Stories Behind Names of Places in Sri Lanka: NEBODA – By Dr. Nimal Sedera
Source : Brisbane Sri Lankan Newsletter – Dæhæna – September 2022
Neboda is a growing village in the Western Province between Horana and Kalutara.
The story behind this village is surprisingly not connected to a King or a ruler but to an incident linked to Ayurveda medicine. People lived healthy lives and only the native medication system known as Ayurveda prevailed in the country. There lived a village chief closer to the area where we now call Neboda.
He was suffering from gastritis and the native doctor, the vedamahaththaya, prescribed him to drink “Kithul piti kenda” every morning. Kithul is a common palm tree in Sri Lanka and its flower is tapped to make toddy and treacle for making of sweets. The Kithul timber is extremely strong and lasts for generations. Making Kithul piti (Kithul flour) was a hard job and time consuming.
The Kithul tree has to be cut down and fallen tree is opened and split into two longitudinally. The flour is made from the soft centre material which is called the “Kithul Boda”. This softer material is chopped, pounded, mixed with water and poured into cloth buckets and hung overnight to drain the water. What is left in the cloth buckets is dried
in the sun for days. That powder is called “Kithul piti”. The villagers went to the jungle and selected the best tree visible and fell it. When they sprit the trunk of the tree it was a surprise. There was no “KITHUL BODA” and the middle was empty. Everyone said “නෑ ල ාඩ”. So with this incident people called this village “NEBODA’.
Dr. Nimal Sedera
Dr. Sedera is a journalist, poet, motivational speaker and an author of over 70
books.
