Mysterious Sri Lanka

© by M. B. Dassanayake

Omens still predict both good and evil in Sinhalese society: Bathing on Sundays is said to spoil the bather’s appearance; bathing on Monday improves it; Tuesday - brings on disease, and Wednesday riches; Thursday - creates quarrels and if one bathes on Fridays his children will die; Saturday is deemed to be the most suitable day for bathing and is said to bring happiness. To face east or west while taking meals is supposed to bring good luck; money transactions held on full moon days bring ill luck.

Sinhalese – still a superstitious society : Ours is still a superstitious society and the commonest kind of superstitions prevailing among the Sinhalese are those which deal with omens, which they regard as prognostications, of both good and evil. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays are classed as unlucky, but for journeys Thursdays are the best unless they happen to be astrologically unfavourable. The best omen for a person setting out on a journey is for him to meet anyone carrying a pot of water, milk or white flowers first. But it is unlucky to meet those with shaven heads or with their hair (konde ) loose, as a sign of mourning, or those with great physical defects or a woman carrying a pot or ‘chattie’. It is also considered unlucky for a person to stumble against something or to be interrogated as to his destination at the outset of the journey.

Tradition: Bathing on Sundays is said to spoil the bather’s appearance; bathing on Monday improves it; Tuesday - brings on disease, and Wednesday riches; Thursday - creates quarrels and if one bathes on Fridays his children will die; Saturday is deemed to be the most suitable day for bathing and is said to bring happiness. To face east or west while taking meals is supposed to bring good luck; money transactions held on full moon days bring ill luck. Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays are bad for visiting, and July is considered to be an unlucky month for weddings just as May is in England. Talking of weddings, there is a strange ancient custom followed still in "bringing home the bride" - the bride is obliged to walk in front of her husband, always keeping in his sight; the traditional reason given for this is that once a bridegroom who had walked in front had had his bride carried off from behind him before he was aware of it, and the newly made husband is not very eager for history to repeat itself in his case at least...

Ganesh is the elephant-headed god, Ganesha (or Ganesh) is known (by various names in different parts of India and Sri Lanka and on different occasions) as the Remover of Obstacles, the god of domestic harmony and of success. He is the most beloved and revered of all the Hindu gods, and is always invoked first in any Hindu ceremony or festival. He is the son of Parvati (the wife of Shiva, the Destroyer, the most powerful of the Hindu trinity of principal gods). There are many stories about how Ganesha got his elephant head, and about his exploits and antics. He was created as an ordinary boy, but was decapitated in battle. Shiva's emissaries were sent into the forest and told to get the head of the first animal they found and to fit that head onto the boy's neck. They found a little elephant, and it worked!

Heroes of epics like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana are immortalized and are still alive in the day-to-day existence of the common people. The gods of Hinduism are at once super-human and human and there is distinct feeling of warmth and familiarity towards them. Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, represents qualities such as honor, courage and valor and is held up as a model of manliness. His wife Sita is the prototypal Indian wife who is carried off by Ravana, the king of Lanka, while Rama and Sita are on exile. Sita's eventual rescue by Rama, his brother Lakshmana, and Rama's faithful monkey-general Hanuman are all woven into this engrossing tale. Stories from this epic have been passed down orally from one generation to the next. Religious fairs, festivals and rituals have kept these legends alive, and there is never an occasion that does not offer an opportunity to retell the old stories. The stirring verses of the Mahabharata tell the story of the dynastic struggle between the Pandavas and the Kauravas, who were close cousins. Lord Krishna plays a very important role in this Great Epic. He is a friend, philosopher and guide to Arjuna, one of the Pandavas, and he helps Arjuna overcome his hesitation to kill his close relatives in the battlefield...

