By M. U. de Silva
Abstract
The foreign powers who ruled the littoral of Sri Lanka since 1594, picked the headmen who wielded the royal authority in provinces in the caste-feudal social order for filling administrative positions to oversee the long established obligatory services and in collection of village level revenue according to caste norms. In due course the most faithful and efficient ones were promoted to higher positions of Vidane, Muhandiram and Mudaliyars. When the relations with the Kandyan kings improved and emissaries reached Colombo, Governor appointed the most trustworthy Mudaliyar as Maha Mudaliyar to assist him in the deliberations with the Kandyan emissaries. Very often the Maha Mudaliyar was appointed from the Goyigama caste Saram family and the majority of Mudaliyars were connected to Maha Mudaliyar by matrimonial alliances. Appointment of caste headman was discontinued by the 1832-1835 reforms and the major position of headmanship became a monopoly of the Goyigama caste. The unofficial membership in the newly formed legislative council, permanent assessorship in the District Court, occasional appointment of District Judgeships, Police Magistrates and Commissioners of Courts of Requests, Village Tribunal Presidents and Puisne Judgeship in the Supreme Court made this partnership even more closer. Late in the nineteenth century the dominant position held by the members of Goyigama caste was challenged by the emerging elite propelled by the process of English education accompanied by the rapid westernization and cash crop cultivation. They charged that a few Goyigama headman families favoured by the governors and the higher officers of administration dominate the political and social life of the country at the expense of other castes.
During the period of European control of Sri Lanka until the Europeans built their own administrative superstructure, they depended on the support and allegiance of a powerful group of locals to keep their territories trouble free to exploit the natural resources of the island. In the caste-feudal social order of the country they identified the class of local officials wielding authority of the local rulers commonly designated by the term headman. Their social position was high and the obedience of the locals too was evident. The alien governments picked them for petty administrative positions of carrying out rajakariya (obligatory services according to caste) services and the collection of the village level revenue.
It seems that both during the Portuguese and Dutch rule there have been two divisions in local administration of a Disavany with headmen designated as Mudaliyars, Muhindirams and Arachchias representing the military division while Korala, Atukorales, Vidanes representing the civil division. In each Korale which was the highest unit of provincial government of a Disavany where a Dutch officer was not present, there were two officers in charge of such duties, a Mudaliyar and a Korala. Mudaliyar commanded the local militia or the lascarins, and enforced the military services, the Korala supervised the collection of state revenue. When the Dutch consolidated their position they abolished the position of Korala and some subordinate offices below representing the civil line, united the civil and military duties in the hands of the Mudaliyars and Muhandirams1. At the end of the Dutch rule some Mudaliyars were appointed to advise the Governor, the Commanders and the Disavas while performing administrative functions entrusted to them in their provinces and districts.
Caste organizations in the Disavanys were separately organized under the caste headmen3. The tendency during both the Portuguese and Dutch times was for caste groups which were less useful to the rulers economically, to lose official patronage. But those caste groups which were useful economically and socially were favoured with concessions and honours and also with the title of Mudaliyar.
The Christian missionaries under the Dutch and the British managed to get these headman families to Christianity and their children were educated in mission schools4. Soon they acquainted themselves with the Christian culture and the dress. The alien governments provided opportunities which were instrumental in their social mobility to carry out a wide variety of local administrative tasks in tax collection, manning positions in newly created posts such as interpreters, clerks, translators and teachers.
The most influential and respected positions among the headman appointments during the late Dutch government was the post of Mahamudaliyar. The first Mahamudaliyar was Don Joan de Costa, a Sinhalese and a devoted follower of Dutch Reformed Church, who served the Dutch government for over 30 years. He was the highest local officer and the trusted confident and was conferred the Mudaliyar of the Governor’s Gate. The advice of the Mahamudaliyar appears to have been eagerly sought by the Governor on such matters as the issues of indigenous customs and practices.
The Mudaliyars appointed to advise the Dutch government and Disavas were designated AtapattuMudaliyars. In addition to being advisors they performed administrative functions in the provinces and districts. Mudaliyars who were appointed to Koralas and Pattus were designated as KoraleMudaliyars and PattuMudaliyars respectively. Mahamudaliyar was chosen from the efficient and devoted KoraleMudaliyars. The Korale and PattuMudaliyas were assisted by Muhandirams. The villages were in the charge of lesser headmen who bore designations which varied according to caste and region.
Mudaliyars were compelled to carry out a wide variety of local administrative tasks in addition to the development of agriculture and maintenance of peace and order in his division. By 1796 when the Dutch were to surrender their territories to the British the Mudaliyars were firmly in control of lower levels of Dutch colonial administration and enjoying the benefits of the social and economic changes8. The Mudaliyars who were the beneficiaries of land grants from the Dutch responded to the market incentives of the island in cultivating rice and coconut rather than the cash crops which the government was propagating. A rise in the internal demand was so acute that the Mudaliyars were extending the cultivation of food crops to supply the local market. It is clear from the Dutch archival sources that waste lands were cultivated against the wishes of the company which provided the economic basis of the Mudaliyar families. The majority of the Tunnavul land grants given as freehold on condition that one-third of the land granted would be cultivated with cinnamon were endowed mostly on the Mudaliyar families.
By 1796, the headmen were firmly in control of the lower levels of Dutch colonial administration not only due to the patronage, but also to the ways the Mudaliyars used their power and prestige attached to their offices to raise their status among the locals. Wealth and authority were converted to social status by accumulation of symbols of power, acquisition of landed estates, establishment of group status for their kinsmen and the enforcement of rajakariya services’. Likewise the Mudaliyars eagerly competed for state honours, medals, titles, tom-tom beaters and retainers. Such symbols conferred legitimacy in the caste penetrated feudal society in which proximity to the ruler was a mark of status.
When the British occupied the littoral of Sri Lanka they found that it was necessary to maintain the headmen system in a power sharing arrangement with the locals. But before any concrete step could be taken the administration of the newly acquired provinces were placed under the management of Madras Presidency. The East India Company assumed the responsibility of administering the provinces and send their servants from Madras to man them. They replaced the Mudaliyars in August 1796, with Madras officials known as Amildars. The Mudaliyars were asked to surrender their accommodessans and their divelparaveni were declared as freehold and taxable at one half the produce. They also introduced several new taxes which provoked the locals leading to an open revolt in December 1799″.
De Silva, M. U. “Mudliyar System and Their Claim for Exclusive Social Status during the Nineteenth Century.”
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, vol. 60, no. 2, 2015, pp. 1–35. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44737019.
Accessed 3 Feb. 2021.