Osmund Bopearachchi talks to Suganthy Krishnamachari about the early India-Sri Lanka links through epigraphs and coins.

“Sri Lanka, because of its geographical situation, had its earliest trade relations with South India,” says Dr. Osmund Bopearachchi, Adjunct Professor of Central and South Asian Art, Archaeology, and Numismatics, University of California, Berkeley.

“Symbols on megalithic black and red ware found in Kodumanal, Tamil Nadu, by Dr. K. Rajan matched with what I found in Kelaniya and Ridiyagama in Sri Lanka. The earliest coins found in Sri Lanka were Pandya and Chera coins.” The conversation with Bopearachchi shows how trade relations between Lanka and India followed the rise and fall of dynasties in India. There are epigraphical, numismatic and literary evidences that show the presence of traders from Tamil Nadu in Sri Lanka. The Mahavamsa talks of assanavika - traders who brought horses for sale from Tamil Nadu. There is an early Brahmi inscription in Anuradhapura, which says a certain terrace (pasade) was of Tamil householders and that it was made by Samana, a Tamil. According to the epigraph, the captain of the ship, a Tamilian, was entitled to a seat of honour. The word Dameda used in the inscription was the prototype of the word ‘Demela’ or ‘Demala’, by which name Tamils came to be known in Sinhalese literature. “Dameda also clearly is close to Damila in Pali, and Dramida and Dravida in Sanskrit, indicating those living in the extreme South of India.”

When Emperor Asoka’s envoy Thera Mahinda introduced Buddhism to the island, during the reign of Devanampiyatissa (250- 210 BCE), cultural and trade relations with North India were established. A large number of coins — karshapana — entered Sri Lanka during the reign of Asoka.

“There is an early Brahmi inscription (3rd century BCE) found in Mampita vihara, which refers to karshapana. Karshapana is referred to as kahapana in Buddhist Jataka stories. Karshapana were in circulation till the end of the 3rd century CE. But after the issue of these coins was stopped, Sri Lankans made these coins using different casting methods. Terracotta moulds found in Anuradhapura bear testimony to this,” says Bopearachchi. The reason for fewer North Indian coins found in Sri Lanka, from the 1st century CE onwards, “corresponds to one of the periodical dominations of the South Indian dynasties over the island.”

Talking of the various Indian trading communities that had a marked presence in the island, Bopearachchi mentions an interesting inscription, which talks of kabojha. Archaeologist Senarath Paranavitana said that kabohja, kabojhiya and kabojika were all connected with the ethnic name Kambhoja, which occurs in Sanskrit and Pali literature and also in Asokan inscriptions. Kambhojas lived in the extreme West of the Mauryan Empire and spoke a language of Iranian origin. A Brahmi inscription that talks of kabojhiya mahapugiyama — members of a corporation, shows that Kambojas in Sri Lanka had organised themselves into corporations. “References to Kambhojas show that Sri Lanka had close ties with North West India,” says Bopearachchi.

The Nanadesis were another mercantile community from India who traded with Sri Lanka. Nilakanta Sastri wrote that the Nanadesis were “a powerful autonomous corporation of merchants, whose activities took little or no account of political boundaries.”

“A bronze seal found in Ridiyagama has a figure that historian Pathmanathan identified as Durga, the Goddess of the Nanadesis. It bears the inscription — Nanadesin sakai — which Pathmanathan translated as friends or allies of Nanadesis. The seal must have been used to stamp receipts,” says Bopearachchi .

Cultural influences followed in the wake of trade. Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati in Andhra were centres of Buddhism, and when traders from here went to Sri Lanka they took their art with them too. “Limestone slabs with scenes from Buddha’s life and a marble Buddha discovered in Tissmaharama were all executed in Andhra and taken to Lanka. Sculptures made in Sri Lanka also reflect the Andhra influence. Paranavitana believed an Andhra school of sculpture was established in the island,” says Bopearachchi.

Coins have been of special interest to Bopearachchi , who says “Indo Greek history is foremost a numismatic history.”

As an example, he cites a coin that has the effigy of a sovereign, and words in Greek. On the reverse there is a Prakrit translation of the Greek words, and it reads: maharajasa heliototasa.’ “Heliototus is actually Heliodotus misspelt. So we now get the name of one more Indo- Greek sovereign, through this coin,” explainsBopearachchi.

He talks of another interesting coin, found in Pakistan, in what must once have been the ancient city of Pushkalavati.

It has on the obverse the Greek divinities Helios and Selene.On the reverse is seen a bearded Indian, with his hair gathered in a knot, extending his hand before a fire. “Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus I reported that just as Jews were spiritual advisers to Syrians so were Brahmins to Indians. Clearchus, a pupil of Aristotle, said Jews were descendants of the philosophers of India. So the Greeks knew about the Brahmins of India and hence the representation on the coin could be that of a Brahmin ascetic performing a yaga,” says Bopearachchi. But I point out that it cannot be an ascetic, because the Sastras forbid a sanyasi from performing yagas. Maybe further research by Bopearachchi will shed more light on this puzzle.

Cultural influences followed in the wake of trade. Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati in Andhra were centres of Buddhism, and when traders from here went to Sri Lanka they took their art with them too.