The Anuradhapura Kingdom - XIII

The Anuradhapura Kingdom - XIII

Contiued with part twelve   here to go previous one

Caste

The significance of caste in relation to land tenure, and in particular service tenure, has been referred to earlier in this chapter. As with almost everything else, caste was of Indian origin but developed its own peculiar characteristics in this island. One great difficulty that confronts us in our efforts to trace the evolution of a caste system in Sri Lanka is that terms such as jati, kula, and gotra used so frequently in inscriptions and the chronicles have a multiplicity of meanings. They could no doubt refer to caste groups, but they could also mean family, tribe or ‘race’. There is no record of any caste system in Sri Lanka in the period before the conversion of Devanampiya Tissa and the rapid spread of Buddhism in the island.Nevertheless, it would seem that many if not all the elements that were to constitute the caste system in later times were there in some form. Buddhism in the early years of its expansion may well have, for some time at least, retarded if not arrested the growth of caste in Sri Lanka, but still could not prevent it from eventually becoming the basis of social stratification in Sinhalese society.

While most castes had a service or occupation role, the distinctive feature of the Sinhalese caste structure in contrast to its Indian proto¬type was that there was no religious sanction from Buddhism for caste. Thus while caste endogamy and taboos of caste avoidance also existed, this latter did not cover the whole range of social relations, and significantly there was no category of ‘untouchables’ in Sinhalese society except the numerically insignificant rodi.

Brahmanism was the religion of the ruling elite groups before the conversion of Devanampiya Tissa to Buddhism changed the situation. Despite the rapidity with which the new religion spread in the island in the next few centuries, and despite its status as the official religion, the tolerant atmosphere of a Buddhist society ensured the survival of Hinduism with only a marginal loss of influence. Brahmans retained much of their traditional importance in society both on account of their learning and their near monopoly over domestic religious practices.

There is little or no evidence of a pure kafatriya varna in the island in proto-historical and early historic times. In later centuries the Sinhalese royal families declared themselves to be k$atriyas and claimed descent from the so-called solar and lunar dynasties. It seems most unlikely that any of Sri Lanka's rulers in the prehistoric period were scions of a recognized North Indian kfatriya clan. But they were de facto rulers; in the island, the ruling families sought to maintain themselves as a distinct group, and royal princes and princesses were given the titles Aya and Abi. The general vaisya varna, however, had its counterpart in Sri Lanka in the general body of the peasantry organized in families and in the specialized professions and trades. This latter, in the early centuries of the Anuradhapura civilization, were incipient 'occupational' groups. The only evidence we have of a sudra varna in the early centuries of the Anuradhapura kingdom is the reference to candles who lived just on the outskirts of Anuradhapura and did the scavenging work of that city. We do not know whether or not the candles were aboriginal people who had been degraded to sudra status.

In Sri Lanka as in India the emphasis was on the vocational and service aspects of caste much more than ritual ones. Caste groups were brought into a service system in which an individual's role and function depended on birth status. The higher castes and those considered to be low in caste status had their mutual obligations, but the more onerous of these were quite obviously those of the latter towards their caste superiors. Tenurial obligations to the king and the state were also determined by caste status, and so for that matter were those of the various groups of functionaries, craftsmen, and others in the service of monasteries. Thus, as in European feudalism, there was a connection between landholding and service obligations to both sec¬ular and religious authorities, with the fundamental difference, however, that in Sri Lanka caste status was an additional consideration or factor in the determination of these services. Caste services, however, were not always attached to land. They were tied to landholdings only in relation to certain services performed for the king or his officials and for religious and charitable institutions. In other cases, members of lower castes received some payment, mostly in kind but sometimes in cash, from those of higher castes in return for their services or caste obligations.

