A concise and readable history of Sri Lanka from ancient times to 1948
Source:Island
Aathe Athitheye Sita 1948 Dakwa Sangshipthe Sri Lankeye Ithihasaye (A Concise History of Sri Lanka from Ancient Times to 1948)
Author – Indrakeerthi Siriweera
A Sarasavi publication
Reviewed by Lynn Ockersz
Concise, lucid and readable, Aathe Athitheye Sita 1948 Dakwa Sangshipthe Sri Lankeye Ithihaseye by Emeritus Professor of History Indrakeerthi Siriweera, which title translates into English as ‘A Concise History of Sri Lanka from Ancient Times to 1948’, is the ideal handbook and guide for a reader who seeks a wide ranging knowledge of the history of Sri Lanka in its important essentials from the island’s ancient past to the time of its political independence.
It could be said that the author has made a ‘long story short’ by giving the reader, in accessible Sinhala, all that she needs to know about Sri Lanka’s historical evolution without presenting her with a heavy and laboured narrative that would make time-consuming reading.
Presented in this slim, skilfully designed book is the story of Sri Lanka and its people from pre-historic times to the mid twentieth century when the country acquired for itself the responsibility of determining its political future. Accordingly, we are provided in broad but substantive outline and in correct sequential order principal developments relating to the country’s political, social and economic history.
Those familiar with Sri Lanka’s history would likely agree that Emeritus Professor Siriweera has left nothing out of importance from his concise chronicle. All that they need to know about Sri Lanka in its multi-faceted aspects is contained neatly within 150 pages in flowing Sinhala prose.The author who is one of Sri Lanka’s most eminent historians and academicians has in this timely book put the record straight on a number of contentious issues that have gone unclarified by educated opinion in this country over the years.
For example, there is the question of Tamil kingdoms in Sri Lanka. At page 17, for instance, we are told that from 103 to 89 BC, following the ousting from power of kings Elara and Wattegamini, there reigned the following Tamil rulers in the plains of Rajarata, corresponding roughly to today’s Anuradhapura District. They were: Pulahaththe, Baahiye, Panayemara, Piliyamare and Dhaike. The following Tamil monarchs ruled in the same region from 429 to 455 AD: Pandhu, Paarinda, Budda Paarinda, Thireethare, Dhaathike and Peethiye. These reigns should be only expected because Sri Lanka was never spared South Indian armed invasions in ancient and even historic times.
Another point of great interest that emerges in this chronicle is the non-unitary status of Sri Lanka in times prior to the Western colonization of the country in 1505. Our author absorbingly describes the internecine inter-kingdom warfare that occurred in the island under Sinhala kings, which exposes as a mere present day myth ‘the unitary status of Sri Lanka’, since such a status never existed in the past.
The author elaborates on the recurring power struggles among these monarchs who sought to exercise their suzerainty in the Rajarata and outside it from quite ancient times. At page 16 we are told, for instance, that besides the North Central region there existed formidable power centres in the Dakkhina, Malaya and Rohana kingdoms, which roughly correspond today to the Southern parts of the country and its hill country. Latterly in the 15th and 16th centuries there emerged the Kotte and Sithawake kingdoms with their own dynastic intrigues and bloody power play that rendered the political landscape of those times quite complex and worthy of a professional historian’s insightful scrutiny.
Sri Lanka’s history takes an epochal turn with the onset of European colonialism in 1505, with the arrival in the island of the Portuguese. In the chapters chronicling Portuguese, Dutch and British rule in Sri Lanka, the author gives us a comprehensive understanding of some of the key factors and forces that contributed majorly towards the evolution of contemporary Sri Lanka in its political, social and economic dimensions. The colonial presence in Sri Lanka was staunchly opposed by the majority of Sinhala monarchs and their subjects and Emeritus Prof. Siriweera provides us with a graphic account of these numerous, often bloody wars, that helped shape the basic contours of modern Sri Lanka. It merits mentioning that all the major battles waged by the natives against the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British are recounted vividly.
Of particular interest is the author’s detailing of the socio-economic conditions at the grass roots level in the country which led to the popular revolts of 1818 and 1848, for example. Among other factors, unbearable taxes drove the people to take to arms against British rule in those years. Most items that figured in the life of the people seemed to have been taxed by the British and we are given a detailed listing of these items at page 74. Some of these are: cattle-driven carts, boats, guns used by Chena farmers, small trading stalls and domestic dogs. Besides, every adult male was compelled to engage in the maintenance of public works, minus a wage, for six days of the year. The stamp duty on land transactions was exorbitant.
The above problems of the people were compounded by the often arbitrary rule of British Governors. Such rule by Governors led in the main to popular revolts in other British colonies, such as North America and Canada. These developments compelled the British to initiate governance and constitutional reforms in its colonies, including Sri Lanka. The first package of reforms came to Sri Lanka through the Colebrook Commission. Other Commissions were to follow culminating in the Soulbury Commission constitutional reforms of 1947, which coincided with the process of granting of political independence to the island.
Besides being thus enlightened on Sri Lanka’s political and constitutional evolution in the concluding decades of colonialism in the final chapters of the book, we are also adequately apprised by Emeritus Prof. Siriweera on subjects of the first importance, such as the island’s administrative systems in ancient and modern times as well as its chief social changes which were ushered with the advent and stabilization of colonial rule.
The principal strength of ‘Aathe Athitheye Sita….’ consists in its wide-ranging but clearly expressed content which will resonate in the minds of those studying developments in Sri Lanka over the centuries on account of its undying relevance and topicality. The book is a vital key to understanding Sri Lanka; whose importance in the inter-state relations of South Asia and outside has risen many fold in the present crisis-hit times in particular. Elaborate name-lists are provided in the final pages of the book of the following: the Sinhala kings of Sri Lanka, the kings of Jaffna, the upcountry kings of the island, its Portuguese military rulers and its Dutch and British Governors. These lists too contribute greatly towards making this chronicle a memorable read.
