“THE SIGIRIYA-STORY” (Bernard VanCuylenberg’s Trilogy) – By Des Kelly

Quite certainly, the most comprehensive, interesting, and “must read”, final trilogy of The Rock Fortress of an ancient Royal family of old Ceylon, King Dhatusena, elder son, Prince Moggallana1(by an unnamed Royal Consort), & younger son Prince Kasyapa1(by an unnamed non royal concubine & there were many of them, half his luck), BUT still, another “Royal Family” where there was quite a lot of unnecessary “bickering” going on. Prince Moggallana was the rightful heir to the “Dhatusena-throne”, but not if Prince Kasyapa could help it, oh no, HE had his eyes on it, too.

To add to all this, King Dhatusena had a daughter as well.

For some reason, the “names” of these females in Lankan history seem to be of no consequence, they were there, only for the purpose of “bonking”, cooking, cleaning & having babies. Anyway, King Dhatusena’s daughter (?), was married to his sister’s son. She didn’t matter, but he was the General of the “Dhatusena-Army” & his name was Migara. Following still another “Royal-argument” between his sister & daughter

King Dhatusena ordered his sister (?), to be executed. They did not “muck-around” in the old days. Mubarak was not too pleased, however. & got around Prince Kasyapa to do away with the “old-man” & take the throne for his own. Kasyapa took the hint & imprisoned his father. Migara was not satisfied. He told Kas. that his dad had a huge treasure-trove hidden away somewhere and Prince Kasyapa “coaxed” his dad into showing him where the treasure was.

King Dhatusena should have stuck to building Irrigation tanks. He had built 18 of them, but he then took his bloody disrespectful son to a waterway called the Kalaweva, scooped up a handful of water and said to Kasyapa,”here it is, putha (son), this is your treasure”. Prince Kasyapa had a fit (of rage) & had his father then murdered by either burying him alive in a bund at Kalaweva itself, or entombing him alive in a wall, somewhere. With a son like that, who needs enemies?. He (Kasyapa),then, by default, became King Kasyapa.

In the meanwhile Moggallana, the man who should have been King, fled the scene, to build up an army & recapture the throne & do to Kasyapa what Kasyapa had done to Dhatusena, However this was not going to be easy, as sly King Kasyapa took his family, soldiers, concubines $ all, & built his mansion & City atop this huge rock called Sigiriya. This way, Moggallana’s army could be “reduced” one by one, as they climbed up this steep precipitous rock to try to get to King Kasyapa & throw him bodily, off it.

“THE SIGIRIYA-STORY”(Bernard VanCuylenberg’s Trilogy) is simply a generalization of my story within the superb “Sagas of Sigiriya, as written by Bernard, under the separate title of “The King, the Charioteer, and the Gatekeeper”written especially for our eLanka readers. I have read it, enjoyed his own inimitable style of writing, & invite all of you to share my pleasure of “the VanCuylenberg way of having his say”.

Thank you Bernard & thank you, Neil, for your presentation of all our “efforts”. Finally, I am no relation of his, unfortunately, but King Dhatusena was also known by the name of DASENKELI, who ruled Sri Lanka from 455-473, (a bloody long time ago). Yes, it was Dasenkelli, not,

desmond kelly