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People and Events
Indian Kaleidoscope 2

by Nan
The guidebook which was our Bible says: "Rajasthan is one of India’s prime tourist destinations. Nobody leaves here without priceless memories, a bundle of souvenirs, and an address book full of friends."

An emphatic yes to the first, a more or less affirmative to the second and a couple of addresses added to my son’s little black book. The memories are priceless, most delightful and retained strongly, waiting to be shared.

Colourful State Rajasthan, the land of the kings, is to the north west of India, bordering Pakistan. The name conjures, inevitably, colours - sharp, strong, contrasting colours. That is exactly as it is. In Rajasthan, whether in the cities or out in the villages, or travelling along stretches of unpopulated hilly scapes or flat land, it is bright colours that hit the eye. The markets are awash in colour - turbans, shawls, table linen, carpets hung out or piled high. Bangles, trinkets and kutch work glint in the sun sending out sparks and rays of colour. The women are always in bright colours - reds, greens and bombai mottai pink and the tall, slim men, still warrior-like, wear their flowing red or green turbans with pride.

Colour pictures you have seen suddenly come alive as you drive along a brown landscape with scanty vegetation brought alive by a group of women in bright sarees draped in the traditional style, bearing pots of water on their heads.

Rajasthan is the home of the Rajputs, a group of warrior clans who have controlled this part of India for a thousand years. Unfortunately, they often clashed with each other, hence their becoming a vassal state to the mighty Mughal Empire. The Rajputs came back to power with their Maharajas and Maharanas until the British spread their colonising tentacles all over the sub continent. The Maharajas then signed articles of alliance, betraying, so to say, the soul of their races to retain a modicum of independence and their style of living. They grew soft and indulgent, encouraged by the British Raj, and left the people of their domains to sink to poverty. When Indian independence was won, Rajasthan had one of the lowest rates of life expectancy.

Princely Enterprises

The Maharajas were permitted to retain their titles and were paid an annual stipend commensurate with their status. Indira Gandhi put paid to both in the 1970s. The Maharajas then had no option but to earn their living, and the easiest and best way was to open their palaces to gawking tourists or convert them to hotels. Many retained parts as their private quarters. Thus the tourists trail through the palaces in wonder and praise. One such palace was built during a time of drought, just to keep the subjects occupied and unfree to riot. Most palaces in the state are built of the indigenous rock, a glorious ochre in colour.

The first of the Rajasthan cities we visited was Udaipur. We were five in the group: two friends of my son, and one’s husband.

Udaipur- Pure Magic

The Planet Guide to India says: "Possibly no city in Rajasthan is quite as romantic as Udaipur." Magical too. It was romance, magic, serenity and compete relaxed comfort to dine at the very edge of the water of Lake Pichola at Ambrai Restaurant, gazing at all the hotel lights reflected in the water with Lake Palace Hotel shimmering and glittering in the middle of the dark lake. The Indian food tasted exotic and one just sat and absorbed through every pore and nerve of one’s being the atmosphere and beauty around. Close your eyes and you could transport yourself back in time to vicariously experience the splendour of the city when the Maharajas were all powerful.

Many of the palaces had portraits of the Maharajas. Unfortunately not one showed us a Maharanee. One could however imagine them and the women in the zananas (harems)

Dine As They Did

Jagat Nivas Palace Hotel offered window seats where a low table was placed in a portion that just out to suspend itself in air over the lake waters. Roll cushions and your having to sit down on the elevated cushioned platform or relax and recline as the mood got you, further enhanced the feeling of opulence, almost decadence that set in as one ate with keen appetite the fragrant biriyani set before one. Beer is allowed. The modem and the historic came together in the sight of Vandana in her traditional clothes with a sequined shawl thrown carelessly around her, reclining with a glass of beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, the ash of which she nonchalantly flicked to the lake below.

The boat ride in the vast lake added to the dream quality of the evening, but reality hit hard when the more prudent of the group vetoed Rajiv’s and Aarati’s determination to dine at the Lake Palace Hotel. Experience, that’s what’s important they kept saying. What’s the use of coming to Udaipur if one does not, at least, have a meal in the famous palace? Visions of the gifts I could buy for Indian Rs. 600 or more that would go on a meal outdid the indulgence of letting the son have his say.

The Monsoon Palace, built on the very summit of a high hill beckoned with its ghostly light. A three wheeler could not take us, though we five had piled into one before. So it was a doughty Hindustan taxi that took us up the hill. The palace, built by Maharana Sajjan Singh in the late 19th century, is now owned by the government and closed to sightseers. The guidebook said a tip would probably have the grand doors swing open, but we had no luck. We went up there too late. The view of the sweeping valley, magically lit and reflected in the lake was, however, compensation enough.

Protecting the Craftsmen

Shilpgram is a crafts village which displays traditional houses from Rajasthan, Gujerat, Goa and Maharashtra. Demonstrations by musicians, drummers, dancers, puppeteers and artisans were to be seen. Our guide, Vandana, daughter of one of the founders of Shilgram and of a very old Udaipur family, was greeted warmly by staff and artistes.

I remembered the ambitious craft village built under President Premadasa’s orders beside the Diyawanna in Pelawatte, Battaramulla. What has become of it? The very unfortunate occurrence or habit in Sri Lanka, deplorable as much else is, is that when governments change, even good moves by the previous government are neglected or obliterated.

Shilpa Restaurant, guidebook recommended, was a disaster. We had the worst meal of our Indian trip in this place close to the craft village. We’d eaten in palace hotels, smaller restaurants, small eyries across and above railway stations and in the express train from Bombay to Ahmedabad, but never such an indifferent meal as Shilpa dished out to us at an exhorbitant price

One rule we strictly adhered to was eat well and in good places, never mind the cost. The body had to be fuelled for all the walking we did and the stomach kept free of trouble. And that’s just how it was. Meals generally cost about Indian Rs. 150 per person. A little more would serve you a delicious hot soup, rotis or rice and typical curries and dessert, all Indian whether gulab jamuna or ice cream. The lack of chilly and the mustard oil were comfortable for the stomach, with plenty of my favourite vegetable: cauliflower and chickpeas of course.

Apart from the magic woven around us by the lake, the palaces, the lights, the dining in opulence; a fact that impressed was the Indianness of the people. We were with three young girls, all affluent, all daughters of broadminded parents, all educated abroad, but they stuck to their traditional costumes - loose trousers, shalwas and tied and dyed or kutch worked dupattas thrown over with the ubiquitous woollen shawls which in the late misty nights doubled up as cowls. They looked equally well in their tight jeans and T Shirts, but most of the time they wore their national costumes.

The people were generally nice and trustworthy. Vandana directed a three wheeler man to come fetch us from our hotel at 4.00 am the next morning to take us to the bus, and he was there sharp on time, never mind the biting cold.

Tiered Berths

Coming into Udaipur we had travelled in the non air-conditioned second class night mail. One moment you are seated on a hard, albeit cushioned seat with a similar backrest. The next you have got up as all others have done and with a flick here and a link there you find three berths all set up on either side of the compartment. The topmost is very close to the roof of the train and too close to the fans. The middle is claustrophobic and the bottom gives you the jitters wondering when the two fat bods above you would descend on you. But no, there’s absolute security and people will not even tread on your extremities,

No wonder the Indians travel heavy. Our friends were amazed at how light I travelled. It is also no wonder the luggage porter is ubiquitous in railway stations. No Indian with even meagre means carries his own luggage. The luggage is large because it contains bedding - a comfortable sleeping bag, a blanket, sheets and even a pillow. Son and I stretched ourselves on the bare berths, and covering shawls, did manage to sleep well - at least me.

Incidentally, if you remember, Udaipur was the setting for the 007 film Octopussy where most of the action took place in the Lake Palace Hotel which was, in the film, the villain’s hideout. One is not allowed to forget the fact that Hollywood had been there. Taxi ranks, small shops and eating places had adopted the name Octopussy.

The requirement for new animal welfare legislation in Sri Lanka

This paper on "The requirement for new animal welfare legislation in Sri Lanka was read by Senaka Weeraratna in December 1999 at the 7th Sri Lanka Studies Conference held in Canberra, Australia.

Sri Lanka has perhaps the most antiquated legislation on animal welfare in the world. The governing statute is the " The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance ", No. 13 of 1907, which sets out various offences and penalties for mistreatment of animals. It was last amended in 1955. It is seldom enforced. The form and scope of this legislation is substantially inadequate. Its limitations are apparent when it is compared with the Animal Welfare legislation of neighbouring countries such as India ie. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, or with similar legislation in countries such as Australia.

The existing legislation is deficient in the following areas:

1) It requires broader coverage of animal welfare issues

2) The regulation of slaughter of animals must be made compatible with ‘humane‘ practices adopted in modern societies

3) There is no regulation of:

a) research and teaching activities using animals, including animal experimentation b) transport of animals

c) loads ( including any load occasioned by the weight of passengers) to be carried or drawn by any animal, and

d) exhibition and training of performing animals 4) Inadequate powers of Police to enforce the law

5) There is no provision for a Third Party eg. A Registered Animal Welfare Organisation to initiate or intervene in any legal proceedings as ‘next friend‘ of an animal

6) The time allowed for laying a Police complaint ie. Three months from the date of the commission of the offence, is inadequate

7) The penalties prescribed for any cruelty to an animal are ridiculously low to have any deterrent effect eg. The maximum fine is Rs. 100 which, may extend to Rs. 200 in the case of a second or subsequent offence.

