Who Are We?

by Geewananda Gunawardana,
Ph.D

Years ago, at an international gathering held in New York, someone asked me where I came from. I was living in Chicago at the time, and I told him so. “No, I meant before that,” he insisted. Before that I studied in Australia, and I told him so. Seeing him preparing his next question, my American colleague who witnessed this exchange, shot back “How far back do you want him to go? I am sure that his ancestors migrated out of Africa, just like yours and mine.” The interrogator backed down.

Back then, I thought it was funny, but from a hindsight, I realise that my friend sensed the racist undercurrents of that line of questioning and put a stop to it by stating the obvious. A recent event made me think of the reality of what my friend said and its implications, that is if we can understand what it really means. My Wife and I, both brought up to be proud of our pristine ethnicity that goes back thousands of years, submitted ourselves for genetic testing.

There are not many genetic studies on Sri Lankans, and as a result, conclusions made based on limited data sets can be unreliable, we concluded. We wanted additional information. Unfortunately, authors of history books have inserted their nationalistic, linguistic, and religious biases into their writings. Or, the records reflect only the views of the victorious side and not those of the vanquished or displaced. There is plenty of archeological and anthropological information out there, but to get closer to reality, one must remove the coloured glasses put on us at birth.

The first archaic human species, meaning the first to display the human body type including bipedalism (Homo erectus), evolved in East Africa about two million years ago. Fossil records show that they emigrated out of Africa and populated most of Asia and Europe. Modern humans (Homo sapiens) emerged, also in East Africa, about 300,000 years ago. Sapiens have migrated out of Africa in two waves: the first around 130 to 100 thousand years ago taking a northern route and the second around 70 to 60 thousand years ago taking a southern route, hugging the coastline. These later migrants have both interbred with and or displaced the earlier arrivals while settling in different corners of the globe. For example, there have been several other Homo species, like Neanderthals and Denisovans; while non-existent today some human populations carry Neanderthal genes.

Peopling of the Indian subcontinent, the meeting ground of settlers from several adjoining regions, has been a complex one. Following are the main population groups involved in this process: a) Aboriginal Indians. These are the members of the second wave of humans that left Africa and settled around fifty thousand years ago; b) Iranian farmers; c) Farmers from Central Asian Steppes; and d) East Asian rice farmers. The farmers from Iran and steppes were mainly wheat and barley growers, and their East- Southeast migration had been slowed for some time as their crops were not ideally suited for tropical climate. While rice farming was adopted by all populations, the East Asian farmers have not made much of an impact in populating the country, except in the Northeast corner.

The generally accepted migration pattern of these populations is as follows. Iranian farmers who have arrived in the Indus valley around nine to seven thousand years ago crossed into India, mixed with the aboriginal Indians, and moved southward around four thousand years ago. The resulting population is referred to as Ancestral South Indians. Farmers from the steppes moved to Indus valley, mixed with the Iranian farmers. The Steppes farmers, referred to as Europeans but different from the Germanic Europeans, introduced horses and wheels. This Iranian-Steppes mix moved Eastwards towards the Gangetic valley and mixed with the earlier arrivals. This population is referred to as Indo-Europeans. Their southward migration has been slowed for several reasons. It is generally accepted that it was this latest group that introduced the precursor to Sanskrit language, Vedic literature, and the four-tier caste system.

Some argue that it was the strict caste system that prevented further mixing and southward spread of this Indo-European group. These classifications and nomenclature have created much controversy and debate. The use of terms like Ancient Northern Indians and Ancient Southern Indians are disputed as their origins are outside of India. The use of Aryans and Dravidians is equally controversial, and arbitrary.

Now, let us see what happened in Sri Lanka. The maximum depth of the 48 km long Adams Bridge is about 10 meters while most of the shoals are less than 1 metre underwater. During the height of the ice age, between 80 to 20 thousand years ago, the sea levels stood about 120 meters below the current level. Therefore, Sri Lanka had been part of the Indian landmass, allowing for the southward migrations to reach the island, until the sea level rose about six thousand years ago.

Archaeological evidence indicates that some of the early migrations reached the island as early as 125,000 years ago. Modern human fossils found in Sri Lanka have been dated back to 36,000 years (Deraniyagala 1992). Remarkably, these are the only reports of that antiquity in Southeast Asia. They were hunter gatherers using tools belonging to the middle stone age. They thrived until people skilled in agriculture and cattle breeding arrived around 2,800 years ago.

