SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS: ISLAND OF CEYLON YEAR 1812

SRI LANKA HOLIDAYS: A NARRATION ON CEYLON IN 1812 BY AN ENGLISHMAN IN THE ISLAND OF CEYLON (SRI LANKA)

Introduction to the book Ceylon Past & Present by Major C. M. Enriquez, F.R.G.S
http://www.antiqbook.com/boox/blacks/56142.shtml

The oldest name of Ceylon, & one by which it is still known in many Oriental countries, is Lanka. The word Sinhaladivipa (Island of the Lion Race) passed to Selediba, Serendiva, Serendib, & so to the Arabian Selan Diva, the Portuguese Ceilao, the Dutch Zeilan & the British Ceylon.

With the exception of Egypt & Babylon, there is no country perhaps whose lost history has been more dramatically restored than that of Ceylon. A hundred years ago there existed merely a legend of Rama’s battle with the Apes, a tradition of Adam’s Peak, & such confused items of history as Valentyne had collected & published in Dutch in 1726.

Then, in 1826, a book (3) was found by an Englishman capable of appreciating it: & it transpired that Ceylon had kept a dynastic history, second in importance only to that of China. Old generations were made to live again with amazing wealth of detail, & with a charming humanity. Authentic history was pushed back to a period nearly four centuries B.C.

Since that revelation, the works of contemporary Chinese pilgrims have corroborated the story. The spade of the excavator has uncovered monuments whose splendour we could hardly have believed from mere manuscript records. But here was an ocular demonstration, when the forest was pushed back from sites which it had overwhelmed. And now the Archeologists have brought to bear that critical analysis which is separating the truth from a mass of incoherence & exaggeration.

It is a wonderful feat, & one of which we British may be proud-the more so because we are often accused of destroying what is indigenous & traditional in the East by our cold materialism. Here at last, we have restored to the Orient that which even tradition had lost: for upon the proud civilization of Ceylon remorseless Tamil raiders had ‘let in the jungle’:& the lowlands, which had once blossomed like a garden, were engulfed by forests that encumber it to this day.

Flourishing populations had dwindled to nothing. The great lakes of unique irrigation system had spilled their water over the land, turning it into a malarious swamp. And gradually, as the centuries gathered & grew, Ancient Ceylon, with all its glories, faded from the memory of man.

To-day the waters have returned again to the lakes. The canals flow as of old, & in a century the population has been quadrupled. Ancient capitals, locked in the relentless grip of forest roots, have been released, & sleep now in placid dignity upon open lawns. The bears have been driven from the monasteries. Elephants no longer stand on the tops of pagodas (4) that once rivaled St. Paul’s in height. A dead country has been restored: & with it the people who endowed it with romance. Stout old King Watta Gamini Abhaya( Walagam Bahu) lives again: & in the remotest age we see the kind & gracious figure of Mahinda, the Apostle of Enlightenment.

Let us then ring up the curtain & watch the actors move across the stage with all their little tricks & affectations. So shall we see King Devanampiya Tissa ‘Beloved of the Gods’ & his great lieutenant: the kingly forms of King Duttha Gamini & Maha Sen: Kassyapa the villain; Parakrama Bahu the Great the hero. (5) There shall be scenes of magnificence and of abasement. After Success, the Four Horsemen shall be loosed. Then come fire & sword, & a book from the West. And so the curtain falls to a merry banging of Jazz.

“Into this Universe, & Why not knowing

Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:

And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,

I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing

Footnotes by bunpeiris
(1) Taprobane was derived from the Sanskrit Tamraparni (Pali Tambapanni) since the latter forms occur both in the ancient Sri Lankan Buddhist chronicles (Mahavamsa and Dipavamsa) and in the Rock Edicts of Ashoka with apparent reference to the island of Sri Lanka.
(2) Robert Knox’s narrative is restricted to the Kingdom of Kandy of Sri Lanka.
http://www.panix.com/~kendra/tea/knox.html
(3) The Mahawamsa is one of the most remarkable histories in existence, unrivalled-with perhaps the sole exception of the Shu King records of the Chinese emperors. But then again, while Mahawamsa is a continuous narration of unbroken civilization & history of 2550 years, Shu King is simply a collection of historical memoirs over a time span of 1700 years, but on no connected method, & with frequent & great gaps between them.
(4) The religious edifices named pagodas by Major C. M. Enriquez, in the year 1812 are called stupas or dagobas. The most adored stupa of Sri Lanka has been Golden Sand Stupa, Ruwan weli saya (144 BC) at Anuradhapura, the greatest monastic city of the world 437 BC- AD 485, a world heritage site
(5) During the period of King Parakramabahu the great Sri Lanka was known as “The Granary of the Orient”. Such prosperity was never to be repeated.