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This
article is part of a continuing series on the ‘Mahavamsa’,
the recorded chronicle of Sri Lankan history
The Warrior
Nandimitra
 King
Elara had a commander named Mitra, who had an only sister. She
was married to a rich merchant and lived in the village, named
Kadavara, situated to the east of Anuradhapura. They were blessed
with a son. The little son was named Mitra by way of honouring
his uncle. As a baby he looked different from the others. Even
at the stage of crawling, he looked unnaturally strong.- This little
baby Mitra, would not allow his mother to leave the house on any
business. He was in the habit of crawling behind her. One day,
the mother wanted to go out on an urgent business. The child stood
in her way, following her and crying aloud. Though the mother
tried a number of tricks, nothing worked. Ultimately she got so
angry she thought of teaching the child a good lesson. She got
a rope, tied one end of it, around the baby’s waist and
tied the other round the grinding stone.
-
 Having
almost chained him, the mother went out. Before she could go far,
she noticed the child crawling as far as the entrance of the house,
pulling the grinding stone behind him. When this stone hit the
entrance of the house, the child could not move. He used all his
strength to pull on the rope and managed to break it. He quickly
crawled to his mother. The mother had to give up her journey.
She was however glad about her son’s feat. She hugged and
kissed him. Never again, could she leave the child and go anywhere.
- The farming
season approached. Usually everybody in a household lends a helping
hand, when it comes to work in the fields. The parents of Mitra
too, had to begin work. As the boy was a little bigger by this
time, they decided to take him to the field. There was a grove
of bamboo trees, beside the field. So they made him sit in the
shade, where other small children were also seated. The parents
got to work. Mitra did not sit for long. Instead, he got into
the field, disturbed the men who were at work and even went to
the extent of shaking them and putting them on the ground. Seeing
this, the father shouted. But the child continued his mischief.
- The mother,
who was very angry at the child’s behaviour, went to him,
beat him and tied him to the bush of bamboo trees. She quietly
got down to work again. Mitra observed the men at work. He couldn’t
sit still. He put all his strength, pulled the rope till the bamboo
trees shook and the rope gave way. The people who witnessed this
were simply shocked. The mother got frightened. She stopped work
and took the child back home. As the child continued to break
the ropes, the word ‘Nandi’ was added in front of
his name and so he came to be known as Nandimitra.
When the boy was about 12 years old, he had the strength of ten
elephants. No punishment could stop him doing what he wanted.
In desperation, the mother decided to take him to Anuradhapura,
where his uncle was. When the commander, Mitra listened to his
record, he was happy and requested his sister to leave the son
with him. The mother left the son in his care and with tears in
her eyes, went back to Kadavara.- Though King
Elara was a just ruler, he could not expect fair play, from his
Tamil soldiers. They misbehaved. They began to destroy the sacred
Buddhist places. The precincts of Thuparama and Sri Maha Bodhi
were used as latrines. Being unable to tolerate this nonsense,
Nandimitra decided to teach them a good lesson.
He haunted these places in the night, caught the Tamil soldiers
who came there, tore them asunder, killed them and threw their
dead bodies to the jungle. Gradually, the numbers in Elara’s
army were decreasing.
The commander began to investigate. They collected a few strands
of hair and finger nails of the dead soldiers and informed the
king about this.
- “O’
great King, There is a Rakshasa who is killing our soldiers. It
has to be stopped immediately”, said the commanders. The
king thought of a plan and told them to lie in hiding in the night
and catch the Rakshasa. When Nandimitra got to know this he thought,
“I cannot defeat the Tamils, by killing them like this”.
He went back home and accompanied by his parents, went and met
King Kavan-Tissa.
The king was delighted to receive him. His parents were given
a lot of wealth and land. Nandimitra was given a house in the
heart of the city of Magama. He began to undergo a systematic
training in the art of war-fare.
By
Halaliye Karunathilaka
Edited and translated by Kamala Silva
Illustrated by Saman Kalubowila |
