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A Game Ranger reminisces

Man- eater crocodile

In the mid 1980s, I was the Park Warden, Yala, when a batch of youths were recruited as casual labourers and housed at Palatupana (H.Q.)

The only source of fresh water at Palatupana at that time and even now was the tank or "wewa" and served the needs of the staff for drinking as well as bathing purposes. The staff had informed me of the unusual behaviour of a large crocodile approaching people at the main bathing spot near the tank spillway. There had been instances of crocodiles killing and feeding on small animals coming to drink at the waters edge. During this period casual visitors to the Park too occasionally used this bathing spot, therefore I had notice boards erected warning people of the danger from crocodiles. I had specifically warned the staff and the labourers of this danger, as they used various sections of the tank for washing and bathing purposes.

On this fateful day the labourers were assigned the task of repairing the tank bund as the tank had filled up and was spilling. When it was time for the ‘tea break’ they had to get back to camp. As the crow flies this was about 75 yards from their point of work, but of course across water, whereas the route by land was about thrice this distance. The labourers had debated this issue, and ,four of them, disregarding my warning, had taken the risk of swimming to their camp.

The victim, a lad from Hambantota, had been a good swimmer and had taken the lead followed by the others. In the meantime, the other labourers on the tank bund had been watching this spectacle, when to their horror they had seen a couple of crocodiles moving in the direction of the swimmers. Being aware of the dangerous crocodiles, they had raised cries and warned the swimmers of the approaching danger. In desperation and panic the swimmers had turned around heading for land. The victim had been about half way across the tank whilst the other three had managed to get back to safety. Now the crocodiles had directed all their attention on the victim.

In the meantime I was at my quarters, which was situated by the tank when I heard the wails and yells of the bewildered labourers. I ran out to the rocky out crop beside the tank just in time to see the victim struggling with the crocodiles. At this juncture I could do nothing to save the boy and stood helpless whilst he was being dragged under water. After a while there was no sign of either the crocodile or the boy and the duration of time was sufficient for the youth to die of asphyxia by drowning, and this I knew.

Thereafter my intention was to have the boy’s body recovered as soon as possible and instructed my staff accordingly. Gunshots were fired in the air and makeshift rafts combed the water in search of any signs of the corpse. Meanwhile I sent a vehicle with messages to the G/S Kirinda to contact all available sources to have the body recovered. A message was also sent to the boy’s parents in Hambantota informing them of the tragedy. In due course experienced divers with boats and other volunteers arrived and commenced operations trying to recover the body. I had my fingers crossed for fear of the divers and others who ventured into the water - for attacks from crocodiles. All efforts made till dusk that day proved futile and the victim’s mother who had arrived sat beside the tank pathetically wailing for her late son.

The following day, by dawn, the same procedure was followed by all available persons in trying to locate the body, but with no success. Everybody had almost given up hopes when at about 11.30 a.m. a party had noticed a commotion at the far end of the tank and had immediately approached the spot in their rafts and boats. They had seen the crocodiles tugging and fighting over something and had managed to scare them away with their shouts and oars. They had recovered what was left of the youthful victim and had brought it ashore. I found the remains to be half a torso with half the upper right hand and it was headless. It was a pathetic sight indeed. I presume the crocodiles had fought for and torn apart and fed on sections of the body.

After the necessary formalities the ‘remains’ of the 18 year old youth were handed over to the parents to be given a Muslim burial in the youth’s hometown in Hambantota.

Jackal tactics

When I was Game Ranger at Yala, on my routine inspections I happened to visit the old Buttuwa Park bungalow and found an injured python lying behind the bungalow. On inquiries, Mr. Ukkubanda the bungalow keeper related the following story.

One morning he had been in the bungalow with Game Guard Mr. Piyadasa when they had heard the peculiar wails of a jackal closeby. These calls had gradually increased suggesting the presence of a pack of jackals. M/s.Ukkubanda and Piyadasa had quietly approached the spot where the commotion was taking place and had hidden themselves from where they had a good view of the incident. A python had got hold of the hind leg of a jackal and had got a grip coiled round a small tree. A pack of about 6 other jackals had come to the aid of the victim and were taking turns biting and injuring the python. This process had gone on till finally the python had released its grip after which all the jackals had departed. I do not think the jackal would have suffered any after effects as the python is non-poisonous.

M/s. Ukkubanda and Piyadasa had brought the wounded python to the bungalow and treated it with a salt/chillie/water mixture. I went on my inspections and on my return once again visited Buttuwa and found that the python had climbed a ‘malittan’ tree. I was happy anticipating the reptile may survive, but on my return to Buttuwa the following day I found that the python had succumbed to the injuries sustained following the ferocious jackal bites.

E. Desmond White,
Ex. Park Warden.
Yala

Chivas Regal gang ends up in the cooler after 5 million rupee heist

By Niresh Eliatamby and Chittaranjan De Silva
The wirecutters were the vital clue.

Inspector Mangala Dehideniya and Sub-Inspector Anura Perera painstakingly examined the crime scene, and decided that there was something peculiar about the way the chainlink fence had been cut.

It was the day after Vesak, May 30, and they had been summoned to the factory and warehouse of International Distillers Lanka Limited (formerly known as Gilbeys), at Melfort Estate, in Kotelawalapura, Kaduwela.

The owners reported that a gang got away with twelve hundred bottles of Chivas Regal whiskey. It was the second raid on the warehouse in four months.

International Distillers Lanka Ltd. had lost 1,908 bottles of Chivas Regal in the two robberies, worth a staggering five million rupees. Each bottle had a wholesale value of 2,500 rupees.

There were no less than seven security guards on duty the night of the robbery. The gang cut through the fence undetected, then surprised the guards one by one.

The nine-member gang was armed with swords and knives, and the guards didn’t resist much. Those who did, were assaulted and overpowered, and all were locked in a room of the warehouse.

The cases of Chivas Regal were loaded on to an open truck, covered with a tarpaulin and driven away.

The same thing had happened on February 13.

But the way in which the chainlink fence was cut struck the police team as odd. It wasn’t the job of a small wirecutter, but more like a big pair of shears.

"Just the sort of thing that local sea pirates use to break the locks of containers on cargo vessels outside the port of Colombo,’’ the officers concluded.

Sea pirates in the Colombo area were undergoing hard times, they knew.

Sea pirates usually go out to sea during the daytime posing as fishermen, wait until dark to board vessels anchored outside Colombo, threaten crews and break open containers, usually stealing electronic equipment like TV’s and VCR’s.

Most pirates are fishermen adept at handling boats during monsoon weather, and manage to evade navy patrol boats by racing in to the network of canals north of Colombo. The larger navy patrol boats, whose sailors don’t know the nooks and crannies of the canal system, can’t follow.

But in recent months, the navy posted heavily armed sentries on the seafront for miles to the north of the port, to guard against possible LTTE attacks.

This was bad news for the pirates, since it meant that they couldn’t get back to shore after raiding ships, without running a heavy risk of being fired on by the sentries. Several pirates were killed trying to run the gauntlet, and piracy has lessened.

Quite possibly, a gang of pirates may have switched to land operations, the policemen concluded.

Another extraordinary fact was that the thieves had taken only the cases of Chivas Regal, leaving behind many cases of far more expensive liquor.

Obviously, the thieves were planning to sell the Chivas Regal on the local market. They also seemed to have some inside information about the warehouse.

The police team, led by IP Dehideniya, who is the OIC of the Nawagamuwa police station, and SI Perera, OIC-Crimes of the same station, pounced on the two clues.

Directed by DIG (West) Jayantha Wickramaratne, SSP (Nugegoda) Nihal Dharmadasa, and ASP (Homagama) Wickrama Perera, the police team spoke to their contacts in the Hendala and Wattala areas, where sea pirates operate with impunity.

They learned that there was a gang of pirates, of about eight or nine members, operating in the area. It included an army deserter.

The police team also looked at how the gang could dispose of the loot.

Selling to hotels wouldn’t work, since most large hotels have regular suppliers and buy at wholesale prices.

Common bars which are frequented by the average tippler were no use either, since they don’t stock such expensive brands.

Trying to sell direct to individual customers would be much too slow. The gang didn’t have the contacts to do that anyway, and few Sri Lankans can afford a bottle of Chivas Regal.

The only option, the police concluded, would be for the gang to sell through blackmarket operators who specialize in selling liquor. There aren’t very many of these operators either, most doing business in various sections of Colombo, or the tourist resort areas.

The police made discreet inquiries from several of these known operators, trying to find if any of them could supply a fairly large amount of Chivas Regal.

Yes, said several blackmarketeers in Bambalapitiya and Pettah. They had large stocks of the premium whiskey.

The police were on the trail.

From the blackmarket operators police obtained the name of the man who had supplied them. It was "Army Thushara,’’ a deserter from the Fourth Regiment of the Sri Lanka Light Infantry, who lived in Weliwita.

Probing Army Thushara’s connections, police discovered that his sister was married to a gang leader in Hendala, known to be a sea pirate.

The police also discovered that Army Thushara had once worked at a security firm, which had been providing security to the warehouse for sometime, although another security firm had been given the contract at the time of the robberies.

One assignment that the firm gave Army Thushara was as a guard at the Melfort Estate warehouse. He would have had enough time to gather all the information he needed, to rob the warehouse.

On June 6, the police swooped on Army Thushara and his gang. The deserter was arrested at his home, while others were rounded up in Hendala.

Among those arrested were Army Thushara’s brother-in-law, two other sea pirates, and a woman who had arranged the vehicle for the job, an Isuzu Elf 350 bearing license plate 42-3118.