Since the enactment of this Ordinance in 1907 the concepts of animal cruelty and its prevention have developed over the years. The introduction of new legislation which, will embrace a wider scope of matters involving animal welfare generally, is now considered necessary.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the deficiencies in the existing legislation, draw attention to current trends in similar legislation in foreign countries, and provide a basis for an informed discussion on the need for a new and comprehensive legislative framework regulating Animal Welfare in Sri Lanka.

The Animal Welfare Scene

Animal welfare not on the election manifesto of any political parties or candidates competing in the forthcoming Presidential elections due to be held on the December 21, 1999. This is a reflection of the low priority extended to animals in the country’s political agenda. Nevertheless the public scene in the country today is not without its share of advocates pleading for a better deal for animals in the slaughterhouse, the Zoo, the wilderness and in factory farms. Animal Rights activists are however very much handicapped by the obsolescence of the primary statute ie. The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance. The remedies available in this statute for redressing the grievances of animals are too ineffective and the punishments for infringing animal rights are too lenient to have any deterrent effect on the offenders.

It is the realisation of the archaic character and ineffectual nature of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Ordinance, that has led a number of leading animal welfare organisations such as the Kandy Humanitarian Society led by Dr. C. Godamune, Vegan Sri Lanka, Sathva Mithra (Friends of Animals), the Sri Lanka Vegetarian Association, and other concerned individuals, to plead through the columns of leading newspapers for a more effective legislative framework to protect the interests of animals.

Historical Background

Sri Lanka has a unique history in respect to animal welfare. Inspired by the ‘ Rule of Righteousness of Emperor Asoka of India (3rd Century BC) who also granted State protection to animals, Sri Lankan Buddhist Kings established some of the world’s first wild life sanctuaries. Five of the Kings governed the country under the ‘Maghata‘ rule, which banned completely the killing of any animal in the kingdom. The five kings were 1) Ananda Gamini (79 - 80 AD), 2) Voharika Tissa (269 - 291 AD) 3) Silakala (524- 537 AD) 4) Agga Bodhi IV (658 - 674 AD) 5) Kassapa III (717-724 AD) (See ‘History of Buddhism in Ceylon’ by Walpola Rahula, First Edition, p.73 ). There is substantial epigraphical evidence indicating that state protection was granted to animals and the slaughter of cows was regularly prohibited. Some Kings established Animal Hospitals and one King ie. Buddhadasa (341 AD) became a reputed medical and veterinary surgeon.

The people, influenced by the principle of ‘Ahimsa‘ (non-violence towards all living beings) which is a cardinal tenet in both Buddhism and Hinduism, generally kept away from occupations that required the destruction of animals to earn a living eg. hunting, fishing and the slaughter of animals for food. Those who resorted to these activities were usually relegated to the margins of the society;

A close examination of Sri Lanka’s historical rock inscriptions would show that animals had occupied a higher place in the country’s moral agenda and some animals such as the cow had enjoyed legal rights particularly the right to life like natural persons. There were constant calls from the rulers to the public as seen in these epigraphical records, to extend compassion to animals, grant freedom to birds and spare the lives of fish in the lakes. An inscription engraved in an upright stone slab at Ruwanwelisaya, Anuradhapura, which is a transcript of a decree issued in the late 12th Century by King Kirthi Nissanka Malla of Polonnarnwa reads as follows:

‘Ordering by the beat of the drum that no animals should be killed within a radius of seven gau from the city, he gave security to the animals. He also gave security to the fish in the twelve great tanks, and bestowing on (the region’s people) gold and cloth and whatever other kind of wealth they wished, he commanded them not to catch birds and so gave security to birds ......‘.

This is reflective of the high moral concern that the past rulers of Sri Lanka showed towards animal life. Likewise scattered through the pages of the Mahavamsa, are other records of royal protection granted for the preservation and well being of all forms of animals.

Upon the entry of western influence to Sri Lanka commencing in the 16th Century, the high moral value extended to other sentient beings began to decline and the habit of flesh consumption gradually grew among the people. Also occupations that were associated with the killing of animals, which fell outside the trades recommended as the means for a Right Livelihood by the Budda in the Noble Eightfold Path, gained greater acceptance in society.

Religious Slaughter of Animals

One of the most contentious issues in the Animal Welfare debate in Sri Lanka is the method adopted to slaughter animals for food. It is called the ‘Halal’ or ‘Dhabh’ method.

Dr. D. P. Atukorale in a letter to the Daily News (January 7, 1999) describes the ‘Dhabh’ method of slaughter in the following words:

"The animal to be killed as it is done in our abattoirs senses death and is perturbed and agitated and suffers from fear, psychosis and severe stress. The procedure is cruel, very cruel. The very reason not to show the knife to the animal is to eliminate or minimise it being disturbed. It is accepting the fact that the animal is able to recognise the death-dealing weapon.

But at our slaughter houses any slight resistance by the animal is met with a clout by a steel rod over the legs so that the animal falls on the ground and then dragged, tied, pulled and head severed in the presence of other animals awaiting their turn of cruel fate. While waiting some tear, some groan, some pass urine and excrete in fear and stress.

The ‘ Dhabh’ method is to cut through carotid arteries and jugular veins and allow the animal to bleed. As there is no injury to the spinal cord the wounded animal experiences excruciating pain until sometimes later cardiac arrest occurs and the animal loses consciousness and dies. But the butcher starts skinning the live animal, which is struggling in severe pain."

Continued next week

Ladies’ College - a victory of faith

Nalini MacIntyre
Sydney

Approximately one hundred years ago, Ladies’ College, Colombo opened its doors for the first time in rented premises at Fairfield House, Union Place, Slave Island, under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). Only two pupils turned up on that first day, 12 February 1900, to the profound disappointment of the school’s two missionary Founders, Miss Lilian Nixon and Miss Elizabeth Whitney, who constituted the entire staff of the day. Could they ever dreamed that from these humble beginnings would emerge one of Colombo’s most sought after girls’ schools where the supply of available students places has along exceeded the demand, demand, where the student population has grown today to 1705, with an academic staff numbering 125 (including 29 part-time staff), and 65 other staff comprising 15 administrative staff, 15 staff and 35 minor staff?

In its letter of instructions dated 3 October 1899, the CMS supported the involvement of the two missionaries in ‘this venture of faith’ entrusting ‘the provision of all the educational work’ to Miss Nixon, an Irishwoman, aged 26, a graduate of the Royal University of Dublin and the holder of a Teachers’ Diploma of Cambridge University, but without any previous missionary experience. Miss Nixon was designated ‘Lady Principal’, while the more senior Miss Whitney, a Canadian, designated ‘Lady Superintendent’, was to be in charge ‘of the more domestic side of the arrangements’. The letter of Instructions stated that it was ‘hard accurately to gauge the extent of influence and blessing which, under Divine help, may flow forth from this Institution’. Today one can attribute only to ‘Divine help’ the stalwart tree that grew from the mustard seed that was faith and perseverance of these two women, sustained materially by a modest grant of Rs. 2000 from the CMS for furniture and a donation of Rs. 500 from another CMS school. The new school was expected to be self-supporting from the start with the CMS paying only the allowances of the two missionaries, an arrangement which continued as long as there were missionary Principals.

Miss Nixon had been a pupil at the prestigious Ladies’ College, Cheltenham in England which accounted for the name she gave her new school. However, Ladies’ College, Colombo owed more than its name to its more famous prototype. As a schoolgirl Miss Nixon had come under the influence of the renowned Cheltenham Principal. Miss Dorothea Beale, who had striven to open public examinations and universities in England to women. This inevitably coloured Miss Nixon’s own ideals and her vision for female education within the Christian missionary framework. While Ladies’ College was to be a place of academic excellence, it was also to be the purveyor of strong Christian values.

CMS records of 1895 attribute the establishment of Ladies’ College by the CMC to ‘a request from some leading residents for the establishment by Government of a superior school for girls on the model on Royal College’ followed by a CMS conference held ‘by invitation of a Special Committee of the Legislative Council’ to consider the request. Despite the prevailing belief in 1900 that education was generally beneficial, it must have been an uphill task to combat innate prejudices against education for girls and convince conservative middle class parents that an education would not turn their daughters into blue stockings or harm their marriage prospects. Marriage being the most acceptable future envisaged for girls at the time. However, the Founders’ faith and hope prevailed against countless odds and the two pupils of 12 February 1900 slowly became seven in as many months. Initially the school was not organised into separate classes, and pupils of varying ages worked under a single teacher in an apparently haphazard way. Pupils drifted in and out as the numbers steadily increased reaching 30 by the end of the second year. Six years later there were 225 pupils and 16 teachers, and after that there was no looking back.

The missionary purpose of the Founders as stated in 1899 was ‘to train the girls of Ladies’ College so that they might become centres of light in their future homes’. As the school flourished and became differentiated into classes, the curriculum diversified to reflect changing needs, and new activities burgeoned. Miss Nixon established a nationally recognised teacher training programme; boys were admitted up to the age of ten an Infants Department was established on the basis that ‘the Kindergarten was as a training ground for character and for the formation if habits of unselfishness, neatness and order.’ Miss Nixon’s interest in her pupils went beyond their mastery of the traditional English public school curriculum. While academic excellence was always a goal, success in examinations was not initially an end in itself. Miss Nixon utilized success in examinations to raise the status of girls’ education. Moreover, her interest in character training, and in the department and behaviour of her charges gave her influence over more than their minds, a trend followed by all her successors, both expatriate and indigenous.

