Salagama

Salagama (Halagama, Haali or Chaliya) is the name of a caste in Sri Lanka. The community was traditionally associated with the cultivation of cinnamon, and are found mostly in Southern coastal areas, especially in the villages around Hikkaduwa and Balapitiya in Galle district, as well as in the area from Negombo northwards to Chilaw. Very small groups in the Kandyan areas were more involved with weaving. The caste shares similarities with the "Saliya", the weavers' caste, in Kerala and Karnataka in India. "Saliyar" is also the name of a weaving caste of Tamil nadu.

Origin myths

The Salagama have a belief, ascribing to them 'higher' caste roots, that they originated from saligrama Brahmins. According to this belief Saliyas were of Brahmin origin and were brought across the sea from Malabar (i.e. Kerala) by ship. However, since they would 'lose caste' if they touched the water, they had to be carried ashore by moors on their heads. This is depicted in the Salagama flag which is one of the most valuable flags in Sri Lanka.

Salagamas also have family names such as Nambodiri which is the highest brahmin caste in India giving the belief that they are decendents from Indian high caste brahmins. To strengthen the argument further, most of salagamas have the name "muni" at the end of the family name, such as Hondamuni, Edirimuni etc. Muni is the indian and SInhala term used for Brahmins. Therefore, the belief of the brahmin origin become even more credible.

According to another belief, a Sinhala/Moslem King Vathhimi Buvenekabahu had a problem of being crowned by Sinhalese Brahmins as he was not a pure Sinhalese. Thus, the King had to obtain the services of a moslem nobleman "Priya Mudali Marikkar" from Beruwala to bring down "high caste" Brahmins from india for the coronation ceremony. This was carried out by Priya Mudali Marrikkar, who was richly rewarded by the King, being given a bronze plaque giving the details of his noble deed and also several villages for his upkeep and benefit. Another belief is that the King offered handsome rewards to any person bringing skilled weavers to Sri Lanka. (However this is questionable as Sri Lanka had a prosperous handloom industry even at that time - Several thousnad yertas ago when King Vijaya landed in Sri Lanka queen Kuweni was weaving a cloth) A Muslim of Beruwela made the voyage to "Saliapatanam" in India and returned with eight weavers of the Salagama caste. One variation of the tale states that the eight were drugged and bound and only realised that were being transported to a foreign country when they were at sea; According to a different variation, the eight were tricked aboard the ship in order to gamble, the ship sailing without their knowledge whilst play was in progress. Two of the victims are said to have jumped overboard and never been heard of again.

These beliefs may have originated in Kerala, where the Saliya have a myth of similar origin. It is perhaps significant that in the Kandyan areas the Salagamas were identified as weavers ("Wiyana Haali"), similarly to the Saliya in Kerala and Karnataka.

"Shali-Grama"

Salagama people believe that their ancestors arrived in Sri Lanka, from a village named 'Sali-Gramam', or 'Shali-Gramam' in India.

"Nambudiri"

Salagamas also believe that their ancestors were Namboodiri brahmins who migrated to Sri Lanka. Their community has a flag, which they call the Nambudiri Flag which they frame, and hang in their homes. They have family names which commence with Namediri or Nanediri [the sinhala version of Namboodiri, in which Nam or Nan means 'Name' in the Sinhala language] , family names ending with the suffix Muni [e.g. Edirimuni, Demuni or Deymuni, Nammuni, Walimuni or Walaimuni, Jagamuni, Yagamuni (Sage who performs yaga), Rammuni(Sage of lord Ram)] and family names such as Wijerama (the conquering Rama), Weerakkodi (Weerakkodai), etc.

According to this tradition, the ancestral Salagamas arrived in Sri Lanka from Kerala in several waves. after accepting migration invitations from several Sinhala Kings, during various periods. The most important ancestors were the seven Saligrama Brahmins -including their chief Nambudiri or Namadiri, and Weerasinghe Edirimuni - who attended the coronation ceremony of King Vijayabahu I, (1055–1110). The King gave the seven noble Brahmins, the responsibility of managing his cinnamon plantations, situated in the western and southern part of the island.

According to another version, during the 15th or the 16th century, the Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka refused to perform the rituals associated with the coronation ceremony of a King (possibly that of Prince Wathhimi, the son of King Bhuvenaka Bahu II, as his mother was supposed to be a Muslim member of the King's harem) and as a consequence the King invited Namboodiri Brahmins instead. The brahmins subsequently wanted to return to Kerala after performing the ceremony, but the King, who was pleased with them, wanted them to stay on in Sri Lanka, and offered them royal maidens in marriage. They assimilated well into the Sinhalese community and their descendants formed the Salagama caste, along with Weavers, and Mercenary Soldiers who came from Kerala.