Four other gang members are on the run.

Police recovered 85 cases of Chivas Regal from gang members’ homes in Hendala.

About 15 bottles had been drunk by the gang. The rest had been given to blackmarketeers to sell.

The saddest fact for the gang is that they had failed to make a cent from their escapades. The blackmarket operators had refused to give them money in advance, and told them to wait until the bottles were sold.

"We are still looking for the remaining Chivas Regal bottles, and finding them in small numbers all over Colombo,’’ said IP Dehideniya.

Sri Rangam Vishnu Temple and its significance to Sri Lanka

The story of the project to set up a Vishnu temple in Muthurajawela aroused a great deal of interest among scholars, religious dignitaries and businessmen. The views and opinions expressed, quite naturally, were of divergent character, some in favour and yet others severely critical. On the other hand, there seems to be some gaps in the information provided about the Vishnu Temple at Trichirappalli in South India which is historically known as Sri Rangam Temple and its southward Gopuram which is believed to be emanating a malefic influence on Sri Lanka. The purpose of this writing is to fill these gaps with information coming down to our times through the sacred scriptures, historical accounts and age old tradition and present a complete story so that the public will have a clearer picture and a better understanding of the significance of Sri Rangam Temple to us in Sri Lanka.

It may be of interest to mention that the story of Sri Rangam Temple begins in the far distant past, at the time of Lord Ramachandra who fought and killed Ravana, the demon King of Lanka who had kidnapped Sitadevi, the consort of Lord Ramachandra. In Sri Lanka, the story is well known that Lord Ramachandra after his victory made Vibhisana the brother of Ravana, the King of Lanka to succeed Ravana. Vibhisana, the newly enthroned King is said to have asked for and received an extraordinary gift, Sri Ranga Vimana, deity of Lord Vishnu from Lord Ramachandra which had been worshipped not only by Lord Ramachandra but also by others from time immemorial.

The scriptures say that Sri Ranga Vimana had originally been gifted to Lord Brahman by Lord Vishnu, which Lord Brahma in turn had given to Sun God who in turn had given it to Manu the father of mankind. Manu in turn gave it to King Ikshvaku in whose dynasty Lord Ramachandra has appeared. Vibhisana was keen to have Sri Ranga Vimana as he firmly believed that the deity would bring peace and prosperity to Lanka. Unfortunately he could not bring the deity to Lanka, as he violated the instructions given by Lord Ramachandra that he should not place the Deity on the ground. Vibhisana had inadvertently placed the Sri Ranga Vimana on the ground at a spot near the river Kaveri and Sri Ranga Vimana became firmly rooted at this place. When Vibhisana tried to continue his journey, Lord Ranganatha would not move. Lord Ranganatha then blessed Vibhisana promising to always look toward Vibhisana’s kingdom, Lanka. Although most deities in India face east, Sri Ranganatha Swami reclines on His right side with His head toward the west as He looks south toward His great devotee Vibhisana. And this was the spot where Sri Rangam temple, the oldest and the largest Vishnu Temple in India came to be established.

The temple has 22 very High gopurams (gateways) in all directions, leaving the one in the southern side incomplete. Many Kings and devotees had tried to complete the construction of the southern Gopuram but every time the construction was started, it is said to have failed and fallen to pieces. Centuries later, in 1979, a saint by the name Srimath H. H. Jeer Swamigal of Ahobila Mutt who visited this place on pilgrimage had divine directions to complete the southern gopuram, facing Sri Lanka.

The construction work started immediately while the saint was performing austerities and penance and took 7 years to complete. This Gopuram was ceremonially opened in 1987 with the participation of Late Mr. M. G. Ramachandran, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.

At this point, it would be appropriate to review briefly some of the well established popular beliefs that are in vague in South India and Sri Lanka concerning the influence of Sri Rangam Temple on Sri Lanka.

The first among them is the belief that a stone inscription belonging to the 13th century foretelling that the destruction in Lanka will begin once the construction of the southern Gopuram is complete.

When one devotee from Sri Lanka known to me asked the Saint Srimath H.H. Jeer Swamigal of Ahobila Mutt in 1987 who successfully completed the Southern Gopuram about the calamities in Sri Lanka, he said the calamities in the island would end when one Vishnu Temple with Gopuram in the style of Sri Rangam Temple is built in Sri Lanka and the temple worship is practised according to pancharatra system. This system of worship is said to have come down from Lord Brahma.

The proposed Vishnu Temple would, we believe, develop as an inter-religious centre of worship, a spiritual centre where different cultures find harmonious inter-mingling. History shows that the people in the world had realised the impact of forces which are beyond the capacity of human understanding. Should we hasten to reject as mere superstition things that are incomprehensible to our material senses?

This kind of project, in our view, is a commendable effort which deserves the backing of our leaders, political, religious, academic and business as well as the general public.

Mahakarta Das,
Temple President
International Society for Krishna Consciousness
(Sri Lanka Branch)

Lionair mystery deepens

By Suresh Perera
Akin to the bottomless ocean it’s believed to have plunged into, the mystery behind last September’s disappearance of the Lionair civilian aircraft has deepened.

It went missing over Mannar while on a run from Palaly to Ratmalana that treacherous afternoon and even nine months after, the clouds have still not cleared to bring into focus the fate that befell this Russian-built Antonov-24.

Police investigators and civil aviation authorities left no stone unturned to get to the bottom of the tragic saga, but nothing substantial has emerged so far. And as if to add to the mystery, the Government Anyalst in his report released last week has ruled out an explosion aboard the flight, LNS602.

The Government Analyst who examined four small pieces believed to be a part of the debris and a life jacket which were found floating in the sea, has dismissed the theory of an explosion aboard the aircraft, which led to its crash. He has also ruled out the possibility of the use of gunfire in this regard.

Investigators are of the view that a scientific analysis of the wreckage proper, if it can be salvaged, could provide conclusive evidence pertaining to the cause of the crash. The items sent for analysis were fragments which were among some others handed over to Mannar police by Fr. David Alexander Silva of the Thevanpiti church, Kilinochchi, about three months after the plane disappeared. According to a statement given by him, these items had been handed over to him by fishermen who had salvaged them from the ocean.

Civil aviation sources said that the four pieces believed to be parts of the debris forwarded to the Government Analyst were apparently from the toilet region of the aircraft. They were from one area itself and hence a proper and scientific analysis as a whole was not possible, the sources indicated.

Until the wreckage of an aircraft is found, it cannot be officially established and declared as having crashed. With regard to the pieces handed over to the police by fishermen, there were no serial numbers or any other identification marks to prove that they belonged to the missing Lionair plane, according to these sources.

Investigations have suffered a setback due to inaccessibility as the suspected scene of the crash is within the LTTE-controlled area, they said.

Police sleuths believe that nothing concrete has surfaced so far of evidential value to arrive at a definite conclusion on the missing aircraft.

The plane with 48 passengers and a six-member crew is suspected to have crashed into the sea close to the LTTE-dominated Iranativu island, approximately 20 miles off the Mannar coast. Fishermen had reported sighting a ball of fire in the sky around the time the aircraft disappeared. There was another version of the plane being sighted approaching topsy-turvy and plunging into the ocean.

In terms of the Government Analyst’s report, an explosion had not taken place. Then, what was the ‘ball of fire in the sky’ fishermen had reported seeing around the time the Antonov lost contact with the control tower? There was also suspicion that an explosion had taken place in a crate of lobsters inside the cargo hold of the aircraft. Many were the theories being interjected, but if the plane didn’t explode mid-air, as widely believed, what led to its crash? Was it a technical defect? A crop of new questions has abruptly emerged and going by experience, finding answers to them is indeed a formidable task.

A body wearing a battered life jacket was found on the Mannar coast in December last year, almost two months after this passenger airliner went down. What remained of the body was beyond recognition as it was in an advanced state of decomposition. Suspecting it to be that of a Lionair passenger, police despatched the body to Colombo for an autopsy. According to the report submitted by Professor Ravindra Fernando, head of the department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, University of Colombo, the body was that of a male, about 5 feet and 7 inches in height and within the 22-30 age group. Several bones were fractured and they may be ante-mortem or post-mortem. However, the exact cause or time of death cannot be determined, the report stated.

Was this body conveniently planted to mislead investigators? As it was unidentifiable and hence the inability to establish whether it was an actual passenger or not.

‘That’s a possibility we are very much alive to’, admitted senior security officials based in the Mannar region. This element of suspicion has not sprung up on the heels of the Government Analyst’s report. It had lurked from the time the body was discovered. The life jacket found on it was positively identified by the Ukranian airline leasing company as one which was aboard the flight in question. Another life jacket which was among the items handed over by Fr. Silva was also similarly identified.

‘A life jacket of the plane could have been salvaged and used on the planted body’, the officials suggested.

On December 17 last year, four fishermen from Iranativu island who were among those who claimed they saw the aircraft crash, came forward to give statements to the police. They did so on a request made by local pastor in the area. At the Mannar police station, they spoke of the ‘ball of fire in the sky’ and how the plane dived into the ocean, which they had witnessed. The mangled remains of some of the victims found floating in the sea were buried by fisherfolk, according to them.

Another active theory was that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) shot down the plane. There were also stories doing the rounds that a mix-up led to the downing of this civilian aircraft by the Tigers. This ‘accident’ concept originated probably because Lionair aircraft were chartered by the defence authorities at that time for the transportation of military personnel to the battlefield.

