The Guardians: The Ceylon Press History of Sri Lanka 11 cover art

The Guardians: The Ceylon Press History of Sri Lanka 11

The Guardians: The Ceylon Press History of Sri Lanka 11

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 Often it seems, history hits on you like an unyielding celebrity, all dressed up, very loud and awfully important. Even though, for the most part, it is much more like a recluse, willing to surrender but the barest of hints as to its very existence. And though history pretends that everything about it is big – its rulers, events, structures, trends – it is actually not much more than the sum total of what are ultimately utterly personal stories and events that have been remembered; and in some small way, passed on so they are not wholly forgotten. But even here, what survives is so eroded that history comes down to us as bare lists of rulers; or marks on coins; in the linguistic geography of a place or name, in written records that accidently reference the families who operate slice gates or wash the clothes of priests. Why people did what they did, how they felt, still less who they were: much of this can only ever be guessed at – even though this is where the most magnetic and momentous part of any story really resides. So in trying to fathom the long-lost depths of Sri Lankan’s second royal dynasty – the Lambakannas, the few surviving scraps of hard evidence need to be combined with a spoonful of human empathy and conjecture if ever their tale is to make sense. Their adroit use of water technology to super power their kingdom merely tells us that they were as smart and as well organised as the best of the kings of the previous Vijayan dynasty. Oddly enough, to understand more, it helps to sees things from the perspective of the world back in 1929 not 67 CE when the first Lambakanna king came to power. For back in 1929 two things of great interest occurred. The first was the collapse of Wall Stret in faraway America. Its corrosive and ultimately violent social and economic shockwaves radiated across the entire world: and nothing and no one was left feeling safe, protected or secure. The second event played out in Trincomalee, where archaeologists unearthed the remains of a once-lofty temple, built a stone’s throw from the Indian Ocean, sometime after 307 CE. Beneath earth, trees, and jungle, stretching out to the shores of a great lake, the Velgam Vehera’s many scattered ruins were brought back to sight for the first time in centuries: brick stupas, stone inscriptions, balustrades, buildings, moon stones – and mura gals. These mura gals – or guard stones – are especially moving, standing in silent upright pose, guardians of the flights of steps that had led a multitude of forgotten people out of the everyday and into the sacred temple itself. The steps they protect have worn down to just a few flights, the moonstone they encompass is almost entirely rubbed away; the temple beyond is now just an outline of ancient bricks, and the guard stones themselves are plain, almost stumpy, but still doing their ageless job as sentinels of the site. Similar guard stones stand in many other parts of the island, easy to see if you know what you are looking for, silent guardians of the state within. For to be a guardian is no little thing. Guardian is an emotive word in Sri Lanka. It can be found incorporated by health and education providers, insurance companies, the army, the priesthood, the home guard, air force, a news website, hotel and even a wedding business. But long ago it was also the meaning given to the Lambakarnas, the dynasty that succeeded the founding Vijayan dynasty. The Lambakarnas were guardians of the state. And it is in decoding and deconstructing their very name that you can best understand the relevance and purpose of this new royal dynasty and see it in its own terms - from afar: in time and place. Originating possibly in India, it is likely that the Lambakarnas claimed descent from Sumitta - a prince who formed part of the escort that had brought the Bodhi-tree from India in 250 CE. From this botanical pilgrimage, they would go on to become one of the island’s great barons, alongside other such families as Moriyan, Taracchas and Balibhojak. Their power derived from their position as hereditary guardians or secretaries to the king. They took a prominent part in religious ceremonies. But there was more to them than merely carrying coronation parasols and flags. They were connected to the military, to weapon manufacture and, as writers, must have been involved in much of the critical administration of the kingdom. Generation after generation of Lambakarnas were raised with the unshakable belief that their family had a purpose that went far beyond the confines of kinship. They were bound by duty, custom and history to protect the very state itself. But they found, eventually, that in order to do this, they had to become the state itself – to rid it of its useless kings and take things over They managed the transition from one of several aristocratic families to ruling family with what, at first, appeared to be consummate ease....
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