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| Sunday, 28 July 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Sel Lipi: Places and Auras One day, says a Sinhalese tale, a basket-maker went to the jungle to cut canes. There he saw a jackal chasing a hare. The hare arrived at a certain rock, turned back and chased the jackal. The basket-maker reported this incident to the King, who built near this rock the temple of Natha. The town that sprang up around it was named after the rock, Senkadagala (Rock of Tranquillity). And it was at this place, in the heart of Kandy, where the Temple of the Tooth was also constructed. Kandy seems to have had a certain auspicious feel about it, which prompts the question: do places have auras, either good or bad? Places like Benares or Jerusalem or Mecca, or our own Adam's Peak are considered holy and people generally have a good feeling about them. On the other hand, the bogs and marshes of Europe were thought to be the haunts of evil spirits and are not very pleasant to be in, especially in winter or at night. William of Normandy built his White Tower in London to overawe his newly conquered English subjects. To this day it is a place of ill-repute, its most famous denizens having been the princes done to death within its precincts by their uncle, Richard III. Conversely, Westminster was where the English King summoned the representatives of the commons to work out their differences and hammer out their laws in 'the Mother of Parliaments'. Aura again, it seems. Now, about the time that Senkadagala was being founded, Alagakkonara constructed a water-girt fortress - which he named Sri Jayawardhana Kotte - which in time became the Capital of Lanka, probably the most celebrated in verse of the island's cities. Years later, the Portuguese arrived and allied themselves with the then Kings of Kotte in their dynastic struggles. A garrison of Lusitanian troops was maintained within its ramparts. These warriors were fond of wines and spirits, which were not looked upon with favour by the authorities. So their commanders picked an island, in the Diyawannawa lake that formed one of the moats of this jala-dhurga, and sent their licentious soldiery thither to drink and brawl to their hearts' content. Later, Rajasinghe I chased the Portuguese out of Kotte and the city fell into decline. The island (called, most imaginatively, 'Doowa' - island) later became a poultry farm where the cockerels fought as fiercely amongst each other as had their predecessors, the chivalry of Lisbon and Oporto. When President Jayawardene decided to restore Kotte to its former glory as Capital, the place that was picked for housing the supreme legislative assembly of this island was not the site of the Royal Palace at Maligawa Road, nor any of the other auspicious spots in the mediaeval capital. The place that was chosen for building Parliament was Doowa, that island of bata-guti and kukul-pora. Whether there is an aura about this island, too, those readers who witnessed, read about or heard about the scenes within its hallowed shores on the 24 July are free to draw their own conclusions. |
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