Aloysius Hettiarachchi

At the outset let me state that I am not a historian but a Civil and Structural Engineer with some knowledge about computer programming and IT. I have used the latter to gain advantage over others in my profession. However, the AI tools that are being sharpened almost daily in the form of Large Language Models (or Llamas) and made available via mobile phones have made it very easy for us to probe in to past. At the touch of a button these tools would scan data available to them and give info asked for as accurately as possible within a couple of seconds. In this context the Seleucid Empire has been explained on my mobile as follows:

The Seleucid Empire was a major Hellenistic state, founded by Seleucus I Nicator after the death of Alexander the Great in 312 BC. It encompassed a vast territory stretching from Aegean Sea to the Indus Valley, encompassing regions like Syria, Mesopotamia and parts of modern-day Iran and Afghanistan. The empire was characterised by its military strength, Hellenistic culture and its interactions with other Hellenistic states, particularly the Ptolemaic Empire.”

Doesn’t this explain why Ptolemy gave so much details about our country which he named as Taprobana. It must have been ‘Thambara Paany’, whatever thambara means. My thinking is that there had been a good source of clean drinking water, flowing down from the hills, supplied to mariners. This is also why we wanted to build Hambantota Port in 21^st century, though it is now becoming more of a military asset for another country, due to unpatriotic and selfish behaviour of rulers we had since it was built.

The Syrian region mentioned in the description comprised of northern Arabia (all those states like Soudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar etc.). This empire had lasted about 400 years. So, a significant amount of the populations may have had same culture before the advent of Islam. Seleucid Empire was conquered by Romans at the end, but at different times had deals with Arabs for protection against barbarians like north European tribes, called Norsemen. The Ionians who came to Sri Lanka since 900 BC were in control of trade in Crotone, Italy which was part of Anatolia.

Who was Seleucus Nicator?. His father and Alexander the Great’s father had been brothers and was a trusted general of the great man. He fought alongside Alexander up to India and when they got bogged down in a marshy area in north western Bharatha (present day Peshawar of Pakistan) without being able to defeat the regional king Porus (or Singha), Alexander headed back home leaving the region they acquired in the hands of Seleucus. In honour of the bravery of Porus, Seleucus’ second daughter Hellena was given in marriage to him. Hellena’s mother was a princess from Syria or Bactria as it was known then and in turn was also part of Persia. Ancient Sinhalese kings had lots of dealings with Persia even to the extent of having matrimonial connections at that time. I have mentioned in my previous write up that it was Hellena’s children who came to our country with their followers some of whom were from Mangalore region (according to a Sri Lankan researcher) and established colonies. How was it possible in Alexander the Great’s time for so many people to enter and establish settlements in another country without giving a fight. These people must have had earlier known connections and some leftovers had been here. This is what we find in the city of Anuradhapura. There had been an Ionian settlement around 900 BC in it. The rock inscriptions like the stargate in that place seems to suggest that a highly developed civilisation had existed there. The technology to make finest steel had been in this country more than 1500 years before Mohenjo Daro which ended in bronze age. The sword of Damascus and others with trade mark of swastika and similar ones in many parts of Europe is the clue to this claim. What I am trying to point out is not our connections to Europeans, but the possibility that some of them may have actually originated from this land. The findings in a lake in Horton plains covering an area of out 40 Sq.Km seem to suggest this possibility. The Buddhist stories indicate that there was a lake known as ‘Anothaptha wila’. There is a sketch of this area with surrounding hills depicted on the walls in the cave temple at Dambulla, Sri Lanka.

