Funday Times

Gaveshaka starts on significant events in April
Important events in April
First Adigar Ehelapola's death
On April 5, 1829 Ehelapola Dissawe, the first Adigar (Maha Adikaram) during the regime of the last King of Kandy, Sri Vickrama Rajasinghe died in Mauritius where he had been banished by the British after the rebellion of 1817-18. Although he wielded a lot of power during the last days of the king and later manipulated with the British against the king, he ultimately paid the penalty for being disloyal to both parties.

Ehelapola was the nephew of Pilima Talawe, one time first adigar who plotted to assassinate the king and was beheaded when the plot failed. Although the king did not have much faith in Ehelapola either, he, however, made him the first adigar with Molligoda as the second adigar. Ehelapola was reputed to be a cunning and ambitious person and may have even taken part in the plot to kill the king. While the king did not show any ill will towards him, he too did all he could to convince the king of his loyalty.

The relationship between the king and Ehelapola was strained when the king became angry and returned the gifts sent to him by Ehelapola on his wedding. Meanwhile, Ehelapola was very popular with the people in Sabaragamuwa, the province he was in charge of. His popularity made the king suspicious that he was plotting to seize the throne. The king ordered him to come back to Kandy which order he did not obey.

In anger the king deprived him of all his high offices, appointed Molligoda as first adigar and imprisoned his family. Ehelapola fled to Colombo and sought the protection of the British. Molligoda who took charge of Sabaragamuwa, arrested lot of people suspected of being faithful to Ehelapola and brought them to Kandy where the king ordered them to be tortured and put to death.

Ehelapola's wife and children and his brother were condemned to death - the brother and the boys to be beheaded and the females to be drowned in the Kandy lake. The heroic conduct of Ehelapola's nine-year old second son has gone down in history as a most courageous act by a Sinhalese boy when he fearlessly stepped forward and offered his neck after his elder brother wept and clung on to the mother in fear of death. "Don't be afraid, Aiya, I will show you the way to die", he said as he went up to the executioner.

Ehelapola convinced the British Governor, Sir Robert Brownrigg to march to Kandy which they did in January 1815. The defeat of the king's troops and the conquest of the Kandyan kingdom saw the British establishing themselves over the whole island.

When the Kandyan Convention was signed on 2 March 1815, Ehelapola was given a special place on the Governor's right. He had, in fact, expected the Governor to reward him for his services by handing over the administration of the Uda Rata to him and when it did not happen, he was bitterly disappointed. He refused to accept any high office and indicated he preferred to be known as the "friend of the British Government". The British suspected of him being behind the Uva Rebellion and banished him to Mauritius.

Birth of a Prime Minister
April 4, 1897 was the day Sri Lanka's third Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawela (1897-1980) was born. When Dudley Senanayake resigned due to ill health, he became Prime Minister on October 12, 1953 and held office till April 11, 1956 having dissolved Parliament ahead of time and losing the general election to S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike's SLFP led coalition - the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna. A stalwart of the United National Party (UNP), Sir John was Minister of Transport & Works in the D. S. Senanayake Cabinet from 1947 until he became Prime Minister in 1953. He had held that portfolio in the State Council (1936-47) too. He had been in the country's legislature continuously for 25 years - from 1931 to 1956.

Sir John was associated with the Minneriya irrigation scheme and the Laxapana hydro-electricity scheme. It was during his time as Prime Minister that Sri Lanka became a member of the United Nations Organisation. He represented the Kurunegala seat in the State Council and the Dodangaslanda seat in the House of Representatives. When S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike left the UNP in 1951, he became Leader of the House. He was knighted in 1948 and made a Privy Councillor in 1954.

An old Royalist, he studied at Christ Church, Cambridge and after his return from UK joined the Ceylon Foot Infantry and rose to be a Colonel in 1942.
He left his sprawling residence at Kandawela with several acres of land near the Ratmalana airport, to the State. It is being used by the Sri Lanka Defense Academy, named after him.

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