Ruminations on Sri Lanka’s Ancient Past – V –  Protohistoric Iron Age

By Seneka Abeyratne

An extensive literature review conducted by C.R. Panabokke, Evolution of the Indigenous Village Irrigation Systems of Sri Lanka (2010) shows there is little evidence to support the contention that there were mass migrations of ‘Indo-Aryans’ to Sri Lanka during the ‘Vijayan’ period (6th Century BCE). On the contrary, the most likely scenario is that there were sporadic movements of small communities from the subcontinent, as well as other parts of monsoon Asia, into the island during the ‘pre-Vijayan’ period, which were accompanied by a transfer of Early Iron Age technology and other cultural elements, mainly from Peninsular and Deccan India (Panabokke 2010).

During this period, which roughly corresponds to the Early Iron Age (ca 1000 to 500 BCE), there were robust communities scattered throughout the dry zone that engaged in hunter-gathering, semi-nomadic activities, and sedentary chena (slash-and-burn) farming, otherwise known as swidden agriculture. We may note that the Early Iron Age is called protohistoric as the existing culture had not yet developed writing during this period (Deraniyagala, S.U. The Prehistory and Protohistory of Sri Lanka, 2007). According to SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda, Nihal Fernando, et al (Eloquence in Stone: The Lithic Saga of Sri Lanka, 2008), who have conducted research on Sri Lanka’s lithic saga, there was a new peopling of the island around 1000 BCE although it is not clear where these early settlers came from. The next five hundred years (Protohistoric Iron Age) saw the emergence of recognizable micro-zones and semi-specialized economies based on mineral and other natural resources in the dry zone (Senanayake, A.M.P. A Study on Social Identity Based on the Brahmi Inscriptions of the Early Historic Period in the North Western Province, 2017).

Reddish brown earths

Iron technology focused increasingly on developing the kinds of heavy-duty tools required for swiddening, which involved clearing an area for cultivation by slashing and burning the vegetation in the reddish brown earth (RBE) regions of the dry zone. These were harder and sharper than the tools used earlier. It is likely that the swiddens (chenas) were ploughed with hoes, a technology which has remained more or less unchanged through the course of time.

If one wonders why this is so, the reason is that the RBEs in most parts of Sri Lanka are non-friable, in other words, sticky when wet and hard when dry (Panabokke, C.R. Soils of Ceylon and Fertilizer Use, 1967). Consequently, ploughing these soils with buffaloes or tractors is difficult, if not impossible. They have to be dug with a hoe. ‘Ploughing’ chena lands in ancient times was probably nothing more than surface scratching with a rudimentary hoe.

Be that as it may, further refinements in iron technology facilitated the transition from rainfed to rudimentary irrigated farming in the ‘hard rock basement region’ of the dry zone in the 3rd Century BCE. The terms ‘planation surface’ and ‘etched plain’ are used interchangeably to describe the weathered or etched hard rock surface, which is a defining feature of the areas within the dry zone where the early rudimentary village tank settlements evolved (Panabokke, C.R. Small Village Tank Systems of Sri Lanka: Their Evolution, Setting, Distribution and Essential Functions, 2009).

Origins of small village tank system

Simple techniques for surface storage of water were developed largely in response to the lack of any form of shallow groundwater in this region, which roughly corresponds to the island’s North Central Province (NCP). A similar terrain is also to be found in some parts of the North Western Province (NWP). First came the rudimentary ponds, then the larger-sized pools, which were of sufficient depth to store water for domestic use during the long dry season (May to September).

It is likely that the protohistoric village, as a cohesive unit of human settlement, first evolved in the basement rock terrain of the dry zone during the ‘pre-Vijayan’ era. To quote Panabokke: “It could be confidently asserted that the small tank evolution that took place on the ‘etched plains’ of North Central Sri Lanka had been the outcome of the local genius of the early settlers on this landscape rather than one introduced by early Aryan settlers as opined by several historians” (Panabokke 2009).

The Sinhalese settlers who, like the earlier migrants, arrived in small groups at intervals, integrated closely with these communities, thereby diversifying the gene pool and the cultural landscape. Panabokke (op cit, 2010) recalls that according to the Mahavamsa legend, Kuveni was seated by a pool spinning cotton when Prince Vijaya first set eyes upon her. The existence of the pool, or rudimentary pond, implies that (a) superior iron tools had been developed for digging through the hard basement rock and (b) the pond created in this manner was used for bathing during the dry season. We have just seen that this was indeed the case. The other aspect of the story, Kuveni spinning cotton, also has a grain of truth in it when we consider that the three leading rainfed crops cultivated in the RBE region of the island during the same period (as reported by the above author) were gingelly, finger millet, and cotton (ibid).

It is likely that garments worn in those days were made of locally manufactured coarse cotton cloth. To quote from another author: “Cotton was grown extensively in ancient Sri Lanka. There are references in the ancient period to ‘kapu hen’, meaning chenas that grew cotton. Records indicate that women were spinning and weaving with cotton thread from 6th Century BC to 14th Century AD,” (Pieris, Kamalika, Some Domestic Industries of Ancient and Medieval Sri Lanka, Daily News, November 13, 2008). We can also infer from the Kuveni legend that semi-settled, agro-pastoral communities had already emerged in Sri Lanka when the first Sinhalese migrants arrived from northern India. Some modern historians are inclined to believe that a yakkhini called Kuveni never existed. But it is only when we subject the above legend to a scientific interpretation do we realise that though its historicity is in doubt, its significance is not.

As settlements grew around the rudimentary pond-reservoirs, they were converted to small village tanks which continued to provide water for domestic use. With further advances in iron-age technology, deeper village tanks were constructed which were capable of supplying water for domestic use as well as agriculture during the protracted dry season. Consequently, it became possible to cultivate rice as a lowland irrigated crop.