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by Derrick Schokman

Trincomalee has great antiquity: in the ancient chronicles it was known as Gokannatitta, Siri Gokanna and Siri Gonamala. The present name of Trikunamala is probably a derivation of Siri Gonamala.

It is mentioned as a landing place in the 5th century BC. Bhadda Kachchana, who later became the Queen of King Panduvasa Deva (505-474BC) is said to have landed there. She was the sister of Prince Digha, the founder of Dighawapi.

Elara from the Chola country (Tanjori) is also said to have landed there with his army and marched directly to Anuradhapura, where after a decisive battle he took control of that part of the country (215-205BC) until he was defeated by Dutugemunu.

The Greek cartographer Ptolemy marked the harbour Gokkana as Bokana on his map. It showed that the harbour was known to second century mariners.

Trincomalee is once again mentioned in the chronicles in the 3rd century AD as the site of a vihara built to "destroy Brahaminical worship". That was the Sri Gokarna Vihara in the reign by King Mahasen (276-303AD). It was the earliest Buddhist edifice to be constructed in Trincomalee.

Iswaram

The latter reference to Brahminical worship is to the Hindu Temple of a Thousand Pillars on Swami Rock overlooking the harbour. This Iswaram was destroyed by the Portuguese in 1620 and a triangular fort built in its place.

An inscription found by the Portuguese in the Temple gives the date of the building as reckoned by Portuguese scholars as 1300 BC. Tirungnana Sambander, a Saivite saint in the 7th century, featured the Temple in his devotional hymns. So did Sundaramurti in the 8th century.

Objects thrown into sea by the Portuguese when they destroyed the Temple continue to be revealed from time to time. Around the base of Swami Rock divers have found dozens of carved blocks of stone, columns and porticos.

Bronze figures of the Hindu deities Ganesha, Siva as Chandrasekhera, Siva as Somakanda, his consort Parvati and a lingam have been dug up from the sands.

Naval engagements

Trincomalee is said to have been one of the chief trading centres next to Mantai on the West coast in the time of the Sinhalese kings. But its history is not one of thriving commercial port like Galle up to 1875 and Colombo after that, but rather one of naval engagements between foreign powers.

Danes, French, Portuguese, Dutch and the British have in turn fortified and quarrelled over it. The Danes came in 1620 with the authority of the king in Kandy to build a fort there. They did not get beyond the around work when the Portuguese arrived and turned them out, building a fort where the Temple used to be. In 1635 the Portuguese capitulated to the Dutch. The French were the next to be interested. They took Trincomalee from the Dutch and held it until 1775, when by the Treaty of Paris they had to give it back to the Dutch.

The British captured the two forts that had been built by the Dutch in 1795 and made Trincomalee their headquarters for naval and military forces in the east.

After the first world war the British withdrew their defences and dismantled the garrison. In the second world war Trincomalee suffered one Japanese air-raid.

One of the victims of that raid was the aircraft carrier "Hermes". It was the first aircraft carrier ever to be built, and the only British aircraft carrier to be sunk by aircraft. But that was because it was without its guns at the time of attack. They had been removed for repair.

In the course of the war the floating dock in the harbour sank while holding the 30,000 ton battleship "Valiant". That self-inflicted wound on the British navy was greater than all the wounds caused by the Japanese air raid.

Shot in the arm

Trincomalee was handed back to independent Sri Lanka some time in the early 1950s. After that it languished until it received a shot-in-the-arm in 1979 when the Indian Ocean was declared a sanctuary for sea mammals where whaling was banned.

In its position as the last landfall between Asia and the Antarctic there are plenty of whales and dolphins swimming around the east coast of this country, especially in the vicinity of the Trincomalee harbour.

Consequently a Centre for Research on Indian Ocean Marine Mammals (CRIOMM) was established at Trincomalee in 1983 with the dual purpose for researching marine mammals and recreational whale watching. Like all developing countries Sri Lanka is desperately trying to attract tourists.

This is a highly competitive business, and Sri Lanka would gain tremendously if it were to add whale watching to its already available attractions of glorious beaches, warm seas, outstanding wildlife parks and the evidence of 25 centuries of cultural heritage. Unfortunately the outbreak of the northest war put paid to those expectations. Tourists withdrew from that region, and so did the whales whose communication processes were upset by the regular detonation of powerful underwater charges, naval battles, aerial bombardment and high speed engine noises.

Will the whales come back? We must hope that they will now that there are the prospects of a lasting peace. Time is a great healer, and the Mahaweli river outflow 16 miles into the sea off Trincomalee is a rich source of food that could wean them back.

If they don't come back all we are left with are the two decrepit Forts Frederick and Ostenburg, mute witnesses to the colonial forays and two world wars of the past, some beautiful sea views from Swami Rock and the Esplanade, and an interesting Vishnu Temple, one of the few in this country.

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