During Miss Nixon’s term as Principal, in 1910, the school moved to its present premises in what Miss Nixon herself described as ‘the most remarkable answer to prayer’ she had ever had. She had spotted what she recognised in a flash of inspiration to be the perfect site for the expanding school, but she lacked the means of raising the sum of Rs. 60,000 to purchase it. The prime Flower Road property on which stood a bungalow called the Fernery was eventually purchased with a loan Trinity College at seven and a half percent interest through the good offices of the Trinity College Principal. Alec Fraser. Miss Nixon’s faith had indeed won a victory and shown her that it could move mountains. While Miss Nixon’s faith had indeed won a victory and shown her that it could move mountains. While Miss Nixon was resolved to keep the school independent of government grants so that she might be ‘free to make educational experiments of value both to the school and the nation’, the school subsequently came within the national framework and received a government grant for many years until it chose to be independent following the government takeover of ‘assisted schools’.

When Miss Nixon resigned owing to ill health in 1914, many of the school’s future directions were already in place. Miss Gwen Opie, a New Zealander, who succeeded Miss Nixon in 1916 guided Ladies’ College in what students of the time like to call its ‘golden years’, an either which might well be claimed for their own era by students of other eras. Since there are no objective criteria to make such judgments where beauty undoubtedly lies in the eye of the beholder. Miss Opie ably expanded the school on a number of fronts, building on Miss Nixon’s legacy during the period spanning the two World Wars, until her death in office in 1944. Her place was taken by Miss Mabel Simon, an Australian, who was at the helm from 19046 to 1963 during the years of postwar (and post independence) reorganisation. Miss Simon was succeeded for a few years by Miss Olive Hitchcock, an English woman and the last of the missionary Principals, who left in 1968. The strong Christian emphasis of the missionary Principals continued under the two Sri Lankan Principals, both old girls of the school, Mrs. Siranee Gunawardana from 1968 to 1997 and Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala, the current Principal, from 1998.

Ladies College has come a great distance at the end of its first century of existence, which roughly coincides with the last century of the second millennium. The life of the school has responded and adopted to the social and political upheavals of the times. While marriage and influence in the domestic sphere may have been the main goal of the earliest pupils, changing times and mores gave way to new expectations, opening various professions previously closed to women to ever increasing numbers of Ladies College pupils whose glowing achievements took them to the forefront of their professions, both nationally and internationally, to take their place alongside, and in many cases ahead of men.

It is difficult to single our exceptional achievers among alumni of both sexes, but a random selection of the Ceylonese/Sri Lankan ‘firsts’ that the school can boast includes: the first woman FRCS, the first woman barrister, the fist woman to be admitted as an advocate to the supreme court, the first woman to win a scholarship to Oxford in open competition, the first Sinhalese Bishop of the Church of Ceylon, the first woman Vice-Chancellor; the first ordained female Christian priest, the first female Engineer to graduate from the University of Ceylon; the first woman to obtain a doctorate in Science; even the first woman to cycle from England to new Zealand, and so on.

Eminent positions held in Sri Lanka by past pupils include Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Government Analyst, Chief Guide Commissioner, Dean of the Faculty of Law, various Ministerial and Parliamentary positions, while several old girl associations in various parts of UK, USA, Australia and Canada with past pupils occupying responsible positions worldwide in a range of professions too diverse to be specified here.

The three ideals for the school’s development brought by Miss Nixon from Cheltenham were that the school be a place of sound leaming; a place of full, varied natural life; and a place for spiritual growth within the life of the Church. These ideals, upheld by Miss Nixon’s successors, are relevant even today. The school’s current objectives are slightly more explicit on its wed site, specifying the pursuit of excellence in all activities, the need for ‘social responsibility’ and ‘spiritual awareness’ and the need to adapt to a constantly changing world the last being consistent with today’s frenetic rate of social change and the trend to globalisation. Since a school is but a microcosm of the larger society.

Colombo in the 21st century is far cry from the Colombo of Miss Nixon’s time. It is a Colombo ever exposed to the terrors of civil war, where there are no certainties, where the older schools must compete for staff and students with the more affluent internationals schools which have mushroomed everywhere in the last couple of decades offering glossier prospects of education abroad and freedom from the constraints of government regulations. However, an education at Ladies’ College still continues to be in great demand, with ‘education’ retaining its original meaning of ‘leading out’ rather than denoting mere schooling in the three ‘R’s.

Over the years there has been a subtle shift in emphasis from Mission to Church, and roughly halfway in the past century the ‘CMC’ was dropped from the official name of the school. Despite its strong Christian focus, the school has always been open to children of all religious faiths, integrating children of all races and religions, in the words of the school hymn, into ‘one family unbroken’. From early days, the pupils at Ladies’ College were able to feel themselves to be part of a larger family with links to the past. This was reinforced by the fact that pupils went through the school in the footsteps of their mothers and sisters from kindergarten to the upper forms, and their family histories and connections were all known to the staff many of whom were past pupils. The generational factor helped to foster a spirit of belonging that went beyond the span of one’s own school years and cemented links in adulthood.

From the late fifties when students became racially segregated because of state-enforced differences in the medium of instruction, the children were encouraged to use a common means of communication and it was decided to continue assemblies and chapel services in English. While bilingual expression was encouraged English continued to be the unifying bond between all racial communities outside the classroom. According to the Principal’s report for 1999 the school recently celebrated its cultural diversity through a highly successful performance of music, dance and drama entitled ‘One Family Unbroken’ which united the two dominant cultures of Sri Lanka in a triumph of ‘multicultural and multi-ethnic harmony’. This may well serve as a model for the whole country in these troubled times.

In the words of the present Principal, Dr. Sriyanie Miththapala, in her report at the 1998 Prize Giving, the school purses the ideals of: ‘maintaining continuity; of keeping near century long traditions, while introducing tomorrow’s technology; of holding fast to old values, while discovering new vistas’. Every effort is made to create an environment which ‘stimulates students to think, reason and assess situations for themselves’ and above all, to ‘learn because they want to not because they have to’ through child-centred learning assisted by a variety of continuing teacher training initiatives. While excellence is pursued in the full range of both curricular and extra-curricular activities, attention is also paid to character building ‘buttressing and strengthening the foundation of values and tenets of Christianity and other religions which are laid down for the students by their parents. Students are also encouraged to develop a heightened social conscience through participation in various social service projects continuing a long tradition of helping the under-privileged, from Miss Nixon’s time. In short, development of the whole things that unite us are far stronger than those that divide us. This is the wondrous heritage that the Founders of Ladies’ College pass on to the 21st century and the new millennium through the far-flung alumni of Ladies College’ who wield power and influence on various fronts. This is the wondrous heritage that the Founders of Ladies College pass on the 21st century and the new millennium through the far-flung alumni of Ladies College who wield power and influence on various fronts, whether national international or domestic - all bearers of a worthy standard, both the sun and the unsung. It is truly a remarkable triumph of the Founders faith in a venture which began so unpromisingly.

Many years ago I was approached by a neighbour reputed to be something of a local ‘Godfather’ about admitting one of his daughters of Ladies’ College, because he was aware of my connection with the school. He had a large cohort of children from different mothers and wanted each to be in what he perceived to be a leading Colombo school. At the time he had no child in Ladies’ College and being keen to add it to his children’s social network, he explained that he wanted his children to benefit from the company (or ‘kompeniya’ as he put it) in later life. His less than noble motive subsumes a more essential truth than he could ever suspect - it is indeed a privileged company ‘with blessings manifold’ (in the words of the school hymn) and therefore much indeed is required of its members. As the baton passes to successive new generations, it looks certain that the ideals that inspired earlier generations will continue to prevail, bearing testimony to the victorious faith of the two ‘founding mothers’ whose extraordinary achievement is annually commemorated in a Founders’ Day service in the basilican-style school chapel built by Miss Opie in 1933. Fittingly, the centrepiece of the year-long celebrations marking the school’s centenary this year is the Founders’ Day service on 14 February 2000 in the beautiful Chapel of the Hope of the World.

Note: Unless otherwise stated, citations are from ‘A History of Ladies’ College’ published in 1957 to commemorate the school’s Golden Jubilee.

Judge Weeramantry’s singular contribution to International law

by Peter Weiss
Accumulating a long list of professional accomplishments is no great exploit for an academically minded lawyer. But moving the law forward, challenging its conventional wisdom rather than merely basking in its reflected glow, is a rare feat indeed. It is one which C. G. Weeramantry has performed often in his distinguished career.

Following seven year term on the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and two decades as a professor of international law at Monash University, Judge Weeramantry was elected in 1990 by the United Nation’s General Assembly to fill the Asian seat on the International Court of Justice in the Hague. There, his erudition no less than his integrity quickly earned him the respect and friendship of his colleagues, who elected him their Vice President in 1997, an honour rarely conferred on a first term member of the Court.

Some day soon, one hopes, an enterprising scholar will give the world of law a critical analysis of the judge’s work, both on and off the bench. This brief article will focus on what bids fair to become known as his crowning achievement to date, his brilliant, book length dissent in one of the most important cases in the history of the Court, its Advisory Opinion, requested by the General Assembly of the United Nations, on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons. Communicated to the Court at the end of 1994 by the Secretary-General, pursuant to a Resolution moved and adopted by a large majority of non-nuclear weapon states, the question put to the Court was "Is the threat or use of nuclear weapons in any circumstance permitted under international law?"

Following the submission of written representations to the Court by 35 states and the participation in oral hearings of 24 states, the largest number in its history, the Court, after lengthy deliberations, rendered its opinion on 6 July 1996. It held, by seven votes to seven, with the President casting the deciding vote, that the threat and use of nuclear weapons was generally illegal, but added that it could not decide whether or not this illegality applied "in an extreme circumstance of self-defense in which the very survival of a State would be at stake". Three judges, including Weeramantry, distanced themselves from this qualification, opting for illegality in all circumstances.

