Do you live in a Doova or Thuduwa

by Sumana Saparamadu

What is the name of your home town or home village? What does the name mean? Have you ever given any thought to it? Every place name in Sri Lanka has a meaning, although it may be forgotten now. The meanings of the majority of names are easily explained.

Place names in Sri Lanka usually have two sections. The second part tells us what the land was like when the first families settled down. It may have been an open field, a pitiya such as your kreeda pitiya (playground) or a garden or cultivated land, a watta, or a stretch of beach, a wella.

The first part tells us more about that field, garden or stretch of beach. So, we have Hunupitiya and Puwakpitiya, Polwatta and Kurunduwatta and Dikwella and Kaluwella.

Are any of you readers living in a town or village with a name ending in doova, like Taldoova or Dodandoova (spelt Talduwa, Dodanduwa on name boards), or a name ending in thuduwa like Beirathuduwa?

If the name ends in doova, it is an island. At one time that village or town was an isle, a small island in a river or a lake; it may still be an island, if the stretch of water separating it from the mainland has not been filled up with sediment.

There are numerous villages and town in the Galle district with names ending in doova. This is a district with many lakes and rivers, viz. Koggala lake Gin ganga, Madu ganga and their tributaries. Starting from the east of Galle, there is Habaraduwa, Dodanduwa, Pinnaduwa (the Southern entrance to the Expressway), Walahanduwa, Imaduwa, Labaduwa, Kahaduwa. I have spelt the names the way they are spelt on name boards.

The Kalutara district too has many doovas, mostly in the Bolgoda lake, Wadduwa is near Kalutara on the Galle Road. Recently I read in a newspaper that the original name of the place was Vedadoova - island of physicians. Malidoova and Pitadoova are in the Matara district.

There are a few other doovas outside these districts. Talduwa is near Avissavella and Makuludoova near Piliyandala both in the Colombo district. Seeduwa and Veveldoova are in the Gampaha district and Naachadoova far away in the Anuradhapura district.

Your friends and relations may be living in other doovas. Try to recall them.

Thuduwa

What is thuduwa? It is a narrow stretch of land jutting into a lake, river or sea. The thuduwas, which are northern most point in Sri Lanka and Southern most point in Sri Lanka are the best known thuduwas - Peduru thuduwa and Devundara tuduwa. Point Pedro and Dondra Head. Thuduwa is both 'point' and 'head' in English.

The other thuduwas that come to my mind are Heiyanthuduwa near Kelaniya, Beiratuduwa near Balapitiya, Kahathuduwa and Kiriwaththuduwa near Homagama/Piliyandala. Raigamthuduwa and Bellanthuduwa are both jutting into the Bolgoda lake. Place names ending in thuduwa are not as common as those ending in doova.