CHENNAI: There is enough documentation to show that the present Sinhalese population in Sri Lanka might have originally come from the then Cheranadu, which includes parts of what is presently Kerala, Thoothukudi and Nagercoil, noted historian S Muthaiah said on Thursday.
Speaking at the launch of the Indo-Asian Archeology Research Foundation, Muthaiah said, “The Sri Lankan king Parakramabahu I and Parakramabahu VI brought mercenaries from what was then the Cheranadu. These soldiers married local women and settled down in Sri Lanka. The Sinhalese could hence be their descendents,” Muthaiah said.
Muthaiah added that there was enough evidence to believe that there was a land bridge connecting India and Sri Lanka 17,000 years ago. “There are 17 documented mentions in the literature of the past 17,000 years about this land connection,” he said. “But all of this exists only in books. We have not been able to prove it, as no collaborative archeological research has been done on the topic,” he added
Archeological experts raised the demand for Indian universities to collaborate with their Sri Lankan counterparts to more extensively research archeology and study human movements and the relationship between the two countries.
Nachiappan of Archeological Survey of India, said that he would take up the issue and suggest a collaboration with Jaffna and Sri Lankan University to the Government of India.
“A recent paper in an international journal claimed that the Tamil-Brahmi script could have originated in Sri Lanka and travelled all the way to India,” said TKV Rajan, Founder Editor of Indian Science Monitor. “There is a great deal of similarity in the customs and language of Aboriginals of Australia, Papua New Guinea and South India.
This could be because the continents were once a single chunk of land. But we will be able to study this in detail only if there is international collaboration with foreign universities,” Muthaiah said.