Judge Weeramantry justified his dissent in a magisterial 87 page opinion likely to become a classic of internatinal law (and likely, in this writer’s view, to become the majority opinion on this issue in due course). Like the good lawyer he is, Judge Weeramantry examines every relevant technical and legal aspect in great detail, including the nature and effect of nuclear weapons, the applicable principles of humanitarian law and even the political dimensions of the question. But what shines through the dissent and gives it its transcendent importance is Weeramantry’s view of the law and its role in human society.

"The threat and use of nuclear weapons", he says in his opening paragraph, "contradicts the fundamental principle of the dignity and worth of the human person on which all law depends". Thus we are warned, ab initio, that what follows is not simply an examination of proclaimed law as applied to produced facts, but that, in dealing with a question as monumental as the of the survival of the human race, we had better have a view of what being human is all about and how that view relates to the law. That relationship, we are told few paragraphs later, leads to the conclusion that since "there is no possibility whatsoever" of the threat and use of nuclear weapons being compatible with the principles of humanitarian law, they pose a threat not only to humanity but also to the integrity of international law itself.

Judge Weeramantry makes it perfectly clear that his opinion is based not on what the law ought to be but on what it is. At the same time, he vigorously defends the view that the law, if it is to be respected, must be superior to the forces arrayed against it. "Collisions with the colossal", he says, "have not deterred the law.... Once the Court determines what the law is, and ploughs its forrow in that direction, it cannot look over its shoulder at the immense global forces ranged on either side of the debate".

Another aspect of the dissent which emerges from Judge Weeramantry’s global perspective on the law, which runs through his previous decisions and writings, is his emphasis on placing the question before the Court within the context of the United Nations Charter. Not just nations, but "peoples" — mentioned in the Charter’s opening sentence, have a vital interest in the outcome of the case. Freedom from "the scourge of war", the dignity and worth of the human person, equal rights of nations large and small, the obligations arising from all sources of international law, the promotion of social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom and other principal themes running through the Charter, all have a bearing on the question to be decided; it cannot be resolved through the narrow, technical approach of some of his colleagues (all of whom, incidentally, wrote separate opinions in the case — another first testifying to its importance).

As one has come to expect from this multicultural scholar, reference is made to the sources of humanitarian law "in many civilizations — Chinese, Indian, Greek, Roman, Japanese, Islamic, Modern European, among others". And due respect is paid to the role of civil society in bringing the case to the Court, with "a wave of global interest unparalleled in the history of this Court".

Toward the end of his — partial — dissent, Judge Weeramantry confesses that it comforts him that the legal conclusion he has reached, that the threat and use of nuclear weapons is absolutely prohibited by existing law, is also in accord with what he perceives to be the moralities of the matter and the interests of humanity. In his concluding paragraph he states "No issue could be fraught with deeper implications for the human future, and the pulse of the future beats strong in the body of international law".

Regrettably, the pulse of the future will beat less strong in the International Court of Justice, the highest tribunal in the world in matters of international law, with Judge Weeramantry’s departure from its bench. But the imprint he has left on the work of the Court, and the body — and soul — of international law will remain forever.

Peter Weiss is President of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms and Vice President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, New York.

Regeneration at the British Council, Colombo

by N. P. Wanasundera
Experiences are points of colour and light that dot the tapestry of our lives. They can be merely sensual, pleasing one or more of our senses. If they are, in addition, cerebral, they colour and dot our life all the more definitely. Such an experience was the exhibition mounted at the British Council, Colombo, of photographs of colonial Ceylon, more particularly in the latter decades of the 19th century. Viewing the photographs was a rich experience. The exhibition titled Regeneration, while delighting the sense of sight and stimulating the mind, took the viewer back in time. To faithful Sri Lankans it had the added dimension of national history being placed before them, delightfully visually.

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THEIR PHOTOGRAPHS

The photographs were mostly those of Frederick Fiebig, W. L. H. Skeen, Charles Scowen and Julia Margaret Cameron. Those of Fiebig date back to the 1850s. He was an artist who dabbled in photography as a pastime and then took to it seriously. His first undertaken documentation using his camera was in Calcutta, after which he came to Ceylon. He offered his work to the East India Company. They wanted them in colour, hence their being touched up.

William Skeen came to Ceylon as Britain’s first appointed printer to the Island in the late 1860s. He documented through his seeing camera the history of transport in Ceylon, starting with the Kandy-Colombo horse drawn mail coach to the first train leaving Colombo Fort on its climb to Kandy in 1867, and the building of the railway across rivers in the hill country, and Haputale station.

He also documented agriculture of the land: coffee, and then land being cleared for the growing of tea. The cinnamon trade he captured on paper from its being barked off trees and baled by men squatting on either side tugging at the bailing ropes, under the sharp eye of a supervisor. Plumbago mining, a largely Sinhalese enterprise, is also documented with a front view of a chasm-like mine.

His Causeway at Matara and Girl with Rambuttans clearly indicate how different the two subjects are today. The rustic Matara of the picture is a teeming town now, while the unsophisticated, very village girl is no more, whether selling rambuttans or cadju by the roadside.

Skeen’s rival in photographic excellence was Charles Scowan who produced 230 photographs of the ancient sites of Anuradhapura, Polonnarnwa, Sigiriya and Mihintale. It gives the viewer a shock to see his Ruwanweliseya - tree grown, with a pinnacle placed on an unimpressive crown and no large apron around the dagoba. No elephants either; but trees of which palmyrah palms are very evident. His bamboos on the banks of the Mahaweli Ganga is wonderful. His portraits too are marvellous like that of the Kandyan Chief and His Family: Sir T. B. Panabokke, Member of the Legislative Council, captured by the camera in all his aristocratic elegance. His nudes, sharp in contrast to his other subjects are striking too, particularly the very young girl with her young breasts bared, posing in near profile with her hands resting on a clay pot.

Nature too was a subject for his camera as seen in his close up of a flower titled Study of Lily and fruits and leaves in The Breadfruit.

Joseph Lawton seemed to favour catching detail in his photographs. His 1870 close-up of a part of the Vatadage in Polonnaruwa clearly shows the tree-roots that have penetrated the stonework.

Julia Margaret Cameron seemed to have specialized in portraits of women - possibly servants and tea pluckers. Her portrait of two Tamil girls is interesting while her picture of a Tamil woman, very young and unself consciously sinuous, is arresting, to say the least. Julia would have been a George Elliot among photographers, the Victorians definitely liking their women extra feminine and not taking to even hobbies that could be construed as invasion of male domains.

Bourne and Shephard, and ‘unknown photographer’ too were among those exhibited.

THE OPENING OF THE EXHIBITION

The exhibition, as Susan Maingay, Director/British Council Sri Lanka, said, brought to a close the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Council in this country. At the opening of the exhibition by the High Commissioner for Britain in Sri Lanka, HE Ms. Linda Duffield, in the presence of the Deputy Minister of Culture, Prof. A. V. Suraweera, and a distinguished gathering including Arthur C. Clarke, Ms. Maingay praised all those who had worked against time to have the pictures framed and mounted by the set date.

The traditional oil lamp, exquisitely decorated with nil manel and gokkola, was lit by the chief guest, the guest of honour and representatives of those who had done the different jobs to have the exhibition ready by Saturday 29 January: - John Falconer and Brett Rogers of Britain, Ranmali Mirchandani, Head/ Arts Unit of the British Council Colombo, and her team, and others.

The mood of the evening - enchanted, exotic, reminiscent and altogether delightful - continued as people moved to the lawn lit by meti pahanas lining the front verandah of the Council and jets sparkling in the trees, to partake of beer and wine and kottaroti and savouries.

INTRODUCTION AND EXPLANATION

On Monday evening, John Falconer and Brett Rogers spoke to a small gathering at the Gallery 706, Galle Road, Kollupitiya. Mr. Falconer, Curator of Regeneration and of the Oriental and India Office of the British Library gave an introduction to the exhibition and the artistes represented. The prints on display, he said, were facsimiles of the originals, the original photographs being copied, digitalized and scanned. Yet fidelity was retained in detail and colour, which were mostly black and white with touches of ochre, sepia, blush pink and the lightest of light blues.

Ms. Brett Rogers, Deputy Director, Visual Arts Department, British Council London traced the history of photography with slides to elucidate the facts she mentioned.

The exhibition is on at the BC up until 7 February. It will then go a-touring to Kandy, Galle, Kurunegala, Negombo, Badulla, and maybe Trinco and Jaffna. Go see it if you haven’t done so as yet. You only have Monday 7th to take a peep into the colonial past. If you cannot make it on Monday, it is well worth going 72 miles to Kandy or Galle to view it.

A PLUS OF COLONIALISM

This era of Sri Lanka’s past is considered by many to be a black era. Colonialism and being completely subjugated by the British Raj is thought of as a blot on our history. But as in every situation there are two sides to it. In spite of discrimination against the majority Sinhalese (this fact has to be accepted) and displacement of the Kandyan peasant whose land was bought for a couple of cents to grow tea, and the import of Indian labour causing immense problems later; colonial rule did benefit the country. Ceylon was opened up; the English language was introduced and spread wide; education was made compulsory; English law and the Westminister style of democratic government were introduced; and our heritage to a great extent was preserved. The exhibition Regeneration is a clear example of this. British men and a woman took the pictures, the British Museum preserved them, and the British Council arranged and facilitated their return to Sri Lanka and, hopefully, to safe keeping in the Colombo National Museum.