Archaeological Survey of Ceylon North-Central and Central Provinces. Annual Report 1901 by H. C. P. Bell C.C.S. ,Archaeological Commissioner Ordered by his excellency the Governor to be Printed. Colombo: LIII - 1907 CEYLON. Printed by H. C. Cottle, Government Printer, Ceylon

The Site of the Sakwala Chakraya on the bund of Tisavewa in Anuradhapura, Lanka. Text on this page extracted from an original copy of Annual Report. The photographs were taken when I visited the site in 1991, and again in November 1995. The site is unmarked and unknown to most tourist guides. Maybe it should remain that way until properly protected. Cave No 2 lies beneath the west face of the penultimate rock forming its back and roof and floor. It was entered by a few steps leading down from the rock ridge. A worn, and hardly recognizable asanaya of bricks rests against the rock at back. To the left (north) of this seat, or alter, is cut shallowly on the steeply projecting rock face a great chakra, or circle 6 ft in diameter, scored by rectangular divisions containing figures (mostly small circles), the whole girt, as a tyred wheel, by a band on which is displayed variant piscine and crustacean life swimming round from right to left.

The centre of the chakra is filled by a large circle comprising seven concentric rings, within a square 1 ft 2 in., to which cross lines are drawn vertically and horizontally from the encircling hand, cutting the chakra into quadrants. Further, parallel lines divide the circles vertically into ten strips, or slices, varying in width from 3 in. to 9 in., but matching to left and right of the central vertical line. All strips but the outer two are bisected by the horizontal base line and subdivided into dual or quadripartite partitions The outermost strips, unbisected, contain a single small circle, quadrisected by cross lines, and a figure of phallic suggestion. In each of the penultimate divisions right and left is a tiny circle in line with the horizontal bisection of the chakra, but nothing else. In the third pair are shown four more quadrisected circles, two and two, one in each of the upper and lower partitions left and right. The fourth strip to right contains four more such circles, bigger, and each in a separate partition. But that to left has compressed its circles into a quadripartite panel below the horizontal base line; leaving the upper panel free for four distinct diagrams - second seven.ringed circle (differing only in size from its larger counterpart in the centre of the chakra), beneath which are two umbrella~like emblems, and a pinnated three.forked figure -the whole interwined by a fret. Each of the eight divisions of the fifth strips, which meet as one broad band, above and below the concentric ringed circle on either side of the central vertical line of the chakra holds one of the small circles with cross lines ; the two left upper partitions containing also a square and a wavy diagonal line. Outside all these divisions is the 4 in tyre or band bounding the chakra...

by Ariyadasa Ratnasinghe

Even today the elephant has a prominent place in Buddhism unlike other animals. It is the only animal possessed of grace to carry the sacred reliquary containing the 'Danta-dhatu' (Tooth-relic) of the Buddha, in the annual Esala Perahera in Kandy. All Buddhist temples follow the same procedure in choosing an elephant to carry the relics in procession, as no major Buddhist procession is complete without at least a single elephant, ornately caparisoned to walk majestically through the streets. ‘The torn boughs trailing o'er the tusks aslant, The saplings reeling on the path he trod; Declare his might: our lord the elephant, Chief of the ways of God’. (Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936)

The life and habitat of the elephant are provocative of wonder and demand our reverence, since both its evolution and influence upon mankind have always been found to be most fascinating, bewitching, enchanting, charming and delightful. The interesting roles it has played in myths, legends, religion, history, folklore and war, notwithstanding its recent prominence in politics; its association with man and the services rendered to him from remote antiquity; the symbolic splendour of its colossal body, let alone flesh, to be balanced on bones; its place in circuses and menageries, in wildlife sanctuaries and zoological gardens and, above all, its graceful and majestic appearance have been well attested, expressed and documented in various works of art and literature down the ages. The elephant belongs to the animal order Proboscidea (possessed of a trunk) and to the sub-order of ungulates (hoofed digitigrade mammals). The two species of elephants now extinct are the mammoth (Elephas premiginius) and the mastodon (Elephas odontos). The two existing species are the Asiatic elephant (Elephas maximus) and the African elephant (Elephas africanus)...