Ceylon
Ceylon
Island, self-governing colony of the British Empire , in the Indian Ocean; area, 25,332 square miles. Catholicity was introduced into Ceylon in 1518 by Franciscans , who built churches and monasteries , preached the Faith, and made thousands of converts. Saint Francis Xavier visited the island about 1542 and converted many of the northern Tamils. The Faith spread rapidly until it was attacked by members of the Dutch Reformed Church, the established state religion. Under the Dutch rulers the practise of the Catholic religion was forbidden, penal laws were enforced, and the Catholics were severely persecuted. The Church survived these hardships, owing to the efforts of missionaries from Goa who administered the sacraments secretly and continued the work of evangelization. When the island came under British rule, freedom of worship was granted although the Church of England became the established religion. Originally Ceylon belonged to the Portuguese Diocese of Cochin, but in 1834 it became a separate vicariate Apostolic, and in 1845 comprised the two vicariates Apostolic of Colombo and Jaffna. In 1883 the central provinces formed the Vicariate Apostolic of Kandy, in 1886 the Portuguese royal patronage was abolished, and in 1887 Colombo was raised to an archdiocese . Six years later two new dioceses , Galle and Trincomalie, were erected from the Archdiocese of Colombo and the Diocese of Jaffna respectively. Today the Catholic Church has more members than any other Christian body in Ceylon. The bishops maintain amicable relations with the British government, enjoy full property rights, and are held in high esteem by the inhabitants of the island. Besides numerous religious and social institutions, the Catholic laity have organized an association known as “The Catholic Union of Ceylon,” a society to protect and propagate Catholic interests.
Archdioceses , past and present, include
Colombo
Dioceses , past and present, include:
Anuradhapura
Badulla
Chilaw
Galle
Jaffna
Kandy
Kurunegala
Mannar
Ratnapura
Trincomalee-Batticaloa
See also
World Fact Books
patron saints index
New Catholic Dictionary
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Ceylon
An island (266 1/2 miles long and 140 1/2 miles broad), to the south-east of India and separated from it only by a chain of reefs and sand-banks called Adam’s Bridge. The maritime districts, which are flat and low, are distinguished from the central parts, which are mountainous, by great difference in temperature. The mean temperature has been calculated at 76.3 degrees, the lowest being 28.2 degrees at Newera Eliya, and the highest 103.8 degrees at Anuradhapura, the ancient sacred capital of the island. The climate of Ceylon influenced by two monsoons: the south-west prevailing from May to September, and the northeast from November to February. Pidurutalagala (8296 ft.) is the highest mountain, and Adam’s Peak (7353 ft.) is the best known, as containing the legendary footprints of Buddha worshipped by Buddhists and Mohammedans alike, and as yearly resort of a multitude of pilgrims. The country is well watered by rivers of which the Kelani-ganga enters the sea at Colombo, the capital of the island, and the Mahaviliganga at Trincomalee. Ceylon is rich in vegetation and scenery, and as the traveller proceeds from Colombo to Kandy (the seat of the ancient kings) and thence to Newara Eliya, it presents a panorama of beauty. The country abounds in tropical fruits, such as pineapples, plantains, oranges, and mangoes and in such trees as ebony, satin, calamander, and ironwood. The plantations produce, principally, cocoanuts and cinnamon, tea, cinchona, cocoa, and, more recently, rubber. The most noted upcountry product formerly was coffee. This has given place to tea, Ceylon now being one of the chief tea-growing countries in the world. The island has from very ancient times been famous for its gems, of which the chief are sapphires, rubies, and cat’s-eyes; the Gulf of Manaar on the north-west coast is the scene of the famous pearl fishery. Phumbago or graphite is the only mineral product of any importance. The animal kingdom is well represented in Ceylon, which has from olden times been renowned for its elephants.