Let us be grateful for such acts - from the photographers and then governors and other British officials to those who made their preservation and regeneration a task of love and dedication, to the British Council and particularly to those in Colombo’s BC. They were all prompted by a realisation of the value of the pictures as a pictorial record of some years in the history of the country, and an appreciation of art.

Nimal’s hard road to success

From: Sujeeva Nivunhella - London Correspondent
Nimal Mendis is a singer, song writer, dancer, music director and a documentary film director. There are number of famous English and Sinhala songs he sang and wrate. There are number of popular films for which he directed music including ‘Ganga Addara’ and ‘God King’. He also has done TV documentaries for BBC and Channel Four television in England. Nimal who is very religious person lived half of his life in Sri lanka and half in london. At present he lives in France. Here he is talking to our London correspondent Sujeeva Nivunhella.

"When I started schooling at the age of five or six, I just went on to the piano and started playing music. I think that it is not just from me that my music had its origin but from many influences. I could say that the genes I have inherited from my parents played a large part. My mother was the first woman author in Sri Lanka that wrote in the English language. The brand of arrack known as ‘Mendis Special’ was invented by my father. So, both my parents had a creative flair in them. Not a normal creative instinct as everyone has but with hard work and grit they made a success of their talents. So these things come from the genes, then from what you yourself do and from another side, one which I call God. So it is from all this that it arises not just from oneself.

"I did not learn music. As I said I just started playing by ear. It was only much later that I learnt to write the western music notation system around the age of 12 or 13 for about six months. I never learnt it before or later except when I was commissioned to do the score of the music for Lester James Peiris’s "God King". We recorded the music in England and I did not want to look foolish in the eyes of the white man. Being a Sri Lankan I did not want them to think that I was unfamiliar with orchestration. I could not write. Here Lester Peiris had engaged me to do the music. I could go to the piano and write many beautiful melodies. That just comes naturally to me. It was a great opportunity and I had to make a success of it, so I got some books from the library and while learning about orchestration throughout the night I composed the music for the film. This I think was a great fault in me.

"I think that our people are highly intelligent and creative and you know from where it comes, from the three sides that I talked of earlier. When people are highly intelligent and creative but things cannot be corrected or learnt, the negative factor can rise in the individual and turn disruptive. If one can learn from mistakes made, then a positive factor rises and it helps the will to do better things. When you cannot learn you stay static, you don’t grow, you stay like you are 13 or 14. You see in our country - what foolish things are done, especially by politicians, prime ministers and presidents. Some of the things they do and say are like as if they are stuck at the age of 13 or 14.

"I tricked my parents to come to England. I told them I was going to do accountancy in England. At that time I had won the South East Asian Latin American Dancing Championship with only two weeks of learning and practice. When it was decided that I could go to England my father told me that he did not have much money and it would be difficult to support me there except with about 15 Sterling Pounds per month. Earlier my parents had sent my brother Walter (who made a success with "Mendis Special") to England and he had studied and become a barrister there.

"So, my father wasn’t rich and he had five children to bring up. My mother and father were realists and yet they were dreamers. Realists like in the way, say with clothes. If the clothes were clean is what mattered, not if they were old or darned several times. With food too it was like this. They never cared what other people thought. We grew up like that, I remember that my parents never talked about others, in front of the children, not about relatives, friends or neighbours. If they did, it was some thing positive, never anything negative. I think that is the biggest thing I have learnt from my parents. We never grew up in a gossip kind of atmosphere. So my father said that he can support me with about 15 pounds a month. A pound in those days was about 13 or 14 rupees.

"This was around the middle fifties. So it was about 200 rupees. He sent me this for about six months. Soon after I got myself three jobs. I was working during the day for a music publisher wheeling parcels in a barrow to be delivered to other shops and also to the post office for posting. At night I played piano in a club for five days of the weeks and another job on Saturday playing piano in a hotel. The job during the day was back breaking, wheeling the parcels. Sometimes on Oxford Street in the heart of London I used to stop for a while to ease the weight and think to myself what the hell I was doing there. The club playing was quite relaxed. It was a Gentleman’s club in Albemarle street in Green Park - a Conservative club. Ted Heath the former Prime Minister of England used to come there. The Saturday job was also very relaxing and I used to get a super meal after playing. I earned five pounds a week for the day job in those days and I got ten pounds for the week time piano job and five pounds for the Saturday piano job. So I was earning 20 pounds per week and I told my father not to send me anymore money. I was rich!

"My father did not like me doing music. I remember now, he telling my mother that I would have to beg on the streets if I continue to do music. I also remember years after my father after three heart attacks lying in bed, when I had just returned after doing the music of God King and playing it to him turning around to my elder sister and asking her ‘was that great?’. He wasn’t into music much and he wanted confirmation from his eldest daughter who had learnt western classical music. I think secretly he was proud but did not want to show that perhaps I had not quite had to beg on the streets with my music.

However, doing music is dicey. I think my parents knew that. Economically I suffered when I chose music as my profession. This was mainly because of my ideals and standards. I did not think of money, so to keep standards in your life it is very difficult. You have to suffer for it. The music business is very commercial as you know.

To keep standards in Art whether it be music, film, painting or writing without bending to the god of money is very difficult. There are sacrifices you have to make to keep your standards and mostly it is with rejecting money for art’s sake is where the sacrifice is needed. You have to suffer, and into the bargain others have to suffer with you especially if you have a family. Within this context you also have to understand the mudalali. The one who puts in the money, the producer. He is essentially a businessman and he is there to make money. To understand this is also to grow spiritually. I did not understand this when I was 14 but I do now. When you get entangled with business there are a whole host of things that we as artists tend to forget. The businessman has to contend with the production, publicity and sales. He may make it or fall by the wayside with one particular effort. He takes risks. If he fails with one and wants to continue he has to make it doubly with the next, to recoup his losses. Of course there are the exploiters - that is another story.

I had a shop at that time in London in Finsbury Park, North London. It was the first shop in those days that sold curry powder and eastern groceries in that area. Now of course there are many shops like this there. I had two shops really. My mother and father were there in London at the time. My mother used to get up at 3 am to make vaddais and patties and my father used to (he had already had two heart attacks) get up early morning in the bitter cold in winter to go and open the shop. You can imagine the kind of people they were. You can now understand from where my perseverance comes from. So I rented out also another small shop to a Italian friend.

One day both of us went down to Piccadilly to buy some clothes and while walking down a street we saw a famous singer who walked pass us. His name was Joe Brown. I think he was high on the hit parade at the time. I, of course was too embarrassed to approach him to talk to him but asked my Italian friend to do so as he was a tough little chap from Naples. He chased after Joe Brown and eventually went after him to a clothes shop and asked him if he would listen to his Sri Lankan friend’s songs. Joe Brown said that he was very very busy but asked my friend to tell me to take my songs to his publisher and gave his telephone number and address.

That is how I met my publisher Joe Roncoroni. He was a big publisher. He handled all the ABBA music in England. We took a tape of my songs and there was a piano piece that I had written called Kandyan Dance which he liked. He published this and it was recorded in Germany by an orchestra, Friedel Berlipp was the name, and this went on to be No 2 on Radio Luxembourg. It was also released in America. It was 1962/63. This of course was the second time I had come to England.The first time I had made a record called "Kiss Kiss Kiss" for Columbia records. That record became very popular in Sri Lanka at that time. I did Kandyan Express with Harold Seneviratne and his brother Tissa and Adrian Ferdinands and also several others. Cherry Blossom Tree with the Jay brothers, Champagne Blues, Oh My Lover with Sandra Edema and other discs. Those are all English. They were hits in Sri Lanka or Ceylon I should say at the time. In those days I did not do anything in Sinhala. That came afterwards.

After my parents went back to Sri Lanka in 1963 I lived in England until 1968 which was the most creative period of my song writing in England. After Kandayn Dance I had twenty two songs published and the highlight of my career then was to appear on the most prestigious and popular TV show in England "Top of the Pops" with my own song "Feel like a Clown". I sang this with Sandra Edema who had earlier sung my song "Oh My Lover" in Sri Lanka at the age of 12. We made several records and also appeared in shows and again in another popular TV show in Germany called Beat Club.

It was in 1968 that an incident occurred in my life that brought me back to Sri Lanka. I was attacked and shot at because of the colour of my skin. I was really shocked. I had finished playing piano in a club and was walking back home because I had missed the last bus when this happened. I had never fought with anyone even at school. I never saw race. Or colour. To me all people were the same. So in 1983 when the anti Tamil riots occurred I understood quite well what a Sri Lankan Tamil would have felt. What went on in his or her mind, the fear he or she went through. All these semantics of politics and discussion fall away rapidly when you think of a poor innocent person caught up in hate, envy and greed and is the buttress of all those feelings like a thing to be punched at. I wrote a song called "Your were my neighbour" in August 1977. My blood ran cold. This illustrates the fear quite well. I had known it too - in 1968, in the heart of London. I understood it well.

I remember when I first came back from England and I gave my sister’s driver a cigarette and lit it for him my father saying why are you doing that? He did not explain or even scold me for doing it but just said that. It was years later that I understood what my father said when I was farming myself and had to employ people to work for me. In Sri Lanka especially, less in England, you know it well, this kind of familiarity and action is taken for weakness. That is why I used the words Master, Sir. Why not? Why should you not call your boss sir. Equality or socialism must grow in the heart not something to be imposed. You don’t need to call everyone brother brother. We know what has been done in the name of Socialism or Capitalism or religion for that matter. There are differences. What is required is respect and dignity for anything you work at. However, I have a little problem with the use of Master because this comes mainly from colonialism but that’s how it was and I needed to say this in the song especially because I wrote it for Kalu Diya Dahara which was about the relationships on the estates. You cannot become too familiar. It breeds contempt and it encourages opportunism, and opportunism exists in Sri Lanka like a plague.

