No. 29. — 1884.] PADDY CULTIVATION CUSTOMS. 



307 



This forms the inauguration of the work of cultivation. 



As in the Jaffna District ploughing is carried on between 

 April and September, whenever a fall of rain affords an 

 opportunity for it, it is necessary early in the (Tamil) year 

 to be prepared for this operation. Accordingly, the ceremony 

 of yoking the oxen is performed during the first half of the 

 month Ckittirai (April — May). At one of the hours fixed 

 for this purpose, a pair of very tame oxen, often decorated 

 with garlands of flowers, red ochre, saffron powder, &c, is 

 taken to the field with a yoke and a plough, and after the 

 land-owner has paid the usual homage to Pillaiydr, by split- 

 ting a cocoanut in the field,* he yokes the bulls together, 

 making them face towards the north or east.f He and his 



* According to one of my informants this should be done in the 

 north-western corner. In the Deviyanne-dane ceremony of the Sinha- 

 lese, the Madupurayd breaks a cocoanut (see C. A. S. Journal, 1883, 

 p. 59), and it is remarkable that this is called Gana-deviyan-gahanavd. 

 Gana-deviyd = Pillaiydr (see note* ante), so that this act of the Madu- 

 puraya's has the same object as has that of the Tamil cultivator, viz., 

 to sacrifice to Pillaiyar. Probably some of the Hindu ceremonies have 

 been retained by the Sighalese after their original significance and inten- 

 tion have become obscured or forgotten. There can be no doubt that 

 the practice of these ceremonies by the Sinhalese is of ancient origin, 

 and is not an importation from their Tamil neighbours. In fact, the 

 ceremonies are more complicated, and have suffered less detrition among 

 the Sinhalese than among the Tamils. This is one reason why I think 

 it a mistake to attribute the addiction of the Sinhalese all over the 

 Island to fragments, of the Hindu cult, mainly to the fact that the later 

 Kandyan kings were Tamils and Hindus, or to the discovery by the Sin- 

 halese people (Kandyans) after a trial of Buddhism that as a religion it 

 was inadequate for their wants. The Sinhalese were Hindus before 

 they were Buddhists, and though they adopted Buddhism (circa 

 246 B.C.), the mass of the people never entirely gave up Hinduism, and 

 retained many of the beliefs and practices connected with it. Buddhism 

 was grafted on to Hinduism. 



j- "Amongst the four cardinal points, the north and east were 

 always preferred, and of these the east. The south was highly objec- 

 tionable, as the realms of the Indian Pluto, Yama, were situate there. 

 The north was liked, because the abode of Siva was in that direction. 

 Sunrise and sunset must have operated in deciding the merits of the 

 east and west." — Arichandra, by Sir M. Coomara Swamy, note on 

 p. 241. 



