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 and defeated a yaksha near a place called "Thammena" in Tambapaṇṇī. Later, Vijaya married Kuveni, who was the daughter of a yaksha leader. This marriage 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 grandmother is a princess from the kingdoms of Vanga and Kalinga, which are today Bengal and Odisha. Vijaya’s father, Sinhabahu, fights a lion named Sinha. Vijaya later becomes a prince but is sent away with 700 followers because of his bad actions. He meets a woman named Kuveni who helps him defeat a city and have children, but he must marry a princess from Pandu to rule properly. After Vijaya’s death, another leader from India takes over.

The Dipavamsa tells a similar story but leaves out Kuveni and the princess from South India.

Xuanzang writes about a princess from South India who escapes a lion named Sinha with her children. Her son, Chih-sse-tseu, later kills Sinha but is exiled. He reaches an island called Ratnadeepa (Lanka) and starts a community by capturing and sparing the children of merchants. His family creates classes among people.

The Valahassa Jataka version, shown in paintings at the Ajanta cave in India, features a merchant named Sinhala who sails to Ratnadeepa with 500 followers. They are saved by Yakkhinis, who trick them. Sinhala escapes with some men on a flying horse, but the Yakkhinis follow and cause trouble. Later, Sinhala defeats the Yakkhinis 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 she grew up, Suppadevi left home and joined a caravan heading to Magadha. On the way, they were attacked by a creature called Sinha in the Lala region. Some believe Sinha was a wild, fierce person living in the jungle, while others think he was a actual lion.

Suppadevi met Sinha again, and they had two children: a son named Sinhabahu and a daughter named Sinhasivali. When they grew older, Sinhabahu learned about his mother’s royal family and decided to return to Vanga. With his mother and sister, he escaped and met a cousin of Suppadevi, who later married her. Sinhabahu founded a city called Sinhapura and had many sons, the eldest of whom was Vijaya Singha. The exact location of Sinhapura is still unknown today.

Arrival in Sri Lanka

Vijaya was sent away by his father and 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 in northern India.

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 dangerous spirit named Kuveni who tried to harm them. Vijaya fought her, saved his followers, and made her promise to help them instead. She provided food and goods for them.

Kingdom of Tambapanni

Vijaya woke up to the sounds of music and singing. Kuveni told him that the island was home to Yakkhas, who would kill her for sheltering Vijaya's men, and the sound was from wedding festivities in the Yakkha city of Sirisavatthu. With Kuveni's help, Vijaya defeated the Yakkhas. Vijaya and Kuveni had two children - Jivahatta and Disala. Vijaya established a kingdom which was 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 other followers established 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 emissaries with 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 as brides for Vijaya's followers. Several families volunteered, and were rewarded by the king, who sent a hundred noble maidens, 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 then asked Kuveni, his Yakkhini consort, to leave the community because his citizens feared supernatural beings like her. He offered her money, asking her to leave their two children behind, but Kuveni brought the children along to the Yakkha city of Lankapura. She asked her children to remain behind as she entered the city, where other Yakkhas saw her as a traitor; suspected of spying, she was killed by a Yakkha. On the advice of her maternal 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 bestowed gifts on his ministers and his father-in-law; he abandoned his evil ways, and ruled Lanka in peace and justice.

Final days

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

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, where Panduvasdeva 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 and believe it is used to support claims about land in Sri Lanka.