As I said one must have a respect for everyone, dignity for what you do irrespective of what you do and that is the eternal struggle. That’s what I say in the middle section of Master Sir.....Apa athare kamba adillay tharange me nima vennata kal gatha wei do....Anney sir....You know the rest. Today people in power still think that ordinary people throughout the world are idiots or fools. People know what is going on but they are involved very much with the struggles for existence. This is not to say that their heart does not cry out for what I am talking about. So when I was attacked, hit, kicked, trampled upon and shot at I was stunned. What is it they are doing to me? I could not look at a white face and yet most of my friends were white, and were concerned about what had happened to me. To get over my fear and animosity I walked the same route night after night until I overcame these feelings. When I meet Tamil refugees in the West or in Sri Lanka and they talk with me and laugh and remember the good things in Sri Lanka I can imagine that relating to me as a Sinhalese they too would have had to walk that road over and over again to overcome fear and animosity.

But, when this happened I thought I had to get away from England which I did. I sold the house and came back to Sri Lanka, got ten acres of land up in Norton Bridge, gave up music and farmed for a time. It was up there then that I wrote Master Sir. Manik Sandrasagra, a very good friend came to me and told me "why the hell are you burying yourself in this place away from everything and everybody. Isn’t it time you started thinking about your music again and started writing again? You are quite mad". I told him its a hard life but I am quite happy.

Sometimes I used to engage Tamil estate workers, to cut the grass, help me with the cows, the poultry etc and I learnt a lot from them. They call the boss "Master". The Sinhala worker calls his boss "Sir". That’s how I got the title for my song. When you deal with the Tamil estate worker you come face to face with colonialism, with what it did. We have all suffered by it but it manifests itself vividly in the estate worker. That’s what I talk about in the song. The same colonial mentality lingering on within Sri Lankan society after so many years of Independence. This was my experience, this was what I was seeing in Sri Lanka. The film too had this underlying theme. Of course Manik Sandrasagra was ahead of his time in many ways when he made Kalu Diya Dhara. It was after I wrote the music for this film that I came to write music for films. It was Manik Sandrasagra that was the catalyst for my film music and film songs. Of course it was the translation by Karunaratne Abeysekera and the singing of Neville Fernando that made "Master Sir" such a big hit in Sri Lanka. You know I did an English version of the song with Sandra Edema in London. This version too was played a lot over SLBC.

It was Manik who talked to Lester and convinced him and then later I wrote other film music for Lester and for Sumitra Peiris. Ahasin Polowata, Baddegama, Gahennu Lamai, Ganga Addara and Yahalu Yeheli and the latest Duwata Mawaka Misa. I wrote the music for other films of Manik too, Kolomba Sanniya, Sita Devi.

(To be continued.)

Optician in 20th Century to Optometrist in 21st Century

Matale Buddhist monks who committed the Tripitaka to writing should have used spectacles to read the tiny letters on ola leafs — meaning optical appliances should have existed in Sri Lanka even before the Gampola period states Deshabandu Albert Edirisinghe a leading optometrist.

With the arrival of the British, the spectacle trade spread with optical departments in their departmental stores in Colombo Apothecaries, Millers and Cargills. However by this time Sri Lanka also had William Pedric & Co., who advertised as pioneer opticians in Ceylon and the Colombo Optical Company of Rajapakse. It was Mr. Eric Rajapakse who first went to London for his F.S.M.C. & F.B.O.A. (fellow of the worshipful company of spectacle masters association) William Pedris and Co. sent D. B. A. Perera for the same qualifications. Those who got a training in this field at William Pedric & Co. opened up outlets on their own. Harold Charles, Wijetunga, Attanayake and Edirisinghe are the products of William Pedric & Co. which the people considered as the University of optical trades. Albert Edirisinghe left William Pedric & Co., and started his own practice at No. 6 Dharmapala Mawatha, Kollupitiya on 4th February 1949.

In 1960 Albert Edirisinghe qualified in optometry in London and he invited Prof. Flick & Freeman to conduct a course in Sri Lanka. I appraised the Vice Chancellor of Vidyodaya University Ven. Weliwitiya Soratha of the course and with the help of Dr. Ananda Guruge, competent authority of the University held the optometry course in Sri Lanka in 1961.

Two years later the same course (L.C.O) was conducted by the same professors invited to Sri Lanka by the Ceylon Optometric Association and later it developed to a Diploma Course under Prof. R. C. Fernando, Dean of Physics and Prof. Colin Gunaratne and Dr. Carlo Fonseka.

Spectacle frames

Tortoise shell was brought to the country from Maldives. being an annual tribute tribute to the government as an acknowledgement of their loyalty as a colony of the British. Their gifts were brought in a "KADA" and taken in procession to the Governor’s House. They brought fish, Maldive fish, Bondi Aluwa and diya hakuru etc. and offered them to Sri Lanka traders in exchange for spices and rice.

Most of these boats or "Baggals", as we called them, came to the Galle harbour. Only a few came to Colombo. At Galle they did their barter trading and tortoise shell was mainly brought by the Galwalugoda or Elliott Road people who were good craftsmen in jewellery making. They developed their own system of making use of the tortoise shell and their factory was on the ground on a spread mat with 2 or 3 pieces of logs and a long pliers.

When the Industrial Act of Ceylon was introduced in 1963 small industries prospered and this cottage industry of spectacle frame making became a small industry. "Vision House" factory got down Indian specialists to manufacture and also train our own staff. The frames were sold locally and also exported to Russia.

With the demand for hand made plastic frames being replaced by moulded spectacle frames Vision House sent five of their staff to South Korea and with the help of a Korean firm made those frames which were also exported to Hong Kong etc.

However, the free market system and smuggling adversely affected the optical business causing unemployment among those in the industry.

Meditation on Independence

by Janaranjana Mithrasena
And what, after these fifty years, are we to speak of Independence, that sweet word infused with the music of being unconstrained, free, self-governing, autonomous and sovereign? What splendid avenues were chosen by those notions when they took to flight? What hard, broken and seldom travelled paths must we walk now to recover that which is actually consonant with the word "independence", even in these times of national leaders scrambling over each other to salute globalisation, a process which means little more than the erasure of cultural identity and the opening of our resources and people to plunder and exploitation?

Independence. Even now, when the entire concept sounds so hollow, just listening again to that immortal song celebrating independence, Jaya Siri Ma Bodhi...Ranweli Se Aadi, it is not difficult to imagine the hopes that were raised when the British left. But did they? After all, we were also treated to that beautiful baila ditty again immortalised, this time by Nanda Malini in a different time for a different set of hopefuls, Nidahas Baila, which had these biting lines that cut through the myth:

le helune ne, sudda tharaha uneth ne
yanna giyeth ne, nogihin hitiyeth ne...

There was certainly a retreat by the British. But capital was not as hasty, or to be more charitable, it did not see any reason for retreat. Being the veritable profit-seeking cockroach that it is, this extinction defying creature adapted to the changes quite admirably and unlike its counterpart in the biotic world ate the pie and left the crumbs to the peoples whose lives and life-styles it devoured. And like Jonathan Livinston Seagull in Richard Bach’s unforgettable little gem, it worked hard to streamline its operations. Of course it benefited from the fact that it had to deal with unimaginative and self-seeking politicians masquerading as "representatives of the people" whose only credentials, money and/or thuggery, were more than adequate to garner sufficient votes to get a speedy ride to parliament from within whose sacred portals they could take the people for a ride. In any case, at the end of the day we are left with a hopelessly compromised state, deeply in debt with nothing to show for it, party to nefarious agreements all skewed against us (TRIPS being the most pernicious, as time will prove), horrendous and increasingly alarming social indicators, a pitiful lack of courage even among those that once proposed the socialist alternative and conspicuous resignation all around.

What have we really to show after these fifty years (ignoring of course the fact that we got the British, queen and all, off our shoulders only on the 22nd of May 1972)? The rising skyline of the city of Colombo with its lush avenues and old world splendour in certain parts, its centres of learning, its slums and shanties which house one half of its mighty population? There was a time, returned to often enough without nostalgia or embarrassment, when we could nonchalantly toss the numbers that spoke the social well being of our people and obtain the respect of the many nations that made up the Non-Aligned Movement. Time passes and with the passing of time so have these numbers vanished and been replaced by others that are not so amenable to embroidery on the banner of national pride. We are, after all, the world’s number one destination of paedophiles. We have the highest suicide rate. And we top the charts among those who drown their sorrows in alcohol. A sorry state indeed! And to cap it all, perhaps even appropriately given recent trends, our honoured representatives decided, unanimously, to enforce the death penalty. And this in the thrice blessed land where the doctrine of ahimsa is supposed to thrive.

Independence. The word sounds so much like "in dependence", which is the better description of the state we find ourselves in 2000. Our agricultural policy, which was written some time ago by the IMF and the World Bank, is now being written by SAFTA (read "Indian bureaucrats sitting in Delhi and Madras"). It is being under-written by the WTO with the proactive initiatives of our traders under a laughably spurious ideology of "gloabalisation" that some of ratey-vedas are trying to present as the post-modern form of "socialism"!

