Facets-Of-Modern-Ceylon-History-Through-The-Letters-Of-Jeronis-Pieris.Pdf
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FACETS OF MODERN CEYLON HISTORY THROUGH THE LETTERS OF JERONIS PIERIS BY MICHAEL ROBERT Hannadige Jeronis Pieris (1829-1894) was educated at the Colombo Academy and thereafter joined his in-laws, the brothers Jeronis and Susew de Soysa, as a manager of their ventures in the Kandyan highlands. Arrack-renter, trader, plantation owner, philanthro- pist and man of letters, his career pro- vides fascinating sidelights on the social and economic history of British Ceylon. Using Jeronis Pieris's letters as a point of departure and assisted by the stock of knowledge he has gather- ed during his researches into the is- land's history, the author analyses several facets of colonial history: the foundations of social dominance within indigenous society in pre-British times; the processes of elite formation in the nineteenth century; the process of Wes- ternisation and the role of indigenous elites as auxiliaries and supporters of the colonial rulers; the events leading to the Kandyan Marriage Ordinance no. 13 of 1859; entrepreneurship; the question of the conflict for land bet- ween coffee planters and villagers in the Kandyan hill-country; and the question whether the expansion of plantations had disastrous effects on the stock of cattle in the Kandyan dis- tricts. This analysis is threaded by in- formation on the Hannadige- Pieris and Warusahannadige de Soysa families and by attention to the various sources available to the historians of nineteenth century Ceylon. FACETS OF MODERN CEYLON HISTORY THROUGH THE LETTERS OF JERONIS PIERIS MICHAEL ROBERTS HANSA PUBLISHERS LIMITED COLOMBO - 3, SKI LANKA (CEYLON) 4975 FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1975 This book is copyright. All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced by any process without the writer's permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the Author. ill Printed at the Colombo Co-operative Printers' Society Ltd., 60, Station Road, Homagama. To MR. W. J. F. LABROOY CONTENTS Part One FACETS OF MODERN CEYLON HISTORY I Introduction II Kith, Kin and Career 5 HI The Background of Social Change and Elite Formation in Nineteenth 12 Century Ceylon IV Western Orientations 24 V The Highland Scene: Coffee Plantations vs Village Land? 44 VI Buffaloes, Cattle and Paddy Cultivation in the Central Highlands 49 VII Epilogue 57 Part Two THE LETTERS OF JERONIS PIERIS, 1853-1856 List of Letters 6 The Letters, 1853-1856. 62 Appendix : Translation of a Letter from Jeronis Pieris to his sister and his 85 mother, 7 September 1877. Appendices A. Select Genealogy of the Hannadige Pieris family. 89 B. Genealogy of the Warusahannadige (de) Soysa family. 90 C. Jeronis Pieris's Cash Crop Plantation Properties as listed in Ferguson's 91 Ceylon Directories, 1871-1891. D. Translation of a Memorial submitted by Certain Kandyan Chiefs and 93 Inhabitants calling for a Reform of the Kandyan Marriage Customs, c. November 1858. Bibliography 95 index LIST OF PLATES & MAPS 1. Hannadige Jeronis Pieris frontispiece 2. Hannadige Jeronis Pieris: a portrait 6 3. Hannadige Engeltina Pieris: a portrait 6 4. Susew & Engeltina de Soysa 6 5. Mrs. Hendrick Pieris Jnr. 6 6. Mrs. Hendrick Pieris Jnr., Engeltina and Louis Pieris 6 7. Charles Henry de Soysa's and Lindamulage Catherine de Silva's Wedding Photograph in 1863. 36 8. Charles Henry de Soysa and his bride, Catherine de Silva 36 9. Louis Pieris 36 10. A Wedding Photograph: Louis Pieris and Cecilia de Fonseka 36 11. Louis Pieris 58 12. Mrs. Jeronis Pieris 58 13. Richard Steuart Pieris 58 14. Henry A. Pieris 58 15. The Firm of S. C. Fernando & Bros. 58 16. Facsimile of a letter from Jeronis Pieris 58 Map of Hanguranketa - Kandy - Kadugannawa Localities 72 PREFACE In the course of journeys and meanderings arising from a project in which I was using oral history techniques to build up a body of historical information on twentieth century Ceylon, it became evident that a rich body of historical manuscripts remained in private hands. Neither the commendable enterprise of James T. Rutnam nor the sporadic activities of the Historical Manuscripts Commission had exhausted the vein of documents that lay hidden from the world, so to speak, in private homes. Many of these documents pertain to the twentieth century. A few, including the letters reprinted here, are of nineteenth century origin. Employing the several opportunities that came my way, I have enjoyed the privilege and good fortune as a historian to be able to unearth several such collections. In doing so, I have been greatly encouraged by the generous cooperation afforded by those with whom such documents lay and by the assistance of the staff officers in the Department of National Archives. The copies of the letters dispatched by Hannadige Jeronis Pieris in the years 1853-56 were in the possession