Unearthing the forgotten Lion in faraway Chelsea
In 1912, Dr. Joseph Pearson, Director of the Colombo Museum, realized that as the 20th Century ticked away, an overlooked tradition of Sinhalese standards and banners was slowly decomposing in musty pettagamas in old walawwas and viharas. These were flags full of lore and elegance often flamboyant with peacocks brandishing cobras in their beaks, stylized elephants, the virile gaja-sinha (half-lion half-elephant) or mythic Garuda birds.
So began an inventory of old Sinhalese flags assigned to antiquarian E. W. Perera (the ‘Lion of Kotte’) with the help of Government Agents and chiefs across the island. But it was an endeavour that did not finally satisfy him or Dr. Pearson because the full heraldic splendour they hoped for did not dazzle the Kandy kachcheri where the newly put together collection was displayed. It was simply not spectacular enough.
It was this disappointing inventory that prompted Perera to go further and look for the old royal ensign of Lanka- the lion flag- in England whither it had been taken to in the previous tumultuous century. Sri Lankans then had no flag but the Union Jack.
The Lion flag, it is said, was taken by Dutugemunu to war where it ‘fanned cold’ Elara’s men. It was then a swallow-tailed flag, with a sun and moon above the lion, the same lion later adopted by two Kotte kings- Buvanekabahu III and Buvanekabahu VI.
While these claims have been challenged, there can be no doubt that the last king of Kandy, Sri Wickrema Rajasinha, had a lion flag with four stylized Bo leaves in the four corners.
It was this flag plundered by the British just as the earrings of the queen were torn off her ears that E.W. Perera sought. Searches in museums and the College of Arms with the help of the then Somerset Herald proved futile.
Quite miraculously and accidentally, the flag was finally discovered at the Chelsea Hospital together with other standards and the eagles of Napoleon, kept there apparently to be shown to the dying ex-soldiers as evidence of their achievements for motherland.
The Wijewardene brothers – D. R. (founder of Lake House) and D. C. gave ample publicity to the discovery of the flag at a time when anti-imperialism was growing among the people. D. R. had the flag copied in colour by Messrs. Southwood and Co., Regent Street, London.
Meanwhile, March 2, 1915 was to begin with a journalistic bang. The Dinamina had not forgotten that it was the centenary of the Kandyan Convention when the British took possession of Ceylon. The front page of the broadsheet (and many pages besides) were dramatically reserved for the story of the last king and of the British in Ceylon- part of it rather incendiarily titled, The Rise and Fall of the Sinhalese Kingdom. It had a Sinhala copy of the Kandyan Convention, and colour copies of the rediscovered lion flag.
It was the first instance colour photos were printed in a Sinhala paper. Copies were sold out by ten in the morning and the police had to marshal the crowds thronging Lake House for papers.
From that year till 1948, the Lion ensign was used as the national flag all but officially- from a troop of scouts travelling to Australia, to the University of Ceylon.
As Independence approached, an official flag was amongst the things under discussion. As the lion stood for the Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims clamoured to know how they would be heraldically incorporated. Among the suggestions was two bars in yellow and white occupying one half of the flag. The Leftists not to be outdone insisted they wanted the red flag with the hammer and sickle.
On January 27, 1948, premier D. S. Senanayake appointed a ‘national flag’ committee comprising SWRD Bandaranaike, Sir John Kotelawela, J. R. Jayawardene, T. B. Jayah, Lalith Abhaya Rajapakse, G. G. Ponnambalam and S. Nadesan.
On February 10, 1948 (six days after Independence was declared) the Duke of Gloucester opened the first Parliament in a glittering ceremony. The Lion Flag was in evidence alongside the Union Jack, though in certain localities of the North East only the British standard whipped the air- as it was expressly forbidden for a Tamil variant called the Nandi flag to fly.
On March 16 that year, the national flag committee was brought under the secretaryship of the grand old man of Ceylon’s antiquities, Dr. Senarat Paranavitana. The committee began laboriously to gather the views and sentiments of the new nation – from Director of the National Museum P. E. P. Deraniyagala and Sir Ivor Jennings to the humblest village co-operative society.
On February 13, 1950, the committee submitted its recommendations- which was basically to add two bars, one orange and one green, to the old flag.
It was to be greeted with a hubbub in the House. Some did not want the old flag ‘distorted’ while others opined it did no justice to the minorities. Others rhapsodized about a Commonwealth flag “like Australia’s”.
Despite the debates, after a ballot held on March 2, 1951, the new design became officially, the first ever national flag of Lanka.
Used to cover the coffins at the state funerals of D. S. Senanayake and SWRD Bandaranaike, the flag was soon to be invested with all solemnity and gravitas of a national symbol in the people’s eyes.
In 1972, when the Republic of Sri Lanka came into being, ousted with the moniker ‘Ceylon’ were the four stylized feudal Kandyan Bo leaves from the old royal standard. In their stead were four natural Bo leaves- ironically at the instigation of our most Kandyan of premiers, Sirimavo Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike.
| Gender bender | |
| It was SWRD Bandaranaike who, in those pre-1952 debates, in a playful mood, brought up the gender of the Sinhalese lion. MP C. Suntharalingam’s repartee was that it was clearly a eunuch. The mane leaves no doubt that it’s no lioness- and about half of heraldic lions are depicted with no other sign of gender- but in President Premadasa’s time, the lion was depicted as clearly male though that detail has been considered unnecessary since then.
|
| Cracking the map | |
| The old language of heraldry blends with nouveau symbolism in the Lion flag. The ‘king of beasts’ symbolizes the Sinhalese, the strength of the nation and bravery. The sword stands for the sovereignty of the nation. The four Bo leaves signify the four sublime states of mind in Buddhism: Metta (loving kindness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita (sympathetic joy), and Upekkha (equanimity). The orange bar is for Sri Lankan Tamils and the green bar for the Sri Lankan Moors. The maroon stands for the Sinhalese while the yellow border is for other minorities- including the Burghers, the Malays, the Parsees and the Africans. |