Information AboutEllalan |
|
BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE Born as a Chola prince of the ancient South India at Poompugaar , was the first son of a Vaiyaavi princess and Chola queen . He was the younger brother of the Chola king Ellagan . Ellaalan wanted a kingdom of his own and was attracted to the emerald island Sri Lanka when he set out in doing so . He conquered Sri Lanka in 205 B.C.E. and set up his own kingdom and put the Sinhala king Asela to death. ADMINISTRATION He was a king of the masses so close to their hearts that even the Sinhalas . The Sinhalas were differentiated in the 2nd century Sri Lanka as those who followed Buddhism and those who talked Sinhala language which was a hybrid of the native Tamil and the Kalinga and the Buddhist language Pali . They hailed him as their lord and 'their own king' and popularly called as "Élaezha Singhan" meaning ''the sweet fragrant Eezha son of the Sinhalas'' (Eezha was the native name of Old Sri Lanka and Sinhala or Singha-Eezha was the name given to the followers of Prince Vijaya {Lion-born} and his religion the Buddhism ) . In his country people were free to practice any form of God and religion . He is said to have treated the Sinhala s as equal with the Tamil s . He even built the Ellaala Sohana , a Buddhist '''''stupa''''' for his beloved people . THE JUST He was known as the "''Manu needhi kaaththa Cholan '' " -'one who preserved the doctrine of Manu or Dharma ', in all of the ancient Tamil Sangam Literature and in the SriLankan Chronicle the Mahavamsa . Though a Hindu, his secular justice commanded respect of his Sinhala subjects . Concerning this the Mahavamsa relates that the king had a bell with a rope attached at the head of his bed, so that all who sought redress might ring it. Among other instances of the royal justice the chronicle tells how a calf was killed unintentionally by the chariot wheel of the king's son, and how, on the mother cow ringing the bell, the father had the prince's head struck off by the same wheel. THE END OF AN EPIC In 161 B.C.E. the now son-less seventy four year old Tamil king was called for an one-to-one battle(arm to arm) by the young strong native prince Dutte Gamini , and was was slain by him in single combat . In the southern gate of the city of Anuradhapura , his body was burnt with royal honours, and such was the respect in which he was held that succeeding kings of Lanka silenced their musical instruments when passing his tomb in procession. The so-called Ellala Sohona or Tomb of Ellala at Anuradhapura does not mark his burial-place, but is the Dakkhina Thupa or Southern Dagaba built by the secular Ellaala for the Buddhists in 200 B.C.E. REFERENCES |
|
|