Ramayana trail in Sri Lanka

Sita temple construction to begin soon in Sri Lanka

2013-03-15T16:50:00.001-07:00

Away from the current political turmoil, in the quiet hills of Sri Lanka, plans are afoot to build a temple for goddess Sita at Divurumpola, near Nuwara-Eliya, a place believed to be associated with the Ramayana.

The website of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) says it is where Sita underwent ‘Agni Pariksha’ (test by fire).

Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chauhan mooted the project in September 2012 when Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Sanchi to inaugurate the University of Buddhist-Indic Studies. Mr. Chauhan offered to fund the project, sanctioning Rs. 1 crore. Those familiar with the project told The Hindu that the Sri Lankan government recently cleared the building plans, and construction would begin soon.

However, sources in the Indian government said they had had only preliminary discussions on the feasibility of the project in the past. But if it was now pursued by private organisations, the government would not have much of a role in it.

When the project is completed, it will be the second Sita temple in Nuwara–Eliya, after the one at Sita Eliya, a Ramayana heritage site.

In 2007, the SLTDA set up a committee to identify Ramayana heritage sites and develop a Ramayana trail for the ‘Indian market.’ So far, 50 sites have been identified, including the ‘groves of exotic herbs dropped by the monkey god Hanuman’ and ‘the ultimate theatre of war,’ where Rama slew Ravana. In sites like Divurumpola, new structures are under consideration.

However, the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, an academic organisation established in 1845, severely contested this project. It organised a symposium in 2010 to demonstrate that these sites were invented by experts appointed by the SLTDA, who distorted archaeological evidence.

The papers hosted on the Society’s website criticise the Ramayana trail as a project meant to enhance the declining tourist arrivals. But this has not stopped the government, and the SLTDA has taken up the Ramayana trail as one of its important projects

Source:http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/south-asia/sita-temple-construction-to-begin-soon-in-sri-lanka/article4513902.ece

Throw out the Ramayana trail and promote the “Buddhist Trail”

2010-10-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

For a few years, a so-called “Ramayana trail” to promote the well-known Sanskrit epic Ramayana as fact has been pushed by our uninformed tourist authorities. This is a contrast to Indian tourist authorities which promotes a “Buddhist Circuit” (that is a “Buddhist Trail”). But Indians do not have a “Ramayana Trail”. That the Ramayana is not history but myth has been known in Sri Lanka for nearly 500 years. Buddhaghosa labelled the Ramayana as a myth and as among the 32 unbelievable stories dismissed as tirachchina katha “animal talk”. A thousand years later, Vidagama Maitreya Thera threw scorn at the alleged miracles of Rama and Hanuman.

In Sri Lanka, there are very many historically authenticated Buddhist sites which should be a magnet for tourists, especially those from South-East Asia whose Theravada traditions known to them well. A committee appointed by the tourist authorities headed by a no-nacademic and who admits that the Indian government does not consider Ramayana as history has invented very many untenable tirachchina katha sites. A second member of this committee is a Pettah shopkeeper, a member of a Hindu fundamentalist sect which declares that he is “proud to be an Indian” and of “the Indian flag”. The third member has produced on a website completely fictional “evidence” of flying machines, airports etc allegedly associated with Ravana.
This committee has misinterpreted archaeological, epigraphic and geological facts to fit these myths. Wayside shrines in the Hill country built by estate labour originally from Tamil Nadu have been labelled as part of valid history as well as natural formations. These fictional details have been taken up by extremist Hindu fundamentalists in India, especially those with links to an Indian political party BJP that at the close of the recent war strongly supported the LTTE and worked strenuously against the integrity of Sri Lanka. BJP’ s attitudes on Sri Lanka sovereignty are amply indicated by the following headlines from Indian newspapers: “BJP for sanctions against Sri Lanka”; “Lift ban on the LTTE: BJP”; “LTTE prays for BJP victory in India”; “India should stop war, instruct Colombo to talk to Tigers – BJP “ and BJP associated “Hindu Conference condemns Sri Lankan forces”.Transforming the hero of the Ramayana from Rama to Ravana was an invention by DMK ideologists, especially Periar to support Tamil separatism and chauvinism in India.
But Indian authorities have rejected the Ramayana as history especially in the case of the demolition in the early 1990s by Hindu extremists of the Babri mosque in India claiming it to be the birthplace of Rama and in relation to the Sethu Samudra project. In the latter, the Hindu fundamentalist interpretation that there was a bridge between India and Sri Lanka was rejected.

This “Ramayana trail” is a future danger for the territorial integrity of Sri Lanka in that this could be a not-too-subtle attempt to plant another invented homelands just as LTTE supporters invented a “traditional homelands of the Tamils” prior to their war. These new myths could give rise to new demands for separatism. This fictional Ramayana trail had begun a few years ago with the guidance, we have been informed of a Tamil bureaucrat from the Hill country. One is reminded of the secret activities of a few Tamil bureaucrats in 1961 which created the group Pulip Padai (“Army of Tigers”) and prepared the way for the LTTE. This exercise in promoting non-existent Hindu fundamentalist sites at the expense of Buddhist sites creates a future danger for the integrity of Sri Lanka. The government which constitutionally has to safeguard Buddhism should promote, like India, factual Buddhist sites not invented “animal talk” Ramayana sites.

Source:http://www.buddhisttimes.net/2010/08/01/throw-out-the-ramayana-and-promote-a-%E2%80%9Cbuddhist-trail%E2%80%9D/

The "Ramayana" and Sri Lanka

2010-09-10T14:49:00.001-07:00

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are epic poems from ancient India. They are a part of the Hindu mythology of India. According to the Ramayana, Rama was the son and heir of King Dasaratha of Kosala. He married Sita and together with his brother Lakshmana went to live in the Dandaka forests. At Dandaka he killed several demons that were harassing the villagers. This angered the demon king, Ravana, who, in retaliation, captured Sita and took her to his kingdom in Lanka, in his aerial car. The monkey king Hanuman discovered her there. Rama built a causeway of stones across the sea to Lanka, slew Ravana, and rescued Sita. Rama is considered to be an incarnation of Vishnu.

Romila Thapar says the original version of Ramayana could be dated to about 8th century BC. The text was revised many times thereafter and today there are many versions of the Ramayana including a Jain version. The Ramayana is a literary epic and has no historical value. The Archaeological Survey of India has stated that there is to date no evidence to conclusively prove that Rama actually existed.

D.P. Mishra has pointed out that though the Ramayana of Valmiki is a poem and not a historical document, the location of Valmiki’s ‘Lanka’ had been keenly discussed by Indian scholars. Romila Thapar says the matter has been disputed by Indian scholars for centuries and Lanka remains unidentified. Mishra gives a list of the places which have been selected for ‘Lanka’. These include Sumatra, the Maldives, Australia (via the Sunda Islands) and the Lingga Island which is on the equator.

‘Lanka’ was also located in various places in India. It was found near Mahesvara on the Narmada river, in the Vindhya mountains at Amarakantaka, in Chota Nagpur in the Mahanadi delta and in Assam. Mishra says that the evidence points to the triangular delta of the mouth of the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. The Godavari has a stretch of alluvial islands, called the Trikuta islands. These are known as the Lankas even today. However, the first meridian of Hindu astronomers is taken to have passed through Ujjain and Lanka. Ujjain is in Madhya Pradesh close to the west coast of India.

Writers have pointed out that the Lanka mentioned in the Ramayana is not Sri Lanka. To start with, Sri Lanka was not known as Lanka in ancient times. It was known as Simhala. Mishra points out that all the Indian chronicles, such as the Puranas, the writings of Varamihira and the Greek and Buddhist writings all stated that the Simhala island differed from the island of Lanka.’ Mahabaratha refers to two distinct islands called Lanka and Simhala. The Virhatsamhita of Varamihira recorded Lanka and Sinhala as two different places. Rajasekera in his play Balaramayana also showed that Simhala was not Lanka. In this play, Ravana addresses a king who comes from Simhala. Ravana would not have addressed another king in this manner if he, Ravana, had been the king of Simhala.

The Ramayana was never a part of the mythology of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka appears to have rejected the Ramayana. Vini Vitharana notes that the Sinhala and Pali sources of Sri Lanka contain nothing that corroborates the Ramayana story. R.A.L.H. Gunawardana says that in the early medieval period Ramayana and Mahabharata were denounced by the monks as useless works, which should be ignored Several of the Buddhist texts stated that the study of the Ramayana and Mahabaratha was a waste of time. In the reign of Parakramabahu VI (1412- 1467) the Vedas, Puranas and the two mahakavyas, Mahabharatha and Ramayana were studied at Vijayaba Pirivena under Sri Rahula. This too was challenged. Vidagama Maitreya, a contemporary of Sri Rahula was very critical of the Ramayana. He pointed out, inter alia, that while the monkey could swim across to Lanka, Rama needed a bridge.

However, at the end of the 20th century, Sri Lanka decided to embrace the Ramayana. A search for Ravana sites started in the Nuwara Eliya and Uva districts in the 1990s. The late Harry Hass , a Christian priest from the Netherlands, who was living in Bandarawela, said that Sri Lanka was full of Ravana and Sita sites which needed discovering. He said the image of King Ravana was a universal one which appealed to the west as well as the east. Hass was the patron of a Ravana Centre set up in Uva.

