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C. Gaston Perera 2010.Pdf WHO WROTE THE SECOND HALF OF THEALAKESVARA YUDDHAYA? It has been the good fortune of the Sinhala people that they have been heirs to a well- established tradition of history writing in this island. That tradition had its origin and was fostered by the labours of the elders of the Buddhist church in the course of recording its history. Perhaps, recording the vicissitudes and triumphs of the Buddhist faith may have been their primary motive; but in doing so they also composed works which presented a connected, continuous and substantially authentic record of what happened in the past. The Chronicles and other compositions these monks were responsible for - the Dipavamsa, the Mahavamsa, the Bodhivamsa, the Dhatuvamsa and so on - belonged to what has been termed the vamsa tradition. This tradition has many distinct features. Chief among them was the primacy accorded to Buddhism. This was expressed in many ways. Eulogizing rulers who fostered the Buddha Sasana; censuring, sometimes excoriating, those who failed - such as Rajasinha I in the Culavamsa'; the ready acceptance of the supernatural and the miraculous are some of these features. Further, most of them, as for instance the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, are based on earlier versions in Sinhala that are now not extant or on earlier commentarial literature on canonical Buddhist works known as Atthakatha. Other features of the vamsa tradition were that the Chronicles were composed most often by monks, the language they were composed in was Pali and some of them were in verse. The vamsa tradition died out by about the middle ages but not the tradition of history writing. One of such later histories is the Alakesvara Yuddhaya (AY).1t is an account of our more recent past but is unique on many counts. First, its origins are mysterious. It surfaced in the strangest of ways. There was a Sinhala journal that was published during the years 1902 to 1911 entitled Gnanadarsaya (the "Mirror of Knowledge"). It described itself as "A Magazine of Arts, Science and Literature and was edited by A. Mendis Gunasekera. An issue was sold for the princely sum of twenty cents. The issues from 1909 to 1911 serialized an article. At its conclusion I Culavamsa tr.W Geiger and F Rickmers (Ceylon Govt. Information Dept. 1953) Vol II, Ch. XCLIII. Hereafter Cv The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities XXXVI (1&2) 2010 42 C.GASTON PERERA the Editor published a note to that the effect the article had been copied by A.D.A. Wijesinghe Aratchi from a two hundred-year old ola leaf manuscript in the possession of Mudaliyar Lewis Soysa Wijesekera Jayatilleke. This was the Alakesvara Yuddhaya. The Editor surmised that because of the manner in which the work commenced it was a continuation of a previous part which was now lost. Another reason why this work is unique is that, as an historical account, the AY begins as it were, in mid-air. It does not begin at the beginning as all good histories should. In the case of the island's history the beginning should at least be the Vijaya episode, ifnot the visits of the Buddha. But the AY begins with the close of Chinese incursion in the 131h century under Cheng Ho. In addition the very first word with which the AY opens is Thavatha (1:5)e:l~). The editor of the Gnanadarsaya therefore, argues that there must have existed an earlier part, now lost, that contained the precedent history and the word Thavatha (1:5)e:l~)signifies the present AY as it is was a continuation of that. The other reason for its uniqueness is that, as historiography goes, the AY is a departure from the vamsa tradition of recording history. It is not oriented towards Buddhism. It refrains from the supernatural and the miraculous. It is written in Sinhala and in prose. In fact there is even an argument that its author was a Christian. But, and finally, its real uniqueness among our Chronicles is for entirely different reasons. It is the main indigenous source for the re-construction of the history of the lowlands from the arrival of the Portuguese to the fall of Sitawaka. None of the other usual sources enables one to do so. Epigraphy, for instance, is one the most fruitful of sources for the reconstruction of the early history of the island. But it is of no assistance as far as this period is concerned. There is not one rock or pillar inscription, not one copper or ola sannasa that deals with the Portuguese presence in the island. The literary sources that relate to this period are the Sandesa Kavyas or Messenger poems and the Hatan Kavyas or the War poems. There are scattered and sometimes very informative references in these compositions that shed some light on the events and life in these times. For