Book review:
‘Digging into the Past’
Raja de Silva - Archaeological Commissioner (1967-1979)
Price: Rs. 700.00
Essays of Antiquity
Writings on archaeology have long ceased to be dry-as-dust catalogues
buried deep in scholarly tomes. Mortimer Wheeler’s lively autobiography
“Still Digging” and C. W. Ceram’s “Gods, Graves and Scholars” heralded a
new trend where archaeologists presented their activities to the ‘common
reader’ spiced with adventure and suspense. No longer is the
archaeologist perceived as a bespectacled scholar poring over potsherds.
He has now entered the popular imagination, via such films as “Raiders
of the Lost Ark”, as a he-man in a bushwhacker hat hacking his way
through impenetrable jungle. Raja de Silva is the only archaeologist in
Sri Lanka who has come closest to this cinematic image. “I inspected (Kotiyagala)
with two Italian restorers, Luciano Maranzi and the barefoot contessa
(!!).... through thick jungle infested by bear, elephants.... Two
gnarled trees obstruct a clear view.” What an exciting opening for a
scholarly account of a forlorn cave temple and the crumbling
magnificence of its paintings.
Raja de Silva’s ‘Essays of Antiquity” comes from the pen of an
articulate, adventurous and combative archaeologist and historian gifted
with an impish sense of humour. It is a fascinating mix of dedicated
scholarship, exploration and scientific research together with
delightful forays into tales from our history. I have not read any
account of Dutugemunu’s youth as lively as Raja de Silva’s. It must be
placed on record that Raja was the very first scientist who was
recruited to the Archaeological Department by its far-seeing
Commissioner, the legendary Paranavitana. No longer was the Department
going to be the preserve of epigraphists and (re)builders. Encouraged by
Paranavitana Raja brought his considerable scientific knowledge and
skills into the study of our ancient frescoes and monuments.But Raja de
Silva is at his best being combative.
He scientifically demolishes the briefly-popular theory that Dakkhina
Thupa in Anuradhapura was Dutugemunu’s tomb, using both the scalpel of
science and the scholarship of ancient texts with equal facility. He
crosses swords with his mentor, Paranavitana, on more than one issue -
but does so with science tempered with sensitivity. This is manifest in
“Potgul Statue in Polonnaruwa or Agastya Betrayed?” as well as in
“Paranavitana and the Interlinear Inscriptions”. “Sigiri, the Abode of a
God-King, revisited and reviewed” is a comprehensive refutation of
Paranavitana’s once-sensational theory that Kassapa envisaged himself as
a god king Kuvera whom Raja dismisses with contempt as “a dwarfish
deformed god who was the guardian of riches and had yakhas serving him”
- a ‘deity’ definitely not worth emulating. His detailed study of the
great rock, the ruins on the summit, the surrounding area and the
frescoes is so solidly based on careful, scientific observation that
defy refutation. The author uses both bludgeon and rapier in his “The Archaeological
Department, Central Cultural Fund and the Law” where he writes of the
monstrous Fund, its usurpation of the powers of an emasculated
Archaeological Department and the consequent ruination of our priceless
ruins. The search for lucre (a la Kuvera) seems to have blinded those
responsible. He also tells the story of “How the Gal Vihara Buddha
Statues were saved” (by Raja himself) from the ill conceived bungling of
a misguided ‘expert’ who attempted to make moulds, thus damaging these
magnificent works. He vigorously defends HCP Bell, the father (flawed though he may have
been) of archaeology in Ceylon at a time when that hobby of amateurs was
just transforming itself into a science in Egypt, Anatolia and Crete.
The ill informed and prejudiced writer who called Bell a plunderer is
given short shrift. Raja pays a handsome tribute to the late MJ Perera,
a rare civil servant who had a true understanding of our country’s
history and at the same time, showed a sense of humour when dealing with
a sensitive portrait in Raja’s official sanctum. Raja de Silva places
himself firmly in the great tradition of Buddhist scholarship and
Sinhala tradition with his opening chapter on “The Buddha’s Relics in
Lanka” where he entwines scholarship and tradition to give us a
fascinating overview of the Buddha’s relics venerated by the Sinhala
people, and their locations in this Blessed Land.
Tissa Devendra, Chairman, National Council for Administration |