In the 1990s, a Sita Amman kovil was built at Seetha Eliya at Nuwara Eliya. This kovil had its kumbhabisheka pooja in January 2008. There was a full page announcement in the newspapers, with messages from President and Ministers. In 1997 work commenced on a Hanuman temple complex at Ramboda, Nuwara Eliya with assistance from Tamilnadu government. The complex consisted of a huge 16 foot granite statue of Hanuman, a spiritual centre, library and auditorium. This project was initiated by Gurudev Swami Chimayananda, who purchased 10 acres for the purpose. Minister S. Thondaman donated 5 more acres and provided a motorable road from the main Nuwara Eliya road to the temple site. This temple site, it is claimed, was close to the Asoka vana where Sita was kept captive and Hanuman found her.

The Ramayana link moved to the next level in the 21st century .P Ramanujan, Secretary to the ,Ministry of Tourism stated in 2006 that trails left by Rama and Sita in the Ramayana epic were being perused. In 2007, S Kalaiselvam, Director General of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority said in a statement to Press Trust of India that the Sri Lanka government had decided to develop the sites associated with the Ramayana. He said that they were restoring and maintaining these places. There was no archaeological confirmation for any of them but these sites were not imaginary and have existed since time immemorial.

The Tourist Board had appointed a research team to trace the tourist ‘trail’. 59 spots had been located. Among them were Ravana’s palaces and dairy farm, also temples dedicated to Sita which had been built in a later period. The trail also included a pond which is believed to have come into existence through Sita's tears. This pond never dries up even in the worst drought. The Tourist Ministry had identified five airports where Ravana parked his fleet of pushpak vimanas, the mythological aircraft used by him to abduct Sita. The Ministry thinks that Ravana’s flying machine may have landed at Weragantota, about 10 kilometres from Mahiyangana. Sita was then taken to Gorulupota, now known as Sitakotuwa. This is 10 kilometres from Mahiyanagana on Kandy road. Sita was thereafter housed in a cave at Sita Eliya, Nuwara Eliya. Ravana cave at Ella, served as a quick means of transport through the hills for Ravana.

In 2007 it was decided that The Ravana-Rama battle took place at Yudhaganapitiya in Matale and that Ravana was making his battle plans at Lakgala just before he was killed. . In 2008 it was decided that Rama started his attack on Ravana at Dondra and the main battle was at Yudaganawa. After killing Ravana, Rama performed penance at Muneswaram in Chilaw. Hanuman had entered Lanka at Nagadeepa. He dropped the Dronagiri Mountain brought from the Himalayas on Rumassala.

In 2008, 50 sites related to the ‘Ramayana trail’ have been selected by Sri Lanka Tourism in order to promote visits by Indian tourists. The tours were from one to three weeks duration and contained a maximum of 25 locations spread across central and western Sri Lanka. Hindustan Times stated that the Ramayana trail was a hit with Indian tourists. Batches of 50 to 120 visitors had already toured these sites. A swami from north India was planning to bring 400 of his students to go on the trail. There was an agreement with Andhra Pradesh regarding these tours.

A team commissioned by Zee TV had toured Sri Lanka in 2007, to find places connected to Ramayana. They went to Sita Eliya where there were statues of Rama, Lakshmana, Sita and Hanuman. They said that these statues had been there for 5000 years. They said that close to Sita Eliya they had seen a mountain which looked like Hanuman. The Chinmaya statue of Hanuman was a copy of the mountain, except that it was in a vertical position. They reported that hundreds come every day to worship there. They also spotted black rocks which looked like monkeys with black lips and ears. They saw Rummassala which was brought here by Hanuman. It contains trees only found in the Himalayas. There is a statue of Hanuman there as well. They were delighted to find a board saying Ravana Ella falls. But they reported that the public only came to Sita Eliya to picnic and that few knew about Rama or Ravana.

A ballet titled ‘Maha Ravana’ was presented in Colombo in May 2008 by the Sarasavi Dehena Experimental Theatre School. The choreographer, Pabalu Wijewardana, who comes from the Mihiripenna dancing tradition, said that Sri Lanka lacked a truly iconic figure and he wished to project Ravana as an icon. He had researched into the story of Ravana. He says Ravana was not a demon, but a wise king, who ruled over a vast South Asian kingdom which included Sri Lanka. Ravana was the only king of Sri Lanka, who had been able to unite Sri Lanka, wiping out all forms of division. The flying machine may have been a real one.

Ravana was first mentioned in a modern work by John M. Senaveratna in his ‘Story of the Sinhalese’ published in 1930. Present day writers say that neither Hanuman nor Sita ever came here and there was no Ravana either. They have pointed out that Sita Eliya in Nuwara Eliya district has nothing to do with the Rama and Sita story. 'Sita' is derived from 'seethala', which means cold. Rohan Jayatilleke, in his account of the heroines of the Ramayana noted that the Ramayana ‘Lanka’ is not in Sri Lanka. Lucian Rajakarunanayake made fun of the tourist trail in his newspaper column of September 2007.

The Sethusamudram canal which India plans to construct in the Palk Strait has brought the Ramayana to the attention of the Supreme Court of India. The Hindus object to the Sethusamudran canal on the grounds that it will damage the Ram Sethu bridge which is mentioned in the Ramayana. They say that this bridge is sacred and should not be destroyed. It was built by Rama and his army of monkeys. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) filed a petition in court to stop the project. Court took note of the objection and called for a response from the Government.

The Government of India stated that there is no scientific evidence to indicate that the events described in the Ramayana ever took place or that its characters were real. It stated that the bridge was not a man made one. Geological Survey of India did a three year study of the area between Rameshwaram in India and Mannar in Sri Lanka. The survey said that the bridge was not a man made (or monkey made) construction. The sequence of clay, limestone and sandstone which emerged could not have been man made. The survey also pointed out that studies of sea level showed that the area between Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka was exposed, not submerged under the sea, in the period between 18,000 years and 7000 years ago. About 6000 years ago, the sea level was a mere 17 meters below its present level and the sea bed was partially exposed.

NASA satellite pictures also indicated that the bridge was formed through the sedimentation of clay and lime stone. NASA said the bridge was about 1.75 million years old. The Space Applications Centre, Ahamedabad, looked through satellite and said that the ‘bridge’ is not man made. They thought the formation was associated with a previous shore line. There are similar reefs in other parts of India, such as Lakshadweep. Geologists suggest that the formation was due to circular wind driven ocean currents. Sediment may have converged in the sea to create this formation. This line of islets may also be due to tidal movements which pushed the sand into place and retreated. This sand over time formed sandstones.

Scholars suggest that the Ram Setu of the Ramayana was more likely located in a small stretch of water in Central India and not in the Palk Strait. There was also the technical issue of building a bridge across a wide stretch of water in the ancient period. They also noted that the Setu was not mentioned in some versions of the Ramayana.

The writings of A.L. Basham , R.A.L.H. Gunawardana, D.P. Mishra, KA Nilakanta Sastri, R. Thapar, and V. Vitharana, were used for this essay. News reports are from The Island and The Daily News.

Source:http://www.island.lk/2008/06/07/satmag6.html

Myth of the Ramayana Trail and the Distortion of Archaeological Evidence

2010-09-10T14:47:00.001-07:00

by Dr. Malini Dias
Joint Secretary, Royal Asiatic Society and Former Deputy Archaeological Commissioner of Epigraphy

Sanskrit literary critics say that the present day Ramayana, A Veera Kavya or an Epic had taken a very long period of time to be evolved from its original form by episodic additions and subtractions to its matter. The great sage Valmiki had dexterously invented the story of the brave prince Rama and his beautiful consort, princess Sita into a magnificent epic revered by the Hindus world over.

It is said that prince Rama (incarnation of Lord Vishnu) and princess Sita were living in royal splendor in Ayodhya in Bharata. A mystically powerful seven headed monarch called Ravana was so imbued with supernatural powers, traveled about by air in a flying device. King Ravana hearing of the beautiful and virtuous princess Sita wanted to make her his spouse and abducted her to much of her distress and brought her to Lankapura and imprisoned her in a hideout. Ramayana tells us how Prince Rama with the prowess of Monkey Chief Hanuman brought back Sita to Ayodhya. The addition of many vivid sub stories to this and brought as one poem is the much loved epic Ramayana in Sanskrit literature.

The Ramayana cannot be set aside as another oriental classic. It is the forerunner to many a Sanskrit literary works such as Meghaduta and Kumarasambhava of the great poet Kalidasa.

The Indians classify this epic as the ‘Adi Kavya’ when it is described as ‘Ramayanam Adi Kavyam’ or the most ancient poem of the Sanskrit literature. It is the opinion of Sanskrit scholars that while the fundamental characteristics of the Sanskrit poetry is shown embedded in the epic Ramayana, it had immensely contributed to the moulding of the Sanskrit literature as a whole.

"Though the Sanskrit poets and choreographers had vigorously made use of the Ramayana legend for their ventures, its influence on their works had been mainly in the region of poetic rules, methods of Sloka or metrical composition, and methods of poetic descriptions. For these very reasons the Ramayana had been referred to as the Adi Kavya or the most ancient classic." (Jayadeva Tilakasiri, Sanskruta Kavya Sahityaya, p. 28)

Ramayana though acclaimed as an epic poem depicting valor, its substance gives the reader a view of the descriptions of townships, seasons, cliffs, forests, rivers, oceans, events on matrimony, separation etc., which are the characteristics of a Maha Kavya and therefore, Ramayana cannot be categorized under ‘Purana’ or ‘Itihasa’.

In a paper presented at the International Ramayana Seminar, former Archaeological Commissioner Dr. C. E. Godakumbure has stated thus:

"There is an abundance of folklore in Ceylon connected with the story of Rama and Sita. Some of these explain place-names; some point to special geographical features, others the lay of the land, the positions of hills, nooks and bend in rivers, the colour of the soil and various curiosities. All this is folklore and nothing archaeologically provable or tested historically." (Ramayana in Sri Lanka and Lanka of the Ramayana, 1975, New Delhi.)

