Sinhalese-Tamil enmity was retroactively projected onto a local dynastic war

Evidence

The battle may have been a regional affair. Mahanama also may have exaggerated the Duthagamani-Elara episode to overcome “sectarian struggles” within the sangha and privilege his order at a time when it was being marginalized (Kulke 2000: 134). Whatever the reasons, Buddhist nationalists, especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, have emphasized the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnicities of Duthagamani and Elara, respectively, and have claimed that the Sinhalese-Tamil conflict is two millennia old. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 75

Categorization

• QUESTION: Directly supports the reader’s core research question: enmity manufactured via retrospective myth-making rather than primordial.
• XREF: Connects to manufactured-threat literatures and to the reader’s standing question about whether professed conviction tracks measured bias — the Mahavamsa account is a devotional text being weaponized as nationalist history. — connects to: Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is legitimized by myth rather than primordial fact — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 78; The Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is a modern retrojection onto an embellished ancient chronicle. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 75; Sinhalese governments manufactured Tamil separatism through base-securing ethnocentric competition. — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist…, 228 (+1 more)
• SEED: Possible essay angle: how ethnic conflict is backdated — nationalists claiming two-millennia-old ‘ancient hatreds’ as a legitimating myth for contemporary wars.

Broader Connections

• The Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is a modern retrojection onto an embellished ancient chronicle. #corroborates (1.00) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 75
• Sinhalese-Tamil enmity is legitimized by myth rather than primordial fact #expands (0.90) — Neil DeVotta, Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology, 78