Gajabahu I was a Sinhalese king who reigned 22 years in Anuradhapura at the begin of the 2nd century C.E. The Pali name “Gajabahu”, also spelt "Gaja Bahu", means “elephant’s arm” and obviously refers to strength. Gajabahu, known as “Gajaba” in Sinhala, is a popular figure in Sri Lanka’s history, though not much is known about King Gajabahu from the island’s ancient Mahavamsa chonicle or from inscriptions. A stone inscription in Brahmi characters, dating to Gajabahu’s reign, orders that part of the customs collected at the seaport of Godavaya in southern Sri Lanka should be donated to the local monastery. Meritorious donations for the Buddhist order’s sake are mentioned in the Mahavamsa, too.
But there are much later popular legends, maybe from the late Middle Ages, and the Rajavaliya chronicle from the Kandyan era, which tell the story, that Gajabahu invaded South India and that he introduced the cult of Pattini from there. This goddess became highly respected as one of the four main guardian deities of the island not before the Kandyan period and may have been venerated locally since the end of the Polonnaruwa period. The legend of Gajabahu's patronage was most probably created to generate legitimacy for the goddess, in retrospect.
However, there appears to be a reference to Gajabahu in a very early piece of Southindian literature, the Silappatikaram, also transcribed Cilappatikaram or Silapathikaram. The name of this poetic work can be translated as “Story of the anklet”. The Silappatikaram is a very popular epic, its significance for the Tamil culture is comparable to that of the Iliad for ancient Greece. The epic tells the story of Kannagi, who lost her husband to a miscarriage of justice at the court of the Pandyan kings in Madurai and then wreaks her revenge on the Pandyan capital city by burning it. Kannagi became venerated by Tamils as goddess and later on also by Sinhalese, who call her: Pattini.
From comparative studies between the Silappatikaram and Buddhist and Jain literature, it has been dated to the 5th or 6th century C.E.
The Silappatikaram mentions, that a king called “Kayavaku” from the Sinhalese island attended a ceremony of the Chera king Senguttuvan (Cen Kuttuvan). “Kayavaku”, of course, is a transcription of the Tamil spelling. There is no other name of a Sinhalese monarch that could be meant by “Kayavaku” than King Gajabahu. (There is a Gajabahu II in the 12th century, who lived much later than the time of writing of the Silappatikaram.). The so-called “Gajabahu synchronism” is of utmost significance for dating reigns if Tamil kings and writings of Tamil poets in Southern India.
But critics of the “Gajabahu synchronism” suggest that the cordial meeting between Gajabahu and Senguttuvan is a purely fictional poetic compilation. The Silappatikaram mentions Gajabahu as a neighbouring king of the Tamil Cheras, who takes part in a ceremony in honour of Kannagi (Pattini). Opposed to this amicable picture, the later Sinhalese chronicles depict Gajabahu as a powerful enemy of South India, who went there in revenge for a previous invasion and cruelties committed by a Tamil king from Southern India.
So the popular Sinhalese Gajaba-story goes: During the short reign of Gajabahu’s father Vankanasika Tissa, son and successor of the first Lambakanna King Vasabha, the Cholas from mainland India attacked the island and deported 12,000 men, who then were forced to work at the Kaveri river dam in the Tamil Chola kingdom (neighbouring the Southindian Tamil Chera kingdom mentioned above). Gajabahu, while walking in Anuradhapura one night, heard a woman weeping. When he asked her for the reason, she told him that her children had been carried off to India. This is how King Gajabahu became aware of what had happened to the 12,000 abducted. The Rajavaliya tells:
“Taking the giant Nila with him he went and struck the sea with an iron mace, divided the waters in twain, and going quietly on arrived at the Soli capital, struck terror into the king of Soli [Chola], and seated himself on the throne like King Sak; whilst the giant Nila seized the elephants in the city and killed them by striking one against another. The ministers informed the king of Soli of the devastation of the city thus being made. Thereupon he inquired of Gajaba, ‘Is the Sinhala host come to destroy this city?’ Gajaba repiled, ‘I have a little boy who accompanied me; there is no army,’ and caused the giant Nila to be brought and made to stand by his side. Thereupon the king of Soli asked, ‘Why has your Majesty come along without an army?’ Gajaba replied, ‘I have come to take back the 12,000 persons whom your royal father brought here as prisoners in the time of my father.’ To this the king of Soli saying, ‘A king of our family it was who, in time past, went to the city of the gods and gained victory in the war with the Asuras,’ refused to send for and deliver the men. Then Gajaba grew wroth and said, ‘Forthwith restore my 12,000 people, giving 12,000 more besides them; else will I destroy this city and reduce it to ashes.’ Having said this, he squeezed out water from sand and showed it; squeezed water from his iron mace and showed that. Having in this way intimidated the king of Soli he received the original number supplemented by an equal number of men as interest, making 24,000 persons in all. He also took away the jewelled anklets of the goddess Pattini, and the insignia of the gods of the four devala, and also the bowl-relic which had been carried off in the time of king Valagamba; and admonishing the king not to act thus in future, departed.”
The word “Gajabuja”, which may be derived from “Gajabahu”, has indeed become a common Tamil slang used to denote superlatives. The Sri Lankan Army has an infantry unit called “Gajaba Regiment” named after the Sinhalese warrior king. In 1972, the Sri Lanka Navy renamed a frigate “SLNS Gajabahu”.
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