{"id":103600,"date":"2020-06-16T16:42:58","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T23:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=103600"},"modified":"2020-06-16T16:42:58","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T23:42:58","slug":"reference-the-article-of-dr-nirmala-chandrahasen-the-island-12-june","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/06\/16\/reference-the-article-of-dr-nirmala-chandrahasen-the-island-12-june\/","title":{"rendered":"Reference the article of Dr Nirmala Chandrahasen ( The Island 12 June)"},"content":{"rendered":"

RANJITH SOYSA<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The Editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference the article of Dr Nirmala\nChandrahasen (  The Island 12 June), I\nwish to draw the attention of the readers to the very important fact that the\nPresidential Task Forces was appointed for the survey and preservation of\narchaeological sites in the EAST. Therefore , any discussion on the Task Force\nshould consider to concentrate to identify the geography and the history of the\nEastern province, if one was to survey the historically important locations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The term and the area of Eastern province\nwas created by the British rulers in  1833..\nBefore that the area came under the rule of the Sinhalese kings ,but never\nunder the invading forces from India except for very small areas for a short\nspell of time. The Portuguese did not posses any territory in the East other\nthan a small port in Trincomalee. And ,the Dutch Governor Ryckloff Van Goens in\nhis memoir in 1663 mentioned that \u2018 the country between the Walwe and\nTiriquenamalee is entirely inhabited by King Rajasinghe\u2019s people\u201d Until the\nSinhala- British Treaty -the Kandyan Convention-the British administered only\nthe Maritime Districts \u2018 ( Colombo, Kalutara, Galle, Matara, Hambantotta,\nChilaw, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Jaffnapatam. Delft ,Wanni and Mannar).  Until, well into the nineteenth century we do\nnot come across \u2018 Tamils\u2019 in the east but \u2018Malabars\u2019 who were from the Kerala\ncoast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr John Davy who served in the British army\nfrom Aug 1816 to February 1820  wrote in\nhis \u2018An account of the Interior of Ceylon and its Inhabitants\u2019 , that Malabars\nand Moors are \u2018foreigners naturalized \u2018 and former are confined principally to\nNorthern and Eastern maritime provinces. \nMost of the Muslims living in these areas were settled down by King\nSenarath of Kandy when they were expelled by the Portuguese from the\nSouth-West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Eastern province was created to\ndismember the Kandyan province in order to weaken the \u2018national feeling \u2019 of\nthe Kandyans \u2026The heartland of the old irrigation civilization of the Sinhalese\nwas broken up ,and part of it-Anurdhapura region or Nuwaralalviya -was attached\nto Jaffna, Mannar and Mulative to form the Northern province . ..The other part\nThamankaduwa was linked with Trincomleee and Batticoloa to form the Eastern\nprovince\u201d (Dr K,M.De Silva) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the reports on Forest Administration of\nCeylon by F.D.A Vincent published as Sessional Paper XL 11 of 1882 the gradual\nspread of Tamils down the coasts especially in the East is mentioned. It is\nobvious from theses facts that there were hardly any Tamil settlements in the\nEast before 19th<\/sup> century and therefore it is not scientific to\nascertain that there are places of ancient archaeological importance of Tamils\nin the Eastern province. Of course , there may be the places which were constructed\nsince the 19th<\/sup> century and an odd reference to a foreign -South\nIndian \u2013 king or an emissary in the inscription such as in the case of Velgam\nvehera. The inscription says that \u2018the chola king\u2019 made the offerings to the\nLord Buddha While the inscription provides a vital clue, that  cannot establish the existence of a Hindu\nKovil in Velgam vehera. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Dr Chandrahasen asserts the Task Force\nshould have the shared heritage which is a noble sentiment. But, at the same\ntime the Task Force should seek the truth behind these archaeological places\nand try to preserve and restore same for the benefit of the posterity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the Sinhala Buddhist archaeological\nsites, out of many which had been wilfully damaged or are encroached upon by\ninterested groups are given below specifically for the attention of the Task\nForce.1<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Muhudu Maha Viharyra.  2 Diga Vaapi  \n3 Velgam Vehera 4 Siriwaddana Bodhi Tree \u2013 Klliveddi<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4,Gokanna Vihara-Trincomalee  4 Monastery -Kuccveli  5-Monastery- Sembimalai <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 Monastery- Vilankulam 7  Cave Temple- Puliyankulama  8 Vihara \u2013 Ettama, Potuvil <\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 \nMonastery -Sangamkande 10. Vihara \u2013 Kottadicolai   11. Buddha statues- Nilaveri<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12 Monastery- Nellogala  13 Monastery \u2013 Taravakulam  14 Stupa – \nKirimeti Aru<\/p>\n\n\n\n

15 Stupa- Samudragiri  16 Monastery \u2013 Snethrawewa  17. Monastery- Rahathgala or Santimalai<\/p>\n\n\n\n

18. Monastery- Kanchikudichchi Aru <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sharing the noble expectations of Dr\nChandrahasen as to the methods to be adopted by the Task Force to reduce the\ndisturbance to the farmers and others who live in the concerned areas, we would\nlike to request the Task Force to take due action to earmark, preserve and\nprotect the sites as an important task to fill the unenviable void existing in\nthe history of the East of the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS Ven Buddhgosaha was not a member of the\nTamil ethnic group but of a Telegu ethnicity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RANJITH SOYSA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RANJITH SOYSA The Editor The Island, Reference the article of Dr Nirmala Chandrahasen (  The Island 12 June), I wish to draw the attention of the readers to the very important fact that the Presidential Task Forces was appointed for the survey and preservation of archaeological sites in the EAST. Therefore , any discussion on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ranjith-soysa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103600\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}