Sri Lankan place name etymology is characterized by the linguistic and ethnic diversity of the island of Sri Lanka through the ages and the position of the country in the centre of ancient and medieval sea trade routes. While typical Sri Lankan placenames of Sinhalese origin vastly dominate, toponyms which stem from Tamil, Dutch, English, Portuguese and Arabic also exist. In the past, the many composite or hybrid place names and the juxtaposition of Sinhala and Tamil placenames reflected the coexistence of people of both language groups. Today, however, toponyms and their etymologies are a source of heated political debate in the country as part of the political struggles between the majority Sinhalese and minoritySri Lankan Tamils.
The morphological structure of Sri Lankan place names by and large depends on the language. Sinhala and Tamil favour transparent compounds involving geological features combined with an animal or plant, while the European languages are more person centered and derive place names from saints or nobility or army.
Sinhalese
Place names of Sinhala origin, have a typical X+Y structure, where Y is a geographical feature such as mountain, river or village and X is a qualifier, like an animal or plant often found at that place, or otherwise associated with it. Examples for this are
The X part can also refer to social concepts like caste. Examples for this are waduwa (carpenter), batta (lower caste settlement), ambataya (barber), aruwa (potter), goviya (farmer), bamuna (Brahmin) and Villiya (Rodiya).[1]
Besides the Y parts already mentioned, other commonly used land usage forms are Kumbura (paddy fields), Deniya, watte (garden), pola, gama (village), and Hena (cultivated lands). Grasslands were termed as talava and tree groves were termed golla. Village tanks were called pokuna or katuwa. Irrigation tanks were called wewa.[2] Canals from such lakes were called aala. Flat lands were termed botha. Ports were termed tota.[3] Names of flower gardens belonging to Buddhist establishments end with uyana.
Tamil
In both Sinhala and Tamil, coconut trees often lend their names to the places where they are frequently found
Place names of Tamil origin, like Sinhala origin, also have a typical X+Y structure.[4] The place names are simple and descriptive; they reflect criteria normal to early societies and are related to the concepts and outlooks of people of those times. The majority of the place names can be listed under caste and occupational, landforms, land classifications, coastal features, irrigation works, fields and farms, trees, animals, names of deities, personal names, old, new, big, small, good, settlement and village.[4]
The X-part in Tamil place names is often one of the following: The commonly used trees are Vembu, Panai (palm) and Illupai. Commonly used animals and birds are Anai (elephant), Puli (tiger), and Kuranku (monkey). Other notable classifications are deities such as Amman, Andi, Kali and Pillaiyar.[5] The commonly used caste or ethnic titles in Tamil are Chetty, Vannan and Demala.
As for the Y-part, the commonly used landforms Mulai or Mulla (corner), Malai or Male (mountain), Aru (creek), Kuda (bay) Manal (sandy place), Kuli (depression), Tivu (island), Pallam (depression) and Ur or uruwa (village).[5] Land classification are Tottam (garden), Kudal (bay), Puval, Kadu (forest), Munai or Mune (front), Karai (coast) and Turai or Ture (port). Irrigation and agriculture classifications are Kulam or Kulama (tank), reflecting the most common village name endings in Anuradhapura and Puttalamdistricts,[5]Kinaru (well), Kani (allotment), Vayal (paddy field), Vaikkal (canal) and Eri (tank).
Portuguese
The Portuguese, who came to the island in 1505 and left in 1658, often gave names of Saints to whom the churches in the vicinity were dedicated. San Sebastian Hill and St. Joseph's Road are examples of these and Milagiriya had the church of Our Lady of Miracles (milagre in Portuguese).[citation needed]
A name like "Grand Pass", a northern suburb of Colombo, is the English rendering of "Grande Passo", the name of a ferry established by the Portuguese, to cross the Kelani River.
Point Pedro and Mount Pedro are also place names with the name of a Portuguese person as a component, although they might have been coined by the British.
The Portuguese language furthermore was an important step stone for the English terms used today, the British would often use Portuguese names and adapt them, rather than taking the original form. An example for this is Batticaloa, and Ceylon itself.
