Origin and Chronology

Te Ao Hou, March 1969, Page 10

Origin and Chronology It is generally accepted that the Maoris are the descendants of a race that came from Asia to the Pacific Islands and from there to New Zealand about 1,000 B.C. India being the cradle of civilisation in the East, there is strong evidence to prove that the Maoris came from India too. Maybe they took thousands of years to complete their so-called ‘Great Migration’. Indian history is written and recorded in rock edicts, in the Vedas and the Epics, and proved in India's recent archaeological excavations. Unfortunately, this has not been the case with the Maori. However, the legends and traditions, the arts and crafts, the beliefs and customs of the Maoris bear a very strong similarity to those of North India. In Lanka too, we have a recorded history of over 2,000 years and the ruined cities of Ceylon with their wealth of historical remains bear testimony to this assertion. A study of contemporary events that took place both in Maoridom and Lanka (Ceylon) will make our similarities very clear. Hawaiki refers to a far-off land in the west and the historians agree that the low-lying fields of Bengal with the mountainous terrain hinterland is the Hawaiki of the Maori. From about 1,000 to 500 B.C. the mainland of India was full of tribes and tribal strife. There were the Nagas, Yakkas, Arawas, Sooriyas or Sauris, Maullis, Mohanasa, Meena, Kuri and Mauriyas — the Maoris. Also in India there was a tribe called ‘Sinha’, or the Lions, in what was then known as Latarata. The popular place names like Karanasi, Ujjain, Bali, Rangagiri, Ava, Manupoori, Uri and Mandura, all correspond to some place names in Maoridom — viz., Taranaki, Urewera, Pari, Rangiriri, Hawaiki, Manapouri and Uri. About 1,000 B.C., a General called Chandragupta of the Mauriya dynasty founded the empire of Mauriya in India and

all of India was brought under his rule; furthermore, the great Mauriyan King invaded Burma, Java, Sumatra and the islands in the far east. There were mainly two great ‘migrations’ that took place about 500 B.C. One was the great migration of the brave Mauriyas who were able warriors as well as navigators of the time. The religion at the time was Hinduism in India and the people were just beginning to organise themselves as a more civilised human race. They were mostly farmers and fishermen who possessed crude implements. With their crude implements and a faith associated with dances, songs and chants, the power of the deities (gods) and the dead, the Mauriyas drifted far east, finally to settle in New Zealand, cut off from the mother land. They probably did not take with them the art of writing or any written alphabet so they preserved and passed on their heritage by word of mouth. Well now, by this time the Sinha tribe of Latarata too launched on their great migration, probably from the Bay of Bengal, and drifted down south until they landed on the coast of Lanka. Both Indian and Ceylon history has it that Prince Vijaya, son of Sinhabahu and Sinhaseevalee of Latarata went on looting and harassing the subjects of his own father and the king then summoned his son and his 500 followers and had their heads half shaven and put them in a canoe to drift and perish at sea as a punishment. Vijaya landed in Lanka with his followers; fought with the native Yakkas living there and then founded the Sinhalese race the island of Lanka, now called Ceylon. Legend has it that any new settlement peopled by sons of Hawaiki (sons of India) was placed under the protectorate of the god Vishnu or Hari. Lanka and Maoridom were both placed under the protection of this god according to some legends. Prior to the landing of Vijaya, the Yakkas and Nagas of Ceylon worshipped the sun and moon, trees and stones and their dead. This was so with the primitive Maori too. About 240 B.C. the Mauriyas under the leadership of the great emperor Asoka, ushered in what is considered to be the ‘Golden Age’ of Indian civilisation. The Mauriyas, great warriors as they were, fought a thousand battles under Asoka, the great, and at the end the emperor was so filled with profound remorse that he no more wished to extend his empire by Dig-Vijaya or territorial conquest or by the might of the sword. He turned to Dhamma-Vijaya, the conquest by righteousness, and the whole of India including lands overseas, saw a period of prosperity and happiness in this period. The arts and culture flourished and peace and goodwill was even extended beyond man to the beast in that there were laws protecting the animals. He became a Buddhist as by this time Buddhism was at its best in India. This great emperor sent missions overseas to spread the teaching of Buddha and it was his own son, Mahinda Thero, who brought Buddhism to Ceylon during the reign of Devanampiyatissa the Sinhala king who was a bosom friend of the emperor Asoka. With the introduction of Buddhism to Ceylon the people who were given to other forms of worship and steeped in superstition all became Buddhists and with it came the Great Aryan civilisation of India — Hawaiki — to Ceylon. This great religion has ever since been the biggest religious and cultural force in Lanka. The emperor Asoka's daughter, Sangamitta, later came to Ceylon with the sacred Bo-sapling (Bua trees considered a holy tree) to establish the order of Buddhist nuns (meheisasana) whilst Mahina Thero established the order of Buddhist monks. Thus it would seem

that it is again the Mauriya (Maoris of India) who brought civilisation and culture first to Ceylon. The Maoris of New Zealand left their Hawaiki (India) before Buddhism became the popular religion of India. Lord Buddha himself was a Mauriyan and Ceylon history has a line of kings of Mauriya dynasty.