HISTORY AND PEOPLE
Ceylon’s history goes back to a remote past. Galle in the south of the island is by some believed to be the seaport of ancient Tarshish from which King Solomon drew his “ivory, apes, and peacocks”. Under the name of Taprobane it was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. Hence Milton’s reference to Ceylon as “India’s utmost isle, Taprobane”. To the people of India, however, it was “Lanka’, the resplendent, a name still in use. It is celebrated in the great epic, the “Ramayana” in which is related the story of the abduction of the Indian princess Sita by Ravena, King of Ceylon, and of the war which followed in consequence. We pass from legend to actual history at about the year 543 B. C. when Wijeya, a prince of Northern India, invaded Ceylon and conquered the natives known as Yakkos and, having married the native princess Kuveni, settled in the country with his 700 followers. Wijeya was son of King Sihabahu, “the slayer of the lion” (siha or sinha), hence the name “Sinhalese”, given to the people of Ceylon. The Sinhalese (Cingalese) being thus the descendants of the Wijeyan settlers belong to the Aryan stock, and their language and customs bear out this origin. The wild men of Ceylon, known as the Veddas, “hunters”, who inhabit a small area in the remote interior of the island and live principally by the bow and arrow, are the representatives of the aboriginal inhabitants whom Wijeya subdued. The Wijeyan dynasty was not allowed undisputed sway in Ceylon, for from the third century B.C. Tamil princes from Southern India made incursions into Ceylon, while at times the tide of invasion was rolled back into India by the much-harassed Sinhalese. The Sinhalese kings most famous for success in their conflict with the Tamils, as well as for the internal development of the country during their reigns, were Dutugemunu (200 B.C.), Gajabahu (100 B.C.), and Prakramabahu (A.D. 1150). The ancient capital of the Sinhalese kings was Anuradhapura, whose splendour is even now attested by its vast ruins. In the eighth century it was transferred Polonnaruwa, which was soon abandoned to the conquering Tamils. The seat of government was thence shifted to various places, until in the fifteenth century it was finally fixed at Kandy, now the second city of the island and famous for the Buddhist temple known as the “Dalada Maligawa”, the repository of the tooth-relic of Buddha. During this period of trouble the trade of the country fell principally into the hands of the Arabs. Many of these formidable warriors settled in the maritime parts of the island their trading instincts are inherited by their descendants, generally known as “Moors”; with accretions from their co-religionists of the neighbouring continent they form the Mohammedan community of Ceylon.
It was in the beginning of the sixteenth century that modern Europe first came in contact with Ceylon. In 1505 a Portuguese fleet, while operating in the Indian seas against Arab traders, touched accidentally at Galle on the southern coast; in 1517 the Portuguese re-appeared and with the consent of the Sinhalese king established a factory at Colombo. The Portuguese having begun as traders soon made themselves political masters of the entire sea-board, forts were established, and European civilization was introduced. In 1658 the Portuguese were driven out by their rivals the Dutch, who then added Ceylon to their East Indian possessions. The descendants of the Dutch, being the product of intermarriage with the Portuguese and the natives, constitute the “Burgher” community of Ceylon. The English first cast their eyes upon Ceylon in 1782 during the war with Holland, when a British force reduced and took possession of Trincomalee, which was, however, soon retaken by the French and restored to the Dutch. But in 1795 an appeal came to the British from the Sinhalese king was then maintaining all unequal contest against Dutch aggression, and in 1796 the Dutch were overcome by the British forces and yielded Ceylon to England; the cession was formally confirmed by the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. The English had thus succeeded the Portuguese and the Dutch in the possession of the maritime districts of the island, but the central provinces were still under the feeble rule of the Sinhalese king who reigned at Kandy. The king was out of favour with his subjects on account of his cruelty and misgovernment, and at the request of the disaffected chiefs a British force was dispatched to Kandy in 1815. King Sri Wickrama Sinha was taken prisoner and the Kandyan provinces vere added to the British Crown which has since held the sovereignty of the whole of Ceylon. What may be called the indigenous population of Ceylon comprises various races; to which must be added the European residents either in the employ of the Government or engaged in commerce or industries, and the Indian immigrants, some of whom carry on a petty trade, but who in their larger number constitute the labour-supply of the island. The chief native races are: (1) the Sinhalese, consisting of the low-country Sinhalese and the up-country or Kandyan Sinhalese; (2) the Tamils, inhabiting chiefly the Northern and Eastern Provinces; 3) the Moors; (4) the Burghers. According to the decennial census of 1901 the total population of Ceylon was 3,565,954 distributed according to nationality as follows: Sinbalese, 2,330,807; Tamils, 951,740; Moors, 228,034; Burghers, 23,482; Europeans, 6,300; others, 25,591. The last includes the Veddas of Ceylon (3971) who are gradually disappearing.
CIVIL GOVERNMENT
Ceylon has the distinction of being the premier Crown Colony of England. It is accordingly under the direct control of the Secretary of State for the Colonies whose authority, subject to the will of the Sovereign and the Imperial Parliament, is supreme. The local administration is vested in a Governor assisted by an executive council and a legislative council. The executive council is an advisory board and consists of the colonial secretary, the officer commanding the military forces, the attorney-general, the auditor-general, and the treasurer. The legislative council whose president is the governor comprises the members of the executive council and twelve other members, of whom four are official and eight unofficial. The unofficial members who are nominated by the governor, subject to the approval of the secretary of state, represent (1) the low-country Sinhalese; (2) the Kandyan Sinhalese; (3) the Tamils; (4) the Moors, (5) the Burghers; (6) the European merchants; (7) the European planters, and (8) the general European community. The unoffical members are supposed to be selected in accordance with the wishes of the respective communities, though this is not often the case, except in regard to the mercantile and planter members whose selection is practically left to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Ceylon Planter’s Association respectively. The members of the legislative council may speak and vote on all questions brought forward; still not only are the official members in the majority but they are bound to vote for the Government in matters of policy, whatever their private opinions may be. For administrative purposes Ceylon is divided into provinces, of which there are now nine viz.: the Western, Central, Northern, Southern, Eastern, North-Western; North Central, Uva, and Sabaragamuwa, each of which is presided over by a superior officer called the Government agent. Other important departments are those of the director of public works, the surveyor-general, the principal collector of customs, the registrar-general of lands, the principal civil medical officer, and the director of public instruction. The civil service is recruited in England by means of a competitive examination which is open to all British subjects including Ceylonese; a limited number of Iocally-born persons appointed by the governor form a subordinate service, while the minor officers in the clerical service are partly selected by competitive examination and partly nominated without examination. Colombo, Kandy, and Galle have municipal councils the members of which are partly elected by the rate-payers and partly nominated by the governor, and local boards are established in many smaller towns. An important part of the machinery of government in the country districts is the system of native headmen of various grades, who perform both revenue and police duties under the direction of the Government agents or their assistants.
