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| Kotte:
The kingdom in the capital Photographs of old Kotte will be on display at the last of the Wednesday Exhibits on Sri Lanka's ancient kingdoms presented by Studio Times Ltd. These will feature alongside other images of the Mayarata; Kandy, Yapahuwa and Dambadeniya, as well as examples of landscape, lifestyle and wildlife photography. The Wednesday Exhibit, an exhibition of Photographs of Sri Lanka presented by Studio Times Ltd, 16/1 Skelton Road, Colombo 5 will be open from Wednesday, November 24 to Saturday, November 27 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. A boy runs across a playing field and picks up a ball near an entrance to a secret tunnel, residents open their windows onto royal tombs hundreds of years old, a three-wheeler speeds across and over a fortress's moat... Sri Jayawardenapura, Kotte may today be the thriving capital of this island, but like almost every other place on this land it has not escaped a touch of ancient history. The area that is now Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte was once known as Daarugama or Daragama. Legend has it that as far back as 2357 B.C. Daarugama was one of the places to which the great King Ravana took his beautiful captive, Sita to confuse her husband Rama as to her whereabouts. After a huge gap in history, Daarugama, in the mid-14th century AD, emerged as Kotte, a fortress built by Nissanka Alakeswara, the famous viceroy of King Vikramabahu III and later of King Buvenakabahu V. Alakeswara originally hailed from Conjeevaram, the Chola capital but had married a Sinhalese princess - a practice which was not in the least unusual at the time. The biggest problem facing the weakened Sinhala kingdoms of the day were the threats posed by the Tamil kingdom of the North, ruled by Arya Chakravarthi. Alakeswara saw the potential of Daarugama as a fortress, surrounded as it was by the Diyawanna Oya and thousands of acres of marshy land. According to historical sources, Alakeswara set his engineers working on the fortress, first sinking a great moat and then building a solid wall around Daarugama. There were the usual iron spikes, watch towers, traps and secret passages. On the corners were temples to the guardian deities. Having filled Kotte with a great populace, Alakeswara prepared for his confrontation with Chakravarthi and provoked him to attack. Chakravarthi did so with gusto, attacking the Sinhala kingdom at Gampola, in the north of the hill country and along the seaboard in the west. In the north the invaders were repulsed effectively by the Kandyan people, and Alakeswara taking care of the southern and western regions scored a resounding victory over the invaders. The King of Gampola however, who had abandoned his capital in the hour of danger, could no longer be regarded as King. It was left to the people to decide and naturally, Alakeswara became the de-facto King of Sri Lanka till his death in 1386. But great though Alakeswara was, Kotte's glory is really associated with one of our greatest Kings, Parakramabahu VI, who was crowned King of a united Sri Lanka at the age of 16 in 1412. He reigned for 52 glorious years, transforming Kotte into Sri Jayawardenapura - the victorious city. Literature and arts flourished during this period as did the construction of public buildings and temples in the city. A renowned feature was a five-storied palace embellished with gems and adorned with a solid gold spire. After the death of Parakramabahu VI, a series of weak rulers proved easy prey for the Portuguese invaders when they landed in 1505. Through cunning and trickery and then by sword and bloodshed they annexed the kingdom. In 1546 it was further damaged by fire after an attack by King Rajasinha II. The Portuguese returned to the city but it was finally abandoned in 1565. What remains today is but a pitiful shadow of the former kingdom. But there is still enough to be of interest. On the surface however it seems like Kotte has just inherited a whole load of place names that pay homage to the past. Maligawa Road, Alakeswara Road and Buvenakabahu Road being but a few. Rampart Road (as the name suggests) leads to the old inner moat of the fortress. Turning off down 1st Lane literally takes you up to the moat; the road ends in a sudden incline, which is the ancient wall itself. And what is even more striking is that modern civilisation has managed to creep around and over the moat. Today there are houses all over, even over the ramparts and in the moat. Excavations at Veherakanda in Baddegana have revealed two tombs, which are believed to be that of King Parakramabahu VI and his queen Swarnamanikkya. A drive up a narrow road with houses piled high on either side, a sharp bend and then a large open area with an impressive rectangular structure with two mounds on top, laid side by side, is the ancient burial site. The fact that most of Kotte's buildings were built from either brick or kabok is another reason why many did not survive the test of time. The Kotte Rajamaha Viharaya too has many ancient stone columns as well as temple murals dating from ancient times. The entrance to a secret tunnel is found on the playground of Ananda Sastralaya Vidyalaya. Remains of the original trace of the Diyawanna Ela lie next to Srikotha, the UNP headquarters at Etul Kotte. There are also the remains of the palace of Alakeswara, which was subsequently used as an audience hall and called Sumandala Mandiraya, at Etul Kotte. Nothing remains of the three-storied Dalada Maligawa, the land it stood on now housing the general cemetery of Kotte. It is said that archaeologists, both foreign and local, paid scant attention to Kotte. As a result much that might have been saved after its abandonment by the Portuguese has been abused or destroyed chiefly through sheer ignorance. Today bits of the old ramparts are stripped and the kabok bricks piled up for use in construction within sight of the moat - and the board erected by the Department of Archaeology banning such desecration. -Devaka Seneviratne |
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