History is deceptive. It is often written by the victor and the loser gets belittled, oftentimes without a voice to defend his position. And, as time goes by, the generations to come will continue to look down upon the loser, mostly because all the available evidence provided by the victor, says so.
The Sunday Observer visits this story because of a single element, the death of a bamboo tree. It is the tree, according to stories, that brought the death of Seethawaka Rajasinghe, a king that history doesn’t speak of kindly, in a kingdom that history has chosen to forget. This is the story of Pethangoda, Ruwanwella and Maniyangama, where people still believe that their king, Rajasinghe Deviyo, was unjustly portrayed in history.
The Bamboo Tree that changed history
There is a Sinhala saying that translates into English as, bamboo, and banana trees blossom to face their destruction. The bamboo tree that brought the fatal end to King Rajasinghe has blossomed and is in its last phase of life, though the saplings surrounding the mother tree show that the next generation of the tree has taken its roots.
Rani Batangala and her husband live next to the park, and have taken it upon themselves to look after the tree. “But flowers started blooming on it and that was an indication that the tree was going to die.” According to Batangala, it was in the early 1990s that the Archaeology Department has taken the tree under its protection, but even by then the ancient tree had died and what was available was a sapling of it. Batangala said, once a visitor cut off a branch of the bamboo tree as a souvenir, and was consequently arrested and fined Rs. 25,000.
What is visible today is only a few yards of land from what must have been a mighty garden, but those lands have been sold and bought and villages established. The villagers claim, by the bamboo tree there used to be a small canal flowing from Gurugoda Oya, and the King opted to stop by the shade, returning from battle.
Snake bite
The folk stories narrate that the Bamboo shoot was poisonous, and the King had his apothecary in Pethangoda, who was called upon to tend to his wounds. W. Gunathileka still practices traditional medicine he learnt from his father, and comes from the family of apothecary who was summoned to tend to King Rajasinghe. “It was not the bamboo tree that killed the king, but a snake bite,” he said, and explained that in traditional medicine, snake bites are never directly mentioned due to various beliefs that poison will not get cured. “I’ve heard that when my ancestor went to the King, he pointed his finger at the bamboo tree, though many interpreted it to be the bamboo shoot, the King could have tried to say that it was a snake in the bamboo tree that bit him. He could not be cured, and died on the way to his palace, but they also say, there is black magic involved,” Gunathileka said.
Black magic
Another famous story in the area is about King Rajasinghe being fascinated by a young beauty, the daughter of Dodampe Ganithaya, who was betrothed to marry the King’s grandson, Rajasuriya. Ganithaya considered the King’s behaviour as an insult and cursed him, when he was bit by the snake, so that the poison couldn’t be removed from his body, Gunathilake said. “There was no time to break the curse.”
A resident of Maniyangama, close to King Rajasinghe’s palace, a history enthusiast and a retired marriage registrar, I.D.A.P. Dhanapala said, another version is that Rajasuriya hid behind the bamboo tree and attacked the King. Nevertheless, the King was wounded and the wound couldn’t be cured; he was buried in Thalduwa, along with the medicinal boat he was treated in.
Historical counterpoint
There is no doubt that King Rajasinghe was a fearsome warrior as the saying goes, “even the King of Portugal feared him”. Many historians believe, he kept the Portuguese at bay, preventing them from entering further into the country. There have been songs written about the brave Prince Tikiri, or King Rajasinghe, surrounded by his angampora fighters, who fought and won the Mulleriyawa battle. But, the Mulleriyawa battle is forgotten in history, and King Rajasinghe was branded as a slayer of his father, a murderer, who also killed a large number of Buddhist monks.
Maniyangama Raja Maha Viharaya was Prince Tikiri’s school. The head monk Sitinamaluwe Dharmapala Thero who wrote a book (the book, originally written on palmyrah leaves, has been reproduced and printed) defending the King’s position after the latter died, and as negative rumours spread. Chief incumbent of the temple Ambanwala Hemalankara Thera said, systematic steps had been taken to eradicate the good, brave work done by King Rajasinghe. “To start with, Mulleriyawa has never been known for the great victory we won against the Portuguese, but for the establishment of a hospital for the mentally disabled.”
He explained that with the Mulleriyawa battle, Seethawaka Rajasinghe prevented the Portuguese from taking the easy route towards Kandy and restricted them to the coastal area. “We forget that he was the King of the country, and that the King in Kandy too came south to pay his respects. But, the Seethawaka era is never mentioned as a separate era in history books.”
There are many who do not believe that King Rajasinghe intentionally killed his father. The story says, he was playing in the field, practising, when King Mayadunne sneaked behind to watch his son practise with the sword, and died when a stroke fell on him accidentally. Hemalankara thera said, King Rajasinghe repented this till he died, and built many temples to seek forgiveness. The monks he assassinated were the ones who were spies for the Portuguese, he said, and that the King never harmed any monks who lived at the Maniyangama temple because there was no reason to do so.
Dhanapala agreed with the Thero and said, there are many Kings in Sri Lankan history who intentionally killed their fathers to become king, but do not suffer the way King Rajasinghe suffers in history. He was a brave king who made sure that the foreign invaders were not tolerated, and for that, the foreigners branded him a bad person, and that story lived.
Pix: Sudath Nishantha