The vicinity of the lagoon was suddenly lost by the mangroves aside of the highway by the speedily hurrying vehicle and brought my attention to the northern highway towards Jaffna town. While our vehicle was passing the Jaffna Lagoon and the then Elephant Pass camp vicinity we reached the Iyakkachchi area, an early settlement of Yakkas, a tribal group who were living in the era of Nagas together in the Island.
The ‘Yakkas’, possibly early immigrants from Persia, were numerous and very powerful, and held themselves aloof and confined themselves mostly to the mountain fastnesses of the North- Central region of the Island, whereas the 'Nagas' confined themselves to the seaboard. Ptolemy, the famous Greek-speaking geographer and astronomer who lived in the Roman Egypt called the Mahaweli River as Phasis fluvius, which means the Persian river, indicating that the Yakkas, who dwelt there, were connected to the Persians. The Yakkas also could have been the indigenous people of Persia and might have escaped to Sri Lanka when the invaders were advancing towards their territory by sea or land from Persia.
Kuveni was the queen of Yakkhas and became the consort of Prince Vijaya(B.C. 543-504) who eventually became the first Indo-Aryan king of Sri Lanka with the Kalinga ancestory. Later he married a princess from the Dravidian Kingdom of “Pandy” in South India.
Some of the German Praktikum (internship) students were tired and in a sleepy mood. They might have not had enough sleep because of the strange environment. For students it is an option to travel out of Germany to complete their internship. Several students are coming to Asia, especially to AGSEP in Sri Lanka. The students who were with me in the Northern relief mission are also one batch of students of those who were in their overseas study tour.
When we were passing by the last end of the then Elephant Pass Military camp, sea birds were flying around the shallow water and busily fishing for their night meal.
After nearly a decade when I was traveling with the German students through Elephants Pass, watching the same Lagoon where I crossed at midnights struck how things were changing the world over in an unbelievably short time.
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Rajkumar Kanagasingam is author of a fascinating book on German memories in Asia and you can explore more about the book and the author at AGSEP
