Kandarodai (, , also known as ) is a small hamlet and archaeological site of Chunnakam town, a suburb in

Jaffna District Jaffna District ( ''Yāḻppāṇam Māvaṭṭam''; ''yāpanaya distrikkaya'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The notable ancient Buddhist monastery referred to as Kadurugoda Vihara is situated in Kandarodai.

Etymology

According to Jaffna tradition was this place initially known as ''Kadiramalai''. According to C. Rasanayagam is the Sinhalese name'' Kadurugoḍa'' derived from ''Kadiragoda'', which is according to him derived from Kadiramalai, substituting the

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

suffix ''malai'' (meaning "mountain") with the Sinhalese suffix ''goḍa.'' The prefix ''Kadira'' is the

name for the Acacia chundra tree. The modern Tamil name ''Kantarōṭai ''is believed to be re-derived from the Kadiragoda term. The Tamil name was Kadiramalai. Few scholars holds that Kadurugoda is derived from the Sinhalese name ''Kandavurugoda'' (a site of a military encampment). The Portuguese archives refer to this place as ''Kandarcudde''. The name Kadurogoda viharaya is mentioned in the 15th century Sinhalese text ''Nampota''.

History

In 1970, the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

museum team excavated a

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

sequence remarkably similar to that of Arikamedu in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, with a Pre-rouletted ware period, subdivided into an earlier "Megalithic", a later "Pre-rouletted ware phase," followed by a "Rouletted ware period". Tentatively assigned to the fourth century BCE, radio carbon dating later confirmed an outer date of the ceramics and

Megalithic A megalith is a large Rock (geology), stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging ...

cultural commencement in Kandarodai to 1300 BCE. During this excavation, the university team discovered a potsherd carrying a Sinhalese Prakrit inscription written in Brahmi scripts.

Black and red ware Black and red ware (BRW) is a South Asian earthenware, associated with the Neolithic phase, Harappa, Bronze Age India, Iron Age India, the Megalithic and the early historical period. Although it is sometimes called an archaeological culture, ...

Kanterodai potsherd with Tamil Brahmi scripts from 300 BCE excavated with

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

coins, early Pandyan coins, early

Chera Dynasty The Chera dynasty ( or Cēra, ), also known as Keralaputra, from the early historic or the Sangam period in Tamil-speaking southern India, ruled over parts of present-day states Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Cheras, known as one of the mu-ventar ...

coins from the emporium

Karur Karur () is a municipal corporation (India), municipal corporation in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Karur district and is administered by the Karur Municipal Cor ...

punch-marked with images of the Hindu Goddess

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

from 500 BCE, punch-marked coins called ''Puranas'' from 6th-5th century BCE India, and

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

kohl sticks similar to those used by the

Egyptians Egyptians (, ; , ; ) are an ethnic group native to the Nile, Nile Valley in Egypt. Egyptian identity is closely tied to Geography of Egypt, geography. The population is concentrated in the Nile Valley, a small strip of cultivable land stretchi ...

found in Uchhapannai, Kandarodai indicate active transoceanic maritime trade between ancient Jaffna Tamils and other continental kingdoms in the prehistoric period. The parallel third century BCE discoveries of Manthai, Anaikoddai and Vallipuram detail the arrival of a megalithic culture in Jaffna long before the Buddhist-Christian era and the emergence of rudimentary settlements that continued into early historic times marked by urbanization. Some scholars have identified ''Kourola'' mentioned by 2nd century AD

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

geographer

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

and ''Kamara'' mentioned by the 1st century AD

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea The ''Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'' (), also known by its Latin name as the , is a Greco-Roman world, Greco-Roman periplus written in Koine Greek that describes navigation and Roman commerce, trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports lik ...

as being ''Kadiramalai''. The earliest people of

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

were belonging to a megalithic culture akin to the

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

n megalithic culture. The period of Buddhism in the

Jaffna Peninsula The Jaffna Peninsula (, or ) is a region in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is home to the capital city of the province, Jaffna, and comprises much of the former land mass of the medieval Jaffna Kingdom. The peninsula was historically ...

differ from the rest of the island, which is seen as an overlapping of the megalithic beliefs with Buddhism. According to scholars was Kantarodai, known in

Tamil literature Tamil literature includes a collection of literary works that have come from a tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the T ...

as ''Kadiramalai'', the capital of the ancient Tamil Kingdom ruled by Tamil speaking Naga kings from 7th century AD to 10th century AD. The '' Yalpana Vaipava Malai'' also describes Kadiramalai as the seat of '' Ukkirasinghan'' who fell in love with a

Chola The Chola Empire, which is often referred to as the Imperial Cholas, was a medieval thalassocratic empire based in southern India that was ruled by the Chola dynasty, and comprised overseas dominions, protectorates and spheres of influence ...

princess in the ancient period. The ancient Kadurugoda Vihara Buddhist monastery is situated at this site where a 10th-century pillar inscription of Sinhalese language recording a regal proclamation of the bequest of gifts and benefits to a Buddhist place of worship was found. Kandarodai was a Buddhist

mercantile Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. Traders generally negotiate through a medium of cred ...

centre among

Tamils The Tamils ( ), also known by their endonym Tamilar, are a Dravidian peoples, Dravidian ethnic group who natively speak the Tamil language and trace their ancestry mainly to the southern part of the Indian subcontinent. The Tamil language is o ...

Education

Kandarodai has a number of education institutions notably Kantharodai Tamil Kandaiya Vidyasalai and Skandavarodaya College.

Gallery

Notes

References