Names of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා, romanized: Śrī Lankā; Tamil: சிறி லங்கா / இலங்கை, romanized: Ilaṅkai), officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in the northern Indian Ocean which has been known under various names over time.

Lak-diva, Lanka

Lak-vaesiyaa in Sinhala means an inhabitant of the island of Lanka. Lak-diva in E'lu (old Sinhala) means the island of Lanka. Another traditional Sinhala name for Sri Lanka was Lakdiva, with diva also meaning "island".^[1] A further traditional name is Lakbima.^[2] Lak in both cases is derived again from Lanka. The same name could have been adopted in Tamil as Ilankai; the Tamil language commonly adds "i" before initial "l". The Sanskrit epic Ramayana mentioned it Lanka and the abode of King Ravan.

The name of Sri Lanka was introduced in the context of the Sri Lankan independence movement, pushing for the independence of British Ceylon during the first half of the 20th century. The name was used by the Marxist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, which was founded in 1935. The Sanskrit honorific Sri was introduced in the name of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා නිදහස් පක්ෂය, romanized: Sri Lanka Nidahas Pakshaya), founded in 1952. The Republic of Sri Lanka was officially adopted as the country's name with the new constitution of 1972,^[3] and changed to "Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka" in the constitution of 1978.

Sielen, Ceylon

The name Ceylon has a complicated history going back to antiquity. Theory states that the name comes from Sielen as the island was known by the Romans as Serendivis and by Arabs as Serandib and the Persians as Serendip (the root from which serendipity is derived) while Greeks called the island Sielen Diva or Sieldiba.^{[citation needed]}

From the word Sielen, many European forms were derived: Latin Seelan,^{[citation needed]} Portuguese Ceilão, Spanish Ceilán, French Seilan, Ceylan, Dutch Zeilan, Ceilan and Seylon, and of course the English Ceylon. Ptolemy called the Island Salike, and the inhabitants Salai.^[4]

Serendip, Sinhaldvip

The name Serendip was given by Arabs due to Lankan ruby and pearl.^{[clarification needed]} The name is said to be based on the word Sinhaladvipa which is also used in the Culavamsa as a name for the island.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]}

Taprobana, Tamraparni

Main article: Taprobana

 

Taprobane in the Catalan Atlas (1375): "Illa Trapobana".

Tamraparni is according to some legends the name given by Prince Vijaya when he arrived on the island. The word can be translated as "copper-coloured leaf", from the words Thamiram (copper in Sanskrit) and Varni (colour). Another scholar states that Tamara means red and parani means tree, therefore it could mean "tree with red leaves".^[13] Tamraparni is also a name of Tirunelveli, the capital of the Pandyan kingdom in Tamil Nadu.^[14] The name was adopted in Pali as Tambaparni.

The name was adopted into Greek as Taprobana, used by Megasthenes in the 4th century BC.^[15] The Greek name was adopted in medieval Irish (Lebor Gabala Erenn) as Deprofane (Recension 2) and Tibra Faine (Recension 3), off the coast of India, supposedly one of the countries where the Milesians / Gaedel, ancestors of today's Irish, had sojourned in their previous migrations.^[16][17]

The name remained in use in early modern Europe, alongside the Persianate Serendip, with Traprobana mentioned in the first strophe of the Portuguese national epic poem Os Lusíadas by Luís de Camões.

John Milton borrowed this for his epic poem Paradise Lost and Miguel de Cervantes mentions a fantastic Trapobana in Don Quixote.^[18]

Eelam

See also: Eelam

The earliest use of the word is found in a Tamil-Brahmi inscription as well as in the Sangam literature. The Tirupparankunram inscription found near Madurai in Tamil Nadu and dated on palaeographical grounds to the 1st century BCE, refers to a person as a householder from Eelam (Eela-kudumpikan).^[19]

The most favoured explanation derives it from a word for the spurge (palm tree),^[20] via the application to a caste of toddy-drawers, i.e. workers drawing the sap from palm trees for the production of palm wine.^[21] The name of the palm tree may conversely be derived from the name of the caste of toddy drawers, known as Eelavar, cognate with the name of Kerala, from the name of the Chera dynasty, via Cheralam, Chera, Sera and Kera.^{[22][23][unreliable source?]}

