Showing posts with label Thonigala. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thonigala. Show all posts

Thursday, December 21, 2017

The agony of Queen Kuweni

The story of 'Thonigala' - We went on a trip to this place. A youngish girl of the area took us round. I asked her about the origin of the name 'Thonigala'. She repeated the legends related by the elders of the area. The name 'Thonigala' referred to the 'Lathoni' - 'anguished wail' - of 'Kuweni' the Veddah Queen, at this rock, when King Vijaya threw her out of his residence, to accommodate a Princess from Southern Madura. King Vijaya had brought her to the banks of this lake, drawn a line on the granite rock by the side of the lake and commanded Kuweny not to step beyond that line. The heart rending wail of Kuweny, abandoned with her young son and daughter, gave the name to 'Thonigala'.
Kuweny, who was a queen of the 'Yakkas' had enticed Vijaya and later married him. She had let down her tribe and helped Vijaya to defeat them. When Kuveny after being thrown out of Vijaya's household had tried to go back to her tribe. The Yakkas had stoned her to death. Her son and daughter by Vijaya were rescued by Kuweni's uncle. Legends had it that the son and daughter were the origin of the 'Veddhas' of Ceylon. The young guide corrected this part of the story and claimed that all of us in present Sri Lanka were the descendants of "Yakas'. I was reminded of the epithet 'Yaka' used to refer to any acquaintance in Sinhalese as 'Ey Yaka'. A recently appointed laborer at the Kynsey road Medical Faculty, coming from Bibile, was sent with a letter by a member of the academic staff, to be delivered to the Vice-Chancelor in his office, a short distance away. He came back with the letter undelivered and told the Professor, 'Ey Yaka ehey naa' - that Yaka is not in the office. I think that all of us must accept the fact that we are all descendants of Yakas. Quite a few place names and legends in Sri Lanka are associated withe Yakas eg. 'Yaka bendi Ela' etc. I will leave you to discover them.

 The rock where a line was drawn by King Vijaya

 The earthh bund of one of the tanks


 The longest Brahmi inscription dated to the 1st Century AD at Thonigala

 A second Brahmi inscription.

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Some scenes at Thonigala, Sri Lanka.

A water reservooir to retain rain-water used in paddy cultivation.

Shrub land.

A hillock of granite.

The climb up a rocky face.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Thonigala, on the Putthalam to Kurunegala road, Sri Lanka.

The first water reservoir, Thonigala.
The footpath to the second Brahmi inscription at Thonigala.

The second inscription on the rock at Thonigala.
The translation of the inscription.
According to local legends 'Thonigala' got its name from the fact that Kuweni the mythical Yakka princess, wailed her heart out ('Lathoni dunne thaena') at this place. Kuweni who espoused Kuweni in his early days in Sri Lanka, got her help to massacre her kith and kin. She had a son and daughter by Vijaya. Vijaya later got a princess from the royal household from Southern Madhura and threw out Kuweni and her children. Kuweni was left helpless to face her wrathful Yakka tribe and was killed by them. The children were spared and legend says that they became the Veddha tribe of Sri Lanka. This latter cannot be true because the Veddhas were almost the first tribes to arrive in Sri Lanka long before the 5th Century BC.