email from "J. K. S. Weerasekera"
Mixing of genes. A big mix. Not
surprising as the Moors, Muslims and traders of old kept their women back at
home. Except those who came here from the east .
Actually it was claimed
statistically that within 500 years a gene would spread to each and
every individual in the world. That was before gene evidence came in.
The Sinhalese and the south Indians have
about 10% “Aryan” blood, according to a very limited gene study conducted in
the last decade.
And how mixed are the pure ‘Aryan”s? Ask
the late unlamented Adolph Hitxxx !
Adolph too was very very mixed!
jksw
Interesting piece --worth a read-Thanks
Philip
FORWARDING AS RECEIVED
Race in Sri Lanka: What genetic evidence
tells us By Asiff Hussei
Muslims least exclusive community in Sri
Lanka
Race
is a touchy issue almost everywhere in the world but nowhere is this more
pronounced than in countries where there is a plurality of peoples. People
become more race conscious when another group of people differing in physical
features, language, culture and religion live in their midst. The greater the
difference, the greater the distance. But there is one little thing that people
often miss out on, which is that all races can freely interbreed with one
another. This, needless to say, points only to one fact, that all humans have a
common origin. From the Darkest African to the Fairest European or the Red
Indian from a continent discovered a little over 500 years ago, all men are
one. The Biblical story of Adam and Eve after all does seem to have a factual
basis.
The
latest genetic studies done on Sri Lankan populations have overturned some
popular misconceptions with regard to race exclusiveness. For one thing, it has
shown that the country’s Muslims known as the Moors, are the least exclusive of
the peoples studied. On the other end of the spectrum are the Veddahs, who,
despite some intermarriage with neighbouring Sinhalese have managed to preserve
much of their original gene pool that goes back to the island’s Stone Age.
The
study Development of Databases for Autosomal, Y-Chromosomal and Mitochondrial
DNA Markers and their application in forensic casework and population genetics
in Sri Lankan Populations by Dr. Ruwan Illeperuma took into consideration
paternally inherited Y-Chromosome DNA, maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA
and non-sex determined autosomal markers. It revealed some interesting facts on
the peopling of Sri Lanka which both confirm and question established notions
of race in the country.
Muslims
least exclusive
The
country’s Muslims, the Moor community have been shown to be genetically the
most diverse of all communities, challenging the stereotype of the Moors being
a rather exclusive people who hardly marry outside. Dr. Illeperuma found that
the Muslims (Moors) possessed greater genetic diversity than the other ethnic
groups studied, which would indicate that they have mixed more with others. For
instance with regard to Autosomal or Chromosomal Non-Sex-inherited DNA, the
Moors were shown to be the most heterozygous of the groups studied. This
suggests greater gene flow into the Moor community from other communities when
compared with the rest of the groups studied. This indicates that they had freely
intermarried with these other groups.
Further
with regard to paternally inherited Y-chromosomal DNA, the Moors were shown to
possess certain male lineages that came from other communities and most closely
approached those of the Sinhalese. They had the lowest number of
population-specific haplotypes (Y-STR haplotypes), which indicates more sharing
of male haplotypes with others than the other groups shared with each other.
Furthermore, a phylogenetic analysis of male-inherited Y-chromosome haplotypes
showed the Sinhalese to be closest to the Moors in male lineages when compared
with the other groups.
With
regard to maternally-inherited Mt DNA, the Moors shared the greatest proportion
of non-unique haplotypes (HVS1) with others showing that they had been
subjected to gene flow from the other groups in connection with female
lineages. The Mt DNA tree indicated a clustering of Sinhalese and Moors,
suggesting a close affinity when compared to the Veddahs and Sri Lankan Tamils.
This suggests a greater contribution to their maternal lineages from the Sinhalese.
Dr. Illeperuma however cautioned that the small number of Moors represented in
the study does not permit us to be conclusive in this regard and that it is
only a larger sample that could be reliably taken to be representative of the
community as a whole.
What
all this suggests is that the Moors have been the least exclusive of the
country’s major communities, as far as the genetic evidence is concerned. That
their maternally-inherited Mt DNA should closely resemble that of the Sinhalese
should not come as a surprise given the historical evidence for Moor men
espousing Sinhalese women. There is considerable evidence to show that the
early Arabian settlers of the country intermarried with the daughters of the
land. These early seafaring Muslims who arrived to trade here did not bring
women with them and so married local women when they chose to settle down here.
The
Moors of Akurana for instance trace their descent to three Arabian mercenaries
who espoused Kandyan women during the reign of King Rajasinha II (1635-1687).
The Gopala (Betge Nilame) family of Moors domiciled in Getaberiya in the
Kegalle district likewise claim descent from Arab physicians who arrived in the
country from Sind during the reign of King Parakramabahu II (1236-1270) of
Dambadeniya and espoused Sinhalese women. Indeed, some of the members of this
clan are said to have been given in marriage daughters of the Kandyan nobility.
According to a surviving member of the clan who is now over 90 years old,
Mohamedu Udayar of Gevilipitiya, oral tradition passed down the generations has
it that their first ancestor who settled in the country took in marriage Tikiri
Kumari, daughter of Unambuve Rala. This is interesting since the Govi clan of
Unambuva were deemed to be of a very high status in Sinhalese society, being a
clan with which even Sinhalese royalty, including the last true Sinhalese
monarch, Narendra Sinha, married into. In fact, we were informed by Sheikh
Mohamadu Udayar’s son, Sheikh Hamees that his father is still addressed as Nilame
by elderly village folk while he too has been addressed as Punchi Nilame. The
women of the clan he pointed out are likewise addressed as Menike. Titles such
as these were used in the olden days only to address those of a high social
standing.
However it was not only women of the higher classes of Sinhalese that the
Moors espoused. E.B. Denham observed in his Ceylon at the Census of 1911:
“Amongst the Moors in Colombo and Galle at the present day there must be a
fairly considerable infusion of Sinhalese blood; the number of Sinhalese women
married to or living with Moors is fairly large”. We even hear of a Moor who
had settled in a village of the untouchable Rodi caste of the Sinhalese,
sharing their life and enjoying connubium with them, if we are to believe
M.D.Raghavan who observed as such in his work Handsome Beggars. The Rodiyas of
Ceylon published in 1957.
What is however interesting is that their paternally-inherited Y-chromosome
DNA also showed some affinity with others, especially the Sinhalese, which may
perhaps best be explained on the basis that some Sinhalese males entered the
Moor community by way of adoption. There exists considerable evidence to show
that the Moors of a little over a century ago adopted Sinhalese boys and girls,
and brought them up as Muslims G.A. Dharmaratna observed in the latter part of
the 19th century, in his work Kara-Goi Contest (1890) that “the Moors add to
their number poor Singhalese boys and girls who are duly received into their
community”. And Paul E. Pieris could observe in the early part of the
twentieth century, in his monumental work Ceylon. The Portuguese Era (1914)
that the adoption of anboys of other communities was “still a popular
practice among the Moors”.
What all this shows is that the Moors of old do not seem to have harboured
racial prejudices of any kind, unlike some who do today. It was probably in
keeping with the spirit of their Islamic faith, which, like Christianity, held
that all humans had a common origin – from Adam and Eve.
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