Be that as it may, diverse were the theories that were being bandied about and some of them are still in active circulation. As far fetched as it may seem, one of them was that the plane had been hijacked by the LTTE and the passengers and crew being held captive somewhere in the Wanni.

‘What happened to this Lionair flight is still a deep mystery’, says Mannar’s Superintendent of Police Lalith Lekamge who is directing the top level probe.

Police operatives are determined to unravel the mystery, but the going is tough. Iranativu island where the plane is believed to have gone down is out of bounds for the police and the military as it’s within the uncleared area of Mannar. Police even made an attempt to visit the suspected scene of the crash with the assistance of the ICRC or any such humanitarian organisation to conduct investigations, but it proved futile.

‘We made every endeavour to make it, but had to abandon the move due to various obstacles’, SP Lekamge said.

The response by relatives of the victims to identify the 44 items, mostly personal effects salvaged by fishermen and handed over to Mannar police, was poor. The post master of Wankalai identified an air ticket as that issued to his daughter who boarded the flight to Colombo that fateful day.

‘The security situation could have prevented the next-of-kin from undertaking the journey’, Lekamge pointed out.

Police have now made arrangments to display these items at the Bambalapitiya police station for three days beginning June 25 to ensure easy access to these distraught relatives.

Mannar’s Government Agent S. M. Crusz said the situation remained unchanged as there was no fresh information on the Lionair episode.

Lionair remains grounded following last September’s mysterious disappearance of the AN-24.

All indications are that the civil aviation authorities are in no hurry to give fresh clearance to this airline to resume operations until the on-going investigation is completed. However, the probe has been hampered to a great extent as there is no access to the suspected site of the crash which could have been visited and the wreckage examined.

Lionair has also come under fire from the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) which claims that the flight in question failed to take the route determined by it. Lionair was not supposed to fly over Mannar which is dotted with several islands from which a missile can be fired, SLAF asserted.

Expressing optimism that the government will give the green light for the resumption of flights, Lionair’s Managing Director Asoka Perera said the airline had done everything possible to help relatives of the victims.

In terms of the law, after the lapse of one year from the day the aircraft went missing, insurance claims amounting to US $5000 per passenger will be paid to their next-of-kin, he assured.

Perera appreciated the role played by the government and the Air Force to have the required safety measures in place to ensure the security of the passengers. At the time the plane disappeared, there were no X’ray machines at the Ratmalana airport for screening. They have now being installed at Ratmalana and Palaly as well, he said.

‘There are air accidents the world over. It’s now left to us to find out how and why it happened and ensure there is no repitition. Safety measures are of vital importance in this context’, the Managing Director underscored.

There was no direct threat to Lionair from any quarter. In any case, we didn’t transport operational materials to the North. We carried perishable cargo. Security personnel we did transport, but as I said, we never had on board any military hardware and there was no direct threat aimed at us, Perera said.

Asked whether the AN-24 had diverted as claimed by the SLAF, he maintained that there was no specific flight path determined by the Air Force.

Knowledgeable sources said that the report submitted by the Russian aviation experts had indicated that a blast caused by an explosive device planted in the cargo compartment had led to the crash. The aircraft had been flying at an altitude of 14,000 feet, 14 minutes after take-off, which is beyond the range of a Surface to Air Missile (SAM) and if a heat-seeking missile had been used, the engines would have caught fire instead of the pilot reporting a drop in cabin pressure and seeking permission to descend, the sources said.

The ‘Sunday Island’ learns that the civil aviation authorities have also submitted an interim report, but it has still not been made public.

Bishop of Mannar Reyappu Joseph said that he visited the point closest to the scene of the crash at Iranativu islamd and personally met eye witnesses who described how the plane exploded into a ball of fire and plunged into the sea.

‘They were common people of that area and I can say that they were reliable witnesses. They had first heard a blast and seen the blazing aircraft with its wings broken, diving into the ocean’, Bishop Joseph said.

On the third day, two bodies, one wearing a pair of blue shorts and an overcoat, presumably that of a member of the Russian crew, found floating had been buried by these villagers, he said.

Asked whether he was told of any survivors, the Bishop replied ‘everybody on board had perished’.

For those family members, relatives and friends grieving the loss of their near and dear ones, there seems to be no solace in sight. In a paradoxical twist of fate, all their hopes and expectations have suddenly crashed.

The drone of that aircraft cruising overhead rip out a wave of pain and anguish that they have inherited.

Life in the midst of death has plunged them into an ocean of tears.........

International trade in ancient Sri Lanka

Prof. W. I. Siriweera
Vice Chancellor
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

In ancient Sri Lanka, there was organized internal trade for the distribution of imported luxury commodities among the gentry, and for the collection of commercial articles for export, as well as for the circulation of coastal products such as salt; localized products such as pepper, ginger, arecanut, coconut and handicrafts. Therefore merchants denoted by the term vanija or vanica occupied an important position in society from pre-Christian times and figure among the donors in early Brahmi inscriptions found in the Ampara and Hambantota Districts. Some of the merchants were of the Tamil community as indicated by the term demeda vanija in two inscriptions found at Periyapuliyankulama in the Vavuniya District. There are also early Brahmi inscriptions in the Anuradhapura and Monaragala Districts mentioning corporations or guilds of merchants by the term puga or pugiya.

The wide dispersal of these inscriptions indicates that even in the pre-Christian era, trade was not limited to centres of political authority which were the prime urban settlements. A later Brahmi inscription from Sigirya refers to a dealer in tamarind (abala vabara) which indicates that some traders specialized in certain commodities from the early centuries of the Christian era. The setthi frequently referred to in the chronicles and the literature was a person who had acquired wealth and social position by means of trade. By the time of the Polonnaruwa kingdom, trade had become so important that the head of the mercantile corporations or chief of the setthis or situna was a member of the King’s Council.

One of the three officers who organized a revolt against Vijayabahu I (1070-1110) was Setthinatha and this too indicates the importance of mercantile communities and their leadership capabilities. The prominence gained by the Alagakkonaras, hailing from a rich trading family, during the reigns of the Gampola kings is clear testimony for the existence of opportunities for upward social mobility through trade and commerce. Joti Sitana who was the chief administrative officer in the Kandyan region during the reign of Parakramabahu VI (1412 -1407) of Kotte had also attained his position by means of wealth accumulated through trade.

The Capitals

The capital cities, because of their concentration of a large population, were focal points of trade. Courtiers, their families and retinue, dignitaries of military establishments, mercenaries and other categories of foreigners lived within the city walls or in the immediate periphery of the city and most of their needs had to be catered for by traders. The capital cities, in addition to being administrative centres, were also centres of ritual and pilgrimage and therefore they frequently attracted outsiders, which in turn enhanced their trade potential. Besides, the needs of large monastic establishments in the city had to be catered for by their patrons headed by the king.

The form and functions of the capital city required specific areas to be set apart for trade stalls and traders. The Dipavamsa refers to an inner market place at Upatissagama, one of the earliest capitals of the island. The Mahavamsa in its story of Pandukabhaya refers to a separate quarter near the western gate of the city for Yavanas, probably traders of Mediterranean or Persian origin.

The Samantapasadika refers to food centres within the city where one could purchase meals including cooked meat and sweets. In Polonnaruwa, certain streets were set apart for the bazaar where there were open shops full of commodities and some of these have been unearthed during recent excavations. Kurunegala had velenda vidi or merchant streets and as sandesa poems indicate there were many shops at Kotte full of various commodities on either side of its streets. In considering the spatial lay-out of the capital cities, it can be assumed that the venues of trade in most cases were located in the periphery of the inner city or in the outer city.

Port Cities

While trade was one of the functions of the capital cities, it was the prime function of the port cities. As centres of import and export, the port cities were also collection and distribution centres. Certain export commodities such as gems, pearls, spices and even animals like elephants had to be collected from the interior and transported to the port cities. Some of the items of export were manufactured in port cities such as Mahatittha or transported from areas of manufacture in the interior. After about the twelfth century, the coir industry was a flourishing craft in the vicinity of most port cities of the Western and Southern coast, and even ships from Oman and Yemen came to Sri Lanka to obtain rope as well as trunks of coconut trees for masts and timber for planking for their shipping industry. Imported luxury commodities such as ceramic ware, silks, perfumes and wines had to be channelled to the local market and all these necessitated an intricate trade organization.

Most of the port cities were closely guarded by troops and protected by walls and gates. Their population was composite and included permanently settled groups of traders who supplied the necessities of the local residents, the people of satellite settlements around them, of religious establishments and of foreign merchants. These traders also provided the requirements of petty traders who resold the items they had collected at the port, in interior villages. At Mahatittha a guild of merchants provided banking facilities and accepted deposits of money which generated interests.

Imported luxury commodities such as silks, ceramic ware, perfumes and wines were conveyed from port towns to capitals and market towns in ox-wagons or on pack animals and commodities for export were also transported in the same manner to the port towns. A number of roads connecting the capitals and market towns with port towns facilitated this movement of trade commodities.

Market Towns

Besides capitals and port cities, there were market towns in areas of dense population, information on some of which are available in epigraphic records. As Labuatabandigala and Tonigala inscriptions indicate there were at least two mercantile settlements: Kalahumanaka and Mahatabaka, outside Anuradhapura in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. As at the Mahatitta port, the mercantile ‘guilds’ in these settlements provided ‘banking’ facilities where customers could deposit money or grain such as paddy, black peas and green gram and obtain an annual interest on their deposits. The acceptance of grain deposits by guilds clearly indicates that there was a well organized grain trade, at least in the city and its surrounding areas. It is reasonable to assume that the guilds in these localities had facilities for storage of substantial quantities of grain. It may also be reasonably assumed that these guilds had a tradition of maintaining records and that they did not function in isolation but acted in association with several other mercantile establishments in the area.

