An account of the island of Ceylon in Sinhala
Professor Sunanda Mahendra
 HISTORY: Historians have often shown that some records and
accounts kept by the foreigners in the past, who had served their
respective governments in the capacity of army officials, administrators
or as prisoners in captivity have been a special added value to the
already written history of the country.
This factor has been proved by some of the records kept by such
foreigners like Robert Knox in his account known as ‘An Historical
Relation of Ceylon’, translated into Sinhala several times by many
translators over the years to the point that the material embedded has
gone into the making of creative works as well as commentaries.
In this direction one of the Sinhala translators, Yasapala Wanasinghe
has been engaged in translating some of the rarest documents written in
the regime of the English colonial rulers in the latter part of the
eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century.
His latest translation is one such work titled as ‘An Account of the
Island of Ceylon’ written by an English army officer Robert Percival.
Though an English army officer by designation, he has landed in Ceylon
(now Sri Lanka) in 1797 and brought out this account around the year
1903.
Wanasinghe does not merely translate the original work, but goes on
to add extra material via other possible sources relating to the subject
with cross-references wherever necessary. The book as published in
Sinhala is titled as Robert Percival Dutu Lankava (Godage 2006).
Percival’s account runs to sixteen chapters which are linked to each
other through information as seen and gathered by him as a recorder of
events in the form of simple notes and diaries.
The main action plan intended of the work is to lay down the
information on various subjects inclusive of customs, mannerisms, food
habits, language, religion, kingship, family lineages, ceremonies,
cultural susceptibilities, writings and creative works, travel records,
fauna and flora and other important details pertaining to the main
subject of keeping a day to day or time to time personal record deemed
to be of significance presumably for the posterity.
In the initial stages of the record, the reader comes to know how the
two previous rulers Portuguese and Dutch were ousted from their power
and the way the British came to be the rulers whose spread of interest
laid on cultivation, investment and the interest shown towards the
invaluable natural resources.
Patterns of power
Percival records in the first introductory chapter how the rulers
before the advent of British (Portuguese and Dutch) captured power and
extended their respective patterns of power and influence over the
indigenous population consisting mainly of Sinhala speaking Buddhist
people.
Then in the second chapter, he outlines in simple terms the climate
of the country which is conducive to the ruling class and the ways and
manners in which they managed to travel via the sea and land for their
understanding of the land and places for the purposes of a successful
strategic ruling plan.
This area covers quite a clear geographical picture of the living
standards as observed by the writer Percival in such places as the North
as well as the Eastern part of the country.
The third chapter shows the rare picture of the search for the pearl
oyster as a fishing profession, especially employing skilled swimmers,
followed by an account of the mannerisms of the Indians who had spread
their habitats in the country in order to engage themselves in the
fishing industry using their kind of boats and other modes of sailing in
the sea.
Then comes a description of the salt industry in the region of
Puttalam and Negambo (meegomuva) in the coastal belt stretching from the
main city of Colombo covering most of the activities interconnected with
the difficulties of land protection that it needs.
The reader too gets a glimpse of the commencing stages of the Colombo
shipping industry and commercialism encircling the building of the
harbour and the way the shipping had to be managed in the best way
possible.
The writer presents a vivid account of a sea journey from Colombo to
Trincomalee. In this description, he lays down some of the difficulties
encountered as a result of the lack of better technology and skilled
human resources.
He traces some of the observable impacts of the customs of the
previous rulers like Portuguese and Dutch, who had extended
relationships with the Malays. This is important as it is observed by
the writer Percival that the cultural heritage as safeguarded by the
majority of the country, that is, Sinhala people, had not been easily
obliterated due to this impact.
Yet he traces the influences of the cultural traits as regards
ceremonies, music, building structures, art and dress mannerisms and
some of the food habits. In his observations the Sinhala majority are
shown as a group of people who are kind hearted and friendly in their
social activities, a religious trait of the influence of Buddhist
ideology traceable from the very inception of the country’s
civilization.
He also traces from his point of view, how the division of the
Sinhala people into two major groups of the up country and the low
country came to be, pinpointing the drawbacks of such human
demarcations.
Cultivations
Like many a foreign writer on local matters, Percival too emphasizes
the importance of the rare cultivations such as cinnamon and the
attention that should be laid on rare medicinal plants in order to
develop it as a money earning and investment measure.
Followed by these accounts, Percival shows the worth of the animals
of the calibre of elephants and their significance as workers utilized
by humans and the manner in which they are caught and tamed.
Perhaps with a smile he seems to say that though the elephant is
hefty and big, he is afraid of the little creature lizard as he can
creep through the nose of the elephant. Then he lays down an account of
the horses.
A fact that is revealed is that they are brought from India from
Bombay for the war purposes. Followed by this account he shows the
importance of the cow and the bull out of whom the Sinhala farmer gets
the most useful work and their love towards them.
He compares the Indian cow and the bull to the ones found on the
local scene. Percival also presents his experiences with some of the
poisonous creatures such as the snake and he indicates the need to
prevent them from extinction.
The account of the army officer Percival is of value to the modern
day reader, especially the one whose mind is tuned to the understanding
what the others knew about ourselves and our country in the past.
Though history is taught as a subject in the class room as well as in
the higher education process, it should be geared to the understanding
of the reality linked with other subjects as well. Or else it remains in
isolation.
This is a period I presume that the subject history is rediscovered
as essential part of the curricula. This translation on the part of the
writer Yasapala Wanasinghe could go as a resourceful supplementary
reader at all levels of education today in our country.
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