A book titled, “Maha Nuwara Yugaye Apprakata Viththi”, written by Chamikara Pilapitiya has been published by Neptune Publications (Pte) Ltd. and will be available for sale in August 2018. The book, the title of which translates to “Little Known Facts of the Kandyan Period” is an impressive two-volume publication (“PalawanaVeluma” and “Devana Veluma”) containing over 500 illustrations.
Some illustrations are being made public for the first time; among the illustrations are pictures of the oldest Sri Lankan gun dating back to 1580, the largest “Kodituwakku” in the country, the gun of King Rajasinghe II and the oldest cannon used by the Sinhalese army dating back to the 1700s.
There is also a picture of a gun of Sri Lankan origin called the “King of All Guns” which is now in a museum in the USA.
Other illustrations include, battle maps and sketches which have not been previously published. Two such interesting ones are a picture from the Netherlands dating from 1766, of the Kandyan army on parade and a map of the City of Kandy drawn by the Dutch during the invasion in 1765. According to the author, the book is the culmination of more than 10 years of research. The research is based on manuscripts available locally and from sources abroad and considered as the primary sources used in this research. The main focus is on the facts extracted from them.
Some contents in the book would be truly fascinating to readers. Among them are the horoscopes of King Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe, His Queen Rengammal, Ehelepola Kumarihamy, and Veera Puran Appu. Also in the publication are details of the history of the Sangakkara family.
Taking yet another interesting turn, the book also has a chapter on “Nittevo”- considered as a kind of primitive man or ape believed to have been exterminated by the Veddas about 250 years ago.
Although this is to be considered as an academic or scholarly piece of work, the author has attempted to keep the language simple and easy for the general readership, while maintaining its academic nature. The final result is a work expected to be a reference work that will stimulate interest in this kind of research and function as a source-book for future researchers. It is also expected that any general reader will find it interesting, stimulating and a pleasure to read.
The author Chamikara Pilapitiya, through his family links, appears to be very well placed to execute this kind of research since a substantial portion of the sources are not accessible without the right credentials.
A former rugger player and a keen rider and driver in motor sports, Chamikara has in the past decade devoted all the time he could spare from his current occupation in the tea trade and family commitments to this research.
The book is packed with such a large amount of researched detail that it would not be a surprise if this triggers many others to research their own areas of interest, keeping this book as a foundation.
The book will be launched on Aug.3 at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute by Chamikara Pilapitiya