the history of Lanka over the pre-Vijayan period had been covered up. Another trick used for that was to show that all the knowledge and sciences came in to being only after the visit of Mahinda Thero. Professor Paranavithana used all his strength to lock this matter within these two opinions. In doing this, name of King Rawana and also of many other kings in the ancient past presented by the ancient texts had been defaced. It is very clear that he had acted in that manner to prove his initial viewpoint.

The defaced and modified inscriptions related to King Rawana in the Hela history presented by Professor Paranavithana are as follows.

515  Parumaka Vanijha Thisaha Lene Sagasa

(13)  The cave of the chief Tissa, the merchant (is given) to the Sanga (5) (I.C.40) 

Thought this text had been defaced in this manner (Plate LV), its real identity can be seen in the text copy in the I.C. book.  In that, its real identity is highlighted as follows.

“ Parumika Rawana Jithi Shohili Lene Shagasha  (Shohili, the daughter of Rawana (is given) to the Sanga).

The respective text of this book is given below.

When it is analyzed in this manner, it is very clear that the professor had attempted to deface the text and erase the name of Rawana from Lanka.

In order to safe guard the apprentices from the views of Professor Paranavithana or to direct them for an independent research, their interest should be taken to the great statement made by Dr. Vimalananda Thennakoon. Dr. Vimalananda Thennakoon says that “ if we jump in to the conclusion that we, the Lankans, got the knowledge of writing only after the visit of Mahinda Thero, we will fall in to a deep cliff and we will not be able to come out of it forever ”. According to his opinion, it seems that now we have found out a way to come out from this cliff. 

Not only the disclosing the story of Rawana, but also the rights of the heritage of the Buddha in Lanka were totally covered up. On top of them, the true story of Maithri Buddha, the story of King Panitha and also some more information of great value had been taken off from the history.

From the ancient times, even in the present day context, the ones who believe in the Indian ideology of Brahmins had done a great damage to Lanka. All the ones who are influenced by this idea are not interested in seeing that the history of Lanka dates back to the most ancient times. Their dislike will be shown on frequent basis over the researches aiming the history. Not only for the history, but also for the Buddha Dhamma, these ones in the generations of the ideology of the Brahmins will come out with different plans. It can be easily understood when we watch the live programs aiming to divert the core values of sacred Buddha Dhamma in to different titles and properties. This prevailing condition is highly appreciated, but is not deeply analyzed by anyone.
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  1 - This is another name for Lanka.

 2 -  Hela is another name for Lanka. Lanka is called ‘The land of Hela people or Helayos’. Helayos are the inhabitants of the country prior to King Vijaya, the Indian invader.

3 - Senarath Paranavitana (Sinhala : සෙනරත් පරණවිතාන) (26 December 1896 – 4 October 1972) was a pioneering archeologist and epigraphist of Sri Lanka. His works dominated Sri Lankan archaeology and history in the middle-part of the 20th century. He became the Archeological Commissioner in 1940, following H. C. P. Bell, and Don Martino de Zilva Wickremasinghe in that position.

 4 - The Ramayana (Sanskrit: रामायण, Rāmāyaṇa,) is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon (smṛti), considered to be itihāsa.

 5 - Sangas or Bhikkus are the members of the Order, non-lay disciples of Buddha, ones who have renounced the lay life and entered in to path of Nibbana. They are known as Buddhist priests, especially in the western world.

The English translation of 'ඉසි රමණ විහර' (Isi Ramana Vihara) - Part - II

Translated by Amal Meemanage (amalmeemanage@gmail.com)