The stem Eela is found in Prakrit inscriptions dated to 2nd century BC in Sri Lanka in personal names such as Eela-Vrata/Ela-Bharat and Eela-Naga.^{[citation needed]} The meaning of Eela in these inscriptions is unknown although one could deduce that they are either from Eela a geographic location or were an ethnic group known as Eela.^{[24][unreliable source?][25]} From the 19th century onwards, sources appeared in South India regarding a legendary origin for caste of toddy drawers known as Eelavar in the state of Kerala. These legends stated that Eelavar were originally from Eelam. But since the 'H' sound in Dravidian languages is not pronounced profoundly leading to its omission, therefore it is likely that the Eelavar were Hela people given the fact that Ezhava peoples acknowledge the fact that they are of Sinhala origin and that they even have average racial physical differences compared to average Tamils.

There have also been proposals of deriving Eelam from Simhala (comes from Elam, Ilam, Tamil, Helmand River, Himalayas). Robert Caldwell (1875), following Hermann Gundert, cited the word as an example of the omission of initial sibilants in the adoption of Indo-Aryan words into Dravidian languages.^[26] The University of Madras Tamil Lexicon, compiled between 1924 and 1936, follows this view.^[20] Peter Schalk (2004) has argued against this, showing that the application of Eelam in an ethnic sense arises only in the early modern period, and was limited to the caste of "toddy drawers" until the medieval period.^[21]

It seems that the term Eelam is a derivation from the name Hela which is a name for the Sinhala people. The Ezhava caste of Kerala acknowledge their Hela origins from Sri Lanka and were known as Ezhava by the Brahmins in Kerala, this further substantiates the claim that the name Eelam is a derivation of Hela as the 'H' sound in Dravidian languages is not pronounced well leading to the omission of the 'H' sound. Ezhava peoples acknowledge the fact that they are of Sinhala origin and that they even have average racial physical differences compared to average Tamils.

Suggested Biblical names

• Tarshish. According to James Emerson Tennent, Galle was said to be the ancient city of Tarshish where King Solomon drew ivory, peacocks, and others. Cinnamon was exported from Sri Lanka as early as 1400 BC and as the root of the word itself is Hebrew, Galle may have been the entrepôt for the spice.^[27]
• Ophir. There is a Jewish Tradition that associates the land of Ophir with modern-day India and Sri Lanka. David ben Abraham al-Fasi, a 10th-century lexicographer, cites Ophir as Serendip, as the country was known to the Persians. ^[28]

Nickname/Special names

• Pearl of the Indian Ocean
• Teardrop in the Indian Ocean^[29]

