Succinct accounts of a vast historical canvas
View(s):Professor W.I. Siriweera, the eminent historian who has contributed handsomely to the understanding of Sri Lanka’s history, has brought out this book of short descriptions of places of historical and cultural significance and brief accounts of noteworthy facets of economic and social history. They are brief, simple and easy to read.
There are no pretensions of these essays being an academic work. Most of these chapters were articles written to the newspapers for the general reader. Yet they contain insights of a scientific historian whose perspectives are based on historical and archaeological evidence. They bring out the author’s extensive research published in several volumes that capture not merely the political history of the country but its cultural heritage and economic and social organisation. Those interested in a deeper understanding could read the author’s more definitive works on Sri Lanka’s history.
The significance of the book lies in bringing the large historical knowledge of the author to a general readership. They are a good introduction to the historical significance of the country’s heritage sites.
In these brief 35 chapters the author not only traverses places of historical interest in Sri Lanka, but also crosses its borders into South Asia to describe two of the most sacred and venerated places for Sri Lankan Buddhists: Kapilawastu in Nepal, where the Buddha was born, and Buddhagaya in India, where the Buddha attained Enlightenment. The author’s descriptions range from these ancient historical sites to the later capitals including Kotte, Sri Jayawardenepura. The book also includes an account of the University of Peradeniya and a bibliography.
These chapters also provide insights into, and interpretation of, historical sites. For instance, he brings out the architectural structure of Sri Lanka’s first capital –the city of Kings with palaces; sacred places: temples and dagabas and pleasure gardens and discusses the economic sustenance of the city by large reservoirs. The urban planning and organisation of Anuradhapura is brought out succinctly.
Professor Siriweera propounds the thesis that for a city to thrive, it should have a source of water. The lack of a river in the precincts of several ancient capitals, he attributes to the short duration of some capitals. For instance, he explains the short duration of Sigiriya as a capital city to this disadvantage. Similarly, he contends that other capitals such as Dambadeniya were also short lived owing to this disadvantage.
His account of Sigiriya as a city below the palace in the sky is an apt description of a palace that was within a planned urban architecture. He reiterates that Sigiriya had one of the finest planned gardens of any ancient city. Its gardens are considered some of the finest in Asia and of the ancient world.
Of much interest is the chapter on Small Tanks and Food Security that captures vividly how ancient Sri Lanka prospered under the ‘one- tank one village’ concept. This irrigation structure fulfilled food security of the population at that time along with the provision of dietary requirements. He goes on to describe how agriculture, fishing and other economic activities contributed to achieve food security in the country. While commenting on the irrigation system, Siriweera does not forget to mention the uncertainty in food production that is mainly caused by fluctuations in weather conditions and points out that rice was traded continuously between India and Sri Lanka.
Though tanks and reservoirs had been abandoned by the mid 13th century, they were restored and the Dry Zone populated from the end of the 19th century by the restoration of these tanks and the resettlement of people from the densely populated wet zone, especially after the eradication of Malaria. This enabled large increases in rice production.
In his chapter ‘Pearl fisheries’, Siriweera brings out the very valuable pearl resources in Sri Lanka. Pearls exported from Sri Lanka had been considered the best in the world and their export income contributed immensely to the Sri Lankan economy in early days. Pearl fisheries gained the attention of the Portuguese, Dutch as well as the British. The fame of pearl fisheries around Europe was such that George Bizet, who had never visited Sri Lanka, based his first significant opera, Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) on accounts of Sri Lanka’s pearl fisheries. The process of fishing oysters descriptively written by Siriweera gives the reader a good insight to fishing. Towards the end of the chapter, he explains how and why this source of revenue is neglected now.
These chapters not only describe archaeological sites but discuss interesting aspects of the country’s social and economic history. There are chapters on Irrigation Technology, Ancient Ports, Ship Building, Fishing Techniques, Roads and Bridges, Sanitation and Healthcare and Hospitals in Ancient Rajarata. Among other interesting issues discussed by Siriweera are the ‘Withering Traditions of Chena Cultivation’, Kem Practices in Paddy Culture, Mutti Mangalyaya: Pot Ceremony and The Treatment of Cattle Diseases. These indicate the wide scope of ancient history and practices covered by the author.
The last chapter which gives in a sense the most recent history of the University of Peradeniya was entertaining. It gives an account of the slang students used to describe the different faculties and the stand that the Peradeniya students took to defend a Colombo poet attacked in verse by one of their own in the early sixties. A good example of the civility that prevailed some fifty years ago!” Space limitations do not allow comment on all 35 chapters. The sample chosen here gives an idea of the width of the subjects that Professor Siriweera has covered in the book.
These short essays of the country’s heritage would be particularly interesting and useful to the general reader as well as students. We must be thankful to the author for having collated these newspaper articles into a readily accessible book. He is encouraged to publish a Sinhala and Tamil version of the book.
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