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.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Text books used by the Medical Students at Manipay, Jaffna in the 1850s onwards.


A page from a Text-book of Chemistry with its Tamil translation below.


A Tamil translation of a text-book of Anatomy. 
A Tamil translation of a text-book of Surgery.
Preface to a translation in Tamil of the 'Vadae maecum' - a ready reference.
In an effort to stem the brain-drain of his medical students, Dr. Green started teaching Western Medicine in Tamil. He translated the English text-books into Tamil and taught the students in Tamil. This was in the latter part of the 1860's.