Few questions (vEL pAri) by N.Ganesan dated 1/10/97

[Ramani]

At 10:18 AM 10/3/97 +0100, you wrote:
>About the derivation of MaTTakkaLappu( Batticaloa in English in Ilankai) -
>whether it could be a town in plain fields -the problem needs a long
>exposition.
>What I mentioned earlier is the explanation, recorded in the MaTTakkaLappu
>MAnmiyam (M.M). Some people now guess that it could be connected to maTTi
>oyster, found in abundance in the Lagoon. There are people, explaining like
>Ganesan, the origin of this word. But it is not the city that has given the
>name to the district.
>MaTTakkaLappu is now the name of a city as well as a district in Sri Lanka
>from 1960's. Upto that time, AmpARai district to the south and the
>south-west of Batticaloa, also formed part of MaTTakkaLappu district.
>The history of Batticaloa begins in the Tamil villages of the present day
>AmpArai district. Not merely M.M, but even inscriptions, both in stone and
>copper, deal with matters in villages in the present AmpARai district.
>KaNNaki ( Patni) worship is very popular among the Tamil Hindus throughout
>the two districts and recorded traditions about the worship speak of the
>worship, spreading from the Tamil villages in the present AmpARai district
>to the Tamil villages in the present truncated Batticaloa district.
>The first Professor of Tamil in any university in the world - Swami
>VipulAnaNdA - in ANNAMalai University from 1930 -hailed from KAraitIvu, a
>Tamil village in the present AmpARai district.
>At the time of Independence in 1948, the Tamils and the Tamil speaking
>Muslims constituted 90% of the population of the Batticaloa district. There
>has been massive Sinhala colonization in AmpARai district and the latest
>population ratio seem to be 41% Sinhala : 40 % Tamil speaking Muslim : 19 %
>Tamil in what was originally MaTTakkaLappu.
>The city, located at the point where the sea enters the lagoon, owes its
>creation to the Portuguese in early 17th century, who established a
>fortified trading post there. Its earlier name was PuLiyankuLam.
>Paddy fields abound in both districts -the economic base of the region.
>Regards,
>A.Veluppillai
>
echoed.
Ramani