Names of Sri Lanka
From Open Encyclopedia
Sri Lanka is a country that has been known by many names. The existence of the island has been known to the Indic, Chinese, Arabic, and Western civilisations for many millenia and the various names ascribed to the island over time reflect this.
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Local names
Prior to 1972, Sri Lanka was known by a variety of names. Sri Lanka ("resplendent land" in Sanskrit) itself represents the modern adoption of a name of ancient lineage. It derives from the Ramayana, in which the island was simply called Lanka. It was also known as Lankadeepa, appending the word for island. The appellation Lanka was unknown to the Greeks, from whom most Western names would be derived.
Greek and Roman names
The second-century Greek geographer Ptolemy called the island Simundu or Simoundou (pronounced Silundu) and Palai-Simundu ("Old Simundu"). The fourth-century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus called the inhabitants of the island Serandives.
Arabic names
The tenth-century historian Abu Rihan Muhammad bin Ahmad, or Alberuni, called the island Singal-Dip. However, in Arabic, the island ultimately came to be known as Serendib or Sarandib, which led to the Persian Serendip (as used in the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, whose heroes were always making discoveries of things they were not seeking, from which Horace Walpole in 1754 would ultimately coin the English word serendipity).
There is at least one alternative argument to the origin of Palai-Simundu, holding that, rather than coming from the Sanskrit sinhala, it derives instead from the Sanskrit pali-simanta ("head of the sacred law") as Sri Lanka had become an important center of Buddhism.
Western names
The sixth-century Greek sailor Cosmas Indicopleustes ("Cosmas India-Voyager") called the island Sielen Diva ("island of Sielen"). From this derived many of the other European forms: the Latin Selan, Portuguese Ceilão, Spanish Celián, French Selon, Dutch Zeilan, Ceilan and Seylon, and English Ceylon. A similar Arabic form of more recent vintage than Sarandib, Sailan, later came to be via predecessor words in Arabic Tilaan and Cylone. Ceylon and its equivalents in other languages are still occasionally used today.
In addition to calling it Simundu, Ptolemy also called the inhabitants Salai and the island Salike ("country of the Salai"). There are various theories as to the origin of this. One that many scholars hold is that it was merely a corruption, probably by the Greek sailors who traveled to Sri Lanka, of Simhalaka.
Other names have also been used in the West to describe the island. The Indian conqueror Vijaya named the island Tâmraparnî (copper-colored leaf), a name which was adopted into Pâli as Tambaparni. The accounts of Alexander the Great's officers and others like forth-century BCE Greek geographer Megasthenes, based on information they obtained from Greek and Sri Lankan travellers, called the island Taprobanê, generally regarded as a transliteration of Tâmraparnî. Later, the seventeenth-century English poet John Milton borrowed this for his epic English-language poem Paradise Lost.
An alternative etymology for the Greek Taprobanê is from the Sanskrit Tambrapani ("great pond" or "pond covered with red lotus"), most likely in association with the great tanks for which Sri Lanka famed. A third is that it derived its name a river; the name of the river is Tāmaraparnī or Tamiravarani or Taamravarni, which is North of Sri Lanka and is a combination of the Sanskrit taamra ("coppery") and varna ("color").
From Ptolemy we also learn that Taprobanê was anciently (from his perspective) called Simoundou. Other names include the Tamil Ilanare, the Arabic Tenerism ("isle of delight"), and the Chinese Pa-Outchow ("isle of gems").
Alternate etymologies
There are some alternative arguments as to the origin of Salike. Some argue that another Indian name for the island - Salabha ("rich island") - is its source. Others argue that it came via the Egyptian Siela Keh ("land of Siela"), even more similar to Cosmas' Siele and still of the same ultimate origin.
Both Ptolemy's Salai and Cosmas' Siele (Diva being merely a form of dwîpa ("island")), as well as the Arabic forms, have a common source in the Pâli sihalam (pronounced Silam), the Pâli form of the Sanskrit sinhala ("dwelling place of lion"), with sinha ("lion") as its root. As there are no lions on Sri Lanka, sinhala must be taken to mean a lion-like man - a hero - presumably Vijaya.
This origin is shared with many other names, such as Serendiva, Serendivus, Sirlediba, Sihala, Sinhale, Seylan, Sinhaladveepa, Sinhaladweepa, Sinhaladvipa, Sinhaladwipa,Simhaladveepa, Simhaladweepa, Simhaladvipa, Simhaladwipa, Sinhaladipa, Simhaladeepa, etc. Many of these names appear to reflect nothing more than the numerous orthographic variations in the way these names have been transliterated into Western languages, including changing the n to m, changing the a at the end of Sinhala to an e, writing the vowel in the penultimate syllable as an i or an ee, changing the v to a w or omitting them completely.
The names Heladiva and Heladveepa have two possible origins, a point of hot debate between certain Sri Lankans. Some argue that is nothing more than an additional type of name as described in the above paragraph, simply having been shortened by dropping the Sin or Sim. Others argue that the Hela were a separate people living in Sri Lanka before the arrival of the Indian invaders, the Dravidians or specifically the Tamils of South India. Those who make this distinguishment are more likely to use these names to describe Sri Lanka. Sivuhelaya may also be a name of similar origin, although it is very obscure.
The island has also earned several nicknames. It came to be known as the Island of Teaching due to the large number of Greeks and Chinese who travelled to the island to learn of Buddhism.
Due to its shape and location in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of India, some also refer to the island as India's teardrop.