Among the other place-names in Colombo which are of Dutch origin may be included Bloemendahl (Vale of Flowers) and Wolvendahl (Vale of Wolves). The latter was known as 'Guadelupe' by the Portuguese, which the Dutch took to mean 'Agua de lupe' which they translated accordingly. It is still known as 'aadelippu' in Sinhala and Tamil.
The Beira lake in Colombo probably takes its name from De Beer who is believed to have been an engineer in charge of the Dutch water defenses. A granite plaque inscribed with the words 'De Beer 1700' recovered from an old Dutch sluice which controlled the flow of water from the lake has altered the hitherto accepted view that the lake takes its name from the Portuguese beira meaning 'bank or edge (of a lake)'.
The 'Maliban' biscuit brand gets its name from the Maliban Hotel, which AG Hinni Appuhamy started at Maliban St, Pettah (now AG Hinniappuhamy Mawatha) - originally Maliebaan Straat, named for Maliebaan, the Pall Mall alley in Utrecht. Leyn Baan Street in Galle is from 'lijnbaan', meaning 'rope walk' or 'ropery'.
Fort Railway station in Colombo bears an English name
The British who followed the Dutch left many place names within the capital Colombo city, like streets, squares and quarters, but their influence on larger geographical features like towns is limited. Within Colombo, many of the place names have a British royal connotation, such as Queen's Street, Prince Street, Duke Street. The quarters Fort, Cinnamon Gardens, Slave Island and Mount Lavinia carry English names, next to the native ones.
Outside of Colombo, English influence can be found in the tea planting region with the towns of Hatton and Dalhousie, and several estates such as Devon,Kenilworth, Middleton, Somerset, Usk Valley and Wavenden. Scots English is also widely represented by place names such as Blinkbonnie, Holyrood, Lauderdale, Melfort and Sutherland.
Scottish planters named many of the areas they planted after Gaelic place names from Scotland. Examples are Aberdeen, Balmoral, Clyde, Culloden, Frotoft, Kinross, Perth and Strathspey.
Probably the only American Indian place name in Sri Lanka is Rappahannock, in Uda Pussellawa. It comes from the Rappahannock River in Virginia, itself originating from an Algonquian word, lappihanne (also recorded as toppehannock), meaning "river of quick, rising water" or "where the tide ebbs and flows," the name used by the local native population, the Rappahannock tribe.
Vedda
The common word Gala for stones found in Sinhalese is considered to be a borrowing from indigenous Vedda language. It is used in Toponyms found throughout the island.
Arabic
Place names in Arabic also exist throughout scattered pockets in Sri Lanka where substantial populations of Sri Lankan Moors reside. According to the location Arabic place names are often mixed with Sinhala or Tamil morphological naming conventions. For example, the town of Katthankudy in Eastern Sri Lanka is thought to be named after an Arab settler named "Al Qahtan".
Origins of some well-known place names
Big towns
The Beira Lake in the Slave Island area in Colombo
Colombo: Derived from Kolamba an indigenous Vedda word for harbor or fort, borrowed by Sinhalese. However, the Portuguese were probably struck by its similarity to the name of Columbus, and renamed the city 'Colombo'.
'Kandy' is an abbreviation of 'Kanda Udarata', or 'hill country' which was the seat of the later Sinhala kings.
Galle: Galle was known as Gimhathitha in ancient times. The term is believed to be derived from the classical Sinhalese term meaning "port near the river Gin".
Trincomalee: Also known as Thirukonemalee in Tamil, is derived from the honorificprefix used while addressing adult males in Tamil, being the equivalent of the English "Mr" and from the words "Kone" meaning King and Malee meaning mountain in Tamil.
Jaffna is the English rendering of Yazhpanam (யாழ்ப்பாணம்) in Tamil meaning "town of the harper"
ArchaeologistParanavithana suggests that the original name was Javapatuna, where 'Java' alludes to the presence of Javaka people. The Portuguese historian De Queyroz refers to it at 'Jafanapataõ', which he says is said by some to be a corrupted form of 'Jafana-en-Putalam', or "Town of the Lord Jafana", and by others to be derived from 'Jafana-Patanaõture' meaning "long harbour".[6]Akkaraipattumeaning - Ten Cities after the River.