Lies that are capable of breaking rock (or ‘Gal Pelena Boru’ in Sinhalese):

In Sinhalese folklore there is saying as ‘gal pelena boru’, similar to the saying ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’. This seems to suggests that when people say lies loudly even the stones can break. Nobody has seen stones breaking due to sound, but I have seen fish as big as a cat, about 12 inch long, that had fallen to the land we lived when I was about five years old. In a place called Dimbulagala on top a hill which is very difficult to reach there is a rock inscription etched on a rock, that was discovered about two years ago. The belief is that the ancient people who lived circa 3^rd century BC split a rock by some means and recorded a certain important event that took place at that time. The name of a son of king Porus (or a grandson) by the name Mutasiva is mentioned in the inscription which is about 50ft long and 10ft high. Incidentally the tittle of the book the Sri Lankan researcher donated to me contained ‘Mutasiva’. The researcher/author of the book was the principal of a prominent secondary school in the heart of Colombo where my wife was a teacher in late 80s. I do not know whether he is living or dead, but I know I have doing justice to him because theme in his book was this ‘Mutasiva’ and Ionian connection.

Why did those ancient people select that rock in that particular place which was difficult to reach. It seems there are no any other ruins nearby except to say that the water supply to that area (perhaps to the nearby town) was done by so and so mentioned in the inscription. Perhaps before doing the actual job of writing the text, they would have calculated what length and width is required and looked for a suitable rock. And they found the one at that difficult place. It is now known that sound waves can be amplified until it is big enough to break something. This is similar to cutting metal sheets very accurately using light, as in the case of laser cutters. What happens in laser cutter is a laser beam is sent back and forth within a small cylindrical Ruby between its faces until it gains enough strength due to resonance and burst out to cut the metal. For this to happen it is important to get the size of the ruby and the frequency of light right. So, in the same way the frequency of sound wave, its strength (amplitude) that can be gained by resonance (which is determined by the size of the rock) has to be calculated. What a ‘hightech’ solution that has been forgotten?.

It has been discovered that sound waves (in addition to chemicals) in the form of music have the ability to help us in our capacity to self-clean the brain cells that gets clogged over time, thereby enhancing memory (that is to alleviate problems like Alzheimer’s disease etc.). Maybe even ‘Pirith’ chanting by pious monks must be helping us in the process to detoxify and clear the clogged cells in our brains.  Similar things must be happening in other religions too, in their localities.

Our ancients knew the effect of drumming on making clouds to deliver rain. I think the locals still practice this method, though it is debatable how effective it is today. I think some Europeans know that we have some idea about clouds and rain. When I was supervising a road project as the Resident Engineer in West Africa, one morning I was discussing with the Italian project manager whether we should go ahead with concrete work of a certain structure. We saw the sky was overcast but the shape of the clouds told me that it will not rain. Then he said, yes, you people from the east have more knowledge than us and decided to go ahead. I had similar experience with an English guy who was the project manager of another one. They were not referring to my personal experience in particular but to the knowledge of Easterners.

As usual I wind up my writing with some songs our viewers would enjoy:

It looks like that it’s not only our people who are habitual liars. Did this former nurse gave up the job because of lies and become a successful singer?:

Andrea Burg singing ‘Du hast mich tausendmal belogen…’ (you have told me thousand lies, to whom can I tell my feelings)

The next one from Fantasy duo Martin and Fredi on ‘ein weisses boot’ (a white boat)

The white colour (or waishaya warna) can hide all blemishes in a boat (like many other ugly warts in body) to give a nice appearance and blue water in the sea is inspirational. Sea water is slightly alkaline and is like a large battery storing and giving back energy in various forms. This is the reason we must not discharge acids from various industries like chip making and make it acidic:

Finally, I give a song from an all-time favourite Engelbert Humperdinck, the Chennai born singer who got poplar only after becoming an ‘Angel bird’. Please listen to his rendition of ‘Le Bicyclette de Belsize’, an absolute beauty, to my mind.

By the way, listening to songs from singers like Englebert, Elton John, Tom Johs, etc who do not have heavy accents help us to speak English with lyrics in current usage with the same rhythm. This helps us to communicate more easily with foreigners. I have seen some of our senior academics mispronouncing simple words in public meetings. I believe our Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation doing a great service by keeping us up to date. I was listening to their service from Central Nigeria, when I worked there.