of his granddaughter, Mrs. Lynette Peries (nee de Soysa) wife of Mr. Herman Peries, who lives at 18, de Fonseka Road, Colombo 5. A letter in Sinhalese written by Jeronis Pieris on the 7th September 1877 was in the hands of Mr. L. D. Asoka Pieris and was secured for me by Mr. Lankeswara S. D. Pieris. I gratefully acknowledge their generous assistance in lending me the letters and permitting me to edit them. The main object in reproducing these letters has been that of making them more widely available to scholars and of providing interested laymen with some insights into developments in mid-nineteenth century Ceylon. At the same time, I have used the information and the insights supplied by these letters to illumine certain facets of nineteenth century Ceylonese history by developing some of my own findings and theories. In brief, the letters have been variously used — at times as a point of departure for the investigation of various subjects on which they throw some light, and at other times as a convenient show-case in which to display conclu- sions fashioned for the most part out of other evidence. The decision to edit Jeronis Pieris's letters was also influenced by a subsidiary aim. I wish to make possessors of similar materials alive to the value of such documents as they may have in their possession and to encourage them to make them available to students, either by donating them to the Archives or by making their existence known and intimating their willingness to loan them for purposes of reproduction. This monograph could not have been successfully completed without the cooperation of several individuals, for whose assistance I am truly grateful. I am particularly indebted to Mr. Lankeswara S. D. Pieris of the National and Grindlays Bank for his patient and under standing assistance in numerous fields. My thanks are also extended to the following individuals for the information they provided: Mrs. Boyd Jayasuriya, Messrs. Gustavus Jayawardene, "Harry" Pieris, Marcus Pieris, Shanti Sri Chandrasekera, E. L. F. de Soysa Jnr., Patrick Peebles, Shelton C. Fernando and Dr. G. C. Mendis as well as my colleagues Professor Gananath Obeyes ekere, Drs. Vamadeva Kanapathypillai, C. R. de Silva, Vijaya Samaraweera, G. P. V. kf Somaratne and H. L. Seneviratne. As so often, Mr. W. J. F. Labrooy 'vetted' my drafts and provided invaluable advice, a service he has rendered to many scholars and the benefit of which only those whose manuscripts have been 'processed' by him can truly grasp. Needless to say, he is not responsible for the views which I have expressed. I would also like to thank Mr. M. Duraiswamy and Mrs. N. Hettiaratchi for typing the drafts with such diligence, and to the staff attached to the Archives and the libraries at the Museum and the University of Ceylon for their assistance. Michael Roberts. June 1970. P.S. Questions of finance, a visit abroad, and endemic problems in the publication trade have delayed the appearance of this monograph. Pressure of work has not allowed me to make any alterations to the text and it appears as it was written in June 1970. M.R. January 1973. P. P. S. Administrative problems in which the Publishers became enmeshed after I had corrected the final proofs have delayed the appearance of this monograph for yet another year. It is fortunate that it is a work of history and that other historians have not, in the interim, trespassed much on the fields surveyed in this monograph. I have since developed and refined the manner in which I use the elite concept, but the definition provided within these covers should be adequate enough for the purposes of this work. A significant change since I wrote this monograph has been the destruction on official orders of the district court reoords held in judicial repositories. Michael Roberts. October 1974. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I convey my thanks to the following for having made available for reproduction certain photographs or portraits in their possession:- Mr. "Harry" Pieris (plates 1, 2, 12 and 14); Mrs. Boyd Jayasuriya (plate 13); Mr. C. V. H. de Soysa of Haragama estate (plates 3 and 8); Mr. and Mrs. Shelton C. Fernando (plate 15); and Mr. Lankeswara Pieris (the rest). SPELLING PIENS : In Sinhalese, of course, this proper name has only one spelling. The transliteration into English has taken different forms however: "Peiris" and "Pieris" are the most common, while "Peries" and "Peeris" also occur. In this instance I have followed the spelling that is generally adopted by the descendants of Jeronis PieriF. HANNADIGE : : The spelling is mine. In family circles the English renderings that seem to be favoured are "Hannadigai" and "Hennedige". Since no consistency of usage has established itself, I have preferred what I consider to be the more correct presentation in English. The Sinhalese sound "a" as in "bad" has been rendered in a form suggested to me by Mr.