Sigiriya: derived from the structure — singha giri, the lion rock.
Mihintale is derived from "Mihindu" (the arahat monk who brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka) + "thalaya" (highland). It is mentioned in Buddhist culture, that arahat monk "Mihindu" appeared on top of a high rock which is today known as Mihintale, and preached Buddhist teachings to then king of Sri Lanka, Devanampiyathissa.
As already stated above, European place names are found mainly in the big towns which used to be colonial centers. In the countryside, there is close to no European toponymy and the indigenous languages are dominant.
Given the very similar processes of place name formation in Sinhala and Tamil explicated above, it is not always easy to establish the original language of a place name, because loan translations are common in both directions. For such an alleged example of loan translation, see the case of Trincomalee above. Additionally, some place names draw on Sanskrit or Pali roots, which are then adapted to Sinhala and Tamil phonology in different ways. These intricacies must be taken into account when evaluating claims that a certain area was predominantly inhabited by one group or the other at a certain point in time.
Taking a synchronic point of view, Sinhala place names are more common in the Sinhala speaking areas in the South, whereas Tamil place names are more common in the Tamil speaking areas in the North and East. On a diachronic point of view, things are more complicated, and both Sinhala settlements in the North and Tamil settlements in the South have been claimed to have been more common in the past. The motivation behind such analyses is not always scientific; political goals also play a role in claiming a certain area for a certain language group, see the next section for more discussion of this. The following statements have to be interpreted with this caveat in mind.
Sinhalese place names are found throughout the island. As discussed by Sri Lankan historians such as Paul E Peiris, Karthigesu Indrapala and others, pre-Christian stone inscriptions of Sri Lanka point to the extensive use of the Sinhala language in local administration. Much of the information for tracing the old place names comes from etymology, written texts, many stone inscriptions which are in Sinhala and dating back to pre-Christian times, as well as the more recent colonial records.
Dutch and British records show that the language of the inhabitants of Vanni in the 17th and 18th centuries were Tamil, some of them considered Tamils to be 'strangers' (foreign) to the island. [7]
According to M. Chelvadurai(a Tamil) only Tamil words were used for natural and human-made features in the Vanni region with no trace of Sinhalese words,[8] while Vanni itself is a Sinhala word.[9] According to Professor K. Kularatnam, when analyzing the regional distribution of place names in Sri Lanka, one not only comes across Tamil names in areas which are Sinhala-speaking, and vice versa, but also composite or hybrid place names which are part Sinhalese and part Tamil in composition, as well as Sinhalese and Tamil place names juxtaposed within small areas.[4]
Place name sign in three languages with each linguistic version different from each other
Sigiri graffiti verses referring to the Jaffna peninsula and written c. 8th century, contain references to Vaeligama,[10][pageneeded] Kularatnam concluded from the hybrid place names that the traditionally Sinhalese North Central and North Western Provinces, as well as the coastal tracts as far as south as Colombo, were inhabited by Tamil-speaking people in the past.[11] In addition, there have been also at least small segments elsewhere in the island.[11] The many composite or hybrid place names and the juxtaposition of Sinhala and Tamil place names indicated the peaceful coexistence of people of both language groups.[11]
Anthropological and political relevance of place names in Sri Lanka
Place names are a source of controversy in Sri Lankan politics. According to Nissan & Stirrat, the Sri Lankan Civil War is an outcome of how modern ethnic identities have been made and re-made since the colonial period, with the political struggle between minority Sri Lankan Tamils and the Sinhala-dominant government accompanied by rhetorical wars over archeological sites and place nameetymologies, and the political use of the national past.
