113992242-Dravidian-Settlements-in-Ceylon-and-the-Beginnings-of-the-Kingdom-of-Jaffna-By-Karthigesu-Indrapala-Complete-Phd-Thesis-University-of-London-1965

307
In l9kl Geiger published an interesting article on the Vanni
based almost entirely on the Pli chronicle In recent years
was published another work which sadly lacks a proper scientific
analysia There is much difference of opinion among all these
writers on the important problem of the origin and spread of
the Vannis or Vaiyars.
Who were the Vannis who emerge into limelight in
the thirteenth century amidst the confusion that followed gha'a
invasion ? This is a question which iá not easy of solution with
the evidence at our disposal. The derivation of the name itself
presents lot of difficulty. Paranavitana has the following to
Bay about the Vannis:-
The government of the districts away from the
capital was carried on by a class of chieftains referred
to as Varini who someties defied the authority of the
ruler at the capital. The people who lived in the ancient
Rjaraha , which in our period (thirteenth to the
fifteenth century) was being steadily encroached by forests,
were under chieftains called vanni, some of whom were of
Tamil race, and who transferred their allegiance to the
Sinhalese king, or the ruler in. Jaffna, as the exigencies
of the changing political situation dictated.
1. W.Geiger, 'Die Vannis', Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen
Aka ernie dci' Wissenachaften, II, Heft 1f, Juni l9kl, 1'lUnchen, pp.3-li1
2. C.S.Navaratnam, Vanni and the Vanniyars, Jaffna, 1960.