There were many small market towns denoted by the term nigama or niyangama throughout the country. Nigama like the city inter alia, had stalls for the sale of prepared food which means that they were frequented by people from outside, presumably by villagers from the hinterland, traders and artisans who congregated in order to exchange commodities.

The emergence of these commercial centres with the expansion of the population resulted in social mobility. One of these centres, namely Hopitigama referred to in the

Badulla Pillar inscription of Udaya IV (946-954) is typical of a well regulated market town of early medieval Sri Lanka. According to the regulations stipulated in the inscription, a trader who kept his shop open on poya days was liable to pay a quantity of oil for burning the lamps at Mahiyangana monastery. If he failed to do so, a fine was to be imposed and used for the same purpose. This would mean that although it was normal to close all shops on poya days, there were exceptions made with certain stipulations. Tolls were levied on goods brought in for sale at Hopitigama market and shop owners or buyers there, were not expected to purchase these goods before they reached the market. The regulation was obviously intended to prevent the loss of revenue to the king. Hopitigama was located on an important trade route at a place where several roads converged. The inscription specifically states that goods which were merely transported through the market were not taxable. In the market itself there were authorized places for the sale of commodities liable to tolls and if these were not shown to the officers but detected subsequently double tolls were to be levied.

Padaviva and Vahalkada

Of the many other market towns, specific information is available on two; Padaviya and Vahalkada in the eastern belt of the north-central plain. These had become important centres of trade at least by the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Padaviya contained a mixed population of Sinhalese and Tamils. The town had as it, nucleus a walled enclosure of about eight acres in extent. Tamil inscriptions referring to South Indian mercantile communities such as Cettis, Nanadesis and Ainnuruvar found at Padaviya indicate that these mercantile communities played a prominent role in trade at the town of Padaviya.

Vahalkada close to Horowpatana was a mercantile town of modest proportions which had grown over a long period. The South Indian mercantile communities had gained prominence in the town in the eleventh and twelfth centuries as Tamil inscriptions found in situ refer to Nandesi and Valanjiyar mercantile communities. One of the inscriptions refers to a gathering of many component groups of the town which included "the chief of the guild of the boatmen at Mantai". These market towns such as Hopitigama, Padaviya and Vahalkada served as points of intersection between two different levels of commercial activity; long distance trade and regional trade.

In all the key centres of trade, viz. capital cities, port towns and market towns tolls were levied either directly by officers appointed by the king or by mercantile communities themselves who were assigned that task in return for a lump sum or regular payment to the king. The nature of these tolls had been determined by custom and usage (pera sirit). Dues levied at the Godapavata port in the second century A.D. were donated to a nearby monastery by the king implying that either the monastery itself had to appoint collectors of tolls or that the king’s officers collected the dues and handed them over to the monastery. At Mahatittha, royal officials titled Mahaputuladdan were responsible for the collection of tolls in the ninth century, while at Hopitigama the responsibility devolved on an officer titled padi lad dada nayaka in the tenth century. The inscription on the stone canoe within the citadel of Anuradhapura indicates that tolls were levied on goods brought into the city e.g. one pata of paddy was charged on each sack of paddy brought in. According to the Dondra inscription of Parakramabahu II (1236-1270) customs duties at the port of Devinuwara were charged by an officer titled Mahapandita.

The Village and Self-sufficiency

As far as villages are concerned, trade was limited but it was certainly not negligible and this raises the important point of the self-sufficiency of the ancient village. The ideas of some of the early British administrator scholars on Asia inspired Marx’s views on the ‘Asiatic mode of production" characterized by the self-sufficient village economy. The patriotic or nationalist bias of Asian writers too has resulted in an exaggeration of the self-sufficiency of the Asian village out of proportion. But it is important to note that some of the essential commodities such as salt, metal and metal implements were not produced in all Asian villages. In Sri Lanka, frequently metals and metal products had to be brought into many of the villages from the few producing and manufacturing areas and salt had to be transported to the interior from the coastal centres. Some of the other needs of the village community which could not be procured locally, too had to be supplied by outsiders which necessitated money exchange or barter. Medieval literature refers to villagers paying currency (kahavanu) to purchase ghee, venison, fish and lime. The pedlar or hawker who constantly moved about between the regions played an important role in supplying light weight commodities such as clothes, rings, necklaces and bracelets to the villagers. At least in some villages, there were also permanent trading places.

In conclusion, it can be stated that in the ancient civilization of Sri Lanka, although primary economic activity was agriculture, facilitated by an intricate irrigation system, organized trading activity both internal and foreign, played an important role. A study of the economy also refutes the view that the ancient Sri Lankans were averse to trade, postulated by European writers such as Emerson Tennent, who set the pattern for the study of Sri Lankan history in the nineteenth century.

A journey with Ayurveda in Sri Lanka, India and Australia

I could probably never escape an interest in medicine. My mother, Yvonne, was in her early thirties and a resident House Officer at the Castle Street Maternity Hospital, Colombo, when I was born in 1953, her second child. She had been practicing medicine since 1946 and had, already, successfully combined a career and motherhood with a little help from the extended family.

My father, Irving, always irreverent and with a tendency to be controversial, swore by the efficacious properties of inguru kothamalli, garlic and a "finger" of brandy. Prone to sinusitis, he would disregard my mother’s allopathic advances and seek out the pungent oils of the local vedarala, an impassive Buddhist monk well known for his Ayurvedic pills and potions. There were oils for massaging into his curly hair and drops for his nasal passages, little black pills which smelled vaguely of cowdung and a variety of herbs. His white pillowcases always bore the mark of his head in Ayurvedic oils and, no matter how hard the dhobi washed the bed linen, the brown stain and its particular smell could never be erased. To this day, the sight of stained white pillowcases conjures up for me the smells of my father’s hair oils.

My maternal grandmother and grandaunt, both ‘excellent cooks who lived under our roof, had medical theories of their own and a recipe for every illness. Being ill was always a culinary adventure in our house. As a child I looked forward to the meals, served separately from the rest of the family (thus bestowing a certain importance and dignity upon The Sick One), of soft overboiled rice, thambun hodi and roasted coconut sambols, or agar-agar jellies after a bout of tonsillitis. There were plantains to "bind the bowels" and aloe vera juice for constipation, cloves for toothache and king coconut water for dehydration during fevers. The medical remedies from the kitchen and garden seemed endless.

I was a robust-looking but chronically asthmatic child with a love for the very foods (curried crabs, pineapple and buffalo curd, to name but a few) which caused me to wheeze melodiously and my little chest to heave for air. While my mother prescribed Tedral 250 mg and taught me to overcome my child’s fear of painful penicillin injections, my father would spirit me off to the Vedarala who would take my pulse and, with no call for the usual pathology tests with which I was so familiar, prescribe leaves to induce vomiting, bitter herbs and coconut water which had been left exposed to the Poya full moon.

I was to be bathed - "aah-de-goo-doose" style with buckets of cold water - first thing in the morning and must drink the moon-cured coconut water. Then the dreaded "vamana" would take place, the chewing of the bitter leaves, the very smell of their juices causing me to retch violently into the strategically-placed enamel basin. The whole family would stand around me, watching this performance, their faces expressing their sympathy for me ("Damn sin, child. What you have to go through!") or, if they belonged to the Ayurvedic Non-Believers’ side of the family, a certain barely-suppressed cynicism ("What is Irving making this child go through for nothing!").

As for me, the heaving over, I would sit there, literally wrung out, my hair still wet from the aah-de-goo-doosing bath, the contents of my stomach in the enamel basin before me, and I would experience a lightness of being and an ease of breathing which none of the apothecary’s drugs that Mum brought home could give me.

More than thirty years later, in the South Australian capital of Adelaide which had become my home, I was to experience again this Ayurvedic purification, this asthma-relieving purgation, whilst actually studying the ancient Indian "Science of Life". I had heard through a friend that a course was being offered, that doctors in this field were being brought from India to teach it, that a preliminary meeting was being held at the home of Athena the Greek to guage public interest in the subject which was, in 1985, almost completely unknown in Australia.

Curious. I went along to the meeting. It was to be a two year course, divided into four terms of intensive study. A Certificate of Proficiency in Ayurveda would be given to those students who successfully passed the examinations and there was talk of a trip to India. This last bit of information clinched it for me. I had visited India twice and had a long-standing love affair with the country, its people and its culture. I enthusiastically enrolled in the course, along with some twenty others.

The course, and the Australian School of Ayurveda of which I became a student, proved to be an Australian first. Athena the Greek, as I affectionately thought of her, opened her house to the fledgling school and its first batch of students. Six days a week during term time, from seven to ten at night, for two years, we crowded into her living room and wrestled with concepts totally foreign to us and with Sanskrit names which were long and challenging to the mostly monolingual students. We studied the medicinal properties of a large variety of plants, herbs, spices and minerals. We were taught the uses of yoga in the maintenance of health and in the treatment of disease. We learnt to prepare tonics and medicines from ingredients found in our own kitchens. We felt like pioneers.