Both sides in the present political context back up their respective claims through the selective use of histories and through the selective and competitive use of archeological evidence. Factions on each side have been willing to destroy, or reinterpret, evidence which would support the other party. Differing maps are produced which purport to show the distribution of Sinhala and Tamil in Lanka during past centuries.[12]
They further note that in the currently Tamil-dominant Northern Province there are place names with Sinhalese etymologies, which is used by the Sinhala dominant government to claim the territory, whereas Tamils using Tamil place names in rationally Sinhala areas point to their antiquity in the island.[13][14] There is a movement in Sri Lanka that seeks to use original Sinhala names throughout the country.[15]
Historical development of the place name controversies
In the 1920s, two historical descriptions of Jaffna were published, Ancient Jaffna by C. Rasanayagam, and A Critical History of Jaffna by Swamy Gnanaprakasar.[1] A main claim of these books was that the North and East were hereditary possessions of the Tamils.[dubious–discuss]Upon the establishment of the University of Ceylon under the Indian historian H. C. Ray, and the archeologist S. Paranavithana, these claims were re-examined by Sinhalese academics. An issue of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1961,[16] examined the findings of Rasanaygam et al. and gave different interpretations.
1 2 Gnanaprakasar, A Critical History of Jaffna, p. 33
↑ Gnanaprakasar, A Critical History of Jaffna, p. 34
↑ Gnanaprakasar, A Critical History of Jaffna, p. 35
1 2 3 Kularatnam, "Tamil Place Names in Ceylon outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces", p. 483
1 2 3 Kularatnam, "Tamil Place Names in Ceylon outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces", p. 484–492
↑ Fernaõ De Queyroz, The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, translated by S.G. Perera, Government Printer of Ceylon, Colombo: 1930 Vol I at pp. 47-48. The translator, in his notes to De Queyroz's text, tentatively cites the Tamil phrases Yalppananin-paddanam and Talvana-paddanat-turai in connection with these names.
↑ Robert Knox. "An Historical Relation Of the Island Ceylon". Retrieved 2011-11-03. Besides the Dutch who possess, as I judge, about one fourth of the Island, there are Malabars, that are free Denizons and pay duty to the King for the Land they enjoy, as the Kings natural Subjects do; there are also Moors, who are like Strangers, and hold no Land, but live by carrying goods to the Sea-Ports, which now are in the Hollanders hands. The Sea-Ports are inhabited by a mixt people, Malabars and Moors, and some that are black, who profess themselves Roman Catholicks, and wear Crosses, and use Beads. Some of these are under the Hollander; and pay toll and tribute to them. But I am to speak only of the natural proper People of the Island, which they call Chingulays.
↑ Perera, D. G. A. "Travesty of our place names". Retrieved 2008-03-06. Sinhala language and its nomenclature was precise and meaningful. That was why even the English and Burgher lawyers are known to have preferred to have their land deeds drawn up in the Sinhala language.Therefore, giving attention to the preparation of an officially recognised list of all place names in the island, is of paramount importance. The Tamils can continue to pronounce the place names in their own way if they choose to do so, but the official spelling remains unchanged. Under British rule, the original Sinhala names of tea, rubber (and even coconut) estates were replaced by English ones, for the most part. But the Tamil estate workers who came from India coined their own names for each of these estates. The Ferguson's Directory listed all these estate names in English and Tamil, while most of the original Sinhala names were allowed to be forgotten.
↑ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (ceylon Branch), vol III, p174-224 (1961)
Related Research Articles
The history of Sri Lanka is unique because its relevance and richness extend beyond the areas of South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean. The early human remains which were found on the island of Sri Lanka date back to about 38,000 years ago.
Trincomalee, also known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee District and major resort port city of Eastern Province, Sri Lanka. Located on the east coast of the island overlooking the Trincomalee Harbour, Trincomalee has been one of the main centres of Sri Lankan Tamil speaking culture on the island for nearly a millennium. With a population of 99,135, the city is built on a peninsula of the same name, which divides its inner and outer harbours. It is home to the famous Koneswaram temple from where it developed and earned its historic Tamil name Thirukonamalai. The town is home to other historical monuments such as the Bhadrakali Amman Temple, Trincomalee, the Trincomalee Hindu Cultural Hall and, opened in 1897, the Trincomalee Hindu College. Trincomalee is also the site of the Trincomalee railway station and an ancient ferry service to Jaffna and the south side of the harbour at Muttur.