LAW AND JUDICIAL ADMINISTRATION
The Dutch, during the existence of their rule, had applied to Ceylon their admirable system of laws known as the Roman-Dutch Law, and after the annexation of the country by England it was declared by proclamation dated 23 September, 1799, that the administration should thenceforth “be exercised according to the laws and institutions that had subsisted under the ancient government of the United Provinces” of HolIand, subject to such deviations and alterations as might thereafter be enacted. Accordingly the Roman-Dutch Law became and has continued to be what may be called the common law of Ceylon but by various subsequent ordinances and other legislative enactments this law has been either repealed or modified. In addition to the general laws applicable to the whole island, there are certain special laws or customs peculiar to certain communities in matters relating to inheritance, marriage and other personal questions. Thus the Moors are governed in such matters by their own customs, which conform more or less to the general Mohammedan law as found in Koran and the commentaries thereon. The Tamil inhabitants of the Jaffna peninsula, or what is now the Northern Province, have their customary code of laws known as the “Thesawalamai” (customs of the country), and similarly the Kandyan Sinhalese observe their ancient customs, which they were allowed to retain by the Kandyan Convention made between the British and the chiefs on the annexation of the Kanyan provinces. These various systems of laws are administered by a series of courts, viz: (1) the Supreme Court of Judicature, consisting of a chief justice and three puisne judges with unlimited criminal jurisdiction and an appellate jurisdiction with an ultimate appeal to His Majesty the King in civil cases above 5000 rupees in value; (2) District courts, with unlimited original civil jurisdiction and limited criminal jurisdiction; (3) Courts of Request, with limited civil jurisdiction, (4) Police courts, which are courts both of trial and of preliminary investigation for committal to the Supreme Court or District courts; (5) Gansabhawas, or village tribunals, which have jurisdiction over natives in regard to small civil claims and trivial offences, especially breaches of communal rules and in which the proceedings are conducted in the native language of the inhabitants.
MARRIAGE
In the eye of the law all marriages are civil contracts and may be contracted freely between persons who are not within prohibited degrees of kindred or within the prohibited ages. The law now applicable generally in the island is the Ordinance No. 2 of 1895, under which a marriage may be entered into before the registrar of marriages after certain formalities as to previous notice of marriage and the issue of a certificate thereof, while marriage by special license is also provided for. But the ordinance so far recognizes the Christian views of marriage that according to it the parties holding the above-mentioned registrar’s certificate as to notice may present themselves to a Christian minister and have the ceremony performed in a place of Christian worship. ln this case the minister is required to register the marriage in a book and to transmit a duplicate of the entry to the registrar of marriages, and the ordinance further provides that no minister shall be compelled to solemnize a marriage between persons either of whom shall not be a member of the church denomination or body to which such minister belongs nor otherwise than according to the rules, customs, rites, and ceremonies of such church domination or body. An absolute divorce can be obtained only by decree of court after full inquiry and upon tho ground either of adultery or malicious desertion or incurab!e impotency at the time of marriage. The ordinance above mentioned does not apply to the Moors, who, as already indicated, are governed by the Mohammedan law both as to marriage and divorce, nor to the Kandyan Sinhalese, with regard to whom there is a special ordinance (No. 3, of 1873) which while abolishing their ancient custom of “associated marriages” or polyandry and in other respects giving effect to British public policy, makes provision for the contract of marriage and its dissolution in a manner more or less in conformity with ancient Kandyan sentiment, such as the liberty to dissolve marriage by mutual consent without the intervention of a court of justice. The main difference, however, between marriages generally and Kandyan marriages is that, while in regard to the former, registration is the best though not the only proof of marriage, thus admitting of proof aliunde of an actual marriage or the presumption of a valid marriage from cohabitation and repute, registration is essential in the case of the latter. The system of caste prevails in Ceylon though not in such a vigorous form as in India, and while the contact with Western civilization has weakened social barriers in many respects, intermariage between various castes does not take place to any applicable extent among the pure native population.