In early 1988, we travelled to India, to the city of Poona in the state of Maharashtra, to receive our certificates and do some practical work in an Ayurvedic hospital. We were unprepared for the welcome we received as the first Australian students of Ayurveda to visit Poona. Interviews were sought by the Press and we were presented with bouquets of roses at every turn. The Indian students and lecturers from the Institute of Indian Medicine and the University of Poona expressed their surprise at our level ‘of knowledge of their ancient science and politely suppressed smiles at our pronunciation of Sanskrit terms. We attended dozens of lectures and even more functions. Indians love Functions. Formal Functions. With dignitaries, VlP’s, garlands and speeches. It was an opportunity for us students to lash out and buy fabulous silk and embroidered sarees and shalwar kameez, to wear lots of jewellery and flowers in our hair.

Somehow, we found time to do some sightseeing. We hired a couple of small buses and two drivers with a taste for the soundtracks of Hindi movies and a total contempt for the rights of pedestrians. Horns blaring, we sped through the chaos of towns and villages and over dusty Indian plains to stand in awe at the majestic remains of Ajanta’s temple caves and the stone carvings of Ellora. India seduced us and we fell hopelessly in love.

We made friends with the families of our teachers, some of these people becoming, over the last ten years, an important part of our extended family. Those of us with an interest in philosophy and literature have found a lifelong study in the treasures India has to offer in these fields. Some of the students, on returning to Australia, went on to a further two years of study in Ayurvedic medicine and have made careers out of it for themselves.

For the majority of us, Ayurveda has become an integral part of our lives, a way of life based on the knowledge of our individual constitutions and what can cause balance and imbalance of body and mind. My father’s standard explanation for my mother’s rapidly spreading urticaria after a Sunday lunch of devilled prawns - "What’s to be done? Such is the nature of her constitution!" - is now perfectly explicable to me from an Ayurvedic viewpoint.

For me, it is as though I have come full circle. The Vedarala’s pills and potions of my Sri Lankan childhood now share a shelf with my mother’s western medicines and our antipodean home is often fragrant with the brewing of coriander and ginger tea or the penetrating oils massaged into stiff arthritic limbs. Many of our Australian friends are now as familiar with triphala guggulu and sitopaladi tablets as they are with aspirin and Mylanta. Just as in India and Sri Lanka, where the two schools of medicine co-exist quite happily, my friends are discovering a supplementary treatment to their GP’s and are beginning to appreciate the benefits of these non-toxic Ayurvedic remedies. In the summer of my twentieth year in Australia, it delights me that these friends can sing, to the tune of "John Brown’s body", the silly ditty of my mother’s medical college days which epitomizes this East-West relationship:

"Arulu bulu nelli saha inguru kothamalli,
And what is the action of the tincture opii? Join us,
join us, all ye medicos!
And what is the action of the tincture opii?"

As I sit here writing on this warm December evening, the rhythmic noise of the ceiling fan almost drowned by the shrieking of a thousand galahs putting themselves to bed in the park opposite, I contemplate my parents’ legacy to me of tolerance and open-mindedness towards both western and eastern medical science, and my country’s gift to me of the opportunity to experience both worlds at an early age. These experiences have enriched my life beyond measure, but who would have thought that it would be in the land of my adoption, in this vast desert continent of Australia, that the western and eastern strands of my life would be woven into such a rich tapestry of experience and knowledge!

By Yvonne , Louise Herft
Adelaide, South Australia
Excerpted from ‘ A Celebration Of Diversity’

Biodiversity, buckyballs and biotechnology

by Charles Santiapillai & Jayantha Jayewardene
Biodiversity & Elephant Conservation Trust

The British geneticist and mathematician, J. B. S. Haldane who was not exactly an apostle of religion, when asked about his view of the Creator, replied that God must have had an "inordinate fondness for beetles". He could not have been more succinct in his observation. Today, field studies in the tropical rainforests have confirmed Haldane’s snide remark. Of the 1,750,000 species that scientists have already classified, insects number 750,000, roughly half of them being beetles. The entomologist from the Smithsonian Institution, Terry L. Erwin collected 650,000 beetles from just one tree alone in Peru. This underlines the spectacular biodiversity that goes unnoticed by both scientists and laymen in the world. In Sri Lanka, for a long time, it was thought that there were only some 54 species of amphibians of which 17 were tree frogs. Not much to croak about. Early herpetologists had been concentrating on the usual habitats such as ponds, lakes, and bogs looking down for amphibians. But recently Rohan Pethiyagoda, and his team were able to come across a carnival of tree frogs - estimated to number about 200 species! Fortunately they looked up and spotted the tree frogs or Rhacophorids, which live on trees, and not on the ground. We need such ‘lateral’ thinking if we are to break away from the mental boundaries imposed by established ways of looking at our world. The findings also underline just how much could be achieved with modest funds, if one has the all important equipment - brain. For academic mills that need to grind ceaselessly, there is no dearth of research grist - just look around.

Amphibians are among the most amazing species in the world, whose importance to man is only now being seriously appreciated. All frogs and toads secrete defensive fluids, which have antibiotic properties. According to Joel L. Swerdlow, Chinese native physicians used to treat wounds with toad secretions, which they obtained in an ingenious way: by surrounding the toad with mirrors, so that the poor fellow becomes so frightened that he would literally "piss in his pants". The trick works and the toad secretes the antibiotic fluid. The African clawed frogs have remarkable powers of survival in murky, bacteria-infested waters, even after surgery. Michael Zasloff of the National Institute of Health in USA, traced their survival to the ability of the skin to secrete a previously unknown family of antibiotics, that he named ‘magainins’, which prevented infection.

As someone aptly pointed out, Buckyballs, so named for a by-product on carbon molecules, C60 in space after the American architect, R. Buckminster Fuller, who designed the geodesic dome with the same fundamental symmetry, which became a science on its own in 1991, and Biodiversity have become the two great buzz words of our time. Biodiversity is not just simply a measure of the number of species.

The genetic diversity within a species is much more important than just numbers. Each species is a repository of an enormous amount of genetic information accumulated through aeons of evolutionary time. The number of genes varies from 1,000 in bacteria to over 400,000 in some animals. The full complement of genes or genome occurs in the strands of DNA, each containing a billion nucleotide pairs. Man and chimpanzee appear to have in common about 98.5% of their DNA - a circumstance that led the physiologist, Jared Diamond to call us the "3rd Chimpanzee"! It is only in recent times, that we have begun to understand our close relationships. Even the mm-long, soil-living nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans which became the first animal to have its DNA completely entangled, is now known to share about 70% of its 20,000 genes with man. No wonder, the President of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), Bruce Alberts recently commented that "In the last 10 years, we have come to realize humans are more like worms than we ever imagined".

Less than a third of the Earth’s surface is land, and so paradoxically, as Arthur C. Clarke once remarked, "How inappropriate to call this Planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean!" Nevertheless, much of the biodiversity occurs in the rainforests, which cover only 7% of the Planet Earth’s land surface. Although the west may regard the rainforest as a global resource, it is essentially a resource of the tropics. If prudently utilized, there is enough to satisfy everyone’s basic need but not for a few people’s unwarranted greed.

These forests are being destroyed at a rapid rate, leading to the loss of an amazing number of species, even before they are known to science. In Sri Lanka, we have destroyed much our tropical rainforest, which formed the natural moist vegetation type of the island’s south-western part. Today the Sinharaja Reserve and the adjoining forests are the only remnant of this once extensive lowland rainforest - one of the biologically richest and most diverse regions in Asia. Through our ignorance, we have destroyed much of the biologically rich tropical rainforests, which took millions of years to grow. Once destroyed, it is unlikely that these forests can ever be restored. The destruction of tropical rainforests is comparable to the burning of libraries: the loss is incalculable and irremediable.

Some animals are more important than others owing to their role in the ecosystems. The Asian elephant is often referred to as a "keystone" species as it plays a key role in the structuring of natural communities and thereby enhances and maintains the biodiversity of an area. Hence its disappearance would affect countless other species that live in the same habitat as it does. There are other less charismatic, but equally important "keystone" species.

The durian depends heavily on a bat that lives in limestone caves. The mining of such limestone caves could decimate the population of bats needed for the pollination of durian flowers. In the Cape province of South Africa lives the Cape’s Long-tongued fly Moegistorhynchus longirostris, which pollinates a number of orchids (To quote Susan Orlean, "the name orchid comes from the Latin "orchis" which means "testicle" and refers to the fact that it was long believed that orchids sprang from spilled semen of mating animals"!) is attracted by the nectar found in the flowers. Even among plants there is no "free dinner". The nectar is the bait, used by the orchid to pollinate its flowers. The fly is able to tap the nectar which is found deep in a cavity of the flower, using its 2-3 inch long proboscis. Each species of orchid visited by the fly deposits the pollen on different parts of the fly’s body, so that these different species of orchid could be pollinated by the same fly as it visits the different flowers. The Cape’s Long-tongued fly is another example of a "keystone" species, since its disappearance would be the end of these orchid species as well.

The expression, "Dead as the Dodo" refers to another "keystone" species, the flightless bird Raphus cucullatus, that became extinct at the hands of man in Mauritius in the 18th century, when white man set foot on this island. The disappearance of the Dodo had repercussions on the survival of a tree species in Mauritius. The monoecious tree Ca/varia major was once a very conspicuous member of the flora of the island. Today it is very rare - only about a dozen survive, and all of them being more than 300 years old. The interesting observation is that although the trees are producing seeds with religious regularity each year, no young trees can be found anywhere. Scientists have taken the seeds and tried to germinate them in green houses, but to no avail. The seeds simply refuse to germinate. The mystery was unravelled by Stanley Temple who observed that the seeds had a thick outer coat or endocarp. Unless this thick coat is battered, the seeds within cannot germinate. So battering is necessary for development. Within the Dodo’s gizzard were stones, which crushed the seeds before they were voided. The crushing force of a 12 kg Dodo has been estimated to be about 10,000 kg per square metre. It is now known that the seeds when passed through turkeys germinate. Unfortunately, there are no turkeys in Mauritius. The turkey is the US symbol of Thanksgiving, and is best remembered, like pigs and poets, only after it is dead. Species extinction in the wild has been going on since life arose on this planet, billions of years ago.