Burgher people, also known simply as Burghers, are a small Eurasian ethnic group in Sri Lanka descended from Portuguese, Dutch, British and other Europeans who settled in Ceylon. The Portuguese and Dutch had held some of the maritime provinces of the island for centuries before the advent of the British Empire. With the establishment of Ceylon as a crown colony at the end of the 18th century, most of those who retained close ties with the Netherlands departed. However, a significant community of Burghers remained and largely adopted the English language. During British rule, they occupied a highly important place in Sri Lankan social and economic life.
Sri Lanka Indo-Portuguese, Ceylonese Portuguese Creole or Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole (SLPC) is a language spoken in Sri Lanka. While the predominant languages of the island are Sinhala and Tamil, the interaction of the Portuguese and the Sri Lankans led to the evolution of a new language, Sri Lanka Portuguese Creole (SLPC), which flourished as a lingua franca on the island for over 350 years (16th to mid-19th centuries). SLPC continues to be spoken by an unknown number of Sri Lankans, estimated to be extremely small.
The Official Language Act , commonly referred to as the Sinhala Only Act, was an act passed in the Parliament of Ceylon in 1956. The act replaced English with Sinhala as the sole official language of Ceylon, with the exclusion of Tamil.
The Jaffna kingdom, also known as Kingdom of Aryachakravarti, was a historical kingdom of what today is northern Sri Lanka. It came into existence around the town of Jaffna on the Jaffna peninsula and was traditionally thought to have been established after the invasion of Kalinga Magha from Kalinga in India. Established as a powerful force in the north, northeast and west of the island, it eventually became a tribute-paying feudatory of the Pandyan Empire in modern South India in 1258, gaining independence when the last Pandyan ruler of Madurai was defeated and expelled in 1323 by Malik Kafur, the army general of the Delhi Sultanate. For a brief period in the early to mid-14th century it was an ascendant power in the island of Sri Lanka, to which all regional kingdoms accepted subordination. However, the kingdom was overpowered by the rival Kotte kingdom around 1450 when it was invaded by Prince Sapumal under the orders of Parakramabahu VI.
The Arya Chakravarti dynasty were kings of the Jaffna Kingdom in Sri Lanka. The earliest Sri Lankan sources, between 1277 and 1283, mention a military leader of this name as a minister in the services of the Pandyan Empire; he raided the western Sri Lankan coast and took the politically significant relic of the Buddha's tooth from the Sinhalese capital city of Yapahuwa. Political and military leaders of the same family name left a number of inscriptions in the modern-day Tamil Nadu state, with dates ranging from 1272 to 1305, during the late Pandyan Empire. According to contemporary native literature, such as Cekaracecekaramalai, the family also claimed lineage from the Tamil Brahmins of the prominent Hindu pilgrimage temple of Rameswaram in the modern Ramanathapuram District of India. They ruled the Jaffna kingdom from the 13th until the 17th century, when the last of the dynasty, Cankili II, was ousted by the Portuguese.
Sri Lankan Tamils, also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
Negombo Tamils or Puttalam Tamils are the Tamil speaking ethnic Karavas who live in the western Gampaha and Puttalam districts of Sri Lanka. They are distinguished from other Tamils from the island nation by their unique dialects, one of which is known as Negombo Tamil dialect. Other sub categories of native Tamils of Sri Lanka are Jaffna Tamils or Northern Tamils and Batticalao Tamils or Eastern Tamils from the traditional Tamil dominant North and East of the Island nation. Negombo is a principal coastal city in the Gampaha District and Puttalam is also the principal city within the neighbouring Puttalam District.
