Dedicated to all women

email from Kamalini Kanapathippillai

Dedicated to all women   My Wife DOES NOT WORK! Conversation between a Husband (H) and a Psychologist (P): P : What do you do for a living Mr. Bandy?  H : I work as an Accountant in a Bank.     P : Your Wife ?  H : She doesn't work. She's a Housewife only.     P : Who makes breakfast for your family in the morning?  H : My Wife, because she doesn't work.     P : At what time does your wife wake up for making breakfast?  H : She wakes up at around 5 am because she cleans the house first before making breakfast.     P : How do your kids go to school?  H : My wife takes them to school, because she doesn't work!     P : After taking your kids to school, what does she do?  H : She goes to the market, then goes back home for cooking and laundry. You know, she doesn't work!     P : In the evening, after you go back home from office, what do you do?  H : Take rest, because I am tired due to all day works!     P : What does your wife do then?  H : She prepares meals, serving our kids, preparing meals for me and cleaning the dishes, cleaning the house then taking kids to bed.     Whom do you think works more, from the story above???     The daily routines of your wives commence from early morning to late night. That is called 'DOESN'T WORK'??!!     Yes, Being Housewives do not need Certificate of Study, even High Position, but their ROLE/PART is very important!     Appreciate your wives. Because their sacrifices are uncountable. This should be a reminder and reflection for all of us to understand and appreciate each others roles.     All about a WOMAN ....     When she is quiet, millions of things are running in her mind.  When she stares at you, she is wondering why she loves you so much in spite of being taken for granted.  When she says I will stand by you, she will stand by you like a rock.  Never hurt her or take her wrong or for granted...  Forward to every woman to make her smile and to every man to make him realize a woman's worth...!!!  A heart touching message..... by a woman..."     Some one asked her.......  Are you a working woman or a house-wife ??     She replied : Yes I am a full time working house-wife.  I work 24 hours a day.....  I'm a "mum",  I'm a wife,  I'm a daughter,  I'm a daughter-in-law.....  I'm an Alarm clock,  I'm a Cook,  I'm a Maid,  I'm a Teacher,  I'm a waiter,  I'm a nanny,  I'm a nurse,  I'm a handyman,  I'm a Security officer,  I'm a Counsellor,  I'm a comforter,  I don't get holidays,  I don't get sick leave,  I don't get day off......  I work through day and night.....  I'm on call......  all hours and get paid with a sentence.....  "what do you do all day"     Dedicated to all women  Woman has the most unique character like salt. Her presence is never remembered but Her absence makes all the things tasteless! Pass it to all the lovely ladies.....your Mother. .....your Wife......your daughter ...your sister.....your friend.

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The historic battle of Randeniwela - 25th August 1630

