Story of gallantry and treachery

Matale 160 years ago:

By C.JAYAWARDANE

Wariyapola Estate is in the village of Kohombiliwela and borders the A9 about one kilometre to the south of Matale. The huge banyan tree, the kovil and the wafting aura of suburbia all belie the horrendous bloodbath that took place around here 160 years ago.

It all happened during the morning hours of July 29, 1848, when a motley crowd of about 4500 crudely armed peasants were presumably heading for Kandy which was truly a fait accompli. Around the Wariyapola Estate, about fifty peasants were shot down, an equal number were taken prisoner and hundreds were wounded by captain Lillie Dalziel and his company of 220 soldiers.

The company had been ordered out the previous night by the Commandant of Kandy at the behest of the Government Agent Buller and Sampson Waring, Police Magistrate of Matale who, along with the Police stationed there had been driven out by Puranappu’s men.

The Matale Rebellion was thus weakened with a single action. The only British casualty was a soldier wounded at Wariyapola. Lillie and his men had marched along the old cart road from Kandy to Matale the previous night. The old cart road roughly coincided with the present rail road; the present A9 having been built much later, consequent upon the conversion of the old cart road into the present rail road in 1899.

The semi-circular monolith half buried near the banyan tree says it all in 13 words, though there is much hidden between the lines. The inscription which turns out to be an epitaph in the end, reads thus:

WARIYAPOLA

REBELS DISPERSED HERE BY TROOPS UNDER CAPT LILLIE C. R. R. 29 JULY 1848 ERECTED IN 1909 BY ???

A Thomas MacLachlan or a MacBuldjana from Wariyapola Estate would have erected it 61 years later, to glorify Lillie or through a mere desire to record history. The rock cave supposed to have been used by Puranappu and Gongalegoda is close to the Lillie memorial.

The road which borders the Kovil crosses the rail road and a temple into an open area and ends abruptly. The cave is on the high ground to the left coffee bushes growing here in the wild evoke memories of the great era of “King Coffee” 170 years ago.The losses in terms of human life was about 250 shot or hanged during the uprising.

After the massacre at Wariyapola, Matale was garrisoned by 110 Malay soldiers of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment under Capt. Albert Watson, who later became known as the “Butcher of Matale”. Many more were imprisoned for life, banished, flogged in public or just tortured.

The Ven. Kudapola Sri Rahula, better known as “Kudapola Unnanse” was put before a firing squad in his holy robes, symbolizing a murder most foul.Watson was the man who, along with Capt. William Fisher discovered Horton Plains on March 28, 1834, whilst out elk hunting. He played a leading role in the suppression at Matale. He was 45 then. His conduct therein formed the questions, debates and committees in Parliament in London.

The report of the Commission was unfavourable to him while the court-martial freed him. Capt. MacDonald Henderson who unsuccessfully went after Gongalegoda at Wariyapola and retrieved pieces of his pPalanquin, later wrote a book on the Rebellion, which was a severe indictment on Watson, Secretary Tennent and Torrington. However he supported Waring who was made to retire for not making a stand at Matale.

Watson later served in Galle as the Police Superintendent and retired from the Ceylon Rifles as a Lt. Colonel.

The son of a retired General, he died on November 12, 1896 and lies buried at Mahaiyawa Cemetery in a more dignified manner than the gallant rebels whose graves in and around Matale and Kurunegala lie uncommemorated.

Sampson Waring who retired on October 1, 1848, died on February 28, 1856, aged 60. He too lies buried at Kandy Garrison Cemetery, no doubt honoured in a fitting manner.

His wife Henrietta who died on January 20, 1872 at 66, keeps him company nearby. the ignominy of seeing the mounded graves of our fallen ancestors who fought against heavy odds, leaves all Sri Lankan sashamed indeed.

The peasants in the hills rose against an oppressive ruler who violated the Kandyan Convention of 1815, signed between Brownrigg and his local lackeys, who had by then embraced Victorian values.

Queen Victoria’s British Empire was at its zenith. The Indian Mutiny was yet to come.

British Premier Lord John Russel appointed his cousin Viscount Torrington as Governor of Ceylon in 1847. He was an arrogant, hot-tempered and tactless 35 year old man with no political or administrative experience. He was the only one who owed his appointment to influence and one of only two Governors recalled due to mismanagement. The other one was Chalmers (1913-1916).

A budget deficit resulted due to the coffee slump of 1846, and to make up for it Torrington introduced new taxes for dogs, guns, boats and carts.

The road tax required every inhabitant to work six days per year on road construction or pay three shillings in lieu. The villagers were only too happy with jungle paths and regarded the new tax as being a luxury meant for European planters.This was the backdrop in which about 5000 villagers from all parts gathered before GA Buller in Kandy on July 6, 1848. to protest. They came with their dogs in tow!

When the crowd turned restive superintendent Colepepper’s policemen were a spent force and the troops of the 15th Regiment dispersed the peasants without causing harm. The villagers fled leaving their dogs and ran helter-skelter. The history of the city of Kandy records July 6, 1848 as the “Day of the Canines”!

No Sinhalese can read stories of uprisings against the British without a deep sense of humiliation due the ever present treachery and intrigue of the hills. Unlike in 1818 the leadership of the 1848 uprising fell upon ordinary men from the low country like Puranappu and Gongalegoda.

Even today many people believe and regret that the massacre at Wariyapola Estate was the handwork of one of the locals, reminiscent of the betrayal of 1815. at dawn on July 29, Capt. Henderson of the 15th Regiment received accurate intelligence on rebel movements from a local source when the troops were at Ballacaduwa Rest House.

This helped Lillie to be at the right place at the right time to surprise and rout Puranappu at the Wariyapola Coffee Estate on that fateful day. May all Sri Lankans salute the memory of the unsung heroes of Matale, Kurunegala and elsewhere and show gratitude to these brave men and perpetuate their memory for all time.!