EDUCATION The educational system of Ceylon is as simple as it is efficient, and is controlled by the Department of Public Instruction. It comprises English, vernacular, and mixed schools, which are either Government or (with the exception of private unregistered schools) “Grant-in-Aid schools”. The Government maintains an English high school called the Royal College, having the standard of an English grammar school. It maintains also a technical school mainly for the purpose of supplying the Government departments, and a training school for teachers. The Grant-in-Aid schools belong to the missionary and other religious bodies, and receive yearly grants according to certain scales on the result of examinations in secular subjects held by Govemment inspectors. The system of payment by results has helped to solve the religious difficulty so often experienced in many other countries. The chief institutions belonging to religious communities and having the same status as the Royal College are St. Thomas’s College (Anglican), Wesley College (Wesleyan), St. Joseph’s College (Catholic), and Ananda College (Buddhist). Ceylon forms a centre for the Cambridge University local examinations, which are largely used as educational tests. The Government also maintains a medical college whose diploma is a qualification for practising medicine. Law studies for the admission of advocates and proctors (solicitors) are under the control of a Council of Legal Education consisting of the judges of the Supreme Court and in number of members of the Bar. There is no special organization for the systematic prosecution of the study of Oriental languages and literature, but one at least of the temple schools conducted by the Buddhist priesthood, in which Sanscrit and Pali are taught, receives a subsidy from the Government. According to the statistics published for 1905 the number of the Government and schools and the scholars was 554 and 70,715; and of the Grant-in-Aid schools, 1582 and 156,040.
RELIGION
The chief religions in Ceylon are Buddhism, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity. Buddhism is professed by the great bulk of the Sinhalese population. Being first propounded by Gautama Buddha in Magadha in Northern India in the sixth century B.C., it was introduced into Ceylon in the reign of the Sinhalese king became a zealous convert and under his patronage the new religion spread rapidly among his subjects. Ceylon thus became a stronghold of Buddhism, and it was here that the Buddhist scriptures were first reduced to writing in 88. B.C. The magnificent ruins of dagobas and viharas in the ancient kings and people of Ceylon. Buddhism suffered much during the Tamil wars, with the further consequence that by reason of the contact thus brought about with India popular Buddhism received an admixture of Hinduism which is still traceable in the devalas in which Kali and other Hindu gods are worshipped by the Buddhists. After the advent of Europeans to Ceylon and the consequent introduction of Western civilization, Buddhism lost much of its prestige just as it had previously lost much of its purity and activity. But within the last twenty-five years there has been a great Buddhist revival, mainly due to the efforts of the Theosophical Society founded by Col. Olcott and Madame Blavatsky. Schools have sprung up, pride in the ancient religion has revived, and under the leadership of educated Buddhists the masses have learned to resist Christian influences and have even shown a spirit of aggression. The large majority of the Tamil population are Hindus, especially in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and the form of Hinduism most in favour is Sivaism or the worship of Siva. Besides the Moors already mentioned a comrnunity of Malays, said to be descendants of the natives of Java imported into Ceylon during the Dutch period and recruited by later immigrants from the Straits Settlements, profess Mohammedanism.
The first form of Christianity in Ceylon was of course Catholicism. The conversion of heathens was part of the public policy of the Portuguese, and accordingly we find that in 1518 a number of Franciscan friars arrived in Ceylon and under the protection of the Portuguese Government, preached the Faith, and converted many thousands. We read of many churches built and many monasteries established within the Portuguese territories, and of the conversion of many even of noble and royal blood among the Sinhalese. Among the more notable converts was Prince Dharmapala, grandson of a Sinhalese king, who was baptized and crowned king in Lisbon in 1541 under the name of Don Juan and a reigned a Christian monarch in Ceylon from 1542 to 1597. About this time also took place the visit to Ceylon of St. Francis Xavier, the Apostle of the East, by whom large numbers were converted to the Faith, especially among the Tamils of the North. Catholicism progressed until it encountered the antagonism of the Dutch who were all of the Dutch Reformed Church and who made that form of Christianity the established religion of the State. The Catholic religion was proscribed during the Dutch rule, penal laws were enacted, and the Catholics suffered severe persecution. Nevertheless the light of the Faith was not wholly extinguished and the practice of religion was continued especially through the exertions of missionaries from the Portuguese settlement of Goa, who amidst persecution and hardship ministered to the Catholic people and even converted many heathens. A new era, however, dawned with the conquest of the island by the British Government which put in practice the principles of religious liberty, though the Church of England became in turn the established form of Christianity. The greater part of the “Dutch Christians” among the natives were either absorbed by the Anglican Church or relapsed into Buddihism, and at the present day Dutch Prebyterianism is represented only by a few hundred Dutch descendants who are served by the Presbyterian ministers from Scotland. The Church of England in Ceylon is governed by a bishop who is suffragan to the bishop of Calcutta. The clergy consist of members of the Church Missionary Society and of the sister Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The Anglican Church continued to be maintained by the Government till the year 1881 when by act of the local legislature it was disestablished and provision was made for the constitution of a synod, consisting of clergy and laity under the presidency of the bishop, for the regulation of its affairs, for the election of trustees to hold and administer its property and funds. Other Protestant bodies are: Wesleyan Methodist mission, begun in 1814, it holds many important stations and does much for education: Baptist Missionary Society, first missionary landed in Ceylon in 1812; American Mission (Congregationalists), under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, whose work is confined to the Tamils of the Northern Province. The decennial census of 1901 gave the following religious statistics: Buddhists, 2,141,404; Hindus, 826,826; Christians, 349,239; Mohammedans, 246,188; others, 2,367. The Christians were: Catholics, 287,119; Anglicans, 32,514; Presbyterians, 3337; Wesleyan Methodists, 14,991; Baptists, 3309, Congregationalists, 2446. Authentic Catholic statistics gave a total of 293, 929 Catholics in 1904 and this number has since probably reached 300,000.