However the fact that the folklore with which the Ramayana is intertwined and acclaimed as historicity and used to distort the ancient history of Sri Lanka is indeed a matter to ponder in antipathy.

We should not distort archaeological evidence to suit our whims. In a paper titled "Historical Evidence of Ramayana & Rawana in Sri Lanka" presented by Mr. N. C. K. Kiriella, Chairman of the Ramayana Trail Executive Committee of the Ministry of Tourism, who is not an authority on inscriptions of Sri Lanka, has distorted some of the early Brahmi inscriptions at a Symposium held at the Indian Cultural Centre. He has committed this to bring proof saying that "there are many inscriptions of Rawana and his dynasty misconstrued and published in "Inscriptions of Ceylon".

I would like to emphasize the fact that most of the ancient inscriptions of Sri Lanka of a Buddhist background, inscribed on caves, rocks, pillars and slabs are notices for the benefit of the contemporary society. They came down from the time Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century B.C. We have archaeological evidence to prove that Thera Mahinda, son of Emperor Asoka of India came to Sri Lanka to propagate Buddhism and lived in Sri Lanka until his demise.

Thera Mahinda’s presence in Sri Lanka has been established by a rock inscription from Rajagala in Ampara District mentioning that it was the stupa where the ashes of Theras Itthiya and Mahinda who came to the island for its good fortune have been deposited.

The Archaeological Department takes ink impressions from the inscriptions, from the time it was established. The ink impression taken from the inscription is in black and white and is clear for reading. The early Brahmi cave inscriptions have been read by Dr. Senarat Paranavitana, the former Archaeological Commissioner and the renowned Epigraphist of Sri Lanka, having read the inscriptions from these ink impressions, had translated them into English and included them in the Inscriptions of Ceylon Volume I, which is the Corpus of Early Brahmi Cave Inscriptions, published by the Archaeological Department in 1970.

In the paper read by Mr. Kiriella at the so called Symposium on the Ramayana Trail, the cave inscription from Wegiriya Devale in the Kandy District has been misinterpreted and translated to suit the mythical story of Ramayana.

The cave inscription at Wegiriya Devale in Kandy District distorted with white ink.

The text of the inscription given by Dr. Paranavitana is as follows:

Bata Sumanasa Tisaha, upasika Sumanaya upasika Tisalaya upasaka............... Kumarasa gapati Dutakasa kubakara Sonaha datika Sumanasa manikara Date patike manikara Cude Sapatike (No. 807, Inscriptions of Ceylon, No. I)

Translation:

The cave of Lord Sumana, of Tissa, of the female lay devotee Sumana, of the female lay devotee Tissala, of the lay devotee................... Kumara, of the householder Dutaka, of the potter Sona, and of the ivory worker Sumana. The lapidary Datta is a partner. The lapidary Cuda is a co-partner. (No. 807 of the Ins. of Ceylon) Mr. Kiriella’s distorted text of the inscription.

Bata Sumanasa Tisaha Upasika............ naya upasika................ Thisalaya Upa................. Marasa gapathy dutakasa kubakana........ Sonaha dathika Sumana Translation -

Lord Sumana Upasika Tissa naya Upasika Thishalaya Upasika householder Marasa pilot Kubakana..... Sonaha Ivory worker Sumana (In accordance with Ramayana)

The word Kubakara meaning potter in English, kumbalkaru in Sinhala and Kumbhakara in Pali is misinterpreted as Kubakana, taking it as the name of a donor and his name Dutaka to mean a pilot.

The cave inscription from Molagoda Vihara in the Kandy District has been misrepresented.

By applying white ink on the inscription Mr. Kiriella has distorted the inscription.

Distorted inscription from Molagoda Vihara

Following is the text from the Inscriptions of Ceylon Vol. I. No. 812 given by Dr. Paranavitana.

Parumaka Suri Putaha Bamana Datakaha lene Sagasa Translation:

The cave of Brahmana Dataka, son of the chief Suriya, was dedicated to the Sangha

The distorted version of Mr. Kiriella is as follows:

Parumaka Suri putaha Bimana Duthakaha lene sagasa and translated as: The cave owned by the pilot of an aeroplane, son of chieftain Suri was donated to Mahasangha, (in accordance with Ramayana)

Here the reader is misled by the change of the word bamana meaning brahmana to bimana and translating it as aeroplane. In this Dataka, the name of the Brahmana is translated as pilot. The speaker Mr. Kiriella is very much confused when applying the word pilot to Dutaka and Dataka the names of donors in both inscriptions.

The next distortion is made on an inscription from Alulena in Aranayake in Kegalla District, which the speaker named as Rahalgala. The text of this inscription is given in the Inscriptions of Ceylon Vol. I as No. 799.

Text:

Parumaka Ijhu puta parumaka Agiya lene sagasa and the translation is

The cave of the chief Aggi, son of the chief Ijhu is given to the sangha.

Mr. Kiriella produces the inscription as Maharajhaha Rawana putha Parumaka Ikdhu putha Parumaka Agiyaha lene and translates it as - Emperor Rawana’s son parumaka Indrajith son Parumaka Agiya’s cave (in accordance with Ramayana)

He has painted the letters in white ink and has photographed the inscription.

Though he adds

Maharadhaha Rawana puta meaning Emperor Rawana’s son to the text in his paper, it cannot be read even in the inscription painted in white.

The advice given to him by the so called ‘experts’ is wrong and has made him to go astray and the exercise of distorting the inscriptions had been a failure.

Some cave inscriptions at Vessgiriya in Anuradhapura have been misinterpreted as well. The text given as No. 86 of the Inscriptions of Ceylon Vol. I is as follows:

Gana codaka Dataha lene sagasa

Translation: The cave of Datta, the Director of the Corporation [is given] to the Sangha

Mr. Kiriella gives the text as follows:

Tana Codaka Dataha lene sagasa

Mr. Kiriella has changed Gana Codaka to Tana Codaka

Gana codaka has been misinterpreted as Thana Codaka and translated as

The cave of Thrunabindu is given to the sangha

The text of No. 88 from Vessagiriya is as follows:

Parumaka Visadeva-puta Parumaka Sumanaha lene saga-niyate

Translation:

The cave of the chief Sumana, son of the chief Visadeva is dedicated to the Sangha

The text of the distorted inscription of Mr. Kiriella is as follows:

Paramaka Visrava puta parumaka Sramanaha lene shagasha

Translation:

The cave of parumaka Visava is given by parumaka Sumana to the sangha

The name Sumana is misinterpreted as Sharamana and taken as the name of the donor and says that he could be a great grandson of sage Visawa.

The next inscription of Vessagiriya is taken from the book titled Sri Lanka Rawana Rajadhaniya by Mr. Ariyadasa Seneviratna. This inscription has been edited at first by Dr. D. M. De Z. Wickramasingha in Epigraphia Zeylanica Vol. I in 1904. The text is:

Sidha Mahayaha (kani) maha(la)ka Asalayaha dini

Translation: Hail! The cell of Mahaya is given to the venerable Asalaya

The speaker gives the reading as

Siddha Mayaha Kuni mahalaka Asala Yaha (di)ni

Without any research being done on the inscription by himself, Mr. Kiriella gives the translation as -

Princess Kuni is the wife of elder Asala.

He has copied everything from Sri Lanka Rawana Rajadhaniya.

The early Brahmi inscription No. 869 of the Inscriptions of Ceylon Vol. I from a cave at Sigiriya reads:

Parumaka Naguliya lene

The speaker Kiriella refers to Naguliya and connects it to Sita’s stay in the cave. He mentions that Sita was called Naguli as she was born or found on a ploughshare. Naguli is the person who donated the cave. This looks a very weak argument to refer to Naguli and connecting it to Sita.

Next are the archaeological sites that have been distorted by the speaker. The well known archaeological site at Sigiriya, identified as the palace of king Kashyapa I and now a heritage site declared by the UNESCO has been branded as the Chitrakoota Palace of Lankapura, the abode of King Kuvera, elder brother of King Rawana. He has misinterpreted the statement made in the Chronicle Mahavamsa, that King Kashyapa like Kuvera lived in the palace resembling a second Alakamandava. The historical evidence and the architectural characteristics of the ruins of the palace and the frescoes found at present at Sigiriya would not in any way go beyond the 5th century AD.

Not far from Vessagiriya and below the bund of the Tissaveva Tank is the Isurumuniya Vihara in Anuradhapura. Figures of a pair of lovers carved on stone at this site is one of the best pieces of sculpture known from anywhere in the island. The rock at the edge of the pond at the site carries sculptures of elephants. At a niche cut into the rock at a point above these elephants are the figures of a man seated in the Rajaleela posture and the head of a horse. It has been taken as a work of the Pallava school and has been dated in the seventh century A.D. Isurumuniya Vihara could have been a part of an extensive Buddhist monastery but it had been desecrated by the speaker Mr. Kiriella by interpreting it as the temple of king Rawana’s parents, Visravasmuni and his wife Kaikali.

Source:http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=5401

Tourism Authority Creates History

2010-08-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

By Dr. Susantha Goonatilake

India has a sophisticated philosophical systems in its "Hindu" positions divided into six categories and three others namely Buddhism, Jainism, and the Charvaks which are considered against Hinduism’ six systems. These six are in addition to the 62 philosophical views at the time of the Buddha rejected by him.

