.
The following tables show the ethnic and religious make-up of Sri Lanka in 1981. It clearly shows that the Singhalese are the largest ethnic group within Sri Lanka, forming 64% of the population, and that the Tamils are the largest minority. .
Ethnic Group % of Population Amount (millions).
Singhalese 74 12.7.
Sri Lankan Tamils 12.6 2.2.
Indian Tamils 5.6 1.
Muslims (Moors) 7.1 1.2.
Other 0.8 0.1.
Religion % of Population Amount (millions).
Buddhism 69.3 11.9.
Hinduism 15.5 2.6.
Islam 7.6 1.3.
Christianity 7.5 1.3.
Other 0.1 0.1.
(Source: National Statistics, 1981).
Early History.
The origins of the Sinhalese and Tamils in Sri Lanka are unclear as each community claims that they are the descendants of the original settlers. The reliability of existing documents on the subject is doubtful as they are records made centuries later, with legend, myth and oral traditions as source material whose interpretation has always been subject to the expediency of the moment. .
The Sinhalese are linked to the Indo-Aryans and trace their origin to the arrival of Prince Vijaya from Bengal in India about 2,500 years ago. The historical chronicles, the Mahavamsa and the Chulawansa, both record the turbulent historical part of the island from the 6th century B.C. onwards. They record the history of the great wars between the Tamil and Sinhalese kings and the invasions from South Indian Tamil empires. Largely due to wars, the Sinhalese kings were forced to move their capital southwards, from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruwa and finally to Kandy (Sprang, 1993: 6-9). .
The Tamils are linked to the Dravidian civilisation of South India. The Tamils are an ancient people with a history dating back at least 2,500 years. The Mahavamsa and Chulawansa record the invasions of Tamils, but they lack any information of a continuous kingdom present in northern Sri Lanka. Tamil historians claim that from the 13th century until the introduction of foreign colonialism, Tamils lived as a stable national entity in their own kingdom ruled by their own kings within a specified territory of their traditional homeland (Manogaran, 1987: 4-7).
