Into the roots of the Purana Villagers

Gal Oya Valley: Aftermath of the Uva-Wellassa - Revolt 1817/18

Part 1

by Gamini G. Punchihewa

Extracts from 'Souvenirs of a Forgotten Heritage' (1990). - By Gamini de S. G. Punchihewa

The year of 1817 heralded chapters punctuated with political upheavals. The stormy days of the Uva Rebellion were in the year 1817, when Sri Lanka was under the yoke of British rule.

The Wellessa regions in the Uva Province were in the grip of danger as a rebellion led by Keppetipola Disawe - the uncrowned king of Wellassa, had been sparked off against the king.

The British who wanted to be in the good books of the Muslims as they were of assistance to the British Raj, appointed one of them Hadji Marikkar, as headman of Wellessa.

The resultant resentment among the Kandyan Dissawas was a contributory cause of the insurrection. Keppetipola being the Dissawa of Uva, joined the revolt and became its acknowledged leader. His other appellation was Morawila Maha Nilame. The other chieftain who joined with Keppetipola was Madugalle.

By June 1818, the Sinhalese villagers though humble, were dauntless despite the avalanche of stringent laws imposed upon them by the then Governor of the Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Sir Robert Brownwrigg. The Governor took no chances of further conflagrations. He declared martial law in Uva and Wellassa areas on the first day of November in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventeen.

By February 1818, the revolt was spreading alarmingly. A reward of 1,000 pagodas was offered for the head of Keppetipola Dissawa.

The brave Sinhalese heroes, despite these stringent laws and atrocious treatment, fought bravely as they had never fought before, inflicting heavy losses on the British troops.

At one stage on June 1st 1818, the Secretary of State, Earl of Barthurst, from the colonial office London, ordered Governor Sir Brownwrigg to withdraw the British troops. But unfortunately for the valiant Sinhalese patriots, reinforcements arrived from India in July 1818 and the revolt turned abortive. By October, 1818 the revolt was ruthlessly crushed.

Their gallant leader Keppetipola and his accomplice Madugalle were captured and condemned to death. Keppetipola was taken unawares and captured near Anuradhapura on October 31, 1818. Madugalle, the other chieftain who had joined him was taken captive a few days later.

One of the few British writers and historians who has left impartial accounts of the insurrection and of Keppetipola was Henry Marshall, Deputy Inspector-General of Army Hospitals in Ceylon (1809-1821). He was very close to Keppetipola as he was his physician.In Marshall's "General Description of the Island and its Inhabitants" (1846).

He has praised Keppetipola, while other British writers branded him a traitor and rebel. Marshall says: "Had the insurrection been successful, he would have been honoured and remembered as a patriot, instead of being stigmatized as a rebel and punished as a traitor".

Marshall had even compared this revolt with that of the Scots and says: "The Scots adopted the mode of guerilla warfare fighting in bigger and smaller groups where and when they could, which is what the Kandyan rebels also did.

In some respects Keppetipola's fate was similar to Sir William Wallace ... He was found guilty and condemned to death.

After being dragged to the usual place of execution at the tails of horses, he was hanged on a high gallows ... after which his bowels were being taken out while he yet breathed and burnt before his face, his head was struck off and his body hacked into quarters. His right arm was set up at New Castle, his left at Berwick".

Marshall was full of sympathy for the rebels for he adds in his book: "The Kandyans of all grades dislike the British, since the conquerors differing in race, religion, language, customs, habits and modes of thinking, the British rule could not but be for a long time highly unpalatable to them".

Keppetipola and Madugalla at their request, were taken before the High Priest of the Temple of the Tooth Relic, Kandy, on the morning of November 25, 1818. Keppetipola told him that his last wish was to be re-born in the Himalayas and attain Nirvana.

Meanwhile Madugalla was struggling and begging for mercy and had to be dragged away by the soldiers. Keppetipola faced the execution first and it is said that he nonchalantly tied his hair in a knot lest it became entangled in the blade.

While he was reciting stanzaas from a bana book (Buddhist prayer book) he was decapitated and the severed head was placed on his chest. Madugalla was hysterical and had to be helped upto the gallows. He was unable even to tie up his hair and begged that he should be dispatched with only one blow, but it took two blows.

Marshall took charge of Keppetipola's skull and later gave it to the Phrenological Society of Edinburgh. At the request of the Ceylon Government after Ceylon attained independence in 1948, the skull was returned and on 26th November, 1954, was ceremoniously interred in the memorial tower erected to him on the Kandy esplanade.

When their gallant leader was captured and condemned to death, disaster struck the whole of the Uva-Wellassa regions, which were dotted with so many villages. A wave of unmerciful arrests followed his capture and death. Innocent victims were entangled in the coils of monstrous laws. Pandemonium reigned throughout the countryside.

In mortal fear of their lives, some villagers drawn from the revolt torn villages, living in the hamlets in Wellassa areas, fled with their families young and old into the surrounding jungles seeking asylum amidst the Uva hills.

These jungle refugees were trembling in fear and they found haven in rock caves amidst huge boulders in dense jungles as the dreadful thought lurked in them, that the ruthless British rulers would follow their spoor in thirst for vengeance.