The Catholic Church, as the above figures show, is the largest Christian body in the island. As it was first in the field, so it has been the most fruitful in results. At the date of the British occupation (1796) the Catholic population was only 50,000. At first Ceylon was under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese Diocese of Cochin with a local vicar-general. In 1834 it was erected into a separate vicariate Apostolic by Pope Gregory XVI, and in 1845, as the Catholic were increasing in numbers, the island was divided into two vicariates Apostolic, Colombo and Jaffna, the former being entrusted to the Benedictine Congregation of the Silvestrines, and the latter to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Again, in 1883, the central provinces of the island were separated from Colombo and constituted as the vicariate Apostolic of Kandy under the same Benedictines, while Colombo was transferred to the Oblates. The year 1886 witnessed a notable development of the Church in Ceylon, the Right Rev. C. Bonjean, O.M.I., being then the Vicar Apostolic of Colombo, the Right Rev. C. Pagnani, O.S.B., the Vicar Apostolic of Kandy, and the Right Rev. A. Melizan, O.M.I., the Vicar Apostolic of Jaffna. In that year the Holy See by agreement with the Crown of Portugal abolished the royal patronage which had been exercised in the East Indies from the time of the Portuguese domination, as a consequence, and in accordance with the needs of the time, the Catholic hierarchy was established in India and Ceylon. Monsignor (afterwards cardinal) Agliardi was sent as delegate Apostolic to put in force the new arrangements and on the 6th of January, 1887, the hierarchy was formally established in Ceylon, Bishop Bonjean being appointed Archbishop of Colombo, Dr. Pagnani, Bishop of Kandy and Dr. Melizan, Bishop of Jaffna. Further changes took place in 1893, when two new dioceses, Galle and Trincomalee, were formed from the Archdiocese of Jesuits of the Belgian province were placed in the former and Jesuits of the French province in the latter with Fathers Van Reith, S.J. and Lavigne, S.J. as the first bishops. These five bishops have assisting them nearly 200 priests, both European and native and the communities of Sisters of the Good Shephers, the Sisters of the Holy Family, the Franciscan nuns, Missionaries of Mary, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary, in charge of various schools and institutions. Although Monsignor Agliardi was sent especially to establish the hierarchy, the Apostolic Delegation to the East Indies was intended to be permanent; accordingly when he departed in 1887he was succeeded by Monsignor Aiuti, who in turn was succeeded in 1892 by Monsignor Ladislaus M. Zaleski, who took up his residence at Kandy. At the same time the Holy See took steps to place the education and the supply of native priests in the East on a solid and more secure basis, and accordingly in 1893 a general seminary was established by Leo XIII, which is conducted by professors of the Society of Jesus at Kandy, Ceylon, the students being of various nationalities and races, recruited from all parts of the East. The Catholic bishops are on excellent terms with the British Government and are held in high esteem by the people of the island generally. Their legal status, however, was not quite assured in respect of succession to ecclesiastical property though no practical difficulty was experienced; but the Supreme Court of Ceylon, having recently held that the Catholic bishops had no legal corporate capacity and could not therefore claim, merely by virtue of their office, title to property held by their predecessors, the legislature, in consequence of representations made to the Government on the subject, passed the Ordinance No. 19 of 1906, whereby the Catholic archbishop and bishops, and their respective successors, appointed according to the laws and usages of the Catholic Church, are constituted corporations sole with perpetual succession, and with full power to acquire and hold all species of property, and to sue or be sued in respect of such property in all courts of justice. While the ecclesiastical system of the Church is thus complete, the Catholic laity are not backward in respect to organization and public action, for in addition to various religious and social institutions they have formed an association representative of all Catholics under the name of “The Catholic Union of Ceylon”, having for its object the protection and advancement of Catholic interests. The general statistics for 1905 are: churches and chapels, 592; schools, 570, with 45,549 pupils; seminaries, 5, with 174 students (in the central or “Leonianum” Seminary at Kandy there are 88); orphan asylums, 16, with 975 orphans; 133 European secular priests, 43 native priests, and 288 religious (Oblates, Jesuits, Benedictines); and 430 sisters in the various educational and charitable institutions.
