Govigama - Kandyan Period

Kandyan Period

For the past 1.700 years the only undisputed symbol of Sri Lankan Royalty and Leadership has been the sacred Tooth Relic of Gautama Buddha. Whosoever possessed this was acknowledged as the rightful ruler of Lanka, and thus the Tooth Relic was a possession exclusive to the ruling dynasty of Sri Lanka. Upon each change of capital, a new palace was built to enshrine the Relic. Finally, in 1595 it was brought to Kandy where it is at present, in the Temple of the Tooth. However, even in the land-locked Kandyan kingdom 'Unambuwe' a son of a concubine of some considerable background was deemed not of 'royalty', hence a Tamil of royalty was imported from Madurai. This last Kandyan royal dynasty (four kings) of Nayake origin was from the Balija caste Even King Senarat Adahasin's regent, Antonio Baretto Kuruwita Rala, Prince of Ouva, was not from the Govi cast

The oldest Buddhist sect in Sri Lanka, the Siam Nikaya (estd. 19 July 1753) are the custodians of the Tooth Relic, since its establishment during the Kandyan Kingdom. The Siyam Nikaya uses caste based divisions, & as of 1764 grants Higher ordination only to the Radala and Govigama castes and excludes other castes from its numbers, Sitinamaluwe Dhammajoti (Durawa) being the last nongovigama monk receive upasampada. This conspiracy festered within the Siyam nikaya itself and Moratota Dhammakkandha, Mahanayaka of Kandy, with the help of the last two Kandyan Tamil kings victimized the low country Mahanayaka Karatota Dhammaranma by confiscating the Sri Paadha shrine and the retinue villages from the low country fraternity and appointing a rival Mahanayaka (Presently, an exception is the Rangiri Dambula sect which welcomes all communities while being a Siyam nikaya subsect).

Traditionally the Govi caste had worked the fields for the Bamunu or Radala caste specifically and there is evidence from the recent Kandyan period that they never cultivated for other castes such as the Wahumpura and the palanquin bearer Bathgama caste (Sri Lankáve Ithihásaya III. 287, JRASCB XXXVI No.100.156.etc.) They continued to do so until the Paddy Lands Act was introduced in 1958. The superior manner in which cultivators approached and interacted even with blacksmiths from the Navandanna caste is described by Robert Knox (1641–1720) in his An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon. Knox’s description illustrates the relative ritual positions of the two castes.

The Sri Lankan state sponsored ‘Practical Sinhala Dictionary’, edited by Harischandra Wijayatunga (subsequent leader of the Sinhalaye Mahasammatha Bhoomiputra Pakshaya a chauvinistic Sinhala Buddhist political party), and published by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in 1983 went to the extent of defining Govi puth as ‘land owners’ and all other castes as low castes. (compare with the contrasting historical meaning of this term in the Jatakas given above) It was successfully challenged in Supreme Court and the Human Rights Commission by Karavas and amended. (SC Appn. 98/82 and Human Rights Commission settlement of 02/12/87)