RAASL lecture: Re-identifying the Bisokotuwa
View(s):The Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka will hold their monthly lecture ‘A Mistaken Narrative: How the ancient Bisokotuwa was falsely designated as a valve-pit’ by Chandana Jayawardana on Monday, February 24 at 5 p.m. at the Mahaveli Centre at Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha, Colombo 7.
During the British rule, the imbalance in foreign trade caused by the heavy imports of rice and other grains prompted the authorities to expand the island’s paddy cultivation. The remains of a well established irrigation network, were focused in this exercise and attempts were made to restore this system back to its original operational state. Early Sri Lankan sluice type Bisokotuwa, associated with large tanks, was one of the irrigation facilities thus renovated. In this process, the Bisokotuwa was identified as the ancient counterpart of the modern valve-pit and equipped with flow control mechanisms. This identification was widely used in subsequent studies on Bisokotuwa, without analysing the background which led to such designation.
This lecture is aimed at proving that the identification of Bisokotuwa as a valve-pit and installation of control mechanisms there by the British authorities were not because its original function was firmly identified, but because of their irrigation knowledge which was based on the firmly disciplined centralised water management.