“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 :-
Outrigger canoe, Kallady, Batticaloa, Sri Lanka. Almost all of the photographs were taken by the owner of this blog and are his property.Click on each picture below to see an enlarged view.
Monday, January 1, 2018
Thursday, December 28, 2017
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 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 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 viewingWednesday, December 27, 2017
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".
'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".
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CommentShareSaturday, December 23, 2017
The Three Kings of the Orient.
_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg){kind=link}
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
http://www.island.lk/2000/12/23/satmag01.html
Friday, December 22, 2017
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.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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