Photos from the Ceylon Society of Australia – SYDNEY – First General Meeting on Sunday 24th February 2019
Was Saradiel a Robin Hood or plain criminal? – by member of the audience
That was one of the queries posed by a guest at the Ceylon Society of Australia’s first general meeting for 2019 held on 24 February in Sydney. The guest speaker Mr Thiru Arumugam, who kindly agreed to step in when the advertised speaker was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances, chose to talk on Deekirikevage Saradial, better known as the hero of the Utuwan mountain. Mr Arumugam used his trusty archives and put together two unlikely rebels with a cause – Saradiel and the Aboriginal Jandamarra from Kimberley in Western Australia intended for the readers of The Ceylankan. The first part was published in the February issue while part two became the subject of his talk. He gave the rapt audience a resume of Jandamarra to fuse the point of his story and went on to add flesh into the bones of the Saradial story.
Saradial, the eldest of five children, attended the local Temple school and one day was involved in a clash with the son of a rich Arachchi who was seeking vengeance. Saradiel, who was 16 years of age, ran away and ended up in Colombo. There he found a job at the Amy Barracks. During a noisy party at the barracks one day, Saradiel laid hands on the Armoury keys and stole a vast array of guns, pistols and ammunition, returning with them to Utuwankanda and went into hiding underground. Before long he and his gang took to plundering palatial homes of coffee planters, taking away jewellery, cash which they distributed to the poor in the district. This very absorbing story prompted several questions and the one above was just one. The speaker responded by admitting that it was a difficult question and an answer was a matter of opinion.
It was an absorbing evening! The meeting concluded with a few words of grateful thanks from the President Mrs Pauline Gunewardene to the speaker for agreeing to attend at such short notice.
The usual social followed.
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