The Legend of the Sinhala

daya dissanayake

(published in margASIA, winter 2018, vol. 6. issue 2.)

The Sri Lanka Pali chronicle Mahamvamsa, written by a Buddhist monk, Mahanama thero, around
the 5th century CE, is considered as a recorded history of Sri Lanka. The Mahavamsa describes the
beginning of the Sinhala race, tracing the ancestry who ruled a region named Vanga (believed to be
the present day Bengal. His wife was from Kalinga. They had a daughter named Suppa. She had run
away from home, lived with a lion and bore two children, Sihabahu and Sihaseevali. Sihabahu
escaped from the lion's den with his mother and sister. When the saddened and enraged lion began
to threaten the villagers, the Vanga king ordered the animal to be killed. Sihabahu killed his father,
and built his own kingdom in the forest, calling it Sihapura. He took his sister as wife. Their eldest
son was named Vijaya, who became a wayward son, and had to be exiled, from the kingdom along
with his friends. Vijaya landed in Lanka and started the first Sinhala kingdom.

Mahanama thero perhaps inadvertently created a piece of fiction, symbolizing the eternal conflict of
man vs. nature, and reminding us that the woman was always with nature while man was against
both woman and nature.

Man has been raping nature from the time he began to walk on his hind legs and began to use his
forelegs for destruction. His basic weakness of greed and desire gave him the strength to violate the
woman and Mother Earth. The human male animal has tried to define 'culture' as a "product of
human consciousness, by means of which humanity attempts to assert control over nature". The
concept that culture is superior to nature is a belief among mankind in the same manner as their
belief that man is superior to woman.

Wilhelm Geiger translation of Mahavamsa says about Suppa, “Alone she went forth from the
house, desiring the joy of independent life; unrecognized she joined a caravan travelling to the
Magadha country.”

Did Mahanama realize that by this statement he is describing a true daughter of Mother Earth, who
had broken out of the Lakshman Rekha, defied her father and the androcentric society which tried
to label her as “Very fair was she and very amorous and for shame the king and queen could not
suffer her.”

The same Mahanama is silent about the “very amorous” behaviour of Bindusara, who he claims had
“A hundred glorious sons and one had Bindusara” (and an unknown number of daughters), or when
Sihabahu took his own sister as his wife. This is the culture that Suppa defied, desiring the joy of
independent life, away from the so-called civilized society. She would have realized that wilderness
was where she could find real happiness, being a part of Mother nature. The lion symbolizes nature
and she was already in love with nature, so it was natural for her to fall in love with a creature of
nature, man or lion.

Unfortunately her son would have inherited the Bhasmasura 'meme' from the male side of Suppa's
family, and he would have yearned to go back to civilization away from nature. The Mahavamsa
only says, “(Sihabahu) took his mother on his right shoulder and his young sister on his left, and
went away with speed.” We do not know if Suppa and Sihaseevali went willingly or Sihabahu
carried them away by force.

“When the lion, returning in haste to his cave, missed those three (persons), he was sorrowful, and
grieving after his son he neither ate nor drank. Seeking for his children he went to the border-
village, and every village where he came was deserted by the dwellers therein.” It does not say that
the lion had harmed anyone, he was probably roaming around desperately for his family, like any
grieving father would have done.

The Vanga ruler would have been waiting for an opportunity to avenge the insult and humiliation
which he faced due to the action by this lion who kidnapped his daughter. Thus he incited the
people to find and destroy the lion, when he saw it also as an opportunity to conquer the natural
forest which was the domain of the lion.

Sihabahu would have jumped at the opportunity to kill the lion and claim the land for himself,
which he did. For Mahavamsa claims, “he himself went with Sihasivali to the land of his birth.
There he built a city, and they called it Sihapura, and in the forest stretching a hundred yojanas
around he founded villages.” Mahanama has no regrets about the destruction of a hundred yojanas
(1200 – 1500 km) of virgin forest, land occupied by innocent creatures. Killing his own father
would not have been a problem for a descendant of Bhasmasura, who had tried to destroy Brahma
himself who gave him the power to destroy anything he touched. Perhaps Sihabahu took his sister
as wife, because no other woman in the Vanga kingdom wanted to go with the patricide. The author
only mentions in passing that Suppa remarried. “Then the commander took his uncle’s daughter
with him and went to the capital of the Vangas and married her.” I would like to believe that Suppa
went back to the jungle to become one with nature once again.

“As time passed on his consort bore twin sons sixteen times, the eldest was named Vijaya, the
second Sumitta; together there were thirty-two sons.” Mahanama did not see Sihabahu as amorous
as he sired thirty-two sons, whereas the Lion had sired only two children, with the “very amorous”
Suppa.

Vijaya as he grew-up would have realized the gravity of the crime committed by his father, if killing
the lion symbolized the killing of the natural forest, and when Vijaya saw the harm caused by the
disruption of the eco-system by the greedy humans. His revolt could have been against such
destruction, and his anger would have been against all who contributed towards this destruction.
This would have been the reason for Sihabahu to exile his son and his young friends.

I like to consider this story in the Mahavamsa as one of the earliest works of environmental
literature.

daya@saadhu.com