Dr. B. A. Hussainmiya, Text of a book review talk delivered by Dr B. A. Hussainmiya during Professor Pathmanathan’s book release ceremony held at the Ivy Room at the Colombo Cinnamon Grande Hotel on the evening of 11 April 2026… with highlighting emphasis by the Editor, Thuppahi
Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed scholars, and honoured guests,
It is both a privilege and a profound pleasure to stand before you today to reflect on a work of remarkable scholarly depth and significance—Glimpses of an Ancient Civilization: Society and Culture in Jaffna (300 BC – AD 500) by Emeritus Professor S. Pathmanathan.
This volume is not merely a book; it is the culmination of decades of meticulous research, intellectual discipline, and an unwavering commitment to uncovering a continuum the early history of the Tamil people. Spanning over 366 pages and enriched with an impressive array of archaeological illustrations—inscriptions, monuments, and numismatic evidence—it represents a landmark contribution to South Asian historiography. First published in Tamil in 2023 and now thoughtfully expanded in English, this edition brings new insights and a broader scholarly reach to an already foundational work.
Prof Pathmanathan
Husseinmiyya, Pathmanathan and Jitto Arulampalam of STC and Melbourne (a benefactor whose reach is as far as varied)
Allow me, at the outset, to acknowledge a personal dimension. My association with Professor Pathmanathan extends over six decades. First as his student and then as a colleague in the Department of History at Peradeniya University. It is a relationship grounded in mutual respect, academic dialogue, and enduring collegiality. That connection deepens both my appreciation of this work and my sense of responsibility in presenting it to you today.
The book is thoughtfully structured into eighteen chapters, organized across five thematic sections. This architecture allows the reader to journey from broad historical frameworks into increasingly refined analyses of settlement patterns, economic systems, and cultural life in early Jaffna. It is a progression that mirrors the unfolding of civilization itself—from foundations to complexity.
At the core of the study lies Professor Pathmanathan’s analysis of the Early Iron Age cultural complex shared between South India and Sri Lanka. Drawing upon burial sites, ceramic assemblages, iron artefacts, and settlement data, he reconstructs a dynamic world of emerging social organisation and cultural continuity. approach is particularly distinguished by a fresh and systematic re-examination of Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions—sources frequently marginalised or inadequately contextualised in earlier scholarship. By restoring these inscriptions to the centre of historical inquiry, he sheds new light on questions of literacy, social structure, and identity formation. In doing so, he offers measured critiques of earlier interpretations, notably those of Senarat Paranavitana, which he demonstrates were at times insufficiently constrained by the epigraphic evidence itself.
A paradigmatic instance is his treatment of the Vallipuram Gold Plate. Where previous scholars had extrapolated expansive political narratives, Professor Pathmanathan exercises exemplary philological restraint, deriving conclusions strictly from what the text can securely sustain. This methodological discipline has significant implications: it opens the possibility of an emergent Tamil polity in the northern region rather than presupposing unqualified subordination to the Anuradhapura kingdom, thereby inviting a more nuanced understanding of early political formations in the island.
Equally central is the author’s thesis concerning the Nāgas as a foundational community in early Sri Lankan history and probable link as ancestors of the island’s Tamil-ethnic population. Situating their arrival circa 900 BCE, Professor Pathmanathan associates them with the introduction of iron technology, advanced agricultural practices, and sophisticated irrigation systems that fundamentally transformed the island’s productive landscape. Far from peripheral actors, the Nāgas in this account as agents of innovation who fostered sustained settlement, facilitated maritime trade networks extending to the Roman world—as attested by Roman coin finds—and contributed distinctively to the island’s religious and cultural synthesis. Local animistic traditions, he argues, became interwoven with emerging expressions of Śaivism and Buddhism, with Nāga worship constituting a persistent and influential strand in both Hindu and Buddhist devotional practices.
Earlier scholars, including Senarat Paranavitana, cautioned against interpreting “Nāga” as a designation for a single, monolithic ethnic entity. K. Indrapala, while underscoring the significance of Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions, similarly advocated interpretive caution regarding direct ancestral linkages. Sudharshan Seneviratne has emphasized the complexity of cultural transitions during the Early Iron Age, highlighting processes of interaction and integration rather than unidirectional dominance.
Professor Pathmanathan himself generously acknowledges his debt to Professor Indrapala’s pioneering research on an ethnic formation of an identity bringing into relevance information gleaned about Nāga ancestry, work that, together with his own, has played a decisive role in dismantling colonial-era binary frameworks of South Asian history predicated solely on “Aryan” or “Dravidian” racial typologies.
In fact, Professor Indrapala had already set the tone in his magnum opus “Evolution of an ethnic identity” that the two communities namely the Sinhalese and the Tamils, have `a shared history and culture’ and refuses to see the historical evolution of Sri Lanka in ethnic terms. Instead, he relates it to wider historical changes and interaction with South India; this historical region he calls the SISL (South India-Sri Lanka region). By demonstrating the absolute lack of evidence of any large-scale migration from the Indian mainland, he argues that both the Tamil and Sinhala communities emerged from indigenous Mesolithic peoples of pre-historic times. He then argues for language replacement, that is language change occurring without any corresponding population change, as the cause for the emergence of Tamil and Prakrit speaking peoples in the proto-historic period. Political change, and religious, economic and technological interaction between South India and Sri Lanka fueled cultural change leading ultimately to the rise of ethnic identity. Dr Pathmanathan’s latest book in many ways reinforces Indrapala’s conclusions. Professor Pathmanathan’s earlier monograph, The Kingdom of Jaffna, was widely respected for its measured scholarship and its refusal of reductive narratives whereas this book, while revising his original expositions, attempts to fill the abyss, namely the pre-Jaffna Kingdom history of the Sri Lankan Tamils.