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T.E. DE SAMPAYO Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IIICopyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Ceylon
(the Taprobn of the Greeks and Romans, the Serendib of the “Arabian Nights;” Lanka, in Singhalese; Selendive, in the Indian language, whence, probably, Ceilan or Ceylon, the European name), an island in the Indian Ocean, southeast of the coast of Coromandel (Hindostan), from which it is separated by the Gulf of Manaar. It lies between 5 55′ and 9 51′ N. lat. and 79 42′ and 81 55′ E. long. From north to south its length is about 270 miles; its narrowest width 40 miles, and its greatest 137 miles. Its area is about 25,000 square miles. Ceylon can vie with any part of the world in natural beauty, richness of soil, and variety of fauna and flora.
The climate is much more equable than that of the main land of India. The average temperature is about 80; 80 inches is the average annual fall of rain. The population, according to the Gotha Almanac for 1867, numbers 2,079,881. The European and other inhabitants, including the military, amount to about 25,000. Sir J. E. Tennent is of opinion that Ceylon, when in the height of its prosperity, must have been ten times as, densely populated as at the present day. The natives are divided into four classes: first, the Ceylonese or Singhalese, occupying the Kandian territories and the coasts; second, the Moormen, who are found in all parts of the island; third, the Veddahs, a wild race who live in the mountains in the eastern part of the island, and, fourth, the Hindoos, who occupy chiefly the N. and E. coasts, and speak the Tamil language. Besides these there are also in the island some Portuguese, Dutch, and English colonists; and an intermixture of these with each other, and with the ‘native races, forms still another class called “burghers.” The Singhalese believe themselves to have been the aborigines. The Portuguese discovered Ceylon in 1505. They subsequently became masters of the island, and from them it was conquered by the Dutch, in 1656, just a century and a half after the arrival of the Portuguese. In 1796 the English took possession of Colombo, and in 1815 of Kandy (Newcomb, Cyclopaedia of Missions, s. v).
Religion. “The Singhalese are devoted to Buddhism, which is the prevailing religion of the island. It does not exist, however, in that state of purity in which it is still found in the Indo-Chinese peninsula. Its sacred books are identical with those of Burmah and Siam, and both record the doctrines of Gautana in the Pali language; the deviations are in matters of practice. The Malabar kings adulterated Buddhism to a considerable extent with Brahmanism, introducing the worship of Hindoo deities into the Buddhist temples, and this continues more or less to be the case. More than once have the Buddhists of Ceylon sought to restore the purity of their faith at one time sending deputies to Siam, at another to Burmah, with this object in view. The Burman or Amarapura sect have long been the reformers of Singhalese Buddhism, and maintain no very friendly relations with the party who, supported by the priests of Siam, acknowledge the civil power in matters of religion, sanction the worship of Hindoo deities and the employment of the priesthood in secular occupations, uphold caste, and restrict the sacred books. Caste was acknowledged by the Singhalese prior to the introduction of Buddhism, which in principle is opposed to it; but so firmly was it rooted that it still endures, though more as a social than a sacred institution. Gautama Buddha is said to have visited Ceylon three different times to preach his doctrine, and his sri-pada, or sacred footstep, on the summit of Adam’s Peak still commands the homage of the faithful. Buddhism was not, however, permanently introduced into Ceylon till 307 B.C., when Mahindo, obtaining the support of the king, established it as the national faith. The influence of the priests gradually increased, and, by the piety of the Singhalese kings, monasteries were richly endowed; for though the Buddhist monk is individually forbidden to possess goods, a community may own property to any extent; and it is a remarkable fact that, at the present day, no less than one third of the cultivated land of the island is computed to belong to the priesthood, and is exempt from taxation” (Chambers, s.v.). The Moormen, scattered through the island, are Mohammedans. The Hindoos (Malabar or Tamils), who form the chief population of the district of Jaffna, follow Brahminism. SEE BRAHM; SEE BUDDHISM; SEE HINDOOISM.
MIISSIONS IN CEYLON.
1. Roman Catholic. During the tenure of Ceylon by the Prrtuguese (1505-1656), they introduced the Roman Catholic religion. In 1544, Xavier (q.v.) preached to the Hindoos in Ceylon. The mission was very successful; a Jesuit college and several convents were erected, and the province of Jaffna became almost wholly Christian. The missionaries did not penetrate far into the interior. The Church of Rome has at present two vicariates apostolic, Colombo and Jaffna, and claim a membership of about 140,000, of whom 55,000 belong to the vicariate of Jaffna. Detailed statistical information on the vicariate of Jaffna is given in Battersby’s Catholic Directory for 1864 (Dublin, 1864, p, 397-400).
