Myths play an important role in human life both personal and collective.
On the collective side there are myths related to nations, races, castes, religions etc which serve to group human beings under these mostly primordial categories, providing members of those groups feelings of security and an ideological basis for unity against the 'others' outside these groups, which may be a foreign power in the case of a nation, or another race, ethnic group, caste etc. In Sri Lanka, the Sinhala Buddhists have the myth of the Sinhalese of Aryan origins being the first settlers in the island. On the basis of this myth the Tamil community in the country has no equal status with the Sinhalese both in their historical claims to settlement in the island as well as in their origin of birth which is Dravida not Aryan. The notion of a non-violent ancient Sinhala Buddhist society is in my view, is a similar myth which some people may try to use to cleanse the collective Sinhala Buddhist psyche of the large blood stains which it has been collecting in the post independence era. Let us examine the validity of this claim of a non-violent ancient Sinhala Buddhist society.