Tamil Nadu

According to Jan Schreuder, an 18th century Dutch Governor of Ceylon, the Salagamas were weavers who were brought over from the Coromandel coast on the Tamil Nadu side as opposed to Kerala by Muslim merchants about 1250, but were forced to become cinnamon peelers by the King of Kotte in 1406. They were consequently considered to be on inferior social status.

Colonial period

The Portuguese continues the tradition of using Salagamas as cinnamon peelers, who had to provide cinnamon as a tax, although they were paid daily wages in money or in kind. As cinnamon consumption grew, so too did the demands on the Salagamas, who were charged with providing an annual tribute which grew sixfold during the period of Portuguese control alone. During this era, many Salagamas adopted Portuguese names as their last names, such as de Silva (or Silva, Zylva), de Zoysa, Abrew, Thabrew, Mendis, etc.

When the Dutch East India Company (VOC) took over the coastal areas, it re-organised cinnamon cultivation on modern capitalist lines, with plantations located within the boundaries of VOC rule, mainly in the Galle district. The Salagamas were converted from a feudal caste into a modern proletariat.

The Dutch demand for cinnamon was more intense than that of the Portuguese, and by the era of British control mortality rates among Salagamas had increased sharply. It became common practice for cinnamon peelers' children to be registered under the names of other castes in order to spare them a life of ever-growing misery. [Citation
last = Trade Aid
first =
title = History of the Spice Trade
url=http://tradeaid.org.nz/Food%20For%20Thought/Spice/History%20of%20the%20Spice%20Trade
access-date = 2008-07-15]

The importance of cinnamon as a commodity gave those associated with its production importance in the eyes of the colonial power. Under the Dutch, some of the more influential members, such as chiefs, gained economic power and were able to buy land, thus gaining greater status.

The census of 1824 identified the Salagamas as about 7.5 % of the coastal Sinhalese population. However, they were concentrated in the Galle district, where about half of them lived and where they made up almost 20% of the population.

Buddhist revival

By the mid 18th century, "upasampada" (higher ordination, as distinct from samanera or novice ordination) had become extinct in Sri Lanka again. The Buddhist order had become extinct thrice during the preceding five hundred years and was re-established in the reigns of Vimala Dharma Suriya I (1591–1604) and Vimala Dharma Suriya II (1687–1707) as well. These re-establishments were short lived. On the initiative of Ven. Weliwita Saranankara (1698–1778) the Thai monk Upali Thera visited Kandy during the reign of king Kirti Sri Rajasinghe (1747–1782) and once again reestablished the Buddhist order in Sri Lanka in 1753. It was called the Siyam Nikaya after the "Kingdom of Siam". However in 1764, merely a decade after the re-establishment of the Buddhist order in Sri Lanka by reverend Upali, a group within the newly created Siyam Nikaya conspired and succeeded in restricting the Nikaya's higher ordination only to the Govigama caste. This was a period when Buddhist Vinaya rules had been virtually abandoned and some members of the Buddhist Sangha in the Kandyan Kingdom privately held land, had wives and children, resided in the private homes and were called Ganinnanses. It was a period when the traditional nobility of the Kandyan Kingdom was decimated by continuous wars with the Dutch rulers of the Maritime Provinces. In the maritime provinces too a new order was replacing the old. Mandarampura Puvata, a text from the Kandyan perid, narrates the above radical changes to the monastic order and shows that it was not a unanimous decision by the body of the sangha. It says that thirty two ‘senior’ members of the Sangha who opposed this change were banished to Jaffna by the leaders of the reform. The Govigama exclusivity of the Sangha thus secured in 1764 was almost immediately challenged by other castes who without the patronage of the King of Kandy or of the British, held their own upasampada ceremony at Totagamuwa Vihara in 1772. Another was held at Tangalle in 1798. Neither of these ceremonies were approved by the Siam Nikaya which claimed that these were not in accordance with the Vinaya rules.Citation
last = Jayetilleke
first = Rohan L.
title = The bi-centennial of the Amarapura Maha Nikaya of Sri Lanka
url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2003/09/17/fea09.html
access-date = 2008-07-15] As a consequence of this ‘exclusively Govigama’ policy adopted in 1764 by the Siyam Nikaya, the Buddhists in the Maritime provinces were denied access to a valid ordination lineage. Hoping to rectify this situation, wealthy laymen from the maritime provinces financed an expedition to Burma to found a new monastic lineage. In 1799, Ambagahapitiye Gnanavimala Thera a monk from the Salagama caste, from Balapitiya on the south western coast of Sri Lanka, departed for Burma with a group of novices to seek a new succession of Higher ordination. The first bhikkhu was ordained in Burma in 1800 by the sangharaja of Burma in Amarapura, his party having been welcomed to Burma by King Bodawpaya.