The strength of both scholars’ contributions rests upon a coherent and interlocking corpus of evidence: the megalithic burials supply the archaeological “body” of the ancient Nāga communities; the Tamil-Brāhmī inscriptions provide their “voice,” attesting to language and literacy; and key sites such as Kandarodai furnish the “biography,” revealing a sophisticated, trade-oriented, and religiously plural society. This material foundation lends their conclusions substantial scholarly weight.
Beyond its immediate subject, Glimpses of an Ancient Civilization compels us to reconsider the origins and historical trajectories of Tamil-speaking communities within Sri Lanka. It demonstrates that history is not a fixed repository of facts, but an evolving field continually reshaped by fresh evidence, refined methods, and new interpretive questions.
Equally significant is their cultural and religious imprint. Professor Pathmanathan describes a society in which local animistic traditions intertwined with emerging forms of Śaivism and Buddhism. Nāga worship, in particular, emerges as a vital thread in the religious fabric, influencing practices that would endure in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions.
What distinguishes this work, however, is not only its conclusions, but its method. It is grounded, localized, and empirical. Rather than relying on sweeping generalizations, Professor Pathmanathan builds his narrative from the ground up—site by site, inscription by inscription. He treats these materials not simply as historical records, but as voices of lived experience, revealing patterns of governance, devotion, and daily life.
Historical Context
In the 1960s, scholars such as K. Indrapala and S. Pathmanathan relied on available evidence from sources like the Culavamsa to date the Jaffna Kingdom’s establishment to the post-Maga period, specifically linking it to the arrival of the Malay prince Chandrabhanu, who formed an early polity in the region. Contemporary research, however, grapples with evidentiary gaps for earlier Tamil occupation in areas like Jaffna and Vavuniya, prompting hypotheses about Naga predecessors as foundational to the kingdom’s prehistory, as emphasized in the book under discussion.
Broader Historiographical Approach
Historians like R.A.L.H. Goonewardene argued against confining early Sri Lankan history to the island’s modern geography, instead integrating it into the larger Jambudvipa and Bharata frameworks to avoid anachronistic territorialization. Similarly, Professor Maruf’s analysis of Sri Lankan Muslim history extends beyond local settlements in Puttalam, Mannar, and Beruwela, situating it within connections to Tamil Nadu, Kannada, and Malayalam regions across South Asia.
This regional lens applies directly to Jaffna’s Naga progenitors: rather than limiting inquiry to northern and eastern Sri Lanka, it should encompass South India, where early historiography, Chola expansions, and Tamil texts reference entities like Manipallavam. Archaeological evidence, including Iron Age megaliths and Neolithic sites, spans both Sri Lanka and South India, offering a solution to evidentiary challenges without resorting to nationalist claims linking Nagas exclusively to Tamil ancestry.
Political Implications
In plural and multi-ethnic societies such as Sri Lanka, scholarly reconstructions of the deep past inevitably intersect with contemporary questions of identity, belonging, and collective memory. By extending the documented continuum of Tamil cultural and demographic presence in the northern region, Professor Pathmanathan’s work contributes to a broader historiographical conversation about the island’s layered peopling and cultural formation. Such inquiries, while grounded in empirical evidence, can raise complex issues regarding historical precedence, territorial narratives, and inter-community relations.
As is well known we have seen how competing interpretations of antiquity may become entangled with modern political aspirations, sometimes intensifying rather than alleviating tensions. Within Sri Lanka, similar sensitivities have long surrounded questions of heritage, sacred sites, and ancestral claims across different communities—whether Sinhalese, Tamil, or Muslim. These dynamics underscore a fundamental historiographical and civic challenge: how best to pursue rigorous, evidence-based historical inquiry while nurturing dialogue, mutual understanding, and social cohesion in a diverse polity.
Responsible scholarship in this domain requires both intellectual courage and ethical restraint. It must remain anchored in the critical evaluation of sources rather than serving as an instrument for contemporary political mobilisation. When practised with such discipline, historical revisionism—understood in its scholarly sense as the continual refinement and correction of understanding in light of new evidence—enriches our collective knowledge without undermining the foundations of pluralistic coexistence.
Comparative cases—such as the protracted disputes over historical settlement in Palestine—illustrate how competing claims to antiquity can become entangled with modern political aspirations, sometimes exacerbating rather than resolving disputes about historical claims about contested antiquity. Within Sri Lanka itself, analogous sensitivities surround sites such as the Kurugoda Shrine in Balangoda, which is believed to have been venerated and visited by the Muslims since the 10th century AD, is mired in competing assertions of ancestral presence by different communities and intersected with contemporary claims to space and heritage. These examples underscore a perennial historiographical and civic challenge: how to pursue rigorous historical truth while fostering dialogue and cohesion in multi-ethnic societies.
In conclusion, Glimpses of an Ancient Civilization stands as an important milestone in the historiography of Sri Lanka. Professor Pathmanathan has provided not merely a monograph but a durable foundation upon which future research may confidently build. His contribution exemplifies the standards of historical revisionism—revisionism understood in its proper scholarly sense as the continual refinement of understanding in light of new evidence—and deserves the respectful and critical attention of historians and academics across all backgrounds and traditions.
………………………………………….
