Sunday Times 2
Keppitipola and Ehalepola: Roles played by two udarata national leaders of yore
The living descendents of the families of the Udarata nobility, and the other heroes who fought for independence from foreigners, as the British moved to annex Kanda Udarata, in the early 19th century, and also against the tyranny of the nayakkar rule, have now formed societies to reconstruct the lost respect of their kinsmen. Perhaps, they are partially consoled that the ‘traitor tag’ tied to the families who fought for the Sinhala nation, in 1818 and 1848, had been removed by presidential gazette notification recently. It is an irony that these families had to lobby for better social life based on education, employment, and respectable professions, as they were denied to them by the British administration, and some successive administrations.
A group of Kandyan chiefs, Ehelepola Adigar, Molligoda Dissava and Kapuvatta Dissava with John D'Oyly British translator. Pic Wikipedia
They could move to better social status only during the last few decades of the 20th century. Some of these professionals, academics and intellectuals belonging to these families that have formed such social groups, to regain the lost prestige, and remove certain misconceptions instilled in the minds of the average Lankan, on their families by the writings of some academics based on British sources. At least now there are books like Historic Matale, 1984, written by these forgotten learned persons, drawn from Buddhist clergy, retired academics, and the present generation of family members of Udarata ancestry. These writings include the heritage of the generations who lived in these lands. There are such writings in Uva-Wellassa, Sathara Korale, Sath Korale and Sabaragamuwa. This short essay deals only with Matale due to space constraints.
Matale, according to historical records, is the settlement entrusted to a royal family member ‘Mathula’ for regional administration, by his uncle King Pandukabhaya, when he decentralised his rule. Another explanation is that King Gajaba settled 12,000, prisoners captured in his war with the Cholas, and Maha thala, became Mathale. The rock inscription in Dambulla of course, states, ‘Mathula Grama Bhojaka’ suggesting the former is more acceptable. Historical antecedents suggest that warrior clans have settled in the region. Even during the Kandy period, this region gave leadership to the nation, and they had to pay dearly for that. Two of the prominent families, among others in the 19th century who sacrificed their kith and kin were Monaravila and Ehalepola. The latter had become a controversial but legendary figure.
Keppitipola (Monaravila) Dissave Ven Lenadora Soratha Nayaka Thera, gives a lucid account of this national hero. His birth place was Galaboda Korale, and later he came to Monaravila in the Udugoda Udasiya Paththuwa of Matale and became resident there. He married Delwala Kumarihamy of Monaravila. This is a picturesque village surrounded by rocky outcrop and a tank and the place where the ancestral home existed is partly protected. His surname was Rajapaksa Wickramasekara Mudiyanse Ralahamy. He later used the name Bandaranayaka Wickramasingha. He had two sons and one daughter. This daughter became the wife of the first adigar Ehalepola.
One of the two sons fought the British in the Uva Wellassa rebellion and was captured and he valiantly admitted that he was a rebel and was beheaded, in 1818. In certain writings it is said that Ehalepola Kumarihamy was the sister of Monaravila. The writer is familiar with these villages as they were adjoining his mother’s village, Koswatta. The families of these villages were related to each other by marriages. As Ehalepola lies a few miles away from Pallepola, a small town now, linking these hamlets and these families belonged to nobility, there were these inter-marriages.
As a school boy the writer could recall the day when Keppitipola Disava’s skull kept in the British museum was brought to Sri Lanka; it was also exhibited at his village in Monaravila in respect of the slain war-hero, and his descendents. These nobles served the Kandyan court as they wanted to preserve the integrity of the Sinhala nation. They served the Nayakkar kings including Sri Vickrama Rajasinghe. Keppitipola’s heroic struggle to resurrect the Udarata Kingdom is well-documented and this essay is only an attempt to portray the ultimate aims of the aristocracy in the struggle.
It is written that when Keppitipola visited Dalada Maligawa, after the Kandyan Convention he could hear some verses recited by Degaldoruwe Thera, which are known to all literati.
‘Ane Kumbiyane -Thopatath rajek inne – Mokadai koranne – Ape karume apata wane. Rajek lebunothin-eda kiribath kannan-perhera karannan-sadu naden gigum dennan’ (Translation mine.)
O, the ants! You too have a king; what is to be done; this is our karma that has fallen.’
If we get a king, on that day we partake milk-rice; we will hold processions, reverberating with singing sadu sadu’.
This verse was etched in the mind of the dissave. Specially as it was after the signing of the 1815 Kandyan Convention, to which he was a signatory, he became emotional. The country was rising against the British occupation, Uva Wellassa, being the most violent. The British army chief Captain Douglas Wilson was also killed and Governor Brownrigg thought it is best to send one of their chieftains to quell the revolt and the choice was Keppitipola Dissave. He took this opportunity to make amends for what has been done by the chiefs to secede the kingdom, by joining the rebels now. The rebel leader Wilbave was a former monk, who had taken the name Doraiswamy, as a ruse to lay claim to the throne. Although, Wilbave was not a scion of the royals Keppitipola gave leadership to the rebellion. But it was suppressed by the British and Keppitipola was captured and he wrote to governor, ‘Using your guns and gun-powder to kill my own people is a mark of disrespect to the honour of my Sinhala character. So please take charge of all this’.
