Another caste of people called Chayakkarar
(dyers) dyed new clothes.
Women were engaged in cotton industry.
Palmyrah leaves were dyed with bark from
trees such as blackberry (naval) and tulip to obtain
purple olas or leaves. These were used for decorative
designs in the production of mat and basket.
Weaving was a hereditary industry.
Vannarpannai was one of the major centres of weaving in the Peninsula. Silk worms were
reared for the purpose of weaving silk clothes.
Rope making from the fibres of Palmyrah and
the barks of arththy was also a flourishing industry.
Saivism was elevated to the status of the
kingdom's official religion. Kandaswamy temple in Nallur was the royal temple while the
temple at Vallipuram near Point Pedro became popular.
The temple was the centre around which an ur or village was built. It is an accepted axiom of the
Tamils that one should not live at a place where is no temple.
It is true to say that in the field of
architecture, no original tradition developed partly because of the constant wars and
partly because of the vital link with South India. Temples built during this period
exhibit a special feature: ornamented and expensively sculptured tower called gopuram at their entrance.
In the field of education, both temple
schools and village schools under schoolmasters were engaged in the task of imparting
basic education.
In the literary sphere, an Academy of Tamil
Literature was founded at Nallur in the fifteenth century by the King. Kings, some of whom
were poets of no mean calibre, were patrons of writers and poets.
Study of medicine and astrology was greatly
encouraged and the native system of medicine called siddha,
considered best suited to the climactic conditions of Jaffna, flourished.
All in all, before the conquest of Jaffna by
the Portuguese, the Tamils of the North with their center in the Jaffna Peninsula were
living in a well-defined area "which they had carved out as their permanent
home"." To bolster their identity, they had developed distinctive social
structures, economic institutions and a way of life which they could call their own.
The conquest of Jaffna by the Portuguese
under Captain General Constantine de Sa in 1620-21 spelt the demise of the independent
Kingdom of Jaffna and the beginning of subjugation under colonial rulers.
The Portuguese who had conquered the
Sinhalese Kingdom of
Kotte in 1505 did not show much interest in
Jaffna initially because Jaffna did not produce those commodities, which the Portuguese
were keenly interested in. In the second half of the sixteenth century, however, they
became aware of the strategic importance of Jaffna. In the first place, a stronghold in
Jaffna would give Portuguese complete control over trade and shipping within a triangle
comprising Chilaw, Cape Comorin and Palk Strait. Secondly, Jaffna Peninsula served as
transit route through which the King of Kandy, who displayed strong resistance to the
Portuguese, received military reinforcements from South India. This appraisal of Jaffna as
a passageway to the South haunted the Portuguese right throughout their rule. Thirdly,
Jaffna was not altogether devoid of resources. It was a trade center of elephants.
Urukathurai, earlier known as Uratota, was the port to which elephants from other parts of
the Island were brought and shipped abroad. Interestingly enough the present name of Kayts
comes from the Portuguese: Cues dos elefantes-namely elephantes guay guay.
A pretext to capture
Jaffna presented itself when the King of Jaffna, Sekarasasekaran VII, known as Sankili,
cruelly murdered about six hundred newly baptised Catholics in the island of Mannar.
Constantine de Braganza led an expedition to Mannar in 1560 and captured it. Sankili sued
for peace and promised to pay tribute, so that the King could remain independent.
But the tributary status came to an end with
the defeat and the death of the Tamil King Puviraja Pandaram Pararajasingham in 1591. The
latter had attacked the Portuguese in Mannar with the help of the forces of Nayak of
Tanjore. Besides, the Kings of Jaffna had obstructed the missionary work of conversion
undertaken by the Portuguese and, what more, had aided the King of Randy to obtain help
from South India. Edirmanasingham, the son of the former King, was installed as the new
ruler. Thus started a period of Portugal-Jaffna clientship.