These Hindu philosophical systems do not fall into the mythological categories like Rahu swallowing the moon during an eclipse which are a contrast to the well-known understanding of eclipses in South Asia. I myself in my own technical writings have praised these Hindu philosophical systems as having possibilities for modern science and philosophy (of among others in Toward a Global Science: Mining Civilizational Knowledge (Indiana University Press 1999); Aborted Discovery: Science and Creativity in the Third World (Zed Press London 1984); Crippled Minds : an Exploration into Colonial Culture (Vikas Delhi 1982).

But popular narratives such as Rahu swallowing the moon, or popular epics like the Ramayana or Mahabharatha are not considered serious factual statements by the Indian intelligentsia. Thus it was in New Delhi at an international conference dinner that an Indian academic alerted me to Sri Lankan tourism promoting the Ramayana story as fact. The Indian intelligentsia considers the Ramayana a tool of Hindu fundamentalist fanaticism with no factual basis. Back home, I explored this Tourist Authority’s "Ramayana trail" and was shocked at the crass inventions of false sites reminiscent of the invented traditional homelands of the Tamils.

The Royal Asiatic Society RASSL quickly assembled a multi-disciplinary group of accredited scholars for an internal workshop who were consequently alarmed at the inventions being propagated. A whole false literature in Sinhalese had been produced together with films. To get the other side of the story, the RASSL repeatedly requested the tourist authorities for their "experts" to address us. Not getting any reply, the RASSL wrote to each of the leading executives of the tourism authority to send their experts to the public Symposium we organised. None came.

At the public Symposium, a retired civil servant alerted me to one of the three so-called “experts” Suriya Gunasekara sliding away from the RASSL building leaving behind his son who had put on the Internet his father's fantastic "findings". I was alerted that many of the unqualified authors of the fictional literature had come in force and were dispersed around the audience. Indeed present was an organised group of Ramayana apologists, unknowing subscribers to Hindu fundamentalism as differentiated from Hindu philosophy and who our speakers alerted me were those who had invented the fiction.. I decided at discussion time to get every person to introduce himself giving his name and academic background. One said he had a doctorate from Germany and when I addressed him in German, he looked clueless; then he said his PhD was from Japan and when I greeted him with “Konnichiwa”, he sounded nonplussed and now he said his doctorate was from Russia. I gave up.

The substance of presentations of our accredited experts on prehistory, archaeology, Buddhist studies, Sinhalese literature, and South-East Asia was that the total Ramayana trail was invented, had deliberately misinterpreted archaeology, went against Buddhist views that denounced the Ramayana and as Ambassador Bandu Silva pointed out, had foreign policy implications harmful to the country. Ven Hegoda Vipassi, a relatively non-expert compared to others, described the harrowing tale of how, when he refuted the Ramayana Trail underwent repeated harassment and persecution.

Buddhaghosa’s "animal talk"

As Professors Oliver Abeynaike and Tissa Karriyawasam pointed out, the foremost commentator of the Pali Tripitaka, Buddhaghosa labeled the Ramayana as a myth and as among the 32 unbelievable stories dismissed as thiracchinakatha "animal talk". A thousand years later, Vidagama Maitreya Thera threw scorn at the alleged miracles of Rama and Hanuman. Unlike the 62 philosophical views rejected by the Buddha and the other sophisticated thought systems in Hinduism, the Ramayana is no philosophy text, only a tall tale.

In Ramayana’s name, fundamentalist Hindu mobs destroyed in the early 1990s the Babri mosque claiming it to be the birthplace of Rama. Later, they tried to prevent India’s Sethu Samudra project, claiming that there was a bridge between India and Sri Lanka. But the Hindu fundamentalist BJP's attempt to stop the Sethu Samudra was opposed by Tamil Nadu’s DMK who was the godfather to the LTTE. The ideology of the DMK had rejected the presumed Aryan supremacy in the Ramayana. To this anti-Hindu fundamentalist objective, the Dravidian theorist Periyar had invented Ravana as a hero against the Hindu fundamentalists’ Rama. Periyar’s was an informed act, a contrast to the adoption of Ravana by sections of the Sinhalese present at the symposium. These few Sinhalese Ravana supporters had contradictorily adopted as their own, both the Ramayana of Hindu fundamentalists as well as its opposite, the DMK’s hero Ravana.

Interestingly, ones of the BJP supporters at the Sethu Samudra protest was Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Chauhan who was recently feted by our Maha Bodhi Society. BJP' s attitudes on Sri Lanka sovereignty are amply indicated by the following headlines from Indian newspapers: “BJP for sanctions against Sri Lanka”; “Lift ban on the LTTE: BJP”; “LTTE prays for BJP victory in India”; “India should stop war, instruct Colombo to talk to Tigers - BJP “ and “[the BJP allied] Hindu Conference condemns Sri Lankan forces “.

The Indian rejection of the historicity of the Ramayana is acknowledged by the Tourism Authority's leading "expert" Kiriella (the third expert is a Pettah shopkeeper Chawla the Chairman of a Hindu fundamentalist organisation and who declares that he is “Proud to be an Indian" and that he “supports the Indian Flag”). Kiriella in his self published book says flatly:

"The government of India appointed a committee of 14 historians to identify the realism (sic) of Ramayana. However they could not find any historical evidence in India other than legendary sites. But archaeological evidences are available in Sri Lanka to prove Ramayana."

The professional expert panel at the Symposium demolished all the "evidence" and sites invented by Kiriella's committee.

Tourism Authority's invented “Evidence”

Kiriella claimed that Ravana as King of “Heladiva” was the first to discover missiles and nuclear bombs which should be good news to our military. Kiriella produced "evidence" that Ravana ruled over "modern South America, Southern Europe" which if only true should shake the whole world. Kiriella "produced" cave inscriptions of Ravana which his Tourist Authority Committee had "deciphered" and photographed and found "evidence" of an alphabet from 17500 BCE, as well as Ravana remains in Anuradhapura (all of which was dismissed by epigraphist/archaeologist Dr Dias as fiction, the inscriptions literally painted by a taxi driver Pathiraarchchi). Kiriella says that "historians and archaeologists kept away from exploring the pre-history of Sri Lanka", a preposterous lie that Deputy Director-General of Archaeology Dr Perera’s presentation on prehistoric findings shot down.

Kiriella gives other "evidence" in the form of a Seetha Amman Kovil built actually by Tamil estate labourers who came to the country in the 19th century. Other similar sites, only a few decades old are in the Tourist Authority's list. Transferring Kiriella's truly "encyclopedic gaze" to the giant rock Lakegala, he declares it an abode of Ravana and he finds elsewhere plants transferred from the Himalayas (all of which were shot down by Dhanesh Visumaperuma using standard scientific literature). Kiriella now levitated himself to space and claimed that NASA photographs gave evidence of a bridge between Sri Lanka and India (all of which was rejected by both Indian and NASA authorities).

The son of Suriya Gunasekera, present at the symposium and acknowledging as son only when questioned has an Internet publication titled "Ravana, Fact or Myth? Independent Study". This is mainly his father's "research" and yields more amazing tall stories. The book does not refer to the father as "Dr" and thanks a group called "Ravana Brothers”. He produces truly amazing findings of ancient flying machines and claims that the Americans have "even tested a prototype of the Pushpaka, and succeeded", Pushpaka being the alleged flying machine of Ravana. Suriya Gunasekera even "discovers" “Wariyapola” as Ravana's airport with Ussangoda, a place for landing aircraft. Further truly earthshaking "evidence" is found in the Tourist Authority's websites.

Hindu fundamentalist commentators

Taking a cue from our tourist authorities, an Indian Hindu fundamentalist article asserted that unlike Indian academics, the Sri Lankan government had declared "Ramayana no more a myth " and had "recognized and authenticated Ravana’s existence" and considered "Ravana a part of Sri Lanka history". For good measure, they informed that Ravana' s coffin was available as was his "airplane" Pushpak Viman together with "five airports used by Ravana". It quotes other "findings" of our "experts" who had corrected India's own lesser experts who had "condemned and scorned" the Ramayana and considered it not history but a myth.

Fiction’s threat to sovereignty

India’s tourism authorities do not promote any alleged Ramayana sites, but sponsors a Buddhist Circuit to attract its Asian tourists as Prof Oliver Abeynaike pointed out. These Buddhist Circuit sites were actually discovered in collaboration with Sinhalese monks in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And in a great anti-Buddhist travesty, the Tourism Authority is marketing the Ramayana trail in Thailand instead of our Buddhist sites which Thais and South-East Asia know very well as Dr. Hema Goonatilake pointed out.

Later, when questioned by the Sunday Times, Tourism Authority’s Kalaliselvam had said that it was not their job to verify historical accuracy adding that "as long as people believe in the presence of historical sites", they will promote it. This is a total travesty and a camouflage; the sites were "discovered" under instructions by the Tourist Authority. This Ramayana trail had begun under the CFA supporter, then Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda with the guidance of Tamil bureaucrats. One is reminded of the secret activities of a few Tamil bureaucrats in 1961 which created the group Pulip Padai ("Army of Tigers") and prepared the way for the LTTE. This exercise in promoting non-existent Hindu fundamentalist sites at the expense of Buddhist sites creates a future danger for the integrity of Sri Lanka as Ambassador Bandu Silva pointed out, a not-too-subtle attempt to plant another invented homelands, new claims on our sovereignty.

Equally significant was the Secretary of the Maha Bodhi Society MBS (I had known him as a promoted clerk in the Peoples Bank) gleefully boasting that the MBS itself was promoting these invented Hindu sites. Anagarika Dharmapala, the founder of MBS who fought against Hindu fundamentalist machinations to get Buddha Gaya for the Buddhists would have been horrified. Equally horrified was a supporter of the Indian Dalits at the Symposium who reminded us that Indian Buddhists were against the Ramayana fiction.