Thus he returned arms and ammunition which could have been directed to his own people’. On the January 1 1818, at an assembly at a royal assembly hall of superior officers, presided over by Governor Sir Robert Brownrigg, a list of names of traitors to the British Government was read out, and Keppitipola nilame’s name was the topmost. On 29 October he was apprehended apparently with Pilimatalawe and Madugalle. In the hide-out..Madugalle fled and Pilimatalawe was too sick in bed to flee. Keppitipola surrendered as the rebels were getting captured.
On 13 November 1818, the trial was held, by court martial under a Lieutenant Colonel and Keppitipola was condemned to be beheaded on 26 November 1818. He worshipped the sacred tooth relic, for the last time and sacrificed his life for the sake of his motherland. The severed head was taken to London to be kept in a museum. The gazette issued said: ‘He behaved calmly, like a hero throughout the whole period. Keppitipola faced executioner’s sword, in the firm belief that he was a person who performed a very invaluable task’. Thus ended a heroic life of Monaravila Keppitipola Maha Dissave who fought for the ‘Sinhalese to rule Sinhalese’. It was a direct fight.
Ehalepola Adikaram. He was a cousin or a nephew of Keppitipola Dissava. He was born in Ehalepola also in Udugoda Udasiya Pattuwa in the Matale District North. The two villages were situated a few miles away from one another. There were always communications between these two hamlets as they were blood relations, and they continue even now. Ehalepola Adikaram’s surname was Ehalepola Wijayasundara Wickramasinha Chandrathilaka Amarakoon Vasala Mudiyanse. He also used a title of honour granted by the king, which was Senanayake Dassanayake. His father was Ehalepola Dissava (of Uva).
He too had two ambitions. The first was to oust the British from Lanka and Udarata. The second was to install a Sinhalese person of royal lineage. These were the aims of Keppitipola as well. They both thought that accepting positions in the Kandyan kingdom would make it easy to utilise these opportunities to achieve their goals. Therefore Ehalepola accepted the post of Dissava of seven korales in 1803 under Sri Wickrema. In 1806 he was appointed the second adigar and when Pilimatalawe was moved out by the King, in 1812 he became the first adigar.
It is documented that he tried to utilise the military help of the British to oust the Nayakkars from Udarata, and enthrone a son of the soil as king. Ehalepola was a nephew of Pilimatalawe. This was a strategic plan. Ehalepola Sannasa details the properties and the provinces under his jurisdiction as given by the king. (It is not included here due to space constraints.) The districts of Matale North were included in the Gam vara in this charter of copper plate. Working in the dissave of Sabaragamuwa, he usurped power and rumour spread that he was getting a sword and a crown made with the idea of gaining kingship.
When the king heard this he was angry and ordered the capture of Ehalepola. He fled to Sitawaka from Sabaragamuwa. In the meantime, the King appointed Molligoda as the first adigar and a rebellion engineered by Ehalepola was suppressed. His intentions to use the British to depose the king and become the king himself did not materialise as written by the theros of the region. There was a cross-section of the populace who supported a Sinhala king and the regaining of the kingdom from the British. Sri Wickrema did the unthinkable at this stage, executed the Ehalepola family in the most inhumane and brutal manner. Madduma Bandara Ehalepola’s son true to heroism ingrained in these families, faced the executioner bravely. Ehalepola Kumarihamy was drowned with some other ladies of the noble households. It is no secret that the British used the nobility one against the other to capture the king himself. It is the saddest part of this history which all Lankans have read and learnt.
The king was captured and sent to Vellore and he died there. A poet has written some moving verses where the king takes leave of the motherland, ‘Ithin ayubovan lakmauni garu.’
Two are reproduced here for want of space.
‘Apayata biyen mathpen nobiwu mata – Upayen powa yali ma gena sathuta
Papadara sitiya surathal kumaru seta – Kapa demu bewin viya sathuranta rata.’
‘To me who did not take liquor afraid of hell, was given them with planning and later getting me to drink more; by beheading the children who were adoring and loving the country went into the hands of the enemies’
‘Wikum sihal parapura sihi thibena thuru – Uthum raja le tika mage sindena thuru’
Nethin kandulu nohelami divi thibena thuru – Ithin ayubowan Lak Mawuni Garu’
As long as the brave Sinhala race comes to my mind – As long as the Royal blood dries up in my veins; As long as life goes on me, I will not shed tears. So farewell to my motherland Lanka.’
Ehalepola according to ‘Purana Ehalepola Hatana’ used varied honorary titles given by British, to boost his ego like Maha nilame, Yuwaraja etc. but was ultimately arrested on March 2 1818. He was imprisoned without any allegation and kept in Colombo under detention, from 1818-1825. He was sent to Mauritius in the same year. He passed away there in April 1829. The British did not even heed an appeal to set him free after all these insults. So we see an end of another nobleman who yearned for Sinhala kingdom without foreign intervention. The historians who follow British diarists perhaps should read the native writers of the day who possess a different story to tell.
‘Ehalepola was supposed to have written the following verse looking at a small female bird – Ketakirilli, which summarises the anguish that he had for the slaying of his children. He lived with this eternal sorrow until his death.
‘Mitak vitara neti e ketakirilli – Ethek meru seti, borude Kirilli’
Ekat daru duka nisai kirilli – Edithara ma novatida keta Kirilli’
“That ketakirilli is not even a fist in size. Is it a lie that you had killed a tusker, (by blinding him).
That was also done through anguish over the killing of the young ones. O!, Ketakirilli, am I not so brave and worth Ketakirilli’.
(I am indebted to the Ven Lenadora Soratha Nayake Thero from whose writings I borrowed.)
(The writer is a retired Foreign Service Ambassador and a native of Matale.)