THE KARAVE FLAG - Cont.
(7) The Torches.
The dawalapandam or daylight torches are still used by the Karáve people on
ceramonial occasions. Barradas observes the custom ("candles lighted in the
day-time"), at a Karáve wedding procession in 1613.
Barbosa speaks of the torches as part of the royal insignia, though he appears to have been under the impression that they were used only at night, having probably witnessed a royal progress at night-time: "And if the king goes by night, they carry four large chandeleers of iron, fall of oil with many lighted wicks."
A specially interesting feature in the torches depicted on the Karáve flag is the fact that these are chandeleers with many lighted wicks, and each chandeleer carries five distinct lights. Neville (Taprobanium, April, 1887) makes some interesting observations on these torches with the five lights, which he saw used at a fire-passing ceremony in honour of Draupadi and the five Pandavas. The use of the caste-flag appears to have been an essential part of the ceremony, and at Chilaw, where the rite was practised in its purest form, Neville observed that the caste-flag was the Makara "representing the Varna-Kula."
This rite in honour of the five Pandavas was specially practised on the Coromandel Coast between Negapatam and, Kurnool, (Indian Antiquary 1873), presumably by a people who had special traditional reasons for commemorating these heroes of the Mahabharata. Contingents of Karáve soldiers reached Ceylon at different times from the Coromandel Coast, for instance, in the time of Parakrama Báhu VI., from Kanchipura, Kavéri.pattanam, and Kilikare, and there is little doubt that the ritual of the five Pandavăs was introduced into Ceylon by them, the same clan-names, Varnakula, Kurukula, etc., occurring to this day among Karáve people in Ceylon, and on the, Coromandel Coast, at Negapatam and elsewhere. (Thurston, "Races of South India.")
With the custom of the five-wicked torch commemorating the five Pandavas, it
seems pertinent to compare the Karáve custom, which was remarked by the
Portuguese Jesuits at
Chilaw in 1606, of having five Pattangatins or chiefs to rule their communities
(Ceylon Antiquary Jily, 1916).
The torch (sula) occurs, often in conjunction, with the fish, on a series of
royal
inscriptions in the Tissamaharáma district.
The use of the ceremonial torches was sometimes conceded by the king (e.g. on the Uggalboda sannas of the 15th century) to privileged individuals as a mark of high distinction.
(8) The Fans. (Alawattam)
The fan as an emblem of honour has a respectable antiquity. It occurs, with the
whisk, on the relief of Assur-banipal and his queen referred to above. An
Etruscan sarcophagus, now in a museum at Rome, holds a releief depicting a
matron, with attendants on either side, one of whom holds a hydria on her head
and a cantharus in her hand, another with a large fan, "exactly like the
Indian fans of the present day." (Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria).
This Etruscan use of the pitcher, beaker, and fan, calls to mind the offer of a pitcher and a beaker of gold as royal emblems by a Sinhalese King, and the use of the pitcher and the fan among the emblems on the canopy over the Ivory Throne at the Brazen Palace.
The Gandhara relief, in the Lahore Museum, represents the Buddha attend by a Vajrapani holding a fan.
Borbosa's mention of the fans among the insignia of the king of Ceylon in 1514 has already been referred to. Pridham describes their use by the First Adigar at Kandy, the talipots, according to him being "large, triangular fans, ornamented with talc."
The use of the talipots and the lion flag were conceded by the king to a chief in the Uggalboda sannas, together with the use of the ceremonial torches.
(9) The Shields.
The shields depicted on the Karáve flag are white, and each bears a device in
the centre. The "white discs" used at the Karáve wedding at Moratuwa
in 1613, were either shields (shields in ancient Ceylon being always circular),
or they were affixed to a pole and borne as maces, as represented on the Ajanta
paintings. Barrados' account of the wedding is as follows:-
"The wedded pair come walking on white cloths, with which the ground is
successively
carpeted, and are covered above with others of the same kind, which the nearest
relatives hold in their extended hands after the fashion of a canopy. The
symbols that they carry are white discs, and candles lighted in the day-time,
and certain shells which they keep playing on in place of bag-pipes. All these
are Royal Symbols which the former kings conceded to this race of people, that
being strangers they should inhabit the coasts of Ceilao, and none but they or
those to whom they give leave can use them."
Apparently the wedding described here was one of the poorer class of Karáve people, the white cloth held as a canopy taking the place of the pearl umbrella.
Barrados goes on to observe, "what causes wonder in this and in other people of this kind, is, that although so wretched, miserable, and poor, they have so many points of honour, that they would rather die than go contrary to it."
The royal shield appears to have resembled the Karave shield: "The royal shield was white, with the device of a conch-shell." (E. W. Perera. Sinhalese Banners and Standards.)
De Barros speaks of the Crown Prince of Jaffna being conspicuous on a certain occasion by the white shield which he bore. (C.B.R.A.S. Journal Vol. XX.)
