Prince Vijaya & the Bengali Ancestry of Sri Lankans
Just look at the history of how a Indian community named Bengalis migrated & colonized the island of Sri Lanka & established Independent kingdom.
* Prince Vijaya Singha
Prince Vijay Singha is the first historical king of Sinhala who was a Bengali prince from the kingdom of Sinhapura. According to the Mahāvamśa, an ancient chronicle of Sri Lanka’s kings written in Pali, there was a kingdom named Singhapura in Vanga, located in the south-western way Rarh region of Bengal, that's todays Singur in the Hooghly district in West Bengal state of India. The Bengali Prince of Sinhapura named Vijaya Singha sailed on 8 ships to Sri Lanka with 700 of his people in 22 April 543 BC and established the kingdom of Sinhala. Legend describes the Sinhalese as descendants of Vijaya and his people, who would have lived in parts of Sinhapura & Tamralipta port, today’s Hooghly & Purba Medinipur districts of West Bengal. The Mahavamsa mentions another town in Rarh called Banganagar.
* Prince Janardan Vajrabahu
According to the Rajshahi chronicles, in 15th century the Brahmin Prince of Santhorpradesh, Rajshahi in Northern Bengal named Janardan Vajrabahu sailed to Lanka dwip & established independent rule. Vajrabahu married the princess of Arakan named Tuppa-sundari that was not acceptable for a Brahmin prince in Bengali society back then that he moved forward towards Lanka. Lanka was then going through civil war that Vajrabahu joined one side, got victory & crowned as the king. There's a fort named Lankapatir Garh in Malda district of West Bengal, that means fort of the king of Lanka.
* Trade of Bengali Baniks in Sinhala
From ancient times the Bengali merchant community, known as the Baniks, used to trade gold and spices on the island of Sinhala. The Manasamangal Kavya mentions the great merchant Chandrapati Banik who traded in Sinhala with Saptadingha.
Dhanapati Banik was another Bengali merchant of medieval period who sailed for Sinhala with fleet of 7 vessels. The head ship named 'Madhukar’ had cabin made all of gold. An excerpt from Chandimangal reads:
প্রথম তুলিল ডিঙ্গা নাম মধুকর
শুধাই সুবর্ণে তার বসিবার ঘর ।
* Genetic Similarities between Bengalese & Singhalese
Today's Sinhalese people are descendants of that 700 Bengali soldiers that arrived with Lanka with Prince Vijaya, that's why the Sinhalese show a significant genetic similarity with the Bengalis. This is further substantiated by a VNTR study, which found 70-82% of Sinhalese genes to originate from Bengali admixture
* R2 Haplogroup - Dr. Toomas Kivisild
A test for Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups conducted by Dr Toomas Kivisild on Sinhalese of Sri Lanka has shown that 24.1% of the subjects were R2 positive as subclades of Haplogroup P (92R7). Haplogroup R2 is also found in a considerable percentage among Bengalis of India.
* D1S80 Allele frequency similarity
D1S80 allele frequency is also similar between the Sinhalese and Bengalis, suggesting the two groups are closely related. The Sinhalese also have similar frequencies of the allele MTHFR 677T (13%) to West Bengalis (17%).
* Study of RL Kirk
As early as 1976, a paper titled ‘The Legend of Prince Vijaya - a Study of Sinhalese Origins’ by R. L. Kirk clearly states, “Genetic distance analysis... shows that modern Sinhalese populations are closer to the Tamils and Keralites of south India and the upper caste groups of Bengal…”
> Additionally, in 1996, yet another study by multiple authors found that 70-82 percent of Sinhalese genes originate from a “Bengali admixture”.
> Gautam Kumar Kshatriya in his study titled “Genetic affinities of Sri Lankan Populations”, found that 25.41 per cent of the genetic make up on the Sinhalese population was contributed by the Bengalis.
* Linguistic Similarity in Bangla & Sinhala
Sinhala is an Indo-Aryan language having it's origin in the Bangla language of Eastern India. Dr. Suniti Kumar Chattopadhyay in his celebrated account on the development of the Bengali language, comments upon the Indo-Aryan content in the Sinhalese speech in the following words: “The immigrants who carried the Indo-Aryan speech to Ceylon seem to have been from 3rd century BC onwards Ceylon seems to have come in touch with India through Bengal and traditions of intimate connections between Bengal and Ceylon are preserved in Bengali literature.” There's many similarities between Bangla & Sinhala scripts. The 'Buddha Charit' composed by Ashwaghosh mentions that Gautam Buddha used to learn Banga Lipi in Gurugriha of Kapilavastu.
* Symbol of Lion
The Lion is an important symbol of the Sinhalese people; Lion insignia is used in the flag of Sri Lanka. The same way lion is used as a totemic symbol in Rarh region of Bengal.
One finds this echoed in Rarh-Bangla which remains a major centre for the worship of Narasimha, the god Vishnu as half-lion and half-man. The most important festival of Bengalis - 'Durga Puja', the worship of Goddess Durga who rides on a Lion, honoured as 'Singhabahini'.
Felis leo bengalensis proposed by Edward Turner Bennett in 1829 was a lion kept in the menagerie of the Tower of London. Bennett's essay contains a drawing titled 'Bengal lion'.
According to a report by the Zoological Survey of India, 5000 years ago, there were innumerable lions roaming the Siwalik caves & forests of Bengal districts Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum, Bardhaman & Paschim Medinipur.
* Martial Art
The Sinhalese martial art Angampora is very similar to the Bengali martial arts like Dhali & Raibenshe. In both martial traditions distinct feature lies in the use of pressure point attacks to inflict pain or permanently paralyze the opponent. Fighters usually make use of both striking and grappling techniques, and fight until the opponent is caught in a submission lock that they cannot escape.
* Popular Culture
The Sinhalese link to Bengal matches genetic, linguistic and cultural evidence and survives in many little ways. There are various Bengali poetry on the historical conquest of Lanka by the Bengal Prince Bijoy Singho. Poet Dwijendra Lal Roy narrated -
”Ekoda jahar Vijaya senani helai Lanka korilo joy
Ekoda jahar Arnab pot bhromilo Bharat Sagar moy”
That means:
(Once upon a time there was a warrior of Bengal named Vijay whose army had conquered the Lanka with ease. Once whose navy roamed the entire of Indian Ocean)
Poet Satyendranath Dutta wrote-
“Amader chhele Bijoy Singho Lonka koriya joy
Singhal name rekhe gechhe nijo sourjer porichoy"
That means (Our son Vijay Singha conquered Lanka with ease and named it Singhala having the mark of his bravery.)
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