instance, the Sitavaka Hatane, a war poem, describes in one passage how Dharmapala was baptized.' Another War Poem, the Parangi Hatane,' provides interesting glimpses of the Battle of Gannoruwa and the commissariat the Portuguese took to war. However these are but passing references and do not provide the material to reconstruct a coherent account of events. Nor are the usual Chronicles of much assistance. Apart from the AY itself the only others that are relevant to the period are the Culavamsa and the Rajavaliya,' It is a characteristic of the former that it resolutely turns a blind eye to the Portuguese presence and, despite its Buddhist orientation, makes no reference to the active evangelization or even the less savoury missionary activities going on in the lowlands. In fact in the whole of the Culavainsa there are only two references to the Portuguese. One is to the campaigns of attrition and devastation during the regular invasions of the highlands in the reign of C The Sitavaka Hatanc ed. R Paranavitana (Cultural and Religious Affairs Ministry. 1999). vv 368, 369. hereafter SH. :1 The Parangi Hatanc vv 238 et seg. 4 The Rajavaliva tr. B Gunasekera (AES Reprint, 1995). hereafter Rv. ALAKESVARA YUDDHAYA 43 Senerat by "the so-called Parangi".' The only other reference - strangely - is to the missionary conversion tactics", but this is in describing the times of Vijaya Rajasinha, long after the Portuguese were evicted. Apart from these two references the Culavamsa observes a deafening, as it were, silence concerning the events in the lowlands. Of the turbulent happenings there, of the profound changes sweeping through those kingdoms, of the wars raging between Sitavaka, on the one hand, and Kotte and the Portuguese, on the other, there is nothing. One chapter is devoted to Rajasinha, it is true. But even in that a veil of silence is drawn over his military exploits, over his titanic struggle against the Portuguese, over his great siege of the Colombo fort and over his resounding battlefield victories. Instead the Culavamsa delivers a scathing onslaught in Chapter XCLIlI on Rajasinha's religious failings. Then ignoring the sensational political developments taking place in the lowlands at this time it makes a quantum leap in space and time and in the very next chapter goes on to deal with Wimaladharmasuriya in Kandy. In fact if the Culavamsa was the only source available for a reconstruction ofthe history of the times, the Portuguese never set foot on this island. The other Chronicle that deals with these stormy times is the Rajavaliya. The account it provides of the events of the times is detailed and at first sight it appears an independent reconstruction of what has transpired. But as Suraweera has cogently argued in the Preface7 to his edition of the AY, the Rajavaliya is not an original composition. It is a later work and is based on and closely follows the A Y in the earlier sections. Suraweera has also pointed out the linguistic considerations and the repetitions, sometimes verbatim, of passages as well as other issues in support of his contention. The later sections of the Rajavaliya seem to have used the War Poem, the Sitavaka Hatane, as a source. The latter work was composed by one of Rajasinha's generals, Alahaperuma Wijeyewardene, who was a contemporaneous eye-witness of the events he describes. The Rajavaliya relies heavily on it. For instance its account of the assassination of Bhuvenekhabahu8 closely follows the Hatane account in verses 348 and 349. Similarly the caustic comments the Rajavaliya makes on Bhuvenekhabahu" are absent in the AYbut closely parallel the Hatane verses 350 and 351, as also the chronology and the order of events depicted. In these sections the A Y is not followed at all. The A Y version, for instance, of the assassination is that the gunman aimed at a pigeon but hit the King. The Rajavaliya makes no mention of this cover story at all. The Rajavaliya is thus not an original composition. The AY thus remains the only original Sinhala source dealing with the events subsequent to the Portuguese arrival and is unique also for the style of its historiography in departing from the vamsa tradition. But there has been speculation, even controversy about its authorship. The doubt relates to the religion the author of the AY followed and the lowland kingdom he belonged to. One view is that he was a Christian convert. If he was a convert there are two implications of this. The first and obvious implication is he was not a Portuguese. The second is that, since due to the incessant warfare of the times 5 Cv, Vol II, Ch XCV, vv 4-9. Also Gaston Perera: Kandv Fights the Portuguese-a Military History of Kal/dH/II Resistance (Vijira Yapa Publications 2007) Part II, Ch.lIi.
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