histoy G-10 E

Fig.4.6 An ancient Shiva Devala in Polonnaruwa.

There lived a considerable number

of Tamil people close to the

main harbours of this country.

Thirukethishwaram Hindu temple

built close to the harbour of Mathota

and Koneshvaram temple built nearby

the old harbour Gokannatitta, which

was in Trincomalee were places

worshipped by the Tamil people who

lived there during that time.

An old stone plate, with a cross

engraved on it, has been discovered

in Anuradhapura. That cross belongs

to a catholic sect named Nestorians.

Later the traders who held the ideas of

the Nestorian sect, which developed

centred on Persia, migrated to

Sri Lanka through the trade routes. The traveller Cosmos Indicopletus, who belonged to the 5th century
A.D. has mentioned about a group of Persian traders who lived in Anuradhapura.

The scholars are of the view that the stone post with the Nestorian cross found in Anuradhapura was
made after the arrival of the Portuguese to this country.

There are evidences that the ideas belonging to Islam religion prevailed in Sri Lanka in the period after the
9 th century A.D. In the ‘Quitab –Al- Musliqval – Mamalik, the oldest Arabic geographical book discovered
so far, has mentioned Sri Lanka as ‘Sarandib’. ‘Sarandib’ was the way that the Arabs pronounced the term
‘Sinhaladweepa’. This book
was written in or around
845 A.D. There was a mutual
relation between Sri Lanka
and Arab from ancient time.
It was a relation which went
beyond mere trade relations.
The book ‘Ajayib Al- Hind,
written by a person called
Iban Shahriar in 953
A.D. mentions that when
Prophet Mohammed, the

Fig 4.7 A graffiti written on the

mirror wall in Sigiriya. The scripts

in this belong to the 8th or 9th

century A.D. It begins with two

words ‘Konanathalmi Leemi’. Its

meaning is 'I am Konanathal. I

wrote this.'