Our symposium had begun to blow the bubble of lies. Several responsible journalists correctly reported our experts. Only an anonymous columnist in true kelapathra style, in spite of all the expert evidence, wrote against it. My late classmate Upali Wijewardene who wished to bring factual and pro-Sri Lankan perspectives to our journalism would have been appalled.

This Symposium material is now on the RASSL website. The struggle for truth will continue.

- Asian Tribune -

Following the Trail of Ramayana in Sri Lanka Part 05 of 05

2010-08-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

These tunnels are natural and not man made..on what basis SLTDA says , these tunnel are man made..no historian has said anything like that.

Kalutara has no historical evidences of Ravana’s palace and SLTDA shows Kalutara Temple to imitate that the temple was built on the Ravana’s palace.

Maha Ravana goda

Maha = Big
Ravana = a creeper growing in beach sides..Villagers keep dried Ravana plant in their roves to block rats' movements
Goda = heap

Maha ravana goda = Big heap of Ravana plants

Kondakalai - Hindu Temple was built with influx of Tamil plantation workers to Hill Country in 1800s.SLTDA shows this temple as it is belong to Ramayana trail.

Kirinda
SLTDA shows Kirinda Temple and harbor and trying to relate it to Ravana story.

Proofs of Ramayana: Tomb of Rawana in Sri lanka (Hindi) - An Utter lie !!!!!!

2010-08-09T22:56:00.000-07:00

Anyone in Gampaha area knows about this news? Indian press has started disseminating false news and trying to mislead people...No body in Sri Lanka knows such a news.....

One myth goes out: another comes in Ramayana Trail is on Track, but where has the Vijayan story gone ?

2010-08-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

Former Indian Cabinet Secretary, B. Raman, seemed to complain recently that the Indians were not performing too well in Sri Lanka. He was comparing the situation with the Chinese presence. The whole argument seemed to surround the idea that India had a monopoly in the Indian Ocean area. That is a subject to be discussed on another occasion.

But, looking around, India does not seem to be doing badly in Sri Lanka. For the present purpose, I shall take only the cultural and religious aspects, leaving out political and economic domains.

Army and Archaeology –Allegations

The Times report entitled "Archaeology sparks new conflict between Sri Lankan Tamils and Sinhalese" by its South Asia Correspondent Jeremy Page dated April 6, 2010 on archaeology of Sri Lanka should be given serious attention by our authorities.

The Tamil Net picking it up reported on April 10, under the caption Army and Archaeological Department at work in Tamil homelands. Tamil Net quotes a Jaffna academic asking why a monument put up [by the LTTE] in memory of Tileepan at Nalloor who fasted unto death in the struggle against Indian imperialism had to be destroyed. This academic draws an analogy between this "monument" which he says was "built by Tamils" in "their own land" [he does not admit it was the LTTE which built it] and the "Jaffna Fort which was a symbol of colonial and post colonial oppression of Eezahm Tamils and which continued to be the seat of occupying forces of Sinhala State". [I suggest that the slur on the Tamil people caused by Prabhakaran should be removed from memory as done with Hitler’s memory and more recently with the removal of statues of Lenin and Stalin in Russia. That is important for reconciliation, considering the carnage caused by this megalomaniac].

The significance of the Tamil Net report that President Rajapaksa’s government should take note of is that though the war on terrorism was won, Eelam forces are masquerading among the Tamil academia in a big way. The potential of regenerating terrorism through academic work as Nazism was so generated in Germany should not be overlooked.
Vijaya or Rama? –The choice for the government

There is no money in the Vijayan story just like there is no money in the story of a Buddhist temple complex at Sigiriya. Just as the idea of a fortress /palace at Sigiriya brought money for book publishers, Ramayana sale is going to bring Indian paisas to the depleted kitty of tourism. That is what the Tourism Development Authority Director General, Seenivasagam Kalaiselvam, tells the Sri Lankans.(Daily Mirror, April 10, 2010). What agenda is behind it one does not know. The Tamil Net /The Hindu ascribe a different motive to it as we shall see below.

A few years back commenting on the opposition of a group of Tamil teachers to the inclusion of the story of Vijaya in the history text books, I expressed a contrary view. What is the situation today? Has the Vijayan story disappeared from school texts? Prof.R.A.L.H. Gunawardana has referred to it in his recently reprinted 60 paged pamphlet on Historiography in a time of ethnic Conflict, (1965, Social scientists Association ) as something which was needed for national harmony. How is that the Ramayana myth is not considered so but peddled in a big way by the Tourism Promotion Authority? A big question, indeed! The present government should find an answer to it.

First, the Ramayana story was recently re-introduced to the public here through a private TV channel which is known to have strong links with India. That was alright. No one raised questions that it was going to dampen Buddhist thinking moulded by reasoning: hetu-phala vada (cause and effect theory), with such monstrosities as 10-headed human beings and armies of monkeys. One cannot forget how the government of India officially objected when Radio Ceylon beamed popular Hindi Music to India as dampening the cultural tastes of the Indians! It is not suggested that we ourselves take such steps. After all,Ramayana has its own clientele and popularity though, it was not allowed to take root here as we shall see later.

But the issue is an arm of the Sri Lankan government, the Tourism Development Authority, promoting the idea of a presence of a strong Ramayana tradition in the island and trying to perpetuate it.

I protested through these columns several years back when the news first appeared in the media when the Tourist Board proposed to develop a park behind the Hanuman temple, by clearing the forest reserve to create a Ramayana ambiance. Already, an Army officer was reported expanding the Hanuman temple – an earlier tea kiosk built on a road reservation used by labourers as one remembers within our memory - using Army resources [to expiate his sins!].

I protested again last year when the project was resurrected. Since then, the Royal Asiatic Society went into the issue at an in-house seminar which opposed the project. Kalaiselvan uses the fact that Indians form 15 per cent of the tourist arrivals in the island. The quality in terms of Dollar earnings is not an important aspect. So this important element of tourist earnings is flaunted as the raison d’Etre of the Ramayana Trail project. I remember Japanese Tour organizers telling me and the Tourist Board Director Samaradiwakara that Colombo was a dull city and there was no sex life here. Now 30 years later, that requirement is also met as one would find at any Casino and many massage parlours which have mushroomed. We are catching up it seems!

But the Tamil Net quoting The Hindu of Thursday (April 8th] tells a different story. It ascribes, by implication, the authorship of the ‘Ramayan Trail" to the Rajapaksa government, though it ascribes a negative motive to it. This is how it puts it:

"a news report in The Hindu (Thursday), about the tourism Department ‘identifying Ramayana sites’ in the south to attract Indian tourists to Ravana’s Lanka, shows how the ‘balancing’ is going to be – fake and myth to Tamil Hindus to balance the crafty Sinhala-Buddhist colonization and denial of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the north and east…… the process is accelerated after the war, with Colombo having clear agenda of establishing Sinhala army cantonments and Sinhala colonies in the ‘conquered land’ to keep Eezam Tamils under permanent subjugation. …one of the first acts of the government after the war even before caring the people affected in the war was archaeological survey."

What ‘balancing’?

Doesn’t the Tamil Net, by implication, accuse the government of engaging in diarchy? One is the accusation of getting the cultural Advisor to the President, (Indian-connectivity man), Prof. Sudarshan Seneviratne (‘a smart politician’ as Jeremy Page describes him), to address the University of Jaffna on the preservation of heritage and to ‘put the Colombo agenda in place in subtle ways’.

This is the ‘balancing’ act quoted from The Hindu ‘identifying Ramayana sites’ to lure [the gullible] South Indians to Ravana’s Lanka. How the balancing’ is going to be – is to sell the "fake and myth to Tamil Hindus to balance the crafty-Sinhala –Buddhist colonization and denial of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the north and the east."

So, the big question is who is responsible for creating the new Ramayana myth in Sri Lanka on the lines of the "Cultural Triangle" project? (See later). Isn’t it the government of Sri Lanka? There is no question over that. The questions raised are over the motives of doing so.

This is where we are presented with two different versions. One, the idea presented by Kalaiselvan that it is to spin money out of Indian tourists. The other presented by Tamil Net /The Hindu is that it is part of balancing act [by the government] to cover up "Buddhist colonization and denial of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the north and the east".

If the latter version is not correct, shouldn’t the government clear its name of using the "Ramayana Trail" as a cover up for ‘ engaging in for decades "building modern stupa complexes in [such] sites and in other imaginary sites so that they become Sinhalese colonies intended for the demographic genocide of Eezham Tamils and Tamil speaking Muslims in the island et al. …."as the Tamil Net accuses.

Vijaya defeated; Rama Victorious!

Rama has used the Rama-seraya (the deadly arrow) and defeated Vijaya. That is the situation today, whether one likes it or not. So Vijaya is no longer the hero; Rama is on top. In India, even a beggar begs quoting ‘Ram.’ Isn’t there something far more symbolic in Vijaya’s defeat? That is that Sri Lanka has come under Indian domination not only politically and economically with Trincomalee and the oil tanks gone to Rama – that is at the very spot where the Tamils say Ravana worshiped Lord Shiva-; but also culturally, speaking, we have surrendered our little romantic origin myth also whether true or not, which helped to give the Sinhalese people an identity that is to install India’s great Rama on this land!

A parallel exists in the erosion of the validity and importance of the Vijaya story as a result of archaeological discoveries which make the origin story look very unimpressive when placed against a wider Mesolithic and Megalithic and proto-historic background. So the 500 years B.C. beginning for a people is nothing in the spectrum of man’s history in these parts! The result is our little beautiful origin/identity myth has suffered all round. But, is it necessary that we allow it to be superseded by another myth like the Ramayana myth whose historical validity is even more questionable? No. This is not the place to go into it.