2. Dutch. When the Dutch drove out the Portuguese, they began at once to plant the Reformed religion. (In the remainder of this account we follow Newcomb, Cyclopaedia of Missions, p. 223 sq., and Brown, History of Missions, vol. 1.) They took possession of the Roman Catholic churches and convents, and banished the priests and nuns. In five years they reported 12,387 children baptized, 18,000 pupils in the schools, 65,000 converts to Christianity. When the Dutch surrendered the island to the English, the number of Christians was stated at 425,000. Many of these were nominal converts; all that was required before baptism was that the candidates should be able to repeat the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, a morning and evening prayer, and grace upon meat. By a very mistaken policy, the Dutch would give no public employment to an unbaptized native, and the Singhalese were baptized by hundreds with no religious aim whatever. It is not to be wondered at that when the Dutch gave up the island there was little fruit to be seen of their missions in it. 3. The London Missionary Society. In 1804 this society entered upon a mission in Ceylon, and the Rev. Messrs.Vos, Ehrhardt, Palm, and Read were employed as missionaries for several years; but after several years of effort the mission was abandoned.
4. The English Baptist Missionary Society. The English Baptists commenced a mission in Ceylon in 1812 in the person of Mr. Chater, whose efforts to Christianize the Singhalese, or Buddhists, and to systematize the study of their language, have made his name memorable. He died in 1829. The labors of his successors had reached, in 1888, to 131 villages of the Singhalese. in which they maintained 73 schools, with an average attendance of 2987 pupils. They had also 961 enrolled as Church members.
5. The American Board. One of the first missionaries of the American Board to the East was the Rev. Samuel Newell. This missionary spent some time at Ceylon. In a letter dated at Colombo, Dec. 20,1813, Mr. Newell urged an American mission in Ceylon In the following grounds, among others, that the government (English) was friendly to missions; that the population of the island was from one to two millions; that there were but two languages to be learned in order to preach to three millions of people; that the natives could read and write; that the whole Bible had been translated into Tamil, and the New Testament into Singhalese; that there were 200,000 native Christians so called, and at least 100 schools were in operation, and that there but two missionaries in the whole island. The board decided to make Cevlon a mission field, and sent, in 1815, the Rev. Messrs. Meigs, Richards, Warren, Bardwell, and Poor, who landed at Colombo in March, 1816. In a year Mr. Poor was able to preach in Tamil, and schools were established at different points. By 1818, through deaths and changes, Messrs. Meigs and Poor only were left in Ceylon; but in 1819, Messrs. Winslow, Spalding, and Woodward, with John Scudder, M.D., arrived in Ceylon. A printing-press was established in 1820. In 1824 an extensive revival occurred in the island. By 1827 there was a high- school, 80 scholars, and 30 native assistants. The mission has passed through many vicissitudes, but, on the whole, its results have been very satisfactory. In 1849 a new version of the Bible in the Tamil was published. The statistics in 1889 were as follows: stations 7; out-stations 25; 13 American laborers, 8 of whom were women; 318 native laborers, 40 of whom were preachers; 15 churches, with 1442 communicants and 3116 adherents; 135 schools of all grades, with 8358 under instruction. The native contributions for the year amounted to $5466. The government schools are in charge of the missionaries, so that the mission has no expense from this part of the work. The addition by confession during the year 1865 was only 18, while 9 were removed by death and 3 by excommunication. The aggregate number reported as attending the Sabbath morning exercises at 9 of the 10 stations was 1323; 46 preaching- places were reported, and 62 services are conducted each week; 15 adults and 38 children were baptized. The contributions of the churches for 1865 amounted to 102 7s. 2d. The income of the Native Evangelical Society was 51. There were 7 stations, 7 sub-stations, 6 missionaries, 1 physician, 8 female assistant missionaries, 3 native pastors, 2 licensed preachers, 20 catechists, 6 teachers in seminaries, 40 school-teachers, and 9 other helpers.
6. The Church Missionary Society. The Church Missionary Society sent four missionaries in 1818 to Ceylon. Two of them Mr. Mayor and Mr. Lambrick stationed themselves in Kandy. The town itself has only about 3000 people, but in the neighboring mountains, to which the labors of these missionaries extended, there is a population of 200,000. The fruits of this mission among the Kandians have been very small. The secluded and solitary condition of the Kandian territory, within which Europeans seldom entered, had kept this region under the sway of Buddhism, and the Kandians preserved a rigid conformity to all its rules. After five years five schools had been established, numbering 127 pupils; and in 1839 the number of schools had increased to 13, and the number of scholars to 400. During the last twenty years Europeans have settled among the Kandian Hills, causing some irritation to the peasants, but affording protection to the mission, which is still continued. It is stated in a recent report that the labors of the missionaries are confined in a great measure to sojourners from the maritime provinces, who reside at Kandy and other places in the interior, and who are nominal Christians, and that the native Kandians have received comparatively little attention.
