Prince Vijaya

Prince Vijaya

Prince Vijaya (Sinhala:විජය) (c. 543–505 BCE) was a legendary king of Tambapanni, based in modern day Sri Lanka. Stories about him were first written down in a book called the Mahāvaṃsa.

Vijaya is said to have come to Sri Lanka with seven hundred followers after being sent away from Sinhapura.

When he arrived on the island, Vijaya and his group met a yaksha near a place called "Thammena" in Tambapaṇṇī. Later, Vijaya married Kuveni, who was the daughter of a yaksha leader. This helped Vijaya become the ruler of that area.

Sources and variations

There are four stories about how the Sinhalese people began. In each story, a prince comes to the island of Lanka and starts a community that leads to the Sinhalese people.

The Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa tell of a prince named Vijaya. In the Mahavamsa, Vijaya’s father, Sinhabahu, fights a lion named Sinha. Vijaya later becomes a prince but is sent away with 700 followers. He meets a woman named Kuveni who helps him, and he later marries a princess from Pandu to rule properly.

The Dipavamsa tells a similar story but leaves out some details.

Xuanzang writes about a princess from South India who escapes a lion named Sinha with her children. Her son later reaches an island called Ratnadeepa (Lanka) and starts a community.

The Valahassa Jataka version features a merchant named Sinhala who sails to Ratnadeepa with 500 followers. They are saved by Yakkhinis, and Sinhala later defeats them and starts the Sinhalese kingdom.

Ancestry

According to the Mahāvaṃsa, a king from Vanga married a princess named Mayavati from Kalinga. They had a daughter named Suppadevi.

When Suppadevi grew up, she left home and joined a caravan going to Magadha. On the way, they were attacked by a creature called Sinha in the Lala region. Some think Sinha was a wild person from the jungle, while others believe he was a lion.

Suppadevi met Sinha again, and they had two children: a son named Sinhabahu and a daughter named Sinhasivali. When they were older, Sinhabahu learned about his mother’s royal family. He decided to return to Vanga with his mother and sister. They met a cousin of Suppadevi, who later married her.

Sinhabahu founded a city called Sinhapura and had many sons. The eldest was Vijaya Singha. The exact location of Sinhapura is still unknown today.

Arrival in Sri Lanka

Vijaya was sent away by his father, the king, after causing trouble. He and 700 followers were put on a ship and sent to sea. They landed in a place called Tambapanni in what is now Sri Lanka on the same day that Gautama Buddha passed away.

According to stories, a god named Indra asked another god, Upulvan, to watch over Vijaya so that Buddhism could grow in that land. Vijaya tied a special thread on his followers' hands for protection. Later, they met a spirit named Kuveni who offered to help them. She provided food and goods for them.

Kingdom of Tambapanni

Vijaya woke up to music and singing. Kuveni told him that the island was home to Yakkhas, who would kill her for helping Vijaya's men. With Kuveni's help, Vijaya defeated the Yakkhas. Vijaya and Kuveni had two children - Jivahatta and Disala. Vijaya established a kingdom named Tambapanni ("copper-red hands"), because the men's hands were coloured by the area's red soil. Members of Vijaya's community were called Sinhala, after Sinhabahu.

Vijaya's ministers and followers set up several villages; Upatissa established Upatissagāma on the bank of the Gambhira river, north of Anuradhagama. Vijaya's followers decided to crown him king, but for this he needed a maiden of a noble house as queen. His ministers sent gifts to the city of Madhura, which was ruled by a Pandya king (Madhura is identified with Madurai, a city in Tamil Nadu). The king agreed to send his daughter as Vijaya's bride, and asked other families to offer their daughters for Vijaya's followers. Several families volunteered, and the king sent a hundred noble women, craftsmen, a thousand families from 18 guilds, elephants, horses, wagons and other gifts. The group landed in Lanka at a port known as Mahatittha.

Vijaya asked Kuveni, his Yakkhini consort, to leave the community because his people feared supernatural beings like her. He offered her money, asking her to leave their two children behind, but Kuveni took the children to the Yakkha city of Lankapura. She asked her children to stay behind as she entered the city, where other Yakkhas saw her as a traitor; she was killed by a Yakkha. On the advice of her uncle, the children fled to Sumanakuta (identified with Adam's Peak). In the Malaya region of Lanka, they married and began the Pulinda race (identified with the Vedda people, not to be confused with the Pulindas of India).

Vijaya was crowned king. The Pandya king's daughter became his queen, and other women were married to his followers according to their rank. Vijaya gave gifts to his ministers and his father-in-law; he changed his ways, and ruled Lanka in peace and justice.

Final days

Vijaya worried in his old age that he would die without an heir. He wanted his twin brother Sumitta from India to rule his kingdom. He sent a letter to Sumitta but died before getting a reply. Vijaya’s ministers from Upatissagāma ruled for a year while they waited.

In Sinhapura, Sumitta had become king and had three sons. When Vijaya’s messengers arrived, Sumitta asked one of his sons to go to Lanka because he was too old. Panduvasdeva, Sumitta’s youngest son, volunteered. He and 32 sons of Sumitta’s ministers traveled to Lanka. Panduvasdeva then became the new ruler.

Significance

In Sri Lanka, the story of Prince Vijaya is often used to talk about where the Sinhalese people come from. Some Sinhalese scholars, like K. M. de Silva, use this story to show that the Sinhalese have origins from the Indo-Aryan people, making them different from the Dravidian groups. However, some Tamil writers, such as Satchi Ponnambalam, think the story is made up.