histoy G-10 E

4. The Ancient Society of Sri Lanka

Introduction

The majority who live in any society at any

given time is the general public. Rulers,

government officers, religious leaders and

other chieftains are a minority among the

people. History is the past that reflects

the activities of all of them. Though that

is the truth, many of the historical source

descriptions have presented information

paying more attention to the minority that

we mentioned secondly. Therefore, the

knowledge of information about the ancient

general public is limited. If we need to

understand the history of this country better,

it is necessary to learn the information of

lives of the general public who lived during

the ancient time. In this lesson you will have

an opportunity to learn all this with more

information.

4.1 The Nature of Ruling

The historical sources say that kings ruled our
country in the ancient times. The inscriptions
mention very important information about
the procedure of the statesmanship followed in
ruling the country.

There are three institutions which handle
the ruling of any country. They are called the
legislature, the executive and the judiciary. The
government means these three institutions. The
legislature is the institution which makes laws in
a country. As it is done by the parliament of our
country today, in the ancient time it was done by
the king’s court. The executive is the institution
which implements laws. The government officers

are engaged in that process. The judiciary

provides the justice to the countrymen by

preventing the damage caused to the society due

to breach of law.

In the ancient time there were an executive as

well as a judiciary in our country. The executive

acted as the legislature too. There was not an

independent body as a separate legislature,

because then there was monarchism in this

country. The inscriptions written in 9th century

A.D. had used the word ‘Ekthensamiya’ to

name the executive and the legislature. In an

inscription in the place called Buddhannehela

there is a note which could be put into words

such as “Apa methuwak dena awud wathhimiyan

wahansege wadala ekthensamiyen”. The word

‘Ekthensamiya’ is formed from the words ‘Eka

asthana’ and ‘Samya’. The word ‘Eka asthana’

means ‘king’s court’ and ‘Samya’ means

‘agreement’. Hence, the word ‘Ekthen Samiya’

gives us the meaning ‘agreement of the king’s

court’. The inscription Buddhannehela was

established to make a statement of an offering of

a land. The phrase of the inscription mentions

that the offering was made with the agreement of

the king’s court and due to the decree of the king.

The phrase “Wath himiyan wadala” means the

“king’s decree”. The word ‘Wathhimi’ is a similar

word to king.

According to the inscriptions that belong to

the 9th century A.D., the officers, who came to

grant the land of the government to the Buddhist

temples, had represented a place called ‘sabhava

• the council’. As mentioned in one of the
  inscriptions found in Anuradhapura district the
  officers named Udaya in Meningamuva and Sena