Pamunu

Tenant farmers of rice paddy in Sri Lanka’s history. Sometimes referred to as a sub-caste of the Govigama caste.

History

Ancient rock inscriptions of Sri Lanka and historical literature refer to this community as "Pamunu Parapuru" in contexts such as “........"vahal, sarak, pamunu parapuru"......” which translates into English as "slaves, oxen and heritable agricultural labour" (EZ III.87,105,126& 132)

Based on their region of domicile these communities have now been mostly absorbed by the Bathgama or Govigama castes. The word Pamunu still survives in Sri Lankan family and place names such as Pamunugama, Pamunuvita, Pamunuva etc. However, in the 20th century many of these have been changed to Bamunu, to convey an association with Brahmins

References

* EZ (Epigraphia Zeylanica) Colombo Museum Sri Lanka