MUSINGS:

Names etched on Sigiri mirror wall

by Padma Edirisinghe

Swasthi! Bathimi Leemi
Hail! I am Bathee! I wrote this!
                  Source - Sigiri graffiti

In the monumental work, Sigiri Graffiti authored by that great scholar, Dr. S. Paranavithana I came across in the appendix of Volume 1 a list of place names and personal names that existed between the 8th and 10th Centuries when poets and a handful poetesses and even aesthetic inclined monks and possibly even royalty inscribed lines in appreciation of the ravishing Sigiri beauties plus other facets of this edifice. Appendix C carries the list of place names mentioned.

Sigiriya rock fortress.  Pix by Tithira Edirisinghe

In the context of the present interest of tracing the original Sinhala place names of the East and the North, I found verse 230 particularly interesting where a visitor from Kokila gives his name after his poetic impressions as follows,

“Pesili Kitala Malage kokele Devami “which Dr. Paranavithana explains as follows, “I am Kokile Deva of the house of Pesili Kitala Mala”. He goes on to say that of the personal names Kokela Deva and Pesili Kitala Mala the first members are doubtless the names of the places after which the individuals had been called”.

Batha seems to have been a very popular name. Many Bathas or Bathees come from different provinces of the island to admire the Sigiri landscape and its beauties on whom their creative powers just gush on the Gallery Wall. Bathee is not the female form of Batha but gets transformed from Batha with the nourishment of a vowel for formalized sentence construction.

Eastern

“Swasthi ! Batheemi leemi” “Hail! I am Batha who wrote this”. Some Bathas carry prefixes. Meyal Batha comes from Eastern province like Sri Udayan (of very modern times who got even prisoned for her naughty scribblings and earned even more publicity for a Presidential pardon), while Samanala Batha comes from Northern province and Mital Batha from Godagambu and Dalmal Bathi from the monastery of Mahanapatu. Just as a good number of the gee are anonymous some of those who inscribe their names on the rock do not place their “addresses”. It is resonant of the now running film, “Address naa” (No address) of Jackson Anthony. To this addressless category belong Senel Batee, Salamei Bathee, Mihindal Bathee, Nal Bathee, Piyal Bathee, Kamala Batha, Kital Batha and Sang Bathee.

Agboy is another common name. Sometimes it is spelt as Agbo. And these Agbos too come from various provinces. Dr.Paranavithana in the introduction to this list of personal names makes things very precise by placing the letter F against feminine names.

Out of feminine interest I sieved them out and was disappointed to come across in a list of poets of around 600 only these females ie., Deva, Mahamata ambu V 152, Dayal Batee V 122, Nal Himiambu V 543, Sen-bati V 400,Sevu ,Nidalu Mihid ambu V 41,Sev Kala, Uturu ambu 247 Selu ambu 681 b. We see that five out of these take care to present themselves as the wives of So & So. Sela ambu’s verse follows that of her husband’s which means that they were a literary couple which implies that not only were our women literate as early as the 8 th C but had no qualms in following literary pursuits along with her partner.

Names

What is very striking about these names ,both male and female is their non-exotic aspect. Very short and simple names. Only one Shri occurs. A Shri Harsha. Even the names of monks are very terse.

The learned author calls them friars and the monasteries, convents. A sample of names of lay men who turned into Scribblers on Sigiri is given below- Uda, Ojal, Kasub,Kit, Kola,Tisa, Dala,Deva, Manal,Miti, Vijur,Siri, Sen, .The list of very simple female names given above as Deva,Dayal, Nal,Sev Kala are so distant from present female names not only in time but in the exotic aspect.

These are some of the names of monks - Ananda pavijja, Nuga thera (Palavatu veheren), Budmit pavijja, Boy pavijja, Mahadeva pavijja ,Sirina paviji of Taralpa pirivena , Riyan Sena pavijja and Sen Pavijja and Upatis himi of Kapugal pirivena. Compare these names with the names of the present Buddhist clergy that run into lines. Anyway these were all sight-seeing and touring monks who did not fear to dwell on the physical beauty of the Sigiri damsels.

They enjoyed what they saw and like The Sandesha monk-poets were bold enough to burst into poetry on them.. But according to some Gee the beauty of some of the frescoed females was already fading with time.

Most of the visitors seem to have come from Ruhuna while a few have come from Eastern and Northern province(Uturu pasa).Only two seem to have come from Pela pedesa or Western province. In Appendix C that lists place names the author refers to a visitor come from Kivisi 574 ,562 and states that this name is still called Kibissa. It is a village very near Sigiriya itself, that has carried its name for 1200 years. Another visitor come all the way from distant Valigam which according to the author is modern Weligama near Matara.

There are also sightseers from Vadunna bima(vadunna reservoir ), Ritgal(Ritigala) and Sagama (in Kandy district).Salagala, Siripura. and Mahagama (modern Tissamaharama). Verse 184 has been written by a tourist from Kobala, which the author identifies as modern Kombala in the Galle district. Poets from Polonnaru and Abhayagiri Vehera in Anuradhapura too have contributed to the poetic extravaganza of Sigiri. augmenting the architectural extravanganza initiated by king Kasyapa in the 5 th Century.

Capital

What delayed the Sigiri scribblings as late as the 8 th Century? Perhaps the unfortunate events staged in the 18 years of Kasyapa’s reign made the place inauspicious as a palace and the successors beginning with Mugalan went back to the traditional capital while the fortress Palace and the 500 Ranwan and Nilwan beauties and odes sung to them were forgotten.

Then somewhere in the 8 th C the sightseeing trail would have begun by a few members of a highly civilized race that in the British Parliament of the 19 th C was labeled as a semi-civilized race who had to be white washed and converted to Xtianity for advancement!