Our budget is designed by the IMF. Development, meaning development of what, how and for what purpose, is the prerogative of World Bank clients. In the name of strengthening civil society and eliciting better participation by the people for the sustainable development of our country, we have allowed NGOs with dubious credentials and suspicious agendas to run riot, now touting Eelam, now extracting allegiance to the Bible in return for food.

In order to preserve the independence which was supposedly won without shedding one drop of blood (how quickly we forgot the great rebellions of the 19th century, the heroism of the Puran Appus, Gongalagoda Bandas and others) blood had to flow twice along the rivers and streams of our country, students had to be killed, trade unions crushed, democratic institutions dismantled, and a peace-war-peace-war charade maintained in the Northern parts of the country for almost 15 years now. Fifty years of the Breton Woods Institutions, the United Nations Joke, and dreams made up of modernist myths that stumble into reality as nightmares are certainly reason enough to look back in anger.

But all is not lost. Wherever the human being has the strength of character to look forward with hope, he/she will also look back and learn. Innovative and eager men and women will wade through decades of broken promises, scattered with anger and nostalgia, and draw forth the material with which the new dreams are to be constructed and lived. And they will, when they look back further and beyond the myth-making of 1948, encounter again the wisdom of our ancestors and perhaps come to understand that history is not a straight line and that the cycles of the earth are proof of the worth of looking at the past. But all this requires that the hard road be taken. This is the gravel strewn, dusty village road that leads not just to the past but to the present where farmers even with bountiful crops commit suicide because they cannot feed their families, where bright-eyed youth dream of a future where there is a positive correlation between labour expended and the returns on the same, where tender hearted women with iron resolve defy the patriarchy and the capitalist market to eke out from a reluctant earth the value or the nutrition that will keep their children alive, where old men and women recollect in their archival memory not just the stolen harvests and the unkept promises but the heroism of unrelenting struggle against oppression, and where the laughter of children oblivious to the tragedies being sowed around their feet rises above the clamour of despair, teaching a tired adult world that hope is a tenacious fighter too. And it must be remembered that the stripping of illusions, the recognition of limits, and the learning of humility are also paths worthwhile taking.

I am reminded once again of those endearing words of Faiz Ahmed Faiz:

Your feet bleed, Faiz, something surely will bloom

as you water the desert simply by walking through it.

There are no messiahs awaiting some clarion call. No heroes will arrive. We are the path we travel and the roads generally not taken will contain the answers that will allow the meek to recover the deserved earth. Where such people can walk unfettered by the pangs of hunger and the chains of an uncertain tomorrow, the word independence will flower once again with not just the hopes of an awakening but the bright colours of a lived, breathed, touched reality. There are no road signs along the way except this rough guideline; that we seek the parched lands ignored by the monsoons, visit the houses where food rarely gets cooked and listen to the tragedies lived by those in the permanent war zones which include not just the north and east but also every poor household that has had to send adult males to death in order to survive. There are no prescribed texts; just the histories we gather and chronicle as we walk. There will be no charts or compasses for navigating the necessarily difficult times; we will have to create them along the way. Courage, a sense of dignity and purpose, humility, and above all, faith in the people — these are the rations for the journey.

Suba gaman our beautiful land and our beautiful people!

Leprosy and the wonder drug

By Aryadasa Ratnasinghe
Leprosy was the name widely applied, in former times, to chronic skin diseases, but now exclusively to the disease caused by the leprae bacillus. The disease is mostly prevalent in hot and damp countries, specially in Africa (where the ratio is as high as 1:44), but it is also found in many parts of the world, including Asia and other tropical regions. In Sri Lanka, the prevalence of the disease is said to be within the ratio 1:3000. Treatment is available at the National Hospital, Colombo, in room No.21, and also at other clinics throughout the country.

Microbacterium leprae is the bacteria responsible for the spread of the horrible and stigmatic disease. By shape, size and to straining reactions, it resembles closely to the tubercle bacillus causing tuberculosis. The disease may be transmitted by contact with a leper or the bacillus may enter through the stomach and lungs causing the disease. The usual incubation period is about three years, but the maximum range is said to be indefinite and uncertain.

According to medical opinion, leprosy usually starts with a patch on the skin. The symptoms are pale or reddish non-itching patches, with loss of sensation to touch and pain and numbness of the hands and feet. Sometimes, nodules or lumps may appear on the skin and they may breakdown into ulcers. Under advanced conditions, the shedding of fingers and toes is the symptomatic sign of leprosy.

Leprosy, until recently, was a stigmatic disease much ostracised by the society, but, even today, it has not totally made people to shrink from its horror. There is evidence to prove that the disease existed centuries before the Christian era. The Holy Bible has reference to the disease where it says "Comm and the children of Israel that they cast out of the cAmp every leper" (Numbers 5:12). Elsewhere it says "Observe diligently that thou incur not the stroke of leprosy" (Deuteromony 24:8). In the early days, no one knew how and why people became afflicted with leprosy, and anyone suffering from it was ostracised by the society as an outcast.

As people became aware that leprosy was incurable, they considered it to be a curse of God, and no attempt was made to cure a patient suffering from the loathsome disease. He was segregated from society and was left alone to suffer and die. But, people are now aware that it is a disease caused by the leprae bacillus and it is completely curable. But the ostracism seems to linger on to the disadvantage of the patient.

In 1873, Armer Hansen, a Norwegian physician, was able to discover that a certain bacteria caused the disease and, thenceforth, it came to be known as Hansen’s Disease. Bacteria (Schizomycetes) belong to a class of microscopic unicellular and filamentous organisms composed of protoplasm. They are known under different names, such as germs, microbes, bacilli, micrococci etc. The findings of Dr. Hansen gave new light to the old theory that God has nothing to do with the disease.

The wonder is that only humans suffer from leprosy causing damage to the peripheral nerves of the body. Since humans are the only host to entertain the leprae bacillus, and because of the inability to culture it in any other medium, the invention of a suitable drug posed a problem. However, research work carried out on the mammal armadillo of the family dasypodidae, native to South America, was able to solve the problem of finding a suitable drug to cure the disease. It was in 1960, that a medium was evolved in which the bacteria could be successfully cultured.

In 1953, a drug called Diamino Diphenyl Sulphone (DDS) was introduced to cure leprosy. Before that, a herbal oil extracted from the Indian tree Caulmoogra, of the family Flacourtiaceae, was extensively used to cure the disease, though it often proved ineffective. The drug DDS was able to cure many lepers, but being bacteria-statics it only suppressed growth of the bacteria, but did not prove to be a bacteriolysin. In view of this situation, patients had to continue the intake of the drug daily for many years.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), having responded quickly to the urgent need of finding a suitable drug to cure lepers throughout the world, introduced a combination of drugs known as the Multi-Drug Therapy (MDT), which is now in use, since 1982, and better known as the ‘wonder drug’. It is a combination of DDS with Rifampicin and Clofacimine. Unlike the DDS, the new drug MDT has been able to cure patients suffering from the disease completely, within six months to two years, depending on the seriousness of the disease and the prescribed course of treatment.

According to the leprologist Dr. Mrs. Padmini Gunawardena, the MDT is a simple drug which the patient can take home and use while leading a normal life. She says: "Patients who are on treatment do not spread the disease to others, as the bacteria is known to breakdown and degenerate under the effect of MDT. It is the grateful bright faces of the leprosy patients, relieved by hearing that they are now cured of leprosy, that give encouragement to continue ourwork".

Leprologists have sub-divided leprosy into three categories, viz: Lepromatous, Tuberculoid and Borderline leprosy. According to Dr. J. G. Browne, "Leptomatous leprosy in seen in persons with a negligible resistance. Tuberculoid leprosy is seen in persons with good resistance and may be either neural or dermal or both. Borderline leprosy is seen in persons with a limited or variable resistance and usually presents with skin and nerve involement. Early diagnosis is the most important clue to arrest the disease".

When we look into the history of leprosy in Sri Lanka, we find that during the Dutch occupation of the island (1658-1796), the Dutch governor Thomas van Rhee (1692-1697), having noticed an increase of leprosy within the Dutch settlements along the coastal belt, sought to segregate lepers in a hospital meant exclusively for them. But the health authorities, to whom the suggestion was made, were lukewarm about it in view of the high cost involved. Thereupon, the governor was directed to build one out of the charity funds of the deaconry. Accordingly, the Dutch governor Cornelis Jan Simons (1703-1707) built the spacious asylum for lepers at Hendala in 1707, which stands to this day.

When the Dutch settlements were taken over by the British in 1795, the leper hospital was placed under a local doctor, educated at Pisa in Italy, named Joseph Sansoni. It was humanely established as an asylum for the wretched beings afflicted with the most cruel and horrifying malady. There is another leprosy hospital at Mantivu built on an island in the Batticaloa lagoon to keep lepers aloof from public contact.

Dr. Robert G. Cochrane, Medical Officer of the Lady Willindon Leper Settlement and later secretary to the Leprosy Relief Association in England, made the following remarks when he visited Sri Lanka in 1935. "The viewing of leprosy as one of the endemic diseases of the island has to be stressed with seriousness. I feel that the leprosy prevention work must be geared up, than what it is now, as these unfortunate patients must receive the sympathy of the people as well as the government, to relieve them of their predicament".

The Leprosy Association of Sri Lanka, in collaboration with the Anti-Leprosy Campaign, has pointed out that "the disease Leprosy can be cured, that it is not hereditary, that it is very mildly communicable, that early treatment results in complete cure, and that home treatment is quite safe. The morbidity of the disease shows that, on average, about 600 patients are annually registered at the Leprosy clinic in Colombo, for treatment." However, patients are generally reluctant to call themselves lepers through fear of ostracism. At the Clinic all treatment is said to be done confidentially.