Why do I say the Ramayana story a canker?

I referred to Tamil Net’s accusation that the Sri Lankan government was engaging in a ‘balancing’ act.

Using the same argument presented by Tamil Net, what one could then ask is notwithstanding whether political motives are behind the Ramayana project as ascribed to The Hindu; or economic motives as claimed by the Director General of the Tourism Development Authority, these Ramayana sites could in future "become ……temples of Tamil colonies." Perhaps, the day will come when an Hindutva army from India might be persuaded to intervene in Sri Lanka in their defence as mythical Hanuman did; or Subramanian Swamy is trying to do from time to time during Eelam War by landing Indian flotillas bringing men to fight on the side of the LTTE. The memory of Masjid mosque in the name of Rama is alarming!

Source:http://www.island.lk/2010/04/21/midweek7.html

අපේ කඳුකරය තුළ තැනින් තැන සැඟව ගිය රාවණා - සීතා පුරාවෘත්ත

2010-08-08T03:22:00.000-07:00

අනපේක්‌ෂිත සිදුවීම්වලට ඉංග්‍රීසි භාෂාවෙන් Cධ- සබජසාeබඑ යනු ව්‍යාවහාරිකයි. පුදුමයකට හේතුවී ඇත්තේ ඉන්දියානු සුප්‍රසිද්ධ චිත්‍රපට අධ්‍යක්‌ෂ මනිරත්නම්ගේ රාවණන් චිත්‍රපටය මහජන ප්‍රදර්ශනය සඳහා නිකුත් වී මත් සමගම ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංචාරක මණ්‌ඩලය ද තායිලන්තයේදී රාම - රාවණා කතාව ගෙන හැර දක්‌වමින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට සංචාරයකයන් ගෙන්වා ගැනීම සඳහා ප්‍රචාරණ වැඩ සටහනක්‌ දියත් කිරීමයි. මේ සමගම ඉන්දියාව ක්‍රියාවට නැංවීමට සූදානම් වූ සේතුසමුද්‍රම් නාවික ගමනා ගමන මාර්ගය (පෝක්‌ සමුද්‍ර සන්ධිය හා රාමේෂ්වරම් අතර) යෝජනා ක්‍රමය ඉන්දීය විරෝධතා මධ්‍යයේ අත්හැර දැමීමයි.

ඉන්දියානුවන් එකී විරුද්ධත්වය ගෙනහැර පෑවේ එකී නාවික ගමනා ගමන මාර්ගය ඉදි කළහොත් රාම - රාවණා ඉන්දීය ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංකල්පය බිඳ වැටෙන බවට හේතු දක්‌වමිනි. රාමගේ හනුමන්තා ප්‍රධාන වානර හමුදාව විසින් තනන ලදැයි ප්‍රකට පෝක්‌ සමුද්‍ර සන්ධිය හරහා වැටී ඇති ගල් අතිරූ ඉන්දීය ලංකා පැරණි පාලම යටකී නාවික ගමනාගමනය හේතුවෙන් ගලවා දැමීමට සිදුවීම ඊට හේතුවයි. එසේ වුවහොත් රාමායනයන් රාම රාවණා කතාවත්, සනාථ කිරීම ඉන්දියානුවන්ට උගහට වන්නේය.

රාම - රාවණා සංකල්පය ඉදිරිපත් කිරීමෙන් ඉන්දිය හා තායිලන්ත සංචාරකයන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා ගත හැකිවේවිද? ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම රාම - රාවණා කතාව ඇත්තක්‌ද මෙය ඉන්දියානු වතු කම්කරුවන්ගේ නිර්මාණයක්‌ද?

පුරාණයේ සීත එළිය (CධකෘඡඛAෂභ) දැන් දමිළ වතුකම්කරුවන් විසින් "සීතාඑළිය" ලෙස නම් කොට රාවණා සීතාවන් හක්‌ගල මල්වත්ත සමීපයට ගෙනැවිත් ඇති බව කියයි. සීතාගේ අග්ගලා ගුලි නමින් ලෝකාන්තයේ කිරීවත්ත (නැග්රෙක්‌ ප්‍රදේශයේ අළුපැහැගති ගල් වර්ගයක්‌ තිබේ. මේවා උරගා බීමෙන් බඩේ අමාරු මෙන්ම ශරීරයේ වෙනත් ආබාධද සුවවන බව කියති. රාවණා, සීතාවන් පැහැරගෙන දඬුමොරණයෙන් පැමිණෙන විට තමා පැහැරගෙන ආ මාර්ගය රාමාට දැනගැනීම පිණිස තමා සන්තකයෙහි තිබූ අග්ගලා ගෙඩි මල්ලෙන් එක එක බැගින් බිමට හෙලු බවත්, ඒවා, පසුව සීතා ගේ අග්ගලා වී යයි මෙම දමිළ වතු කම්කරුවන්ගේ අදහසයි. තවද සීතා එළිය, මහ එළිය, කරීවත්ත යන පෙදෙස්‌හි දිය පොකුණුවල වැවෙන විල්ලුණු නම් ලුණු වර්ගයක්‌ වෙයි. මෙම විල්ලුණු ගැලවීම තුරුලතා ආරක්‌ෂිත පනත යටතේ තහනම්ය. නමුත් දමිළ වතුකම්කරුවෝ ඒවා ගලවා වෙළෙඳපොළට ගෙනැවිත් විකුණති. මෙම විල්ලුණු සිSතාවන් විසින් ජල පොකුණුවලට විසි කරන ලද තමාගේ ආහාර කොටසින් හටගත් පැළෑටියක්‌ බව දමිළ වතුකම්කරුවන්ගේ මතයයි.

ලෝකාන්තය හා හෝර්ටන් තැන්න බද පෙදෙස රාම - සීතා කතාවේ මුල් භූමිය ලෙස ප්‍රචලිතකර හැරීමට දකුණු ඉන්දියානු දමිළ වතුකම්කරුවන්ට අවශ්‍ය වූයේ ඉන්දියාව හා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව ඔවුන්ගේම මව් භූමියක්‌ ලෙස හැඟවීමට බව පෙනේ. රාවණා දිය ඇළි, රාවණා ගල්ගුහා, රාවණා විවේකයට වාඩිවී සිටියා යෑයි කියෑවෙන ගල් ආසනයක්‌ද "ලෝකාන්තය" පහළ වනයේ තිබේ. මේවා දමිළ වතුකම්කරුවන් තමන් ඉන්දියාව සමග පවත්නා සම්බන්ධතාව සනාථ කිරීමට නිර්මාණය කළ ඒවාදැයි අප නොදනිමු. නමුත් අපට ඒ ගැන අමුතුවෙන් සිතන්නට දැන් අවස්‌ථාවක්‌ පැමිණ තිබේ. එනම් මතු සඳහන් කරන ලද මිනරත්නම්ගේ රාවණන් චිත්‍රපටයක්‌ සංචාරක මණ්‌ඩලයේ ඉන්දිය සංචාරකයන් මෙරටට ගෙන්වාගැනීම පිsණිස රාම - රාවණා කතාව යළි මතුකොට ඉන්දීය ජනතාව අතර ව්‍යාපාරයක්‌ ගෙන යැමයි. තවද ඉන්දීය වතු කම්කරුවනට විශේෂයෙන් නුවරඑළිය බද වතුවල කම්කරුවන්ට ඉන්දිය දෙවිදේවතාවුන් ඔවුන්ගේ වතුකරයට ගෙන්වා වැදුම් පිදුම් කිරීමට අවශ්‍ය වූ බව කියනු ලැබේ. ඊට පදනම යෙදීමට සීතාවන්, රාවණා විසින් සඟවා තබන ලදැයි කියෑවෙන සීතාඑළිය, මහඑළිය, ලෝකාන්තය, හෝටර්න්තැන්න වැනි ප්‍රදේශ මෙම කම්කරුවන් විසින් උපයෝගි කොටගෙන ඇති වග පෙනේ. රාස්‌සගල, උඩකන්ද, පෙදෙසේ ඇති කුඩා ගම්මානයක්‌ වන සීතගල (ශීතල පර්වත) දැන් සීතාගල් වශයෙන් හැඳින්වීමට එම පෙදෙසේ වතු කම්කරුවෝ පුරුදු වී සිටිති. නව සිය හැට හැත්තෑව දශකයේ හග්ගල මල්වත්තට නුදුරුව තනා තිබූ සීතාකෝවිල නමින් හැඳින්වෙන කුඩා පූජනීය ස්‌ථානය අද දැවැන්ත සීතා කෝවිලකි. මෙම ප්‍රදේශ පවත්නා දියඇලි එක්‌කෝ සීතා ඇල්ලයි නැත්නම් රාවණා ඇල්ලයි. නමුත් ශ්‍රී පාද මාර්ගයේ ඇති සීතගඟුල් නම් තවම සීතාගඟුල් වී නැත. අනාගතයේදී එයද සීතා ගඟුල් වීමට ඉඩ තිබේ. රාවණ - සීතාවන්ට සම්බන්ධයක්‌ නොමැති වූවත් එදා සුද්දන් නන්පෙරිල් (අගාධයක්‌ නොවේ) නමින් හැඳින්වූ ලෝකාන්තය පහළ පිහිටිවත්ත නන්පෙරිල් තේවත්ත අද දමිළ කම්කරුවන් විසින් නන්පේරියල් නමින් හඳුන්වනු ලබයි.