A Portuguese general had with him "as a badge of royalty" two Mudaliyars with white shields. (C.B.R.A.S. Journal XI. 574). The use of the white cloths, white canopy, and white shields at the Karave wedding described above by Bŕrrados is significant. "White was the royal colour. Its use was limited by sumptuary law to particular privileged individuals and classes." (E. W. Perera: Ancient Sinhalese Heraldry.)
(10) The Snake.
The snake on the Karáve flag has every appearance of being a full-blooded
Cobra. Mr. E. W. Perera, (Sinhalese Banners and Standards), describes the snakes
as diya-naya or water-snake.
A snake and a fish were included among the twenty-one emblems of an Indian King (Gazatteer of India, Madara District.)
Some authorities omit the snake, and include two river fishes among the emblems of an Indian King: (See the Diet, of European Mission Pondicherry.)
Mr. E. W. Perera has apparently, either from a slight confusion of ideas or a strong sense of economic justice, transferred the river-attribute of one of the fishes to, the snake.
(11) The Fish.
The fish was one of the emblems of royalty in India, Among the Hindus, the fish
was regarded as a sacred animal. "One of the principal articles of the
Hindu faith is that relating to the
ten avatars or incarnations of Vishnu. The first and earliest is called the
Matsya-avatar, that is the incarnation of the god in the form of a fish"
(Dubois Hindu Manners Customs and Ceremonies.)
"The Matsya-Purana opens with an account of the matsya or fish . . . and deals with the creation, the royal dynasties, and the duties of the different orders," ( Dutt. Civilization in Ancient India.)
A people called the Matsyas figure prominently in the wars of the Mahabharata, and the reigning family of Pandya claimed to be a branch of the Matsya-vansa; hence the origin of fish as the special emblem of the Pandyan Kings.
The Dravidian word for fish is Min. The Pandyan Kings of Madura took the title of Minavan or " He of the Fish or Fisher". The Pandyan tutelary goddess was Minakshi, the fish-eyed goddess ( of, the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva, and the Etruscan Minerva ), to whom a temple was built in Ceylon by Vijaya when he married a Pandyan princess. A coin of Devanampiyatissa, found at Tissamaharáma, bears the fish, torch, and trident. The fish (often in conjunction with the torch), occurs as a royal emblem on a series of rock inscriptions in Ceylon, described and deciphered at length by Neville in the Taprobanian, and by Parker in Ancient Ceylon. On one of these inscriptions, discovered at Lower Bintenne, the fish appears to be particularly complete, being clearly drawn, according to Neville, with " pectoral and dorsal fin, tail, eye, and gill."
"The use of the royal arms," observes Neville, referring to the fish and torch emblems, "is unknown to me, to occur anywhere except in grants of the paramount reigning princes" (Taprobanian June, 1886).
The famous Stone Lion, from Polonnaruwa, now in the Colombo Museum, which formed part of the Lion Throne at Polonnaruwa, bears an inscription stating that the throne was built for Nissanka Malla, Lankeswara or Overlord of Ceylon, and terminating with the figure of a fish, in token of paramount royalty.
(12) The Sun-Flowers.
"The sun-flower was the badge of the royal house." (E. W. Perera.
Ancient Sinhalese Heraldry) The royal line belonged to the Suriyavansa
"that royal race of the caste of the sun... none could inherit the empire
of Ceilao except those that came directly from that caste. Of this caste came
directly the princes whom the king of Cotta married to his daughter though he
was poor and without a heritance" (De Couto).
Surya (sun) occurs so frequently as a suffix in family-names. nearly exclusively
the family-names of members of the Kaurava Vanse, that this suffix is at the
present day practically
an indication of caste. Karave family names ending in Suriya range over the
alphabet fromAbeysuriya to Wickramasuriya.
(13) The Sprigs.
The significance of the leafed sprig on the Karáve flag is a matter for
conjecture. I suggest that the sprig stands for the, wreath of margosa which
Pandyan warriors wore around their heads when they went to war (Gazetteer of
India: Madura District) or, more probably, the allusion is to the tradition
preserved in the Janawansa, that Karáve soldiers accompanied Mahinda and
Sanghamitta on their mission to Ceylon with a branch of the bo-tree at
Buddhagaya.
(14) The Lotus.
The emblems on the flag appear on a ground semé with the lotus. "The lotus
was the badge of the nation." (E. W. Perera: Ancient Sinhalese Heraldry).
The lotus is without doubt the most frequent motif in Eastern decorative art. It
appears unceasingly in the art of Egypt, Assyria, and India, and was adopted
also by the decorative artists of Etruria and Greece. In Egyptian art it was
associated with the idea of immortality, in the Buddhist art of India with the
idea of miraculous birth. It has been so highly and so variously charged with
significance, and so frequently used, that in time it degenerated into cant,
became devoid of symbolic meaning altogether, and is employed most often purely
for decorative effect.