See also

• Sri Lankan place name etymology

References

1. Silvā, Ṭī Em Jī Es (2001-01-01). Lakdiva purāṇa koḍi (in Sinhala). Sūriya Prakāśakayō. ISBN 9789558425398.
2. Bandara, C. M. S. J. Madduma (2002-01-01). Lionsong: Sri Lanka's Ethnic Conflict. Sandaruwan Madduma Bandara. ISBN 9789559796602.
3. Articles 1 and 2 of the 1972 constitution: "1. Sri Lanka (Ceylon) is a Free, Sovereign and Independent Republic. 2. The Republic of Sri Lanka is a Unitary State."
4. Indicopleustes, Cosmas; McCrindle, J. W. (2010-06-24). The Christian Topography of Cosmas, an Egyptian Monk: Translated from the Greek, and Edited with Notes and Introduction. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-01295-9.
5. Barber, Robert K. Merton, Elinor (2006). The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity : A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science (Paperback ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 1–3. ISBN 0-691-12630-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
6. Cuba y la Casa de Austria. Ediciones Universal. 1972-01-01.
7. Ramachandran, M.; Mativāṇan̲, Irāman̲ (1991-01-01). The spring of the Indus civilisation. Prasanna Pathippagam.
8. Ouseley, William (1819-01-01). Travels in Various Countries of the East.
9. Malte-Brun, Conrad; Huot, Jean-Jacques-Nicolas (1834-01-01). A System of Universal Geography, Or, A Description of All the Parts of the World, on a New Plan, According to the Great Natural Divisions of the Globe: Accompanied with Analytical, Synoptical, and Elementary Tables. S. Walker.
10. Rawlinson, H. G. (Hugh George), 1880–1957. (2001). Intercourse between India and the western world : from the earliest times of the fall of Rome. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. ISBN 81-206-1549-2. OCLC 50424520.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
11. "The Island". www.island.lk. Retrieved 2020-06-24.
12. Buddhism in the modern world : adaptations of an ancient tradition. Heine, Steven, 1950-, Prebish, Charles S. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. ISBN 978-0-19-534909-2. OCLC 65193228.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
13. Caldwell, Bishop R. (1881-01-01). History of Tinnevelly. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 9788120601611.
14. Arumugam, Solai; GANDHI, M. SURESH (2010-11-01). Heavy Mineral Distribution in Tamiraparani Estuary and Off Tuticorin. VDM Publishing. ISBN 978-3-639-30453-4.
15. Friedman, John Block; Figg, Kristen Mossler (2013-07-04). . Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-59094-9. Archived from the original on 2018-10-15. Retrieved 2016-03-17.
16. Lebor Gabala Erenn Vol. II (Macalister translation)
17. In the early 1800s, Welsh pseudohistorian Iolo Morganwg published what he claimed was mediaeval Welsh epic material, describing how Hu Gadarn had led the ancestors of the Welsh in a migration to Britain from Taprobane or "Deffrobani", aka "Summerland", said in his text to be situated "where Constantinople now is." However, this work is now considered to have been a forgery produced by Iolo Morganwg himself.
18. Don Quixote, Volume I, Chapter 18: the mighty emperor Alifanfaron, lord of the great isle of Trapobana.
19. Civattampi, Kārttikēcu (2005). Being a Tamil and Sri Lankan. Aivakam. pp. 134–135. ISBN 9789551132002.
20. University of Madras (1924–36). "Tamil lexicon". Madras: University of Madras. Archived from the original on 2012-12-12. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
21. Schalk, Peter (2004). "Robert Caldwell's Derivation īlam < sīhala: A Critical Assessment". In Chevillard, Jean-Luc (ed.). South-Indian Horizons: Felicitation Volume for François Gros on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Pondichéry: Institut Français de Pondichéry. pp. 347–364. ISBN 2-85539-630-1..
22. Nicasio Silverio Sainz (1972). Cuba y la Casa de Austria. Ediciones Universal. p. 120. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
23. M. Ramachandran, Irāman̲ Mativāṇan̲ (1991). The spring of the Indus civilisation. Prasanna Pathippagam, pp. 34. "Srilanka was known as "Cerantivu' (island of the Cera kings) in those days. The seal has two lines. The line above contains three signs in Indus script and the line below contains three alphabets in the ancient Tamil script known as Tamil ...
24. Akazhaan. "Eezham Thamizh and Tamil Eelam: Understanding the terminologies of identity". Tamilnet. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
25. Indrapala, Karthigesu (2007). The evolution of an ethnic identity: The Tamils in Sri Lanka C. 300 BCE to C. 1200 CE. Colombo: Vijitha Yapa. ISBN 978-955-1266-72-1.p. 313
26. Caldwell, Robert (1875). "A comparative grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages". London: Trübner & Co. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help), pt. 2 p. 86.
27. ^{[bare URL PDF]}
28. https://medium.com/@indochristianculture/does-the-bible-make-reference-to-sri-lanka-and-south-india-d33e1d92777c#:~:text=There%20is%20a%20long%20Jewish,Persian%20term%20for%20Sri%20Lanka).
29. "A teardrop in the Indian Ocean". 6 October 2005.

External links

 

Look up Sri Lanka in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Ancient Names of Sri Lanka