අපේ රාවණා රජු ගැන සැලකීමේදී බඹරවාන" උඩුරාවණ යටිරාවණ කඩුරාවණ යනාදී පෙළපත් නාම උඩරට රාජධානිය පුරා පවතී. මෙම නම්වලට රාවණගේ සම්බන්ධක්‌ තිsබිය හැකිද? තවද මොණරාගල රාවණාගේ දඬුමොණරය නිපදවීමට යොදාගත් ස්‌ථානයද? මේවා නොවිසඳී පවත්නා ගැටලුය. වයඹ පළාතේ වඳුරාගලත් දකුණු පළාතේ වඳුරඹ පෙදෙසත් රාමාගේ හනුමන්තා නිසා යොදන ලද නාමයන්ද? තායිලන්තයේ රාමායනය නැටුමට විශාල ප්‍රසිද්ධියක්‌ ඇත. එනිසා මෙම නැටුම හා ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ රාමායන කතාව සම්බන්ධකොට ආගමට බර වූ තායිලන්ත ජාතිකයන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා ගැනීමේ සංචාරක මණ්‌ඩලය වැඩසටහන සාර්ථකවේද? ශ්‍රී ලාංකික බෞද්ධ වියතුන් පවසන්නේ තායි ජාතිකයන් සංචාරක වශයෙන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා ගැනීමට නම් සියම් මහා නිකාය සම්බන්ධ ඉතිහාසගත තොරතුරු හා පැරණි ලංකා - තායි සියම් නිකායික සම්බන්ධතාවය ගෙනහැර දැක්‌විය යුතු බවයි.

ඉන්දිය සංචාරකයන් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට ගෙන්වා ගැනීම සඳහා අමුතුවෙන් නාඩගමක්‌ නටන්නට වුවමනා නැත. ඔවුහු රාම - සීතා හා රාම රාවණ සහ රාවණ සීතා කතාව මැනවින් දනිති. රාවණා සිSතා කතාව ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම සත්‍යයද? නැත්නම් මිථ්‍යාවක්‌ද? එසේත් නැත්නම් බ්‍රිතාන්‍ය ජාතික අධිරාජ්‍යවාදීන් විsසින් තමිල්නාඩු ප්‍රාන්තයෙන් ආනයනය කරන ලද දමිළ කුලී කරුවන් (කෝපි හා තේ වගා කිරීමට) විසින් වර්ධනය හෝ සංවර්ධනය කරන ලද ප්‍රබන්ධයක්‌ද? දකුණු ඉන්දියාවේද ලංකා පුරාණයක්‌ වෙයි. සීතා ගෙන එනු ලැබුවේ එම ලංකාපුරයටද? ඉන්දියාවේ ඇතැම් කොටසක්‌ මේ කතාව පිළිගනිති. මනිරත්නම් විසින් මෑතකදී නිපදවන ලද රාවණන් චිත්‍රපටයෙන් රාවණාට සාධාරණය ඉටුකොට දී ඇති බව පෙනේ යයි සිනමා විචාරකයෝ පවසති. අයිෆා සම්මාන උළෙල පවා වර්ජනය කළ මනිරත්නම් රාවණන් චිත්‍රපටය මගින් රාමා චරිතය අමුතුම ස්‌වරූපයකට පරිවර්තනය කළේ ඇයිද යනු විචාරකයන්ට කුතුහලයකි. ඇත්තවශයෙන්ම රාවණා යුගයක්‌ ලංකාවේ තිබුණේද නැතිනම් එය ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ද්‍රවිඩ වතු කම්කරුවන්ගේ නිර්මාණයක්‌ද? මෙම ප්‍රශ්න අප ඉදිරියේ මැවෙමින් පවතී. අපේ මහා ඉතිහාසය ග්‍රන්ථය වන මහාවංශයෙහි රාවණා ගැන කිසිවක්‌ අඩංගු නොවෙයි. එතෙකුදු තබා සම්බුදුරජාණන් වහන්සේ ලක්‌දිව වැඩි තුන් ගමන ගැන ත්‍රිපිටකයෙහිද සඳහන් නොවන්නා මෙනි. මහාචාර්ය සෙනරත් පරණ විතාන වියතාණන් පවසන්නේ ලක්‌දිව රාවණයන්ගේ ලංකාව නොවේ. රාමායනය කියන ලංකාව කිසිකලක නොවූ වීරු මිථ්‍යා ප්‍රදේශයක්‌ යයි බවයි. (රාජකීය ආසියාතික සමිතියේ සංග්‍රහය ඪදක ඞඞඞෂ-82-328) මේ අයුරින්ම රාමා රාවණා සීතා ආදීහු ලොව විසූ පුද්ගලයන් නොව ආදී කාලීන කෘෂකයන් විසින් ස්‌වභාවික වස්‌තූන්ද ධර්මතාද ඇසුරුකොට නිපදවන ලද මිථ්‍යා කතාවක නායකයන් බවයි පරණවිතාන සූරීන් පවසන්නේ. මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ සූරීන් රාවණාගේ කතාව මහාවංශයෙහි ඇතුළත් නොවන්නේ මහානාම හිමියන් රාවණයාගේ කතාව පැරණි ලංකාව පිළිබඳ කතාවක ලෙස නොසැලකුණු බැවින් එය මහාවංශයෙහි සඳහන් නොකරන්නට ඇතැයි යන ආකල්පය නිසාය. මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහ සූරීන් සිය බුදුසමය හා සමාජ දර්ශනය ග්‍රන්ථයෙන් පෙන්වා දෙන්නේ රාම කතාව ලංකාවේ පැතිරුණේ 12 වන සියවසින් පසුව බවත් එය දකුණු ඉන්දියාවේ වෛෂ්ණාව සමයේදී පැතිරි ගිය එකක්‌ බවයි. රාවණ කතාව ලංකා ඉතිහාසය පිළිබඳ කඩඉම් පොත්වලට ඇතුළු වී ඇත්තේ මහනුවර රාජ සමයේදී බව වික්‍රමසිංහ සූරීන්ගේ අදහසයි. එහෙත් එම කඩඉම් පොත්වල දැක්‌වෙන්නේ විජයාවතරණයට පෙර රාක්‍ෂ ග්‍රෝතික රාවණා වත්මන් ඌව පළාත් අගනුවර වූ බදුල්ලෙහි ස්‌වකීය රාජධානිය පිහිටුවාගෙන රජකළ බවයි. ලංකා පුරාවෘත්තය නමැති පොතේ දැක්‌වෙනුයේ රම් සෙන් අගනුවර ගිනිලුකළ එය විශාල ගිනි ජාලාවක්‌ මෙන් බොහෝ ඈතට පෙනෙන්නට වූ බවත් යුද්ධ තත්ත්වය දැනගනු රිසියෙන් පිදුරුතලාගල කඳු මුදුනට රැස්‌ව සිටි ජනයා අර නුවරඑළිය කුමක්‌දැයි පිළිsවිසූ බවත් එතැන් පටන් අග නුවර දැවෙන එළිය දුටු පෙදෙස "නුවරඑළිය" නමින් ප්‍රසිද්ධ වූ බවත්ය. කුමාරදාස රජු විසින් රචනය කරන ලද සංස්‌කෘතික කාව්‍යයක්‌වූ ජානකී හරණයෙහි රාම සීතා කතාව ගැන සඳහන් වෙනත් සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාව සතු බස්‌ නොඋගත් කොටසක්‌ බැවින් ඉන් පලක්‌වී නොමැති බව පෙනේ. තොටගමුවේ ශ්‍රී රාහුල මාහිමියෝ රාමායනය හා මහා භාරතය සම්පප්‍රලාප යයි පහත දැක්‌වෙන සිය කාව්‍ය ශේඛරයෙන් පවසති එනම්,

රාමායණ බරන
ඇතුළුව දෙසුම් මුළු යුත
කීමුත් බස්‌ නිරත
යුතුව දෙ අගින් දනුව නියවත

එහෙත් මෙම රාහුල හිමියන්ම යටකී ග්‍රන්ථයෙන්ම සීතාදේවිය ගැන මෙසේ කියති

රුසිරු ගුණ සීතා
සුරතුර දිනූ දෑතා
විලසින් වි නීතා
ලොවට කුළුණෙත් සදිසි මාතා

ගරුඬ පුරාණය පවසන්නේ රාම රවණා සටන ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේදී සිදුවූ වගයි. අධ්‍යාය 55)

කෙසේ වෙතත් අප රටේ නොයෙකුත් ප්‍රදේශවල විශේෂයෙන් කඳුකරයේ රාවණ ගැන කියෑවෙන තැන් බොහෝය. මාතලේ ලග්ගල, ලොග්ගල පැත්තද බදුල්ල ප්‍රදේශයද විශේෂයෙන් සීතා කෝවිල ගොඩනැගී ඇති නුවරඑළිය හා ඊට ආසන්න ලෝකාන්තයද බලංගොඩ "දෙතනගල කඳු පෙදෙසද එහිම කූරගල පූජනීය පෙදෙසද දක්‌ෂිණ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මුහුදු වෙරෙළට ඔබ්බෙන් පිහිටි මහාරාවණා කෝට්‌ටේ සහ කුඩා රාවණා කෝට්‌ටේද යනාදි ස්‌ථානයන්හි රාවණා පිළිබඳව තොරතුරු කියෑවේ. රාවණා ඇල්ල නමින් දිය ඇල්ලක්‌ද ඌවේ පිහිටා ඇත. මෙවැනි ස්‌ථානීය සාක්‌ෂි තිබෙද්දී රාම -රාවණ සංකල්පය මිථ්‍යාවකැයි කෙලෙස බැහැර කරමුද?

