Rama Setu: Mahendra, son of Asoka crossed by road to Lanka

Scholar says there was road to Lanka

Deccan Chronicle (May 19, 2008)

Chennai, May 18: A Sinhala scholar's remark that Mahendra, son of Emperor Asoka, reached the island nation by land from South India has further substantiated the existence of Ram Sethu, the controversial structure in the Indian Ocean. “Mahendra preached Buddhism in south India for some time before embarking on his Sri Lanka mission. He had toured entire South India before reaching the Island by road,” said Prof Tissa Kariyawasam, eminent Sinhala scholar and former dean of the University of Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka.

Prof Kariyawasam told this newspaper that “Mahavamsa,” the great chronicle of Buddhist history was silent about Mahendra’s south India mission. “The chroniclers wanted to give an aura of divinity to Mahendra and hence they made his appearance in Sri Lanka look like a miracle. In reality, he walked all the way from south India to Lanka through the existing road route,” said Prof Kariyawasam.

“The Buddhist scholars who chronicled all these events wanted to give Mahendra the image of an Aryan missionary. The Buddhist history is also silent about the migration from South India to Lanka. How is it that no records were made about the people of south India which is hardly 23 km away from Jaffna,” asked Prof Kariyawasam who was in Chennai to deliver the sixth Vesak Commemoration lecture.

According to Prof Kariyawasam, it was the change in the main political agenda of the Sinhala politicians which led to the vitiation of the Sinhala-Tamil relations. “There was no difference between the Sinhalas and the Tamils during the British Raj. We could observe Buddha Purnima as a national holiday because of the good work done by a Tamil leader Ponnambalam Ramanathan. Though there were two Sinhala members in the state council (equivalent of Parliament) in 1885, they looked the other way when Mr Ramanathan fought for the Sihala cause,” said the professor. He charged that the ungrateful Sinhala politicians conspired and ousted the Ponnambalam brothers Ramanathan and Arunachalam from the state council in 1921. About a permanent solution to the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka, Prof Kariyawasam said that peace would return the day people in the country understand the ultimate truth that there were no differences between them.

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Scholar hints at existence of Ram Sethu
NewsByte 18 May, 2008 03:47:27 By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Chennai, May 18: A Sinhala scholar’s remark that Mahendra, son of Emperor Asoka, reached the island nation by land from South India has further substantiated the existence of Ram Sethu, the controversial structure in the Indian Ocean.

"Mahendra preached Buddhism in south India for some time before embarking on his Sri Lanka mission. He had toured entire South India before reaching the Island by road," said Prof. Tissa Kariyawasam, eminent Sinhala scholar and former dean of the University of Jayawardenapura, Sri Lanka. Prof. Kariyawasam told this newspaper that "Mahavamsa", the great chronicle of Buddhist history was silent about Mahendra’s south India mission. "The chroniclers wanted to give an aura of divinity to Mahendra and hence they made his appearance in Sri Lanka look like a miracle. In reality, he walked all the way from south India to Lanka through the existing road route," said Prof. Kariyawasam.

"The Buddhist scholars who chronicled all these events wanted to give Mahendra the image of an Aryan missionary. The Buddhist history is also silent about the migration from South India to Lanka. How is it that no records were made about the people of south India which is hardly 23 km away from Jaffna," asked Prof. Kariyawasam who was in Chennai to deliver the Sixth Vesak Commemoration Lecture. According to Prof. Kariyawasam, it was the change in the main political agenda of the Sinhala politicians which led to the vitiation of the Sinhala-Tamil relations. "There was no difference between the Sinhalas and the Tamils during the British Raj."

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