Most of the species that ever existed on this planet have already disappeared. But today, the rate of extinction has greatly been increased by man’s activities. The loss of any species is a tragedy to man in the end. Man induced extinction of any species, as Bryan Norton, Professor Philosophy at University of South Florida points out, is a guessing game like the Russian roulette. "Each species lost without serious consequences has been a blank in the chamber". But one day, someone will pull the trigger on a "keystone" species. That would be a catastrophe indeed.

A new danger to biodiversity may come from man’s desire to play God. Genetically engineered crops are already providing US farmers with rich dividends. But there is an ecological price tag attached to this technology. As Rick Weiss points out in The Guardian Weekly, almost 25% of corn grown in the US is now modified genetically to resist pests, and these corn contain a bacterial gene called Bt, which produces a chemical that is fatal to corn-boring caterpillars. But pollen from these corn plants can be blown to other areas were milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) plants, which are the staple for the caterpillars of the Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) occur. Laboratory studies have already shown that the genetically modified pollen killed nearly half the caterpillars before they metamorphosed into the brilliant orange, black and white butterflies.

It took billions of years of evolution for the planet earth to evolve this fine but fragile balance between plants and animals. While some life forms such as horse-shoe crabs, coelacanth fish, tuatara lizard, turtles, tortoises, and crocodiles to name a few, have managed to persist as "living fossils" in their original state, many others have perished. Today, man as a species is responsible for the rapid disappearance of thousands of species, with which he had been a part in the web of life. We need to understand the consequences of our current life styles, if we are to protect our biological heritage. In Sri Lanka, given its small size and dense human population, the human footprint is felt everywhere.

The key to maintaining biodiversity, is prudent management of human intervention in ecosystems. Most people in Sri Lanka depend heavily on local natural resources such as fuel-wood and fodder. In the final analysis, it is the failure of the people living along the periphery of conservation areas to realize some tangible benefits to offset the damage they suffer from wildlife that will pose the greatest threat to biodiversity.

The rise and fall of the Arjuna Reich

by Krishantha Wijebandara
The National Television Rupavahini has found a new scapegoat for the ills of the country. The panacea seems to be removal of Arjuna Ranatunga from the captaincy. Before Arjuna Ranatunga left the country to lead the Sri Lanka cricket team to retain the World Cup he was supposed to have said some home truths about the President of the country. These homilies were given pride of place in the ‘Silumina’. The attack of Arjuna Ranatunga began just after the elections to the Cricket Board. Arjuna Ranatunga seems to believe that he has brought a greater degree of happiness to the Sri Lankan people than the Government of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. He therefore refused to acknowledge the presence of the President when she suddenly appeared at the Premadasa International Cricket Stadium when the Singer Akai cricket match was in progress. The controversy ended with the TNL not having the rights to televise any cricket match thereafter.

When the President decided to bestow National Honours on Day Whatmore it was Arjuna Ranatunga who revolted. It was believed in the highest political echelons that Arjuna Ranatunga’s cricket team played a major role in defusing the national anguish of the people who had been let down by the broken promises of the PA regime. The people watched cricket and soothed their nerves when they saw their heroes winning match after match. They never wanted to question why Arjuna Ranatunga was putting on weight. They never questioned why Aravinda de Silva was the slowest runner in the team. It was a little jocular to see Aravinda chasing the ball to the boundary. The ball beat Aravinda by leaps and bounds.

It was the very same people who have now taken cudgels against the cricketers and are firing salvo after salvo, who protested, paraded and behaved in an unruly manner when for the first time the Ministry of Sports appointed a Board of doctors to determine the physical fitness and health of our cricketers. When they found that Aravinda was gasping for breath in the gymnasium and a number of other heroes were equally unfit recommended that their physical fitness be improved. This was a period in which our team was getting thrashed by every side as our cricketing prowess was far below that of the present Kenyan and the Bangladesh teams. At once everyone specially in the Sinhala media misread that situation and painted a picture and told the public of various machinations of the Government due to the political leanings of the Ranatunga family. This was a conspiracy by the UNP Government to deprive Arjuna Ranatunga’s place in the Sri Lanka team they shouted. People believed it. They were told that physical fitness was a sham excuse given by the cricketing hierarchy to eliminate Arjuna Ranatunga. The truth of the matter was that it was Aravinda de Silva who was declared physically unfit. Arjuna showed his comradeship by refusing to participate at the Sarjah tournament. When Arjuna refused to go, Muralidaran and Pramodaya Wickramasinghe joined hands. Roshan Mahanama had to lead the team with Asanka Gurusinghe as his deputy. Asanka Gurusinghe scored a slow but magnificent century at Sarjah. It was the first time we almost beat New Zealand in a tournament held abroad.

The political pressure that was unleashed against the incumbent UNP Government and the Sports Ministry was so great that renegade Arjuna Ranatunga became victorious at the end. Though Asanka Gurusinghe scored a century for Sri Lanka his house was stoned by a mob. The majority of Sri Lankan fans and the independent media supported Arjuna Ranatunga and his clan to the hilt. Anyone who was sensible enough to question the importance of physical fitness of cricketers was damned and doomed. The totalitarian attitude of Arjuna paved the way for what he is today. Those who crossed his path had to leave the cricketing arena for good. He was so powerful though the Government in power was not the SLFP or the PA.

Before the advent of Arjuna Ranatunga, the snobbish hierarchy that controlled cricket were pukka sahibs from a few schools in Colombo. They were mainly from either Royal or St. Thomas’. On any given day an All Ceylon cricket team was made of about 80% of the players from Royal and St Thomas’. They had such a stranglehold on cricket that it was considered that the school tie was more important than one’s ability to gain a place in the All Ceylon cricket team. The two schools produced a coterie of self centered arrogant men who ridiculed and denigrated anyone who hailed from Ananda or Nalanda. They coined ribald jokes about Ananda school boys not being able to pronounce their college colours maroon and gold. Gradually Ananda and Nalanda were producing excellent cricketers. Their standards were far above Royal and St. Thomas’ and the men who held sway in the cricketing hierarchy grew old and lost their touch.

Bandula Warnapura, Sarath Silva, Ajith Silva, T.B. Kehelgamuwa and others started knocking on the door, together with Duleep Mendis, Mewan Pieris and later Ranjan Madugalle from Royal and St. Thomas’. Gradually the Ananda and Nalanda cricketers took control of Sri Lankan cricket and to-day what has happened is a complete reversal of what happened a few years ago. Instead of the Royalists and Thomians it was Ananda and Nalanda who had taken complete control over the cricketing hierarchy. Instead of accepting the trials and tribulations these cricketers underwent when it was under Royal and St. Thomas’; and rejecting such mediocre selfish standardization the new generation of cricketers and the men who control their affairs again formed themselves into a band wagon. This was even worse than the earlier coterie of individuals propagating the cause of Royal-Thomian cricketers and relegating others to oblivion. This coterie of men took virtual revenge from Royal and St. Thomas’. The rationale behind Royal and St. Thomas’ and even the other Colombo Christian Colleges not producing a single cricketer to be in the National team was not that these cricketers were unsuitable to play for their country, but their talents were suppressed and not recognized by the elitist background. The selection on merit took a nose dive and would never be a criteria for selections in the future.

The tour of New Zealand was a disaster. The management was making allegations against the team. The team was making allegations against the management. Mr. Stanley Jayasinghe, a respected cricketer wrote a report criticizing the captaincy and the attitude of the team. There was an inquiry on the report. Instead of reprimanding the cricketers, Stanley Jayasinghe was removed from his appointment as the manager of the national team. Arjuna lamented that Stanley Jayasinghe was pompous and did not mingle with players. Arjuna did not want a Manager but wanted an ‘Aiya’ to look after the mallis in the team. Bandula Warnapura was disliked and removed as he insisted that the players should address him ‘Sir’. The Board of Control gave way to the dictates of Arjuna Ranatunga. There was a large Sinhala speaking cricketing generation who read the Sinhala media and saw the Board doing everything possible to remove Arjuna for petty reasons other than cricket. The fact that his father is an ardent supporter of the SLFP helped his cause. The truth was that no Board of Control could discipline Arjuna and correct him. He was indeed a spoilt child.

When the reports casting innuendoes and aspersions on the cricket team became a regular feature, the Board thought of appointing a retired District Judge to inquire into these allegations. Mr Wimal Wickramasuriya was the District Judge Colombo and also had played cricket. He had opened bowling for Royal College. Media blitz discussed the appointment of this respected District Judge to inquire into matters concerning cricketers and the Cricket Board. Like other ventures of the Cricket Board the Board of Inquiry started with a bang and ended with a whimper. The recommendations of the Committee were swept under the carpet. Arjuna and his friend Aravinda and his supporters in the cricketing field and the Board won all the rounds. Cricketers who refused to toe the line of the new oligarchy comprising Arjuna and Aravinda and others were thrown to the wolves. Ruwan Kalpage, Athula Samarasekera, Wedall Labroy, and a host of others who had the potential but refused to be obsequious suffered and as a result Sri Lankan cricket suffered even more.

