Prof. Obeysekere clarifies...

KANDY: Professor Gananath Obeysekere, Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus referring to a news item appeared in the Daily News front page of June 01 says the bock he presented to the President is not entitled as 'Christian Convention'.

Prof. Obeysekera says:

'I wish to make a correction in your front page account of June 1 that describes the book we presented to President Mahinda Rajapaksa as Christian convention. Actually, we have initiated a series of publications entitled "Rare Historical Manuscript Series' and six volumes have already appeared.

The first volume contains two works, first by Ven. Bentota Attadassi Thera entitled Kristiyani Pragnaptiyata Piliturak (Response to 'the principles of Christianity') and the second by Bishop Daniel Gogerly entitled Kristiani Pragnapitiya (Principles of Christianity). Ven. Attadassi Thera's response to Gogerly was written as a palm leaf manuscript in 1849 and has not been published.

In our opinion, Ven. Attadassi Thera's is the first Theravada response to Christianity and written in relatively sober style long before the more famous and contentious Panadura controversy.

The other books are also palm leaf manuscripts written by ordinary village intellectuals and they contain valuable information on the Kotte and Kandy periods.

There are literally hundreds of similar manuscripts in the British Library and our hope is that we can get President Rajapaksa to write to the British High Commission to have these volumes available on a Website, or in any other form, so that Sri Lankans can have access to them without having to travel to London.

He has kindly agreed to do so. We have also asked the President for funds to continue publishing this series through the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) and Godage Brothers. If we get the funds, the ICES will handle their disbursement, most of which goes as research assistant salaries and expenses. My work as series editor is purely honorary.