Salagama

Salagama (also known as Saliya^[1]) is a Sinhalese caste found mostly in the southern coastal areas of Sri Lanka. The community was traditionally associated with the cultivation and management of cinnamon and were formerly also involved as weavers and soldiers.^[2][3]

The Salagamas were also known as Saliya, also spelled Chaliya. The name is presumably derived from Chale of Kerala.^[1]

The Salagamas trace their roots back to the Coromandel Coast and Malabar Coast of South India, and settled in the southern coastal areas of Sri Lanka.^[4][5] Their ancestors were a weaving community who were known as Saliya also known as Devanga Chettiar of South India.^[6] Some Salagamas also have the vasagama or surname "Nambudirige" meaning "of the Nambudiri", which Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere deems as a spurious attempt by the caste to elevate their status to that of the Nambudiri Brahmins of Kerala (Due to caste competition with the Karava who claimed Kshatriya status).^[7] Like the other coastal castes such as the Karavas and Duravas, the Salagamas migrated to Sri Lanka between 13th to 18th century.^[8]

Under Portuguese rule, many Karavas and Salagamas converted to Catholicism, which opened way to education and administrative careers.^[9]

The Portuguese continued the tradition of using Salagamas as cinnamon planters, who had to provide cinnamon as a tax. Queyroz mentions 'Chaleaz' as among the 'high castes' and that they prepared cinnamon for the 'great tax'.^[10]

When the Dutch East India Company (VOC) took over the coastal areas, it re-organised cinnamon cultivation on modern capitalist lines, with plantations located within the boundaries of VOC rule, mainly in the Galle district. The Salagamas were converted from a feudal caste into a modern proletariat.^{[citation needed]}The Dutch demand for cinnamon was more intense than that of the Portuguese, and by the era of British control mortality rates among Salagamas had increased sharply. It became common practice for cinnamon peelers' children to be registered under the names of other castes in order to spare them a life of ever-growing misery.^{[citation needed]}

The census of 1824 identified the Salagamas as about 7.5% of the coastal Sinhalese population. However, they were concentrated in the Galle district, where about half of them lived and where they made up almost 20% of the population.^[11]

Traditionally, the Salagama were divided into four sub-castes:^[12]

• Hewapanne ('warriors' & military officers/generals)
• Panividakara ('Special messengers') or - headmen (equal to Mohottalas)
• Kurundukara (Kurunthukarar in Tamil means ('cinnamon workers').

However, in modern times there is a simple twofold division between the Hewapanne and the Kurundukara. The former are of higher status, including landowners in their ranks, the "Kurundukara's" enjoyed a high status in Sinhala society, before being punished by the King of Kotte in 1406 and downgraded to a lower status, who also imposed cinnamon as a tax, at one stage the tax exceeded their manpower, and became virtually unbearable, and it took a heavy toll in their mortality rate, some of them were subsequently forced to change their names to other castes to escape it.

Today, the Salagama predominance in cinnamon cultivation has declined, the higher status gained by the caste leading to its members abandoning their traditional occupation. Many Salagamas in the Hikkaduwa area became coral miners until the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 swept away their villages. The coral-lime kilns gave employment to many more.

The Railway made access to employment in Colombo and other urban centres very much easier, and the caste became a very important part of the working class. Its higher echelons became notable in the engineering profession, mainly due to the influence of Sir Cyril de Zoysa, who owned the South Western Omnibus Company (see Ceylon Transport Board) and the Associated Motorways Group, and other businessmen in the motor trade.

By the mid 18th century, upasampada (higher ordination, as distinct from samanera or novice ordination) had become extinct in Sri Lanka. The Buddhist order had become extinct three times during the preceding five hundred years and was re-established in the reigns of Vimala Dharma Suriya I (1591–1604) and Vimala Dharma Suriya II (1687–1707) as well. These re-establishments were short lived. On the initiative of Ven. Weliwita Saranankara (1698–1778) the Thai monk Upali Thera visited Kandy during the reign of king Kirti Sri Rajasinghe (1747–1782) and once again reestablished the Buddhist order in Sri Lanka in 1753. It was called the Siyam Nikaya after the "Kingdom of Siam".

The traditional Salagama areas around Balapitiya, Kosgoda, Ratgama, Hikkaduwa and Boossa were centres of the pan-Sinhalese populist movement of Anagarika Dharmapala (who was not from the Salagama community). The key issues around which this movement emerged were anti-casteism and anti-colonialism.

The same areas were in the vanguard of the independence struggle and became hotbeds of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party and of the Communist Party. These areas were at the forefront of the Hartal of 1953.^[13]

• Caste system in Sri Lanka

• Bryce Ryan, Caste in Modern Ceylon, Rutgers University Press, 1953.
• Fernăo de Queyroz (SG Perera, Tr), The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, Colombo, Government Printer, 1930.

• Troy David Osborne, A taste of Paradise: Cinnamon, James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota
• Ehelapola the great
• Ceylon Under the British Occupation
• Related Indian caste
• Upatissa the Chief Adviser of King Vijaya