The Pamunu people were tenant farmers of rice paddy in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

’s history. They are sometimes referred to as a sub-caste of the Govigama

Govigama

Govi, Govigama, Goigama, Goygama, Goyigama, Goviyo is the most influential and the dominant Caste in Sri Lanka and certainly comes as the leading cast in the hierarchy of cast system in Sri Lanka.The term Govi denotes farmer.From time immemorial the Govigama have been the landlords and have been...

 caste.

History

Ancient rock inscriptions of Sri Lanka and historical literature refer to this community as Pamunu Parapuru in contexts such as “........vahal, sarak, pamunu parapuru......” which translates into English to "slaves, oxen and heritable agricultural labour" (EZ III.87,105,126& 132)

Based on their region of domicile these communities have now been mostly absorbed by the Bathgama

Bathgama

Also Batgama and Padu. A significant Sri Lankan caste predominantly in the Kandyan provinces, the traditional occupation of which was the cultivation of rice paddy...

 or Govigama

Govigama

Govi, Govigama, Goigama, Goygama, Goyigama, Goviyo is the most influential and the dominant Caste in Sri Lanka and certainly comes as the leading cast in the hierarchy of cast system in Sri Lanka.The term Govi denotes farmer.From time immemorial the Govigama have been the landlords and have been...

 castes. The word Pamunu still survives in Sri Lankan family names and place names such as Pamunugama, Pamunuvita,and Pamunuva. However, in the 20th century many of these have been changed to Bamunu, to convey an association with Brahmin

Brahmin

Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...

s.