ANCIENT CITIES - SRI LANKA

Five centuries before Christ, Sri Lanka was a land, throbbing with vitality and a well-ordered civilization.

Cities, palaces, reservoirs and parks, temples, mon

asteries, monuments and works of art bore testament to the character, imagination, culture, philosophy and faith of the Sri Lankan peopl

e, the Resplendent Land. Vestiges of this ancient civilization are abundantly extant today and may

be researched from Colombo in a comfortable morning’s drive through verdant country side, flourishing green paddy fields, acres of c

oconut palms and alongside deep jungle in which elephant and leopard

roam.

Recorded history emerges from the mists sometime after the advent of Sinhala, apparently before the 5^th century B.C. These were it is believe

d, a North Indian people of Aryan ancestry, who settled first in the north-central plains and raised in the Island an agricultural elite whose feats of irrigation excite wonder to this day and founded a system of government th

at proved viable for more than two thousand years.

By the middle of 3^rd century BC, the fame of the capital, Anuradhapura, was known as far abroad as the Mediterranean. Less than three centuries later a Sinhala trade delegation was presenting its credentials in Rome to Claudius Caesar, and Pliny, the Elder spoke with th

em. Three centuries after that as far-flung a connec

tion had been established eastwards, with China.

In 247 BC occurred the greatest single event in Sri Lankan hist

ory, when through the missionary labors of the monk Mahi

nda, son of Buddhist Emperor Asoka of India, the

Island’s king, court and commoners were converted to Buddhism. In Sri Lanka this pristine religion found a permanent home and for Buddhists everywhere the Island became a place of especial sanctity, a repository

of holy relic, orthodox doctrine and a goal

of pilgrimage.

About the same period began the Dravidian invasions w

hich for a thousand five hundred years were to fall upon the Island in wave after wave. While the country absorbed much of the Hindu culture and all of the Hindu people these invasions left behind, it remained a Buddhist rule.

Under the Dravidian pressure, however, the capital, after having survived in Anuradhapura up to the 10^th century, had to be withdrawn again and again: to Polonnaruwa, to the rocky forest around Kurunegala, to Kotte near Colombo, finally to the Kandyan hills whrere the Sinhala Kingdom made its last stand.

ANURADHAPURA

128 miles from Colombo is Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka’s first capital founded about 4^th century BC. According to Mahavansa, the Sinhala Buddhist chronicle, the city was a mod

el of planning. Precincts were set aside for huntsmen and scavengers and even heretics

and foreigners . There were hostels and hospitals, separate cemeteries for high and low castes. A water supply was assured by the construction of reservoirs.

Anuradhapura was to continue for six hu

ndred years as the national capital. But internecine struggles the royal succession grew, and it became more and more vulnerable to the pressures of South Indian political expansions. The city was finally abandoned and the capita

l withdrawn to more secluded areas.

But the monument of Anuradhapura’s heydays survive, surrounded by the solemn umbrage of trees, scion of ancient parkland.

MIHINTALE

Over 7 miles of Anurad

hapura is Mihintale regarded as the cradle of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The rock is riddled with shrines and rock dwellings. A grand stairway of 1,840 steps m

ade of granite slabs 15” wide, leads to the summit, from where one could get a splendid view of the surrounding countryside.

POLONNARUWA

135 miles (216km) from Colombo and south east of Anuradhapura is the island’s medieval capital. When early in the 11^th century AD Anuradhapura suffered one of the worst of its many Indian invasions. Polonnaruwa became the next seat of rule. Today’s ruins, however, belong almost exclusively to the reigns of two kings. The city in its day was fortified with three concentric walls, beautified with parks and gardens and sanctified by many a shrine and sacred places.

The city it self, as well as the surrounding plain was watered by unique irrigation complex known as the Sea of Parakrama (Parakrama Samudra) so vast was its scale.

SIGIRIYA

Sigiriya was no mere fortress, gloomy and forbidding. At the brief height of its glory- it was a royal citadel for more than 18 years, from 477 to 495 AD and one of the loveliest that have graced this land.

There are many interpretations of the Sigiriya period, history replete with legend, love and betrayal. But one story remains, the story of Kasyapa (477-495 AD) itc creator, King with an artist’s soul. Bards have written about him and plays and films tried to capture his personality.

Kasyapa left Anuradhapura and built for himself at Sigiriaya, a palace and city modeled on the mythical abode of ‘Kuvera’ God of Wealth. He gave form to his dreams of grandeur. Eighteen years later, his half- brother Moggallan challenged with his army. By one of those momentary mistakes of judgment that changes the course of history, Kasyapa thought he was alone in the battle, raised his dagger and slew himself.

In a sheltered pocket on the western face of the Sigiriya rock, approached by a spiral stairway, are the famous frescoes. Epigraphical evidence refers to the existence of 500 such portraits, but only 19 remain today.

On the western and northern sides of the steep rock face runs a gallery of pathway which provides access to pathway is a 9 ½ ft plaster wall, so highly polished that even today. After 15 centuries of exposure to sun, wind and rain, one can see one’s reflection in it. So it called “the mirror wall”.

There are Graffiti writings on that polished wall written by visitors to the rock in the past. The rock is about nearly three acres. There are ruins of gardens, ponds, paleces on the top of the rock. And the underground drain system is amazing.

DAMBULLA

Dambulla is about 12 miles away from Sigiriya. It is an isolated rock about 500ft tall. There is famous Rangiri Dambullu Viharaya. A rock-temple built in 1^st century BC. There are five main cave shrines. Any one can see the beautiful landscape from the top of the rock. It’s hypnotizing.

YAPAHUWA

Yapahuwa is an ancient fortress. It was the capital city in 1301 AD as well. It built on a rock about 300ft high. It is also an unbelievable creation of ancient Sri Lankan architects.