Yatagiyaawe Yata Giya Than - History brought out of Distortion : W. S. Bandara

This is about a book where the author looks at our history from a fresh viewpoint much removed from the general outlook, and attempts to analyse the same with clear, incisive reasoning and brings forth historical vistas that contrast sharply with the ‘accepted’ interpretations, and explains as to why they had to be so.

Mr W. S. Bandara, the author of this extraordinary book gives it the bold title of “Yatagiyaawe Yata Giya Than – Ithihaasaya Vikurthiyen Prakurthiyata”, which could be loosely translated as “Obscure Vignettes of the Distant Past – History brought out of Distortion”. As the title itself implies, the author has been bold enough to challenge the “accepted” interpretations of our history that are generally based on information gleaned from Chronicles, anecdotal stories, folklore, and archaeological findings. What makes this book outstanding is the effort taken by the author to critically analyse these very same sources of information and arrive at his own interpretations. It is interesting to observe how the author uncovers a hidden -or overlooked- aspect of a particular event of our history by the force of his elucidative argument and brings forth compelling evidence to substantiate his point of view while gently exhorting the reader to think anew.

Beliefs can never take the place of truth
The Book makes for an extremely interesting read. The author maintains that a belief can never stand for the truth, and as such, a belief has to be promptly brought under the thorough scrutiny of reason for the truth to be established by facts; a student of history should therefore diligently look for those facts without taking to the easier path of often travelled trails of history laid down in the Chronicles.

A clear thread of reasoning runs right through the book. The author questions why Chronicles gave preference to Vijaya’s story over the legend that is even depicted in Ajantha paintings, and why Chronicles gave short shrift to certain kings, and also why some of the notable deeds of kings were curiously overlooked while some mediocre activities received lavish attention. He discusses at length the eternal power struggle between the clans of Moriyas and Lambakarnas and the inconsistent attitude adopted by the Maha Viharaya towards them. He conjectures why the reciprocal support that existed some times between South Indian kingdoms and Sri Lanka turned to hostility at certain junctures.

Why Sri Lanka should be called Ceylon
Author submits a strong case as to why Sri Lanka should not be called Sri Lanka but Ceylon. He traces, as proof, the roots of the word Ceylon much past the recent colonial past into deeper ancient history. Another interesting chapter examines how some Sinhala place names changed overtime to their Tamil forms, how some were absurdly linked to Ramayana legend, and even how some were distorted into meaninglessness.

Articles on the spread of Mahayanism, the extent of our foreign relations, and the enviable place we occupied in ancient history demonstrated by the oversized Taprobane in Ptolemy’s 2nd century map deserve our special attention. Whether coconut could have come to Sri Lanka from Polynesia along with some common Sinhala words whose origin cannot still be explained shows the colourful spectrum of subjects that has come under the author’s purview.

Author’s view on Sigiriya
The author identifies the famous Sigiriya Damsels and cites as evidence a verse from Sigiri Graffiti. This is a clear example of how historians could fail to see the forest for the trees.

While the basic emphasis of this book is on our history, the author has not forgotten the common people of that bygone era, their taste, and their ability to appreciate nature which made me reflect sadly on the present state of affairs especially the current taste evinced by our media. The influence of the Buddhist doctrine on the lives of our people as opposed to the role played by popular Buddhism later on in our society is also underscored in several places.

Truly a hidden gem
This book should have stirred up a veritable hornet's nest but all I could hear is silence. Except for the buzz generated by some past pupils of Richmond College, Galle, where the author had taught for long years, highlighting the book and its author, and except for a lonely online bookstore that has put up the images of this book which are shown here, there is hardly any mention of this valuable book in the whole of the vast World Wide Web. It is indeed a pity that such a scholarly effort could be so very well hidden in this information age. It is almost by accident that I came across this book and bought it out of curiosity without realizing the value of it – Truly a hidden gem.

As you can see from the title and accompanying images, this book is written in Sinhala and reasonably priced at about Rs 300.00, and available online too for under $5. I wish the author or publisher would take steps to translate this to English and make the ideas available to the whole world. Lack of well deserved publicity or narrow language barriers should not keep this gem hidden from the world.

Book Review : Verajay