Prince Sinhala or Vijaya and the merchant tribes.

Below the Tibetan plateau lies the Indian peninsula. Compromising an area of about 3.8 million square kilometres. Twice in world history has an independent government seated in India controlled nearly the entire peninsula. the first occasion being during the Aryan or Vedict period when the capital was Patna. The second occasion being the empire of the Moghuls whose capital was in Delhi. These cities are about 900 kilometres apart.

The boundary of the peninsula is mainly provided by the Himalayan range and it's spurs. Entry of the Aryans to the Ganges valley marks significant change in the mode of their lives.

By the 6th century BC there were 16 Aryan states, Out of which 4 were very important. The four states were Avanti with its capital in Ujjain, Vainsas with its capital at Kasambi, Kosala with its capital at Ayodhya, Magadha with its capital at Rajagriha. However our story derives around Sinhapura the capital of Lala state in the Kalinga region of India (Modern day Odissa)

A mural painted in the fifth century a.d. at the Ajanta Caves shows the arrival of a princely ship to the Sri Lankan shores. The painting being one of the oldest foreign records of the islands historical connection with India even though it was painted 10 centuries after the incident took place it would have been a part of the folklore in Buddhist India. This also served as a record of the Buddhist heritage of India which was transmitted to Sri Lanka during the reign of King Ashoka. The mural itself is important piece of evidence about the Islands prehistory. The ancient Legends of the islands people begin in Northern India. The arrival of prince Vijaya and 700 of his followers from Sinhapura bought in new culture to this Indian Ocean Island which by then too had a thriving civilization. Then they gradually ousted and assimilated old cultural groups that called the island home.

The ancestry of Prince Vijaya the legendary founder of the Singhalese can be traced back to King Sinhabahu who was a rebellion who killed his own farther who is the founder of the kingdom called Sinhapura in ancient India. This story is reminiscent of the legends of Babylon where ritual combat with an animal was a part of the sacred Kings Coronation mysteries.

The story of Prince Vijayas arrival into the island has many tales to it.

As per the Valahassa folktale the prince who comes to the island is engaged in Merchant activities and is called Prince Sinhala the son of King Sinha. He and his followers sail for the Ratnadeepa Island (Then Sri Lanka) which was famous for Gems. They get shipwrecked and are helped by the Yakkhinis (Females) of the Yaksha Clan who prey on Shipwrecked merchants of the time. The Yakkhinis pretend to be the widows of earlier merchants who visited. Prince Sinhala marries the chief Yakkhini but then discovers their true identity. He and some of his men return back to their Kingdom. However the Yakkhini follows him and meets his farther King Sinha in the kindom of Sinhapura and says she was wronged by the prince his son. She devours him and his family but spares Prince Sinhala out of love. She then returns back to the island and kills the remaining of Sinhalas followers. Prince Sinhala succeeds his father as the King. He then leads a military expedition to Ratnadeepa and defeats the Yaksha clan and establishes the Sinhala Kindom in Ratnadeepa.

Many Merchant tribes arrived to Sri Lanka during this period from the great Indian Subcontinent. These Indo Aryan tribes mainly from the north bought with them their social and economic livelihoods plus religious beliefs. Vijaya and the clan of 700 men are one such illustration of these Merchant tribe travels which is illustrated in the Mahawansa (Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka). Many of these early merchant immigrants and the use of their Indo Aryan language is the birth of the modern singhala language which derives from Sanskrit. The languages of South India are mainly Dravidian hence the similarities between the northern Indo Aryan languages and sinhalese confirms the early settlers arrived via sea routes for trading. Among the many clans that arrived the ancestors of Prince Sinha (Vijaya) seem to have been the most powerful. They contributed to the foundations of a Civilization based on agriculture and Buddhism which have survived for more than 2 millennia.