On the road from Wellawaya to Ella about nine Kilometers from Wellawaya junction, lying on the right side of the road is a monument, commemorating the place of defeat of the Portuguese army under the command of Constantin De Saa. This battle was fought on 25 August 1630
“The Viceroy expressed strong disapproval of the
policy of temporising which de Sa
had been compelled to adopt, and the latter, the
second Portuguese officer in the East, was sharply
reminded that he had been sent to Ceylon to
supervise the war and not to superintend the trade.
De Sa took the matter deeply to heart, and in spite
of the remonstrances of his most experienced
officers, determined to invade forthwith the Sinhalese
Kingdom.
Seven hundred Portuguese and 13,000 Lascarins
were soon in the field. Toiling up the steep mountain
ranges they moved slowly but unopposed till they
reached Badulla, where two days were spent in sacking
and burning the-; town. On the third morning the
Sinhalese banners were seen flashing among the
neighbouring hills. Skirmishing began at once, but
the Sinhalese would not come to close quarters, and
the Portuguese, seeing that they were gradually
being encircled, prepared for the conflict which could
no longer be avoided. Having set fire to their
surplus stores and made confession, they began
early in the morning to retire. The Lascarins of
the disaffected Mudaliyars led the van, the remainder
of the native troops forming a ring around the
Portuguese. The army had not advanced far on the
road before it found itself confronted by the
Atapattu Guard, the pick of the King's forces. The
Portuguese were already straggling, and Dom Cosme,
a member of the conspiracy, seized the opportunity
to run his sword through one of them, whereupon
placing the head on a pike covered with white
cloth, he immediately deserted accompained by his
banner to the Sinhalese, and was followed by the
bulk of the Lascarins.
And now the real struggle began. The Atapattu
Guard charged from the front, while the rest of
the Sinhalese, protected by the forest, poured into
the ranks of the Portuguese their clouds of arrows
and hail of musket-balls. For three days, losing
heavily and without rest, the latter broke their
way through the roughly constructed works of the
Sinhalese. By the third day the pressure on the
rear had become so severe that it was no more
than a disorganised rabble, terror-stricken and cut
off from the main body. Luiz Teixeira, the Disawa
of the Seven Korales, and the Sergeant Major, with
all of their officers and men who had not been
shot down, were captured as they attempted to
conceal themselves in the forest, for the King's
orders were that the Portuguese were to be taken
alive. At length on reaching the level tract of
Randeni Wela the Portuguese found themselves
completely surrounded. Some, however, of the
Lascarins succeeded in breaking away and fleeing
to Colombo, and de Sa was able to despatch a messenger
to inform the city of his desperate plight.
There on the plain of Wellawaya the Portu-
guese spent that awful night. The Lascarins rapidly
melted away, till not more than five hundred were
left to share the fate of their white companions in
arms, and it was im.possible to erect any protection
against the arrows and bullets that came whizzing past
throughout the hours of darkness. The General himself
exchanged his usual, dress for a doublet and trousers,
arming himself with a sword and a small shield, as there
was heavy work to be done the next day. For none
was there any sleep that night. The very elements
indeed seem to have conspired to punish the Portu-
guese for the horrors to which they had subjected
that unhappy country. A terrific downpour of rain
lasting several hours drenched the army and rendered
the firearms of the Portuguese useless. Their
swords too were of littte avail against opponents so
agile as the Sinhalese; though the attempt to capture
them alive resulted in a terrible w^aste of life.
Gradually however the circle narrowed round the
doomed men. By two o'clock in the afternoon two
hundred of the Portuguese were stretched in death.
The fight was thickest round the General, whom
two servants kept supplied wifh loaded arquebusses.
It was said indeed that he killed sixty men of those that
hemmed him in with his own hand. At last orders were received
to shoot him down. His servants
were soon dead by his side, and as he drew his
sword and rushed on the Sinhalese two arrows pierced
him and he sank on his knees to the ground.
Another arrow ended his Hfe, and though round his
corpse the struggle redoubled itself in fury, it was
not for long, and with wild shouts of triumph the
head of the brave da Sa was at last severed from
his body.
A pyramid of Portuguese heads was raised on
the field of battle, that of the General being laid at
the feet cf the aged and triumphant but com-
passionate King, who apostrophised it with
these bitter words: "How often have I prayed you
not to make war on me and destroy my realm, but
to let me live in psacB, while you kept the best
part of Lanka : but if your successors follow in your
footsteps, you v/iii not be the last.'"
It is hardly possible to exaggerate the gravity
of the disaster which had overtaken the Portuguese,
and once again if the Sinhalese had but had the
means of blockading Colombo by sea, the complete
destruction of their power in Ceylon would have
been assured. Twenty-six days after its great victory
the Sinhalese army, which had captured en route
the fort of Siparagamuwa with the whole of its
garrison, appeared before Colombo and laid it under
close siege. Two fierce assaults were delivered and
were repulsed with desperate courage ; but such was
the scarcity of provisions within the town, that
cannibalism was freely practiced, and hundreds of
starving wretches had to be driven outside the walls.
These refugees were kindly treated by Maha Asthana,
though a number of them with base ingratitude
attempted to set fire to his camp".
(from Ceylon and the Portuguese by Paul E Peiris)
A good account of the battle is given in the following web-link :-

The Monument and the Battle of Randeniwela | AmazingLanka.com

The Battle of Randeniwela is the fist mass scale defeat of the Portuguese equipped with superior firepower. The total army Portuguese army was wiped out by the Sinhalese Forces expec

Happy New Year 2018

“May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You” - Happy New year 2018 to all of you – Philip

Please click on each web-link below  in turn with your speakers on :-

https://youtu.be/PD9KLA4qz3A

https://youtu.be/pU1imF3OFiM

Dr. Emil Savundaranayagam

email from Karals -

The prince of con men

https://youtu.be/qn4B5JxM4Ww

Karals,
 I remember him in his hey day and his saying - "The British were wary of driving a 'mini' through a legal loop-hole, I drove a double-decker bus through it".

I think he was a close relative of Cyril Gardiner of 'Tuckers Autodrome'.

I remember our 'Block Concert' where the Late 'Karthi' played Lord Profumo and 'Geri' played Miss. Christine Keeler.

I also remember Prof Milroy Paul mentioning about Christine Keeller and Profumo and the Osteopath Dr. Stephen Ward.in a Ward Class.

Good viewing

Philip

Birth of King Rajasinghe II of Kandy, Sri Lanka

.As related by Paul Peiris in 'Ceylon and the Portuguese'

'At this point there first appears on the stage
of events the great Commander who was destined for
the last time to fan the smouldering energy of the
Sinhalese into a blaze. The Court was in hiding at
Mahiyangana when the Maha Biso Bandara, as the
Queen was called, gave birth to Maha Asthana, the
future Raja Sinha ; but auspicious omens had attended
his birth. And indeed to the Sinhalese mind no
place of better augury could have been selected for
this important event than that historic spot so closely
interwoven with the remotest legends of their religion
and race— a spot rendered sacred by the visit of the
Buddha himself, and which had witnessed the gathering
together of the avenging armies of Wijaya Bahu. On
that very night, it was said, the Portuguese Comman-
der had dreamed that he saw a tiny spark, no bigger
than a firefly, floating from the west and growing in size
as it traveled through the sky, till it waxed
exceeding great over the port of Colombo and set
everything there on fire ; and the appearance of the
infant Prince had been signalized by the success of
the King's arms at Balane. It is customary for the
horoscope of every Sinhalese child to be cast ;
Diyakelinawala, the great astrologer, was entrusted
with the preparation of the Prince's, and sedulous
care was lavished on his education to fit him for
the high destiny which, it was prophesied, awaited
him in life.
In 1628, when the Prince was sixteen years
of age, Senerat summoned his three sons, and
divided his kingdom among them by lot. He had
seen clearly that of the three the youngest was
also the strongest, and to his great delight it was
to the youngest that the Uda Rata proper fell ;
Maha Asthana thus became Aga Raja or Chief King
with the title of Raja Sinha ; his brothers Kumara
Sinha and Wijaya Pal a received respectively the
districts of Uwa and Matale".