A real taste of dollars has yet to be tasted by these men. At that time rupees and cents were sufficient to prevent any nosy parker with extraordinary talent from entering into the realm of the Ranatunga and de Silva hierarchy.

Though Arjuna Ranatunga was reinstated as captain, we are still minnows in cricket. We had filled the numbers to help international teams to compete. In the meantime the Kerry Packer revolution had made one-day cricket a different ball game. In the sub-continent, especially in India, TV was taking a strong foothold. The Nehru Gandhi dynasty in India and the socialist economic policies were taking a beating. J.R. Jayewardene had opened the Sri Lankan economy. It was having its repercussions and reverberations in India. Millions of cricket fans in India were becoming sufficiently rich to own a TV set Doordarshan and the satellite TV companies fought for TV rights. With 750 million people, India was by sheer population the largest consumer market in Asia. Suddenly cricketers became immensely popular and wealthy and they had to play matches often to satisfy the cricketing appetite of the people.

We were invited to participate at these tournaments and always got a thrashing in keeping with our cricketing standards. But you have to have international tournaments and you ought to have at least three playing nations and all other test playing nations world have their cricket itinerary finalized a long time before and could not fit into these ad hoc matches.

It was at one of these Hero Cup matches that one garrulous English commentator, Henrey Blofeld was poking fun at Arjuna’s tummy and his rotund figure. At the same time Upul Chandana was thin as a leaf and looked as if he could be blown away by the slightest gust of wind. Our media was so angry and wrote pages after pages in defence of Arjuna. No one had the sense or the presence of mind to ask how our captain could play cricket with such a big tummy. Instead of which they brought in examples of Colin Milburn and Colin Cowdrey and said that a bloated tummy did not prevent Milburn and Cowdrey from scoring centuries. We seem to be quite happy with the comparison and were angry with the remarks of the commentator.

The team to New Zealand under the management of T. B. Kehelgamuwa was a revelation. We have now played test cricket for a sufficient length of time and the team was virtually the same Arjuna, Aravinda and Co. had played sufficient test cricket and one day internationals and knew what it is to face international teams in the international arena. We have often got a thrashing outside our country and remarks made by Kapil Dev lingered in our memory. It brought to the fore the Sri Lankan umpiring at the first test match we won in Colombo against India. The post-match remarks of Kapil Dev hurt our national pride, and made us feel that we are a nation of cheats. The cricketers were young and gained sufficient experience to keep up to the demanding conditions that is expected of a national team facing another national team abroad. Like our Rugger team when they played abroad, the winning team virtually had cricket scores! Our cricket team on the other hand had the ignominy of being thrashed in such a pitiful manner that foreign teams made their mark by creating new world records. Even to-day in the history of cricket I believe a large number of world records whether in the test arena or one day internationals, are made against Sri Lanka. But the team underwent this gruelling, harrowing experience and got conditioned to the standards expected of a truly international cricket team. This was without the assistance of a coach with an international reputation, physiotherapist, dietician and a physiologist. When we defeated New Zealand in New Zealand, our team had taken the first step towards what we achieved in 1996. No one, even those in the pro-Ratwatta. Camp, could ever undermine the achievement of our cricketers, the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga, the batting of Aravinda, the bowling of Chaminda Vaas, and the wicket-keeping of Chamara Dunusinghe, who was recognized by New Zealand not only as a keeper but as a dour batsman technically equipped to play test matches. What happened to Chamara Dunusinghe is another story that shows how the cricketing hierarchy made mince meat of a young talented cricketer.

The national shame that has engulfed the Nation due to the most extraordinary manner we were slammed out of the World Cup was not only due to the Arjuna factor as portrayed by the Government media. Arjuna Ranatunga was a creation of the national ethos that has taken firm root in the cricketing arena. It would be highly impossible to isolate the hopelessness and the despair the people are encountering in their day to day life from that of the debacle of our national cricket team.

There was a temporary impasse to this downward trend when the Cricket Board elected after a long time a non-political person as its president. Mr. Ana Punchihewa met Mr. Dev Whatmore in Australia, who had gone through the Australian Cricket Academy and had become a qualified coach. This was the time that everything seemed to click well in the field of cricket for Sri Lanka.

After Punchihewa took over cricket administration, and Whatmore the coaching, to his amazement Whatmore found that there was amazing cricketing talent amongst our cricketers. They had their natural ability, which was a rare gift but absolutely no discipline when it came to physical fitness. The cricketers lavished on their national diet. Rice and curry, string hoppers and pittu, chicken and crab curry two to three puddings or watalappans for dessert.

(Part II next week)

People and Events
Monroe in the news

by Nan
Auctions seem to be attention grabbers, money rakers, publicity stunts and a couple of them tear jerkers - the ones that take the public down memory lane. I refer here to auctions held in the big cities of the world - New York and London. Time was when we had our famous auctions and auctioneers - but no more. Most people find bare living difficult enough so where’s the money to splurge on buying antique furniture and household amenities.

We read about the auctioning of the Duchess of Windsor’s jewellery, Jackie Kennedy Onassis selling off her household goods and some of the late President’s possessions, Princess Diana’s dresses and rich men’s art collections. Now it is Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe memorabilia that’s going under the hammer. Reading about these two future events one remembers the two famous persons. Elvis left us cold, but Marilyn definitely was someone we warmed to, loved seeing in films and magazines and avidly read about.

Dumb Blonde/Woman of Depth

Marilyn Monroe had an appeal that came across to even school girls and women. She was not a mere sex symbol. Along with her sex appeal she was interesting, and managed to get across to even the remote merely interested a glimpse of depth behind her thickly lipsticked smile and half closed eyes. She was sincere, vulnerable perhaps, and ever so attractive with a beauty imbued with personality. Thus she outsmarted and out-elbowed the other sex symbols of the time - Jane Russell, Gina Lolobrigida and Bardot.

Her marriages too were attention grabbing but no publicity stunts - far from it. She was genuinely in love, they said, with Joe DiMaggio and aspired to improve herself by marrying Arthur Miller. Joe DiMaggio is now considered to be the gentleman’s gentleman, both on the baseball field and out of it in ordinary life. She kept to the end his devotion and friendship and when she died he had roses sent to her grave daily, I believe.

Her depression, downfall and death, probably, were due to her liaison with President Kennedy and the use and abuse of her by his brother, the Attorney-General at the time. Questions still persist as to whether she committed suicide or was killed to save embarrassment to the President. Sorrow for her and anger at her untimely death still sadden and smoulder in most people - 37 years later.

One doesn’t, unless one is a fan, feel so sad about Elvis dying while still quite young. He blew himself out of all proportion eating and drinking and could not curtail his addiction to medical drugs. Marilyn was different. She was herself - used by others, and basically sad and unfulfilled though getting adulation from all sorts of people from all over the world.

Sale by Auction

Christie’s of New York a re to auction Marilyn Monroe’s personal effects on October 27 - and they’ve started advertising already. People are talking about it, and writing about it.

Monroe willed her belongings to Lee and Paula Strasberg of the Actor’s Method School who were her surrogate parents. Everything was packed as they were when she died —worn and stained with wear — in coffin shaped white boxes and buried in a New York storage depot for 37 years. They are out now, the daughter of the couple that befriended Monroe giving them over to Christies.

It sounds rather terrible to have what she wore and possessed laid out for the thousands to see, the hundreds to bid over and the few to buy. But its only dresses, shoes, boots, coats and books that are going on the block — a nightdress or two but nothing intimate and really personal. The dress she was sewn into, yes, sewn into to sing Happy Birthday Dear President at the Madison Square garden party in 1962 is billed to be the highest selling item and projected to go for more than what was paid for Princess Diana’s dress in which she danced with John Travolta in the White House. The skin tight, flesh pink dress with 6000 hand sewn beads is expected to fetch $250,000. As invariably happens bids will go higher than this and one never knows how much the final price paid will be.

You could, with that kind of money have a child of yours study for his first and higher degree in a good American university — an year of tuition and living costing, say, $ 25,000. That is the topsy turvy nature of such happenings like Christies’ and Sotheby’s sales.

It is now known that at the time of the singing of the birthday song, the President was sleeping with Monroe whenever it could be arranged, preventing him from getting his headaches as he once supposedly confided in Kruschev — not about Monroe but about getting headachy if he could not get into an illegal bed with a willing woman. Kruschev is reported to have not been amused!

The platinum wedding ring inlaid with 35 diamonds given her by DiMaggio is also to be auctioned, along with the sequined stilettos she wore in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. The full pleated dress she wore over a grill in which was placed a fan to blow it up in Some Like It Hot is not up for sale.

Myth vs Truth

Marilyn said she wore only Channel No 5 in bed. That seems to be an exaggeration tutored to be casually mentioned by her. A chaste white nightdress with an embroidered M on it is up for sale.

Her compact cases, used lipsticks, a stained handkerchief (with tears?), smudged-with-use purses are not going to be auctioned.

Marilyn’s statistics were a proportionate 34, 22,34. She looked much fuller in the first and third measurements and smaller in the waist. It is said she wanted the figures engraved on her tombstone.

Another less known fact is that she miscarried her baby by Miller. The dress she wore leaving hospital is also in the lot to be sold — a full skirted sundress.

The relics of a life so abruptly ended, and so very sadly, are to go on roving display sponsored by Flavour and Fragrances in Buenos Aires starting July 13 and then in New York, London, LA and Paris. Maybe the exhibition will convey an indication of the true Monroe that was definitely there in the public blonde who pretended to be dumb and vacuous to please men who like their women that way, and that means almost all men.