With the development of modern chemotherapy, sulphones, once used to treat tuberculosis, were used to treat leprosy with success. But the modern wonder drug MDT has proved beyond barriers as the best therapy. However, the drug must be taken regularly as advised by the physician until the disease is completely cured. Dapsone was also a potential drug prescribed by physicians as a routine treatment. Mass media publicity is given to make the public aware that leprosy is now curable completely, as a normal disease, and lepers should not be ostracised as outcasts to be kept away from society.

Some historical notes on Geology and Mineralogy before the formation of the Geological Survey Department of Ceylon

by A. Denis N. Fernando
Fellow National Academy of Sciences
Consultant (Recipient of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy Memorial Medal 1998)

Mineralogy and Geology without doubt had drawn the attention of not only our ancients but were also known to seafarers and traders in the very early period. Foreigners were also drawn here, where most of them also settled here. There have been also foreign records, notices of Sri Lanka; as well records in our chronicles, in the BC period.

In fact Sri Lanka was known to the Persians as "The Island of rubies". While Homer records that the Phoenicians had access to the Indian ocean where they brought for trade at the great Emporium of Taprobane golden utensils. This is also recorded in our chronicle the Mahawamsa of the arrival of ships to the south of the Island laden with golden utensils for trade.

The Periplus of the Erythrean sea mentions the products of Taprobane as "gems, pearls, ivory and tortoise shells". In the Tyrians temple of Melicarthus according to Semiramis there is a stone pillar which records state that "they find gold in rivers, pearls on the seashore and further states that there are four kings there, all brothers who govern the Island, all subordinate to the paramount sovereign who is the eldest brother at Anuradhapura to whom they pay tribute, cinnamon, ivory, gems and pearls and the King has gold in abundance. The first of these kings reign in the South where there are herds of elephants of which great numbers are captured of surprising size, in this shore it is inhospitable and destitute of inhabitants, but the city in which the Governor resides lies inland and is large and flourishing (the Magama of Southern Ruhuna). The second governs in the Western Region which produces cinnamon, and it was here that the Tyrians ships cast anchor. The third rules the region towards the North which produces pearls and has a good rampart there on the Isthmus (Mannar). The fourth King governs the region of the East, producing the richest gems in surprising profusion, rubies, sapphires and diamonds (this is Eastern Ruhuna, the Nagadipa of Ptolemy of 150 AD).

Soleyman (851 AD) states that on all sides of Adams Peak mountain are rubies, hyacinths and other gems, while Ibn Batuta (1324 AD) has recorded the valley of gems and the estuary of rubies on his way to Adams Peak, which corresponds to Eheliyagoda.

While the Chinese who navigated by magnetic compass have recorded the presence of a "LODESTONE" or magnetic stone in Southern Ceylon that was so powerful that it draws them to it and causes shipwrecks and distress to "ships fastened with iron bolts instead of wooden ones" .

Iron played a key role in the development of our Ancient Hydraulic Civilisation in their construction. Iron tools were used in the recording of our epigraphical records in stone from the BC period. Sri Lankan iron and steel was famous the world over and its steel was exported to Damascus where they turned out the "Damascus Swords" which was noted for its ability of severing a man’s head from its body in one stroke. Iron and steel smelting was known in the BC period and the technology well recorded by Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and indicated a particular ancient tribe called Yamano (who were clearly Yemenese who settled here) and specialised in its manufacture in Balangoda. In fact Dr. Gill Juleff demonstrated its manufacture by using wind energy for smelting as practised by the ancients based on archaeological remains present there.

Since the manufacture of steel and its use was widespread it was taken for granted and did not merit special mention in our chronicles. The presence of iron slag was also common place and found in the vicinity of nearly all major irrigation works.

The Mahawamsa translated by William Geiger provides us with the first recorded Mineral Survey one entire Chapter XXVIII page 187 to 190 which I have reproduced here gives a description of places where precious minerals, gems, pearls etc. were obtained in building the MAHATUPA (Ruwanwelisaya) in Anuradhapura in the reign of King Dutugemunu.

It says:

"In a north-easterly direction from the City, distance of three yojanas and near Acaraavitthigama, on a plain covering 16 karisas (of land), there appeared nuggets of gold of different sizes."

"On the east side of the City, a distance of seven yojanas, the further bank of the river and near Tambapitta, copper appeared."

"In the south-easterly direction from the City, a distance of four yojanas distant near the village of Sumanavapi many precious stones appeared."

"In a southerly direction from the City, at a distance of eight yojanas, silver appeared in the Ambaltthakola cave..."

"In a westerly direction from the City, a distance of five yojanas, near the landing place Uruwala, pearls..."

"In a northerly direction from the City, a distance of seven yojanas, in a cave opening on the Pelavapitagama tank, above on the sand four splendid gems had formed in size like a small mill-stone, in colour like flax-flowers, (radiantly) beautiful..."

Their locations are specially indicated in polar co-ordinates of distance in Yojanas and angular direction based on the direction of the rising sun from the city of Anuradhapura. I have taken a Yojana as 8 miles and also corrected the direction of the Sun Azimuth and its variation and determined their location in the accompanying Map. I.

The location of these minerals etc. correspond to GOLD near Kabitigolawa/Ranbewa, COPPER near Seruwila east of the Mahaweli Ganga; precious GEMSTONES near Elaheral Angamedilla; SILVER near Ridivihara; PEARLS in the Kalpitiya Bay; GEMS like Flax flowers near Vavunikulam. Most of these locations have been discovered except for Gold and the gems like the blue flax flowers. However it must be mentioned here that though I mentioned the importance of these sources of information in my Presidential Address in 1969 at the Annual Sessions of the CAAS on the subject "An Integrated Approach to Development Planning in Ceylon", it was unfortunate that some scientists did not take note of this and in fact made a joke of it. However one year later the Geological Survey Department made a proud announcement in 1971 that they had "discovered" a very large copper deposit at Seruwila at the very site mentioned in the Mahawamsa. Likewise there are in addition to the information provided in our chronicles, there is also much information or clues in our myths and legends in relation to matters of scientific interest to geologists that merit follow-up, with these as clues. In fact I am now devoting much of my research in this neglected area of study.

We know that geology played an important role in the location of our dam sites, spill sites and location of canals. It would be interesting to indicate how the ancients used two dykes of relatively soft rocks on the two rock outcrops on either side of the "Sorabora wewa Bund" that were used very wisely to locate the two sluices. Even today when we locate sluices and dam sites using "Modern Technology" locate them at the very sites located by our ancients, as when we excavate these sites for construction we discover ancient sluices and other irrigation artefacts at these very locations confirming the advanced technology of our ancients, who were aware of the knowledge of Geology and Topography. We also note with interest the total absence of irrigation structures in the Niocene Limestone belt, indicating that the ancients were well aware of the unfavourable geological conditions for location of irrigation structures.

The availabihty of "potable water" was one of the criteria for the location of settlements in addition to the location of harbours as is seen in their locations in Taprobane of Ptolemy. The availabifity of potable water in the fresh water lens above the saline water in the coastal areas and peninsulas were known not only to the ancient seafarers. But also to to the new settlers namely the "Vellala Tamils" who came here from the Coramendal, with their lift irrigation techniques of well and shadaff; to grow tobacco that was introduced by the Portuguese in the late 17th century. It was by them that the renowned Jaffna cigar was fabricated bringing prosperity to Jaffna.

In more recent times when I was working in the Survey Department and delved into the files maintained by them it is recorded that in British times geological researches were carried out in the North, North Central and North-Western regions. It is recorded that Mr. W. King, one time Director Geological Survey of India, was engaged in connection with boring and Hydrogeological exploration attempted in 1895 in the Island of Mannar who reported that "In the present fragmentary condition of knowledge of geology of the country, the Mannar District might offer conditions of strategraphy likely to yield underground water" (Survey Dept. file G NP/104).

Then we have on the instructions by Governor Sir Henry Blake; for a rather extensive Hydro-geological exploration and chemical analysis be done; of wells and locked up underground water and subsoil water obtained from borings were carried out in the Vanni near Vavuniya. In the course of this subsoil water investigations carried out by the Survey Department, preliminary investigations were carried out in an area of about 100 square miles with a network of nearly 120 miles of levels. The report forwarded with plans by Mr. Shipton, $updt. of Surveys stressed the conclusion that " Water was obtainable all over the area under survey at depths varying from 10 to 25 feet; with the peculiarity that in the majority of cases the water was found about 2 to 3 feet below a rock stratum."

While Henry Parker in his Irrigation of Mannar District states that " there is good evidence to suppose that we might find these Hydro-geological conditions duplicated on the North-western shores of Ceylon, which presenting a similar geological aspect, are composed, we are told of layers of marine deposits formed by successive upheavals and depressions, overlying gneiss, in some places almost stratified, in others more granite in appearance."

It was during this period that the services of Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy was engaged by the Survey Department as Chief Mineral Surveyor. When he had a confrontation with the Surveyor General. It was after this that a separate dept. called the Mineralogical Survey Dept was formed. This later became the Geological Survey Department. Today we are well aware that the Geological and Mineralogical Surveys are carried by several departments, corporations and agencies as well as individual researches I decided to present this short paper so as to indicate to the geologists, both young and old as well as others: as there is much information available in our chronicles and foreign notices of which many are unaware. They thus tend to indicate the findings of our ancients, as their own discoveries.

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