Two books on the last phase of the Kandyan Kingdom
Titles:
1. The Pilimatalavuvas In The Last Phase Of The Kandyan Kingdom.
2. The Chieftains In The Last Phase Of The Kandyan Kingdom
Author: Ananda Pilimatalavuva
-Two-books0.jpg) It is indeed with a certain amount of pleasure and pride that I read
these two revised editions released by Ananda Pilimatalavuva who is
qualified to speak with some hereditary authority on the Maha Adikaram
and the other Kandyan Chieftains at the Kandyan Court during that last
phase of our kingdom. As he relates in the first book, it was almost on
his father's lap that he first listened to the stories on the origins of
his family.
Having dealt with the Maha Adikaram in his first book he goes on to
relate the fascinating stories of the other chieftains and of the
venerated monk Variyapola Sumangala Thera and the part they played in
our First War of Independence.
The indefatigable writer through his dedication and commitment to the
subject has further researched the facts relating to this period in
these two revised volumes. They jointly present a competent narration of
dynastic rule and its travails and tribulations during the last phase of
our kingdom. Although often denigrated by socialist politicians,
dynastic rule had always been in the blood of South Asians and it does
not seem to have wanted in Sri Lanka even after 60 years of
Independence!
Civil Service
The Kandyan Kingdom with Kandy as its capital was the last bastion of
the Sinhalese. The kings depended heavily on the nobility - the 'Civil
Service' of the kingdom - for its administration. After Narendrasimha
the last Sinhala king, the Vaduga Nayakkars of South India succeeded the
throne against all old established custom. Excepting for the last king
Sri Vickrama, the others were quite acceptable especially Keerthi Sri
Rajasimha due to his contribution to Buddhism, the accepted religion. It
is with greedy Western intruders who dispensed the seeds of hatred,
intrigue, disloyalty and personal greed to conquer this resourceful
island of ours that our troubles began.
The Kandyan nobility was not a repressive aristocracy nor were the
peasantry enslaved by them. They were a self-righteous peasantry who as
described by Robert Knox were fit to rule once the mud was washed off
them.
According to the writers Okakura of Japan and our own Ananda
Coomaraswamy, "This was spiritual feudalism whereby caste makes a
peasant in all his poverty, one of the aristocrats of humanity." Having
been born to this stock of Kandyan peasantry and having listened to the
tales of my own ancestors I can believe the deeper dimensions of Kandyan
society, culture and its governance was beyond the grasp of most modern
historians who were anaesthized by their education at colonial
missionary schools and universities.
It is part of this "unwritten Kandyan history" that Ananda
Pilimatalavuva attempts to excavate and reveal in his two books on the
last phase of our kingdom - a laudable endeavour that deserves
commendation.
Pilimatalavuvas
To turn to a few issues that always nagged my thinking on the history
of Kandy and its chieftains, the underlying motive of the writer in his
first publication on the Pilimatalavuvas is to "place the true
historical facts before the reader and rehabilitate the name of
Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram in a proper perspective so that he would
emerge as a true patriot than a traitor as some writers have attempted
to paint him."
Although Pilimatalavuva Maha Adikaram was of mixed ancestry being
descended from North Indian Brahmins, Pandyan royalty and native Sinhala
aristocracy, his dream to install a Sinhalese on the throne remained
undiminished.
-Two-books01.jpg) Keeping an open mind, the writer refers to the folklore extant at
that time according to which the last king was supposed to have even
been sired by the writer's illustrious ancestor!
King-making had always been a hazardous affair and Pilimatalavuva
Maha Adikaram was subsequently beheaded by the very king who was
nurtured by him. However, hidden behind this cruelty the king had a soft
corner for the Maha Adikaram and asked him to retract the evidence
against him and save his life even after the execution order against him
was given. The great patriot refused to accept such minor mercies from
this wicked king and was executed sometime around May/June of 1811.
Kandyan insurrection
The invading British colonizers finally established their hegemony
over the Kingdom of Sinhale only after the brutal massacre of the people
in and after the revolution of 1817/1818, best described by the author
in his quotation from A. C. Lawrie District Judge of Kandy, an
Englishman who wrote "The story of the Kandyan insurrection of 1817-1818
and its suppression by the English can only be related with shame. By
1819 hardly a member of the leading families was alive. Those spared by
the gun, sword and banishment had been consumed by cholera and small
pox. The descendants of the leading families were no more and the
leaderless peasantry were engulfed in ignorance and apathy."
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