The initial mission returned to Sri Lanka in 1803. Soon after their return to the island they established a "udakhupkhepa sima" (a flotilla of boats moved together to form a platform on the water) on the Maduganga river, Balapitiya and, under the most senior Burmese monk who accompanied them, held an upasampada ceremony on Vesak Full Moon Day. The new fraternity came to be known as the "Amarapura Nikaya" and was soon granted recognition by the colonial British government.

The Amarapura Nikaya was of pivotal importance in the revival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 19th century. The Salagamas, who became overwhelmingly Buddhist, were in the vanguard of this movement.

Modern radicalism

The traditional Salagama areas around Balapitiya, Hikkaduwa and Ratgama were centres of the pan-Sinhalese populist movement of Anagarika Dharmapala. The key issues around which this movement emerged were anti-casteism and anti-colonialism.

The same areas were in the vanguard of the independence struggle and became hotbeds of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and of the Communist Party. These areas were at the forefront of the Hartal of 1953.

Sub-castes

Traditionally, the Salagama were divided into four sub-castes:
* "Panividakara" ('messengers') - headmen
* "Hewapanne" ('soldiers') - militia
* "Kurundukara" ('cinnamon workers') - Cinnamon peelers
* "Uliyakkara" ('servants') - Palanquin bearers and fan bearers

However, in modern times there is a simple two-fold division between the "Hewapanne" and the "Kurundukara". The former are of higher status, including landowners in their ranks.

Occupations

In the present day, the Salagama predominance in cinnamon cultivation has declined, the higher status of the caste leading to its members abandoning their traditional occupation. Many Salagamas in the Hikkaduwa area became coral miners until the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 swept away their villages. The coral-lime kilns gave employment to many more.

The Railway made access to employment in Colombo and other urban centres very much easier, and the caste became a very important part of the working class. Its higher echelons became notable in the engineering profession, mainly due to the influence of Sir Cyril de Zoysa, who owned the South Western Omnibus Company (see Ceylon Transport Board) and the Associated Motorways Group, and other businessmen in the motor trade.

Distinguished Salagamas

* Dr Colvin R de Silva [Citation
last = Abeynayake
first = Stanley E.
title = Dr. Colvin R. de Silva: undying legend
url=http://www.dailynews.lk/2005/03/03/fea03.html
access-date = 2008-07-15]
* Hon. C. P. De Silva
* Sir Lalitha Rajapakse
* U.N. Gunasekera (B.Sc. Eng. London, MI.Struct. UK, F.I.E.; son-in-law of the late Sir Ernest De Silva
* M.G. Mendis [Citation
last = Philatelic Bureau
first = Sri Lanka Posts
title = Hon. M. G. Mendis Commemorative issue
url=http://www.slpost.gov.lk/philatelic/2004.htm
access-date = 2008-07-15]
* Sir Cyril de Zoysa [Citation
last = Ven. Weligama Gnanaratana Maha Nayake Thera
first =
title = Sir Cyril - great Buddhist and exemplary philanthropist
url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/sircyril.html
access-date = 2008-07-15]
* Percy Wickremasekera
* Lucien de Zoysa
* Richard de Zoysa
* Wiki Wickramarathna - Innovator / Industrial Designer / Owner / Editor Sri Lanka Almanac Viduth Koshaya, Worlds largest Web Portal on Sri Lanka, Sinhala & Buddhism, A Royalist - Born 1954
* Sidath Wettimuny
* Thilan Thushara
* Lasith Malinga
* Lalit Rohana De Silva,In-charge,Sinhala Service,All India Radio, New Delhi-India.

ee also

*Balarampuram a settlement of Shaliyar in Kerala.
*Saliya a Malayalee caste
*List of Salagamas

References

* Bryce Ryan, Caste in Modern Ceylon, Rutgers University Press, 1953.
* [http://asiarecipe.com/sricaste.html Sri Lankan Caste System, Asia Recipe.Com]
* [http://bell.lib.umn.edu/Products/cinnamon.html Troy David Osborne, A taste of Paradise: Cinnamon, James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota ]
* [http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/slm-moor.htm THE 'MOORS' OF CEYLON]

Notes