Maybe the exhibition will give a hint about the smart woman who did have much in her, denying the image that was crafted on her by her publicity agent and film studio. Her’s was a time when studios almost owned their stars and did whatever they liked to do, denying even true characters to make more money.

The books she had with her indicate an intelligent, aspiring literati. She had Hemingway, Joyce, Tolstoy and Kerouac. Maybe the tight pink dress showing its snapped stitches at the back will remind people of the "babyface blonde, whose eyes open for diamonds and close for kisses" (Herald Tribune 1953) and the vulnerable, consolation seeking, used and misused, ultimately lonely women.

Our own MM

To me there run parallels between Marilyn Monroe and Rukmani Devi. Rukmani too was used and misused by the men who controlled her life. She was just too good and kind and so they paid her little for a voice that was unique. She was totally without malice, pride or insincerity. She found herself slipping to obscurity in spite of retained voice and beauty of face and figure. That was cut-throatism in the cinema and music world. I am sure she could not understand the raw ambition of those around her, mainly the young female screen stars.

She was just having a resurgence of popularity and consequent money coming in when a stupid driver, maybe having had drinks, crashed the van she was being driven in after a solo concert.

I well remember her first female fan’s sorrow and sense of devastation. This fan had written to Daisy Daniels at the time she was singing for Radio Ceylon with her first singing teacher. The friendship continued and Rukmani and her chaperoning sister Mabel visited the home of the fan in Kandy whenever the Minerva Players staged a play in Kandy. Asked to sing she would effortlessly and sweetly oblige. Once Eddie came along displaying half a rose in his jacket buttonhole. The fan had been told in whispers by Rukmani that she had the other half in her hair. The romance between the dubbed Queen of Melody and King of Comedy was in its first flush of roses and blushes and heart racing secrecy.

At least President Premadasa had a memorial statue erected at the spot she died. What’s become of the museum he had set up? I personally do not like the statue - it is too statuesque with an emphasis on curves that borders on the vulgar. Rukmani did have a wonderfully full figure, but in the hands of a B grade sculptor it has been almost desecrated. In contrast see how marvellous the full figure is in stone relief in Isurumuniya. So even beauty of form has to be subtly shown, not overblown.

Gullible’s Travails
Batticaloa, the land of milk and honey

By Cecil V. Wikramanayake
That first Christmas in Jaffna is one I can never forget. We had practised carols in the choir and on December 24, after a service in the church, we all set out, each of us with a lighted candle, those large ones about a foot in length.

We went from house to house singing "Christians, Awake. Salute the happy morn, whereon the saviour of the world was born" and other appropriate hymns. At every home of a member of the congregation, we were called in and treated to Christmas cake and liquid refreshment.

It was almost dawn when the carolling was over and we returned to the church and then to our respective homes.

Eventually Dad’s ‘punishment’ by his boss Schokman was over and he was transferred to Batticaloa as jailor in charge. That train journey from Jaffna to Batticaloa, changing trains at Maho junction, was another highlight in my memory.

I remember watching from out the window of the train, the changing scene. From Maho to Manampitiya it was mostly jungle. Thereafter too it was jungle till we came to Valaichenai, where the road and the railway line went over the same bridge, motor traffic being held up till the train had passed.

From Valaichenai to Batticaloa, I remember, there were more coconut trees than palmyrah, for here were coconut estates like Mylambavely, run by Europeans as Superintendents with ‘natives’ in a secondary position.

At the Batticaloa railway station we all got off and took buggy cart to the resthouse at Puliyantivu, crossing the white Koddamunai bridge to get there.

As we turned left having crossed the bridge, I was struck by the fact that the first three shops on our right bore the names of Sinhalese: K. Arthur de Silva and Sons, W. W. Wickramasinghe & Co., and W. Saranelis de Silva & Co. Later I saw that more Sinhala businessmen had their names on boards, like Kuruneru’s. There was also J. M. S. Miraanda & Co., wine merchants.

The resthouse keeper showed us two rooms which had been booked by Dad for three days, till the jailor’s quarters opposite the prison were ready for our occupation.

Batticaloa, then known as the land of milk and honey, where I spent the happiest six years of my life, is no longer what it was at the time we moved into "Prison Lodge", Hospital Road, Puliyantivu.

The house itself, as I remember it, was not a very large one; four rooms in a row with a front and back verandah, the latter branching off in a "L" shape to form another verandah leading to a kitchen and a store room.

The bathroom was outside at one end of the garden and the lavatory (bucket system with a wooden commode) at the opposite end of the large garden. At this end were a large mango tree and a huge, very old Neem (Margosa) tree, which had a girth at the bottom of around five feet.

Dad found three brothers by the name of Joseph who were carpenters as well as Portuguese-speaking burghers. They contracted with him to cut down this Neem tree and make some furniture for Dad.

Working in a shed they built in the garden, they took several months on the job, only going home, in Covington Road, to sleep.

The two beds they made, three-quarter size and double bed, I still have with me. Or rather my children have taken them over.

That double bed was my first piece of furniture when I married - a gift from Mum, for Dad had long gone to his eternal rest by that time.

The brothers Joseph also made a huge, expandable dining table, which Dad later sold after he retired and we came to Colombo.

Stanley Joseph, the eldest of the brothers Joseph, became my good friend and I learned Portuguese (the local version, mixed with Sinhala, Tamil and English) from him. It served me in good stead in later years when I worked as a tour guide for a Travel firm in Colombo.

I spoke Portuguese to Italian and Spanish groups of tourists and they understood me alright. They thought, perhaps, that I was speaking their language in the Sri Lankan way. This knowledge of a foreign tongue paid me rich dividends when I worked as a Tour Guide and later as a tourist car driver.

Before he left Batticaloa on transfer six years later, Dad obtained for Stanley Joseph the post of Court Crier, first at the Eastern Assizes held in Trincomalee and Batticaloa, and later Stanley was absorbed into the permanent cadre of the Supreme Court.

I vividly recall Dad teaching Stanley to shout at the top of his voice "The Supreme Court of the Island of Ceylon doth strictly charge and command all manner of persons in this court to keep silence on pain of imprisonment." Also "All manner of persons who have anything further to do with the Supreme Court of the Island of Ceylon may depart at this time and give their attendance here tomorrow morning at ten. Long live the Queen and my lord the Queen’s Justice."

Stanley Joseph quickly learned to say it all in one breath without faltering.

In his red uniform, and with a fair skin, he cut a magnificent figure in Court and was the envy of all the men and the hero of the women. He added to this latter impression by breaking the silence of the court with an occasional shout of "Silence in Court on pain of imprisonment !"

What a hero ! He was the only one who could blast the ears of my lord the Queen’s justice and not only get away with it, but also get paid for doing so !

Next door to Prison Lodge, as Mum named our house, on the side of the bathing room, separated by a cadjan fence, was the office and storehouse of the prison contractor, the man who supplied food for the prisoners. We bought eggs from him at one and a half cents each, and a good sized pullet cost us only 25 cents live.

Crabs which were sold live at the market near the Police station, across the white bridge, were three cents each and every crab, lagoon crabs they were, was almost as large as a cheese-plate, or ‘thassim’. Prawns, quite large, were three cents a pound. Beef at the market was 14 cents a pound while wild-boar and pork were only 12 cents a pound.

Dad found a hunter who, for just two SG cartridges — they could be bought over the counter — would, a couple of days later, bring him a quarter of a wild boar. The man was a crack shot and used just one cartridge to bring down a full grown boar. He kept a quarter for himself, gave Dad a quarter and sold the rest of the animal. The other cartridge was his profit!

No time was lost in putting us to school. My elder brother had, before we left Jaffna, followed his first success at Scholarship exams at St. John’s College, with the coveted Duke of Edinburgh scholarship at S. Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia, Dad’s old school, and was a boarder at Claughton House, when we made the journey to Batticaloa.

My younger brother Ian and I were admitted to Methodist Central College, Batticaloa, while sister Rita went to St. Vincent’s Girls’ High School.

At Central, my form master was a Mr. Christian Thambimuttu, who later became a priest, known to us schoolboys as "O.T. Mr. S. V. O. Somanader, then headmaster of the school, and later Principal, took our English and was, in the main, responsible for my becoming a journalist, for not only did he provide me with a good grounding in English language and composition but he also taught me to love and appreciate nature and the world around me.

Somanader instilled this love of life in me, not merely by words but by his very life and example. I admired this tall, ramrod-straight man so much I began to imitate him in every way.

Somanader and R. R. Breckenridge of Trinity were two of the finest teachers I had the good fortune to learn from. They both "walked tall, walked straight and looked the world right in the eye" just like my Dad did. It did not make them rich in the things of this world, but I cannot think of three finer men I have known than these three.

At Central, I also came under the influence of Mr. S. Thangarasa, who later changed his name to Thambirasa. He was our scoutmaster and, having visited a scout camp at the "Bar" in Batticaloa, I asked him whether I too could be a scout. "You will have to get your father’s consent" Mr. Thangarasa told me.

Now Dad had been a scouter in his youth, and had even corresponded and met the Chief Scout, Lord Baden-Powell. He consented at once saying "It will make a man of you."

Thangarasa was overjoyed at these words and quoted Dad on every possible occasion as a testimonial to scouting.

Still vivid in my memory is the Scout Camp we had in the jungles of Polonnaruwa, for the ruins of this city as well as of Anuradhapura lay in the midst of jungle in 1936.

(Next: Schooldays in Batticaloa)

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