Then the narration of the great chronicles takes over, which describes migrations from Northern India along the maritime routes. The arrival of North Indian prince Vijaya, with his retinue of 700 men, and ruling the country from 543 to 505 BCE is the cornerstone of this narration. There are many associated legends that cannot be verified. Vijaya’s campaign to eliminate the natives, who belonged to Yaksha and Naga tribes, is one. Some report Vijaya being from the Northeast coast of India while the others suggest a Northwest origin. However, linguists and historians see a connection between Sinhala and the languages spoken along the Konkani coast, favouring a Northwest origin. Realistically, there are no reasons to rule out continuous exchanges between India and Sri Lanka along the east and west maritime routs as well as through the shallow seas in the Palk Strait throughout the history.

Let us turn to genetic studies. Humans are a genetically homogeneous species; this suggests a population collapse in relatively recent times, leaving a small number of females of reproductive age. Modern technologies developed in the field of genetics can use a type of markers known as mutations to track the genealogy of an individual or a population despite this homogeneity. When a cell divides, its genetic material or DNA is duplicated and distributed equally among the two daughter cells. During this copying process some errors are made. Genes or DNA is a set of instructions written in a language that has five letters: A, T, G, C, and U. The words in this language are made up of three letters. It has its own punctuation and sentence structure. Most of the copying errors are misspellings, typos as we say. These errors, known as mutations, can do three things: a) does not alter the meaning, so nothing happens, b) makes the instructions indecipherable rendering cells non-viable, and c) provides instructions to do something new. This third function is the all-important mechanism of evolution. This is how the Europeans became light skinned to make vitamin D in the limited sunlight. In any case, these errors are known as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), and these are the most common markers used in genetic studies to trace genetic history. To be accurate, there are other types of mutations, but this is not the place to discuss them.

There are several small-scale genetic studies conducted on Sri Lankans. The most recent open access publication by Singh and others provides references to these studies (Singh et al., iScience 26, 102797 October 20, 2023). I am using the set of data reported by Ranaweera (2014) and graphically represented by Chaubey (2014) for this discussion, as these data are representative of the overall findings. I will not describe the technical details involved in this type of study here, except to say that data represent mitochondrial DNA haplogroup analysis that allows tracing the maternal ancestry. (See Fig.)

These are the most striking facts that emerge from these data: the major ancestral share of all Sri Lankans, i.e. those identify as upcountry, low country, and mixed Sinhala; Sri Lankan and Indian Tamil; and Adivasi population, is the Ancient South Indian genotype, which is considered as consisting of 75% Ancient Ancestral South Indian and 25% Iranian Farmer genotypes. All Sri Lankans have over 60% of this type. At the same time all Sri Lankans, except the Indian Tamils, also carry more than 20% Indo-European genotype. Not surprisingly, considering the island’s geographical location in the East-West maritime route and 500 years of European occupation, Sri Lankans also carry anywhere from 6 to 14% of other genotypes, which are not identified in this study. Sri Lankan Moors are not included in this data set, but they too carry a high percentage of Ancient South Indian genotype indicating mixing with the other types (Perera 2021).

This genetic homogeneity of different “races” should not come as a surprise. Our ancestors have been living on this island for nearly three millennia through war, peace, and famine. As can be seen all over the world, interbreeding can happen under any condition, for better or for worse. In more recent history, mercenaries have been brought into the country. They did not become monastics after the war ended or go back to where they came from. They settled down in the south and assimilated without trace. Not only genes, but words, customs, beliefs, and food were exchanged. The boundaries between so-called Adivasis, Aryans, Dravidians, Moors, or others are porous and have no meaning in the big picture. They have the same origins, and as a result they all have the same equal rights.

Now you may be wondering about my ancestry. I am a low country Sinhala, and my wife is upcountry Sinhala, and we both fit into the respective profiles that the data suggest. But we differ in the unspecified segment. I have some Dutch and a little East Asian ancestry. She has Anglo genes. It came as a shock, but who knows what else Robert Knox was up to in addition to observing Kandyan life during those nineteen years!

The loud and clear message these data send us is that genetically we Sri Lankans are the same. Attempt to put labels based on who came first or what language is superior is an utterly meaningless but quite successful technique that those seeking power have employed throughout history. It is called divide and conquer, and examples are there all over the world for everyone to see. Despite these manmade divisions, for which we have been tricked to commit atrocities on each other, we have common origins, we were born on this land, and share a common destiny. We must open our minds and think of the nation first and avoid falling to sectarian trickeries of hideous power seekers with dubious intentions. We are Sri Lankas, that is the truth, and that is what matters.