Sri Lanka is an island and good neighbour of India. The name Lanka reminds us Lankeshwar Ravana who was famous worshipper of Lord Shiva. The Ramayana gives us hints regarding Lanka of being a land of Shiva. There were many names of Sri Lanka like Ratanadweepa, Taprobane, Tambapanni, Sarendweepa, Sinhaladweepa, Seelan or Cylon etc.
Before finding out the roots, we have to know the simple geography of the island, There are two chief peaks Pidurutalagala and Adam's peak are situated on central highland. The highland is surrounded by coastal plainland. The coastal is surrouded by sea and ocean water. There are many rivers in Sri Lanka like Mahaweliganga, Menikganga, Ginganga, Walweganga, Kelaniganga, Aruri aru etc. Rivers are the soul of a country and play an important role in the history of civilisation. The word GANGA with Sri Lankan rivers proves that the names of rivers were named by ancient Indians. Again Goddess Ganga is related to God Shiva. We have to remind also that the Sinhala languaga is a part of Indo-Aryan language. Now we shall try to find out the origin of the word LANKA with the help of ancient boat-travellers or sailors. The sailors could sail around the small island within a few days. They noticed that all the rivers about 100 coming from central portion sloping down towards coastal plains. Creating many rivers mounths along the circular wise coastal line, the rivers meet the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Observing the nature of river flows, they imagined a central mountainous-peak area on the highland. Respectively plainland highland and mountainous-peak area created an idea about the formation of the island. The sloping formation from top to end reminded the shape of phallus of Lord Shiva. Here phallus means penis
or linga. The phallus Aakar or sized is land was named as Lingakar. The word Lingakar was formed and changed as follows :-
Linga +Aakar = Lingakar
Lingakar >Lingka > Lanka
The above explanations may be clarified in brief as follows :- Lanka = A formation like phallus. There is a tradition of adding the word SRI before person or place name. Sri Kshetrapuri of Orissa, Srinagar of Jammu & Kashmir and Sri Dungargarh of Rajasthan are the examples of adding Sri. Therefore, adding of Sri with beautiful Lanka was very normal matter. This may be written below :
Sri + Lanka = Sri Lanka
Again Sinhala is another name of Lanka. We know from the geography of Srilanka that the central mountainous area is with the said two peaks. The word peak is called Sringa in Sanskrit language. The possible changes as below :-
Sringa > Sringala > Singhla or Sinhala
(Peak) (Large area of Peaks)
Banga > Bangal > Bangla
It is noticeable that 'L' utterance has been added with the root word for expansion of meaning. It is also remarkable that the utterance of Sringala has been changed as Singhla for local utterance. Again the word Singhal changed as Sinhala for European utterance.
Before finding out the roots, we have to know the simple geography of the island, There are two chief peaks Pidurutalagala and Adam's peak are situated on central highland. The highland is surrounded by coastal plainland. The coastal is surrouded by sea and ocean water. There are many rivers in Sri Lanka like Mahaweliganga, Menikganga, Ginganga, Walweganga, Kelaniganga, Aruri aru etc. Rivers are the soul of a country and play an important role in the history of civilisation. The word GANGA with Sri Lankan rivers proves that the names of rivers were named by ancient Indians. Again Goddess Ganga is related to God Shiva. We have to remind also that the Sinhala languaga is a part of Indo-Aryan language. Now we shall try to find out the origin of the word LANKA with the help of ancient boat-travellers or sailors. The sailors could sail around the small island within a few days. They noticed that all the rivers about 100 coming from central portion sloping down towards coastal plains. Creating many rivers mounths along the circular wise coastal line, the rivers meet the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Observing the nature of river flows, they imagined a central mountainous-peak area on the highland. Respectively plainland highland and mountainous-peak area created an idea about the formation of the island. The sloping formation from top to end reminded the shape of phallus of Lord Shiva. Here phallus means penis
or linga. The phallus Aakar or sized is land was named as Lingakar. The word Lingakar was formed and changed as follows :-
Linga +Aakar = Lingakar
Lingakar >Lingka > Lanka
The above explanations may be clarified in brief as follows :- Lanka = A formation like phallus. There is a tradition of adding the word SRI before person or place name. Sri Kshetrapuri of Orissa, Srinagar of Jammu & Kashmir and Sri Dungargarh of Rajasthan are the examples of adding Sri. Therefore, adding of Sri with beautiful Lanka was very normal matter. This may be written below :
Sri + Lanka = Sri Lanka
Again Sinhala is another name of Lanka. We know from the geography of Srilanka that the central mountainous area is with the said two peaks. The word peak is called Sringa in Sanskrit language. The possible changes as below :-
Sringa > Sringala > Singhla or Sinhala
(Peak) (Large area of Peaks)
Banga > Bangal > Bangla
It is noticeable that 'L' utterance has been added with the root word for expansion of meaning. It is also remarkable that the utterance of Sringala has been changed as Singhla for local utterance. Again the word Singhal changed as Sinhala for European utterance.