150 BC Tsunami: Sri Lanka

150 B.C. One possible addition... can be found as a mythical account in the Mahavansa, Sri Lanka's national Buddhist chronicle. This chronicle suggests that at least one tsunami may have been comparable to the 2004 event. The Mahavansa states that, about 150 B.C., "the sea flooded the land, as a wrath of God for the misdeed of the King who ruled the western part of the country at that time." (reference #6693)

Reference #13884:

In many circles [e.g., ref#13885] it has been claimed that the first recorded impact of a tsunami in Sri Lanka was during the reign of King Kelanitissa who ruled the Kelani Kingdom (Maya Rata) over 2,200 years ago. However, the experience and data collected during of the 2004 tsunami indicates that the flood event described in historical texts such as the Mahavamsa was not due to a tsunami.

King Kelanitissa suspected that his brother, Uttiya had an interest in his wife and banished him out of the Kingdom. But Uttiya was sending letters to the Queen through a Buddhist priest. When the King discovered a letter, he believed that the priest was writing the love letters to Queen and instantly convicted him to death by boiling in a cauldron of oil. Immediately after the death of the priest there was a large flood event and the public believed that the flood was because the sea gods were infuriated in the death of the priest. The description in Mahawamsa says ‘Wrath of the sea gods made the sea overflow into the land”. King was adviced to make a sacrifice to the gods. A ship was prepared and was launched with Princess Devi, the daughter of the King. Immediately after the vessel was launched the ocean subsided. The ship with Devi was washed ashore along the southern coast and she married the ruler there and was named Viharamaha Devi. Her son Dutugemunu (137-161 BC) was a famous king who united whole of Sri Lanka.

It is not disputed that the there was a significant flood event at that time. However, it would not have been due to a tsunami considering the described time scales. A tsunami is a packet of waves. Data presented in this paper, and many others describing tsunamis, indicate that a tsunami is a series of waves which that force onshore-offshore movement of water onto the land. When a wave crest approach the coast there is flooding whist during the wave trough the water recedes. This intermittent flooding-receding process occurs at intervals of 5-10 minutes over a period 3-4 hours. There is no residual or pooling of water on land during this process. Now consider the narrative where the public approached the King to ask for a sacrifice and then a vessel was prepared and launched with the Princess onboard as a sacrifice. This whole process, if occurred today would take several days but over 2200 years ago it would have taken much longer. It could not be completed in a few hours. Also, it is stated that the water receded only after the vessel was launched which also implies that the flood event with residual water on land lasted several days which also contradicts the physical processes associated with tsunami waves.