Sri Lankan Moors are an ethnic minority group in Sri Lanka, comprising 9.3% of the country's total population. Most of them are native speakers of the Tamil language. The majority of Moors who are not native to the North and East also speak Sinhalese as a second language. They are predominantly followers of Islam. The Sri Lankan Muslim community is mostly divided between Sri Lankan Moors, Indian Moors, Sri Lankan Malays and Sri Lankan Bohras. These groups are differentiated by lineage, language, history, culture and traditions. Finlay McDonald has noted in the second paragraph of his article on Sri Lankan Muslims in New Zealand's conversation newspaper, published on April 23, 2019, the following observation, "Linguistically, most have Tamil as their mother tongue, often leading them to be categorised as part of the island’s Tamil minority, alongside Hindus and Christians. There are, however,Muslims who speak the majority Sinhala language."
Samuel James Veluppillai Chelvanayakam was a Ceylonese lawyer, politician and Member of Parliament. He was the founder and leader of the Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) and Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and a political leader of the Ceylon Tamil community for more than two decades. Chelvanayakam has been described as a father figure to Ceylon's Tamils, to whom he was known as "Thanthai Chelva".
Dutch Ceylon was a governorate established in present-day Sri Lanka by the Dutch East India Company. Although the Dutch managed to capture most of the coastal areas in Sri Lanka, they were never able to control the Kingdom of Kandy located in the interior of the island. Dutch Ceylon existed from 1640 until 1796.
The Vanni chieftaincies or Vanni tribes was a region between Anuradhapura and Jaffna, but also extending to along the eastern coast to Panama and Yala, during the Transitional and Kandyan periods of Sri Lanka. The heavily forested land was a collection of chieftaincies of principalities that were a collective buffer zone between the Jaffna Kingdom, in the north of Sri Lanka, and the Sinhalese kingdoms in the south. Traditionally the forest regions were ruled by Vedda rulers. Later on, the emergence of these chieftaincies was a direct result of the breakdown of central authority and the collapse of the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa in the 13th century, as well as the establishment of the Jaffna Kingdom in the Jaffna Peninsula. Control of this area was taken over by dispossessed Sinhalese nobles and chiefs of the South Indian military of Māgha of Kalinga (1215–1236), whose 1215 invasion of Polonnaruwa led to the kingdom's downfall. Sinhalese chieftaincies would lay on the northern border of the Sinhalese kingdom while the Tamil chieftaincies would border the Jaffna Kingdom and the remoter areas of the eastern coast, north western coast outside of the control of either kingdom.
The Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna kingdom occurred after Portuguese traders arrived at the rival Kotte kingdom in the southwest of modern Sri Lanka in 1505. Many kings of Jaffna, such as Cankili I, initially confronted the Portuguese in their attempts at converting the locals to Roman Catholicism, but eventually made peace with them.
Kandarodai is a small hamlet and archaeological site of Chunnakam town, a suburb in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka. The notable ancient Buddhist monastery referred to as Kadurugoda Vihara is situated in Kandarodai.
The Kingdom of Kotte, named after its capital, Kotte, was a Sinhalese kingdom that flourished in Sri Lanka during the 15th century.
The Northern Province is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka. The province has an area of 8,884 km2, making it the 3rd largest province by area, and a population of 1,061,315, making it the least populated province. The city of Jaffna is the capital city of the province.
Portuguese Ceylon is the name given to the territory on Ceylon, modern-day Sri Lanka, controlled by the Portuguese Empire between 1597 and 1658.
Jaffna is the capital city of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a peninsula of the same name. With a population of 88,138 in 2012, Jaffna is Sri Lanka's 12th most populous city. Jaffna is approximately six miles from Kandarodai which served as an emporium in the Jaffna peninsula from classical antiquity. Jaffna's suburb Nallur served as the capital of the four-century-long medieval Tamil Jaffna Kingdom.
This is a bibliography of works on Sri Lanka.
References
Gnanaprakasar, Swamy (2003). A Critical History of Jaffna (Tamil edition from 1928). New Delhi: Asian Educational Services. ISBN81-206-1686-3.
Kularatnam, K (1966-04-23). "Tamil Place Names in Ceylon outside the Northern and Eastern Provinces". Proceedings of the first International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies, vol. 1. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: International Tamil Conference. pp.483–493.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