https://goo.gl/images/LF1wdT

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The Three Kings of the Orient.

The Magi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Magi_Journeying_(Les_rois_mages_en_voyage)_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg

Anne Murray - We Three Kings [with lyrics] -
https://youtu.be/BaheOgdGKJQ

"Legends are told about them and they have been given names. This is how they are often described:
• Gaspar (or Caspar), who has brown hair and a brown beard (or no beard!) and wears a green cloak and a gold crown with green jewels on it. He is the King of Sheba. Gaspar represents the Frankincense brought to Jesus.
• Melchior, who has long white hair and a white beard and wears a gold cloak. He is the King of Arabia. Melchior represents the Gold brought to Jesus.
• Balthazar, who has black skin and a black beard (or no beard!) and wears a purple cloak. He is the King of Tarse and Egypt. Balthazar represents the gift of Myrrh that was brought to Jesus".
…
"When the Wise Men found Jesus and Mary, they would have been living in a normal house in Bethlehem, because by this time Jesus would have been aged between one and two. Then they gave their gifts to him. The gifts seem quite strange to give to a baby, but Christians believe that they had the following meanings:
• Gold: is associated with Kings and Christians believe that Jesus is the King of Kings.
• Frankincense: is sometimes used in worship in Churches and showed that people would worship Jesus.
• Myrrh: is a perfume that is put on dead bodies to make them smell nice and showed that Jesus would suffer and die.
The gifts are also all thin"
https://www.whychristmas.com/story/wisemen.shtml

The legend has been recorded by Courtenay in his Historie du Christianisme a Ceylan, and we are told: "There is also a tradition that one of the Magi, who came to adore the Lord, was a native of Ceylon. He was king of Jaffna, and bore at home the name of Peria Perumal. This must be the Black Magus, for Perumal is a Tamil name, pretty common even to this day in South India and Ceylon. This Roi-Mage, they say, joined Saint Thomas in India and there won the crown of martyrdom together with the Apostle, at Mylapore. They were buried in the same grave".
http://www.island.lk/2000/12/23/satmag01.html

Lankan furniture

Please click on the web-link below:-

https://roar.media/english/life/srilanka-life/timber-tales-traditional-lankan-furniture-and-their-origins

Stones thrown, Sri Lanka.

Vesak Nannayakaara in his very informative book ‘Return to Kandy’, relates an incident during the days of the reign of King Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe. The King had a feudal Lord who was his friend. The feudal Lord while on his death-bed, sent a prophetic message to the King, through an associate. The following was a translation of the message.
“Far away I see a hornets nest gather. It is a ‘Yak Debera’ (Devil Hornets). Tell the King not to throw stones at it”.
When Pilimathalawa Adigar went to see the British Governor with a plan to capture King Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe, the Governor inquired whether he wanted to betray his King and refused to see him. Later the British changed their view, when Ehelapola Nilame defected to them.
‘The stone thrown at them’ was when the King arrested a few British Merchants in Kandy, when he heard about the treason of Ehelapola. They took this as a reason to invade Kandy. The so far unconquerable Kingdom fell, when the British were given an imitation resistance, with the cooperation of the Chiefs of the Kingdom, to come into Kandy
‘Throwing stones’ at powerful enemies has brought ruin to us in the past.
1. The Cholas invaded to capture the Pandyan King and his Crown Jewels when Rajasimha Pandya fled to Ceylon with the crown jewels, during the reign of Dappula IV (924-935). They did not succeed. A second Cholian invasion occupied the Rajarata, from 1017 to 1070 AD. They were successful in retrieving the Pandyan crown jewels this time and capturing the king of Sri Lanka at that time, Mahinda.

https://www.google.com/…/column-the-imperial-cholas-con…/amp
2. During the Presidency of Athikaru J R Jayawardena, his quip ‘Mehe Amma mehe Putha, Ehe Amma ehe Putha’ The ‘Mother here and the Son here’ - referring to Sirimavo Bandaranayake and Son and ‘The Mother there and Son there’ referring to Indira Ghandhi and son Rajeev, was another time 'a stone was thrown' at a powerful neighbor and we all know the consequences of that.
3. The construction of the Hambanthota and Colombo Port is another ‘stone thrown’. Only the future will tell us what will happen.

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.