Trade

One other feature of the island’s socio-economic structure in the period covered by this chapter is relevant to a study of the development of feudalism the role of trade and money in the economy. It would be true to say that neither would be of vital importance in the basically agrarian economy of a feudal society. And so it was in the Sri Lanka of this period. This is not to say that trade was of no significance at all, only that it was not fundamentally important to the economy. It would appear that from very early times merchants were attracted to the island by the prospect of trade, and they would have taken back with the reports of its potential in this regard. Very likely the earliest settlements on the north-west coast were traded settlements, with pearls from the north-west coast, gems from the south-west interior, and ivory and other articles forming the principal items in their trade. The early attempts of Dravidian adventurers to seize power men like Sena and Guttika, EJara and Bhalluka and those in the time of Vattagamani may well have had control of this trade as one of their objectives. The island’s trade with South India was always of crucial importance; it formed part of the latter's commerce with the Roman Empire. Traders from the Mediterranean world were content to receive the island's products in South Indian ports, and did not come to the island themselves. This state of affairs changed in the fifth century when Sri Lanka, according to Cosmas, became an entrepot for the trade which moved across the Indian Ocean. The testimony of Cosmas finds confirmation in the works of the Roman Procopius, his near contemporary. Sri Lanka’s rulers of this period would have siphoned off a portion of the revenue from trade into their own coffers so that the attractions of trade would not have been limited to foreign adventurers seeking political domination. But the point is that at no stage in the island's early history was its economy based on trade and, more important, this did not change with the growth in power and wealth of the Anuradhapura kingdom.

Anuradhapura itself, as the capital city, became increasingly important as a commercial centre. There was from very early times a colony of Yavanas (Greeks) and by the fifth century AD a colony of Persian merchants too. Fa Hsien refers to the imposing mansions of the resident merchants, and states that one of them probably had the office of 'guild lord'. There were also colonies of Tamil merchants in the city. This, of course, was apart from the indigenous merchants. The only other towns of commercial importance were the ports of the north-west, in particular Mahatittha. Trade in all these centres, it would appear, was mainly in foreign luxury goods.

There is a gap in our sources on the island's trade with South India in the period from about the fifth century AD to the seventh. Perhaps the traditional pattern of trade continued. From the seventh century onwards till the Cola occupation these commercial ties assumed ever-increasing importance on account of the profits available from the island’s foreign trade, and the importance of Mahatittha in the trade of the Indian Ocean.

Up to the eve of the Coja invasions of the tenth century, internal trade at least had been largely in the hands of Sinhalese merchants who dominated the main market towns and were granted special charters by the kings. During the period of Coja rule in the tenth and eleventh centuries, Indian merchant alliances displaced these Sinhalese merchants, especially along the principal trade routes of the Rajarata. But their ascendancy was of limited duration and did not survive the restoration of Sinhalese power.

Trade, as it touched the mass of the people, was of a humbler kind: the exchange by barter, or by a limited use of currency (kahavanu and purdnas or eldlings), of the surplus grain at their disposal, and of manufactured goods and services. This internal trade in the early Anuradhapura period was well organised. Among the donors of caves in the early inscriptions are guilds (pugiyana) and members (jete and anujete) of such guilds. There are occasional references in the Mahavamsa to caravan traffic to and from the central highlands in search of spices and articles such as ginger. Such caravans consisted of wagons and pack animals. Apart from these there must have been some limited local trade in cloth, salt and a few luxury articles.

By the end of the fifth century the economic activity of these indigenous traders was so far advanced that there was a system of commerce in grain, in particular seed grain which came to be deposited as capital on which interest was charged. The grant of some of this grain for religious purposes the performance of the Aryavamsa festival was recorded in inscriptions which show that at the gates of Anuradhapura and some of the other towns was an important business centre, the niyamatana. There merchants received grain to be deposited as capital (gahe) to be lent not sold to cultivators, who had to return the capital with interest (vedha) added. The interest, which was taken periodically by the depositor or the person to whom the donation had been made, was usually specified, and varied with the type of grain. The people who engaged in this activity namely the merchants, who stored and lent grain were bankers of a sort, evidence no doubt of increasing sophistication in economic activity, but of peripheral significance nonetheless in the economy as a whole.