The Church mission station at Baddagame, in the low country, ten miles north of Point de Galle, commenced at the same time as that at Kandy, has been even loss successful. Schools have been established, printed books have been circulated and read, and many have been made acquainted with the principles of Christianity. Still there have been but few conversions. In the annual report for 1852, the Rev. Mr. Parsons, one of the missionaries, says: “At this place the church is built (it was dedicated by bishop Heber), and here are the mission residences, seminary, and girls’ school; but here, alas! is the greatest indifference to the good news of salvation.”
By far the most important of the stations of the Church of England mission in Ceylon is that at Cotta, a populous district within a few miles of Colombo. Here the mission commenced its labors in 1823, and a collegiate institute was founded in 1827 for the training of native teachers and assistants. It commenced with ten pupils, and has continued to the present time with success, being resorted to by the Tamils of Jaffna, the Kandians from the hills, and the Singhalese from the low country. In this “Oriental college” there were in 1852 22 students in Greek and Latin, Euclid, Scripture History, etc. A printing-press has been for some years in operation, which has issued a translation of the Scriptures known as the “Cotta version.”
7. Wesleyan Methodist Missions. The British Conference, stimulated by the earnest appeals of Dr. Coke (q.v.), and by the wishes of Sir A. Johnstone, chief justice of Ceylon, determined in 1813 to organize a mission in Ceylon. Dr. Coke, accompanied by six missionaries, Messrs. William Ault, James Lynch, George Erskine, William Martin Harvard, Thomas Hall Squance, and Benjamin Clough, set sail from Portsmouth on the 30th of December, 1813. Two of the party, Harvard and Squance, were acquainted with the management of the printing-press, which subsequently became the chief instrument in the mission. On the 3d of May Dr. Coke died on the passage. The missionaries landed in June, and were most cardially received by the British functionaries on the island. It was decided to occupy at first only four stations, viz., Jaffna and Batticaloa, for the Tamil division of the island; Galle and Matura for the Singhalese; Messrs. Lynch and Squance to be stationed at Jaffna, Mr. Ault at Batticaloa, Mr. Erskine at Matura, and Mr. Clough at Galle.
It is impossible for us to enter into details concerning this most interesting and successful mission. By 1818 there were 70 members of the Wesleyan Church; in 1863 there were over 50 churches and about 2200 members. The literary labors of the Wesleyan missionaries have been more extended than those of any others, and their contributions to our knowledge of Buddhism are of priceless value. “The Methodists,” says Sir E. Tennent, “have been the closest investigators of Buddhism, the most profound students of its sacred books in the original, and the most accomplished scholars both in the classical and vernacular languages of Ceylon.” Their publications in Singhalese, against Buddhism and in favor of the evidences of Christianity, have been of great service. One of the missionaries, John Calloway, published a Dictionary of Singhalese, with several sermons and tracts; W. B. Fox, a Singhalese and Portuguese Vocabulary; Robert Newstead translated the N.T. and the Hymnbook into Portuguese; Alexander Hume translated the first part of Pilgrim’s Progress into Singhalese. The most eminent names in literature among the Ceylon missionaries, however, are those of R. Spence Hardy (author of Eastern Monachism; Manual of Buddhism; and other works), and of the Rev. D. J. Gogerly ( 1862), late general superintendent of the Wesleyan Missions in South Ceylon, who stood at the head of Pali scholarship at the time of his death (SEE GOGERLY). So great has been the effect of the preaching and of the literary labors of the Wesleyan missionaries, that the Buddhists have formed a society (since 1860) to propagate the doctrines of Gautama by itinerant preaching, the press, and colportage.
In 1889, the statistics of Wesleyan Missions were as follows:
Newcomb gave the following statistics of all the missions in Ceylon in 1853:
The following statistics for 1889-1890 are compiled from the Missionary Year-Book New York, 1890:
Literature. Besides the works already cited, see Turnour, Epitome of the History of Ceylon (Colombo, 1836); Knighton, History of Ceylon (London, 1845); Tennent, Christianity in Ceylon (1850, 8vo); Tennent, Ceylon: Physical, Historical, etc. (London, 1859, 8vo); Heber, Journey in India, with Notes in Ceylon (Phila. 1829, 8vo); London Quarterly Review, April, 1863, art. 5 (The Ceylon Wesleyan Mission); Annual Reports, A. B. C. F. M. and of Wesleyan Missionary Society; Marshall (Roman Catholic), Christian Missions (Lond. and New York, 1864, 2 vols.), vol. 1, p. 357- 409; Stevens, History of Methodism, vol. 3, ch. 12.