As students we were familiar with the Atlas, which is a collection of various maps of the earth or a specific region on the earth. The Atlas helps one to locate a place, and is important in the study of Geography.
When I came across the Atlas of History I was quite interested. When I opened the book I was mesmerized. History is something which never stops at a point, but moves with time. With the moving history faces, features, landscape, structures, nature and everything change. After a lapse of time one would not see anything as was seen sometime ago. It is nearly impossible to map history. Historical books such as Deepawamsa, Mahawamsa and Chulawamsa are mostly contemporary records of history. But recording history with a map and a photograph after several millenniums is a near impossibility. The Atlas of History is a first in that sense.
Sarathchandra Jayawardana’s Atlas of History contains a brief description of events and civilizations. When we studied History in school and in the University we hardly had a clue of the locations. That gap is filled by this Atlas, which explains an event, a place, a civilization, with a map and a picture.
Jayawardana, in his book has located the place where an event took place. History always comes in volumes. But one can grasp the history in a few minutes through the Atlas of History. The Atlas of History provides a clear picture of the rise and fall of world empires and old civilizations. It starts with the origin of the Solar System and the Earth. Jayawardana has covered the history of several millenniums with the origin of the Solar System and the Earth, the evolution of man, rise and fall of empires and the whole history of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in just 108 pages with brief write-ups, pictures, maps and illustrations in a simple language mustering his long experience and skills. Atlas is produced in a user friendly manner and the author has highlighted a few difficulties encountered. He says certain names of places have changed over and over. Features, landscape, land marks have changed. The author had to recreate the events and rebuild the history and depict it through an Atlas. Yet, he has produced the Atlas with minimum distortions.
The Atlas is focused on students and teachers. The Atlas is useful to historians as well as non historians. It is a snapshot of the long winding History.
- Chandrasena Maliyadde