යක්‌ෂ, නාග, දේව, රාක්‌ෂ නමින් ගෝත්‍ර හතරක්‌ ප්‍රාග් ඓතිහාසික යුගයේ තිබූ බවට බොහෝ තැන්වල සඳහන් වෙයි. මෙයින් රාවණා රාක්‌ෂය ගෝත්‍රික නායකයා වන්නට පිළිවනැයි බොහෝ දෙනකුගේ මතයයි.

රාමකුමරුගේ සේනාධිනායකයා යයි සැලකිය හැකි හනුමන්තා (ඉන්දීය හනුමන්) පැරණි ලංකාවට ගුවනින් පැමිණ එවකට ලංකා පුරයට නුදුරින් පිහිටි කුලපව්වට ගොඩබැස්‌ස වගක්‌ කියෑවේ. මෙම ස්‌ථානය වත්මන් නමුනුකුල වන්නට ඇතැයි විචාරක මතයයි. හනුමන් කුල පව්ව යන්න පසුව නමුනුකුල වන්නට ඇතැයි කියති.

භාරත යුද සෙනගට ලංකාවට පා ගමනින් පැමිණීම සඳහා මන්නාරම සහ රාමේශ්වරම් අතර නොගැඹුර මුහුදේ එවකට වානර හමුදාව විසින් තනන ලදැයි විශ්වාස කෙරෙන ගල් පාලම මීට කලකට පෙර අමෙරිකානු නාසා ආයතනයේ චන්ද්‍රිකාවක්‌ මගින් රූ ගතකොට ඉදිරිපත් කරනු ලැෙබීමෙන් පසු මහත් ආන්දෝලනයක්‌ තමිල් නාඩු ප්‍රාන්තයේද අපේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේද ඇතිවිය සේතු සමුද්‍රම් ව්‍යාපෘතිය ඉන්දියානු රජය විසින් බැහැර කිරීමටද එය හේතුවක්‌ විය. ඉන්දියානුවන් දේශපාලනික භේද නොතකා ජාතික ප්‍රශ්නවලදී එකට එකමුතුවන ජාතියක්‌ නිසා (අපමෙන් නොවේ) රාමායන කතාව සුරක්‌ෂිතව තව කාලයක්‌ පැවතීමට නම් මෙම වානර පාලම එලෙසම මුහුදෙහි තිබීමට ඉඩ හැරිය යුතු යයි ඉන්දියානුවෝ එකහඩින් ප්‍රකාශ කර සිටියහ. රාවණා පළමුව සීතාවන් ගෙනැවිත් සඟවා තබා ඇත්තේ ඌවේ පරණගම ගල් ගෙයක යෑයි ජනවහරෙහි එන කතාවක පවතී. ඉන්පසු මනා හිරුඑළියක්‌ සහිත වත්මන් සීතාඑළියට ඇය ගෙනැවිත් මුරකාවල්ලා තබන්නට ඇතැයි සැලකේ. එම ස්‌ථානය වැරදි හෝ නිවැරදි හෝ වේවා අද හක්‌ගල මල්වත්තට නුදුරින් සුවිශාල වූ සීතා කෝවිලක්‌ ගොඩනගා තිබේ. රාම - රාවණා අවසන් සටන වත්මන් මයියංගනයේදී සිදුවනු බවට ඌව ජනවහර කියයි. එම ප්‍රදේශයෙහි සීතා කොටුව නම් ස්‌ථානයක්‌ වෙයි. එහි නිෂ්ඨාවශේෂ අදත් දක්‌නට ඇති බව කියති. පතිවත බවට සීතාවන් දිවුරුම් දුන් ස්‌ථානය අද දිවුරුම්පොල් වශයෙන්ද එහි බෝධිවෘක්‌ෂයක්‌ දිවුරුම් බෝධිය නමින්ද අද හැඳින්වේ. ඇතමෙකු මිථ්‍යාවකැයි පවසන රාම - රාවණා සීතා තුන්කොත් කතාව තව ඉදිරියටත් මේ අන්දමට භාවිත වනවා ඇත. කඳුකරයේ වතුකම්කරුවෝ එය යටපත්වීමට ඉඩ නොසලසන බව ඔවුන්ගේ කතාවලින් පෙනේ.

ස්‌ටැන්ලි සේනාධීර

Source:http://www.divaina.com/2010/08/08/feature04.html

සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය නව ඉතිහාසයක්‌ ලියයි

2010-08-08T03:18:00.000-07:00

ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරය රාමායණ කතාන්දරය ඇත්තක්‌ ලෙස ප්‍රචාරය කරතැයි පළමුවරට මා දැනුවත් කරන ලද්දේ නවදිල්ලියේ පැවති අන්තර්ජාතික සම්මන්ත්‍රණයක රාත්‍රි භෝජන සංග්‍රහයකදී ඉන්දියානු විද්වතෙකු විසිනි. ඉන්දියානු බුද්ධිමතුන් සැබෑ පදනමක්‌ නොමැති රාමායණය සලකන්නේ හින්දු අන්තගාමී, මූලධර්මවාදී අවියක්‌ ලෙසය.

පෙරළා පැමිණි වහාම අපේ සංචාරක අධිකාරියේ "රාමායන සංචාරය" (Raප්හ්බ්හ් ඔර්සක) ගැන විමසා බැලීමෙන් පසු මම මවිත වූයෙමි. රාම ගමන් මඟ ලෙස නිර්මිත ව්‍යාජ ස්‌ථාන ද්‍රවිඩ පාරම්පරික නිජබිම් මිථ්‍යාව සිහිගන්වයි. මේ සම්බන්ධයෙන් රාජකීය ආසියාතික සංගමය මගින් විද්වතුන් සමග වැඩමුළුවක්‌ පැවැත්වීය. විවිධ ශාස්‌ත්‍රීය ක්‌ෂේත්‍ර නියෝජනය කළ එම විද්වතුන්ට එනම් පුරාවිද්‍යාව, අක්‌ෂර විද්‍යාව, ඉතිහාසය, සිංහල, පාලි හා සංස්‌කෘත, සාහිත්‍යය එම රාමායණය මිථ්‍යා නිර්මාණය පුළුල් ලෙස ප්‍රචාරය කිරීමේ භයානකත්වය පෙනී ගියේය. එය වටා ගෙතූ ව්‍යාජ සිංහල කෘති, චිත්‍රපට හා වෙබ් අඩවිද වෙයි.

මෙම ක්‍රියාපටිපාටියේ අනික්‌ පැත්ත දැනගනු පිණිස සංචාරක අධිකාරියේ ප්‍රධානීන්ට ඇරැයුම් කළද ප්‍රතිචාරයක්‌ නොලද නිසා රාජකීය ආසියාතික සංගමය විසින් සංවිධානය කෙරෙන ප්‍රසිද්ධ සම්මන්ත්‍රණයට සහභාගි වන්නැයි සංචාරක අධිකාරියේ ඒ ඒ අංශ ප්‍රධානීන්ට වෙන වෙනම දැන්වූයෙමු. එහෙත් සත්‍යයට බය වී කිසිවෙකු පැමිණියේ නැත.

මෙම නිර්මාණය සඳහා සංචාරක අධිකාරිය සමග බැඳීම් ඇති අයගෙන් එක්‌ අයෙකු පැමිණ සිටි බව දැනගන්නට ලැබිණි.

ඔහු විසින් කරන ලද විශ්මය ජනක ඊනියා ගවේෂණ ප්‍රතිඵල විස්‌තර කරන වෙබ් අඩවියක්‌ද නිර්මාණය කොට ඇත. රාම ගමන් මාර්ගයේ ඊනියා විශ්මයජනක සලකුණු හෙළි කරමින් ප්‍රබන්ධ ලියූ පිරිසක්‌ කණ්‌ඩායමක්‌ වශයෙන් පැමිණ සම්මන්ත්‍රණ ශාලාව තුළ විසිරී අසුන්ගෙන ඇතැයි මට දැනගන්නට ලැබුණි. තමන් හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදීන්ට කත් අදින බව මෙම රාමායණ පක්‌ෂපාතීහුද නොදැන සිටි බව අනුමාන කළ හැක.

විශේෂඥ දේශන අවසානයේ සාකච්ඡා වාරයේදී ප්‍රශ්න නඟන්නන් තම නම හා ඒ ඒ ක්‌ෂේත්‍ර සම්බන්ධයෙන් තමා සතු ශාස්‌ත්‍රීය පසුබිම සඳහන් කරන ලෙස මම ඉල්ලා සිටියෙමි. තමාට ජර්මනියෙන් ලත් ආචාර්ය උපාධියක්‌ ඇතැයි කියා සිටියෙකු ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ නැඟූ විට මා හොඳින් ප්‍රගුණ කර ඇති ජර්මන් බසින් ඇමතූ විට එය තේරුම් නොගත් ඔහු, තම ආචාර්ය උපාධිය ලැබුණේ ජපානයෙන් යෑයි කීවෙන්, එවිට මම ජපන් බසින් ඔහු ඇමතීමි. එය තේරුම් නොගත් ඔහු ඊළඟට කීවේ තම ආචාර්ය උපාධිය රුසියාවෙන් කියාය. මම නිහඬ වීමි.

ප්‍රාග් ඉතිහාසය, පුරාවිද්‍යාව, බෞද්ධ අධ්‍යයනය, සිංහල සාහිත්‍යය, අග්නිදිග ආසියාව යන ක්‌ෂේත්‍රයන් පිළිබඳ විශේෂඥයන් ඉදිරිපත් කළ කරුණුවලින් පැහැදිලි කරන ලද්දේ මුළු රාමායණය සංචාරයම ව්‍යාජ ප්‍රබන්ධයක්‌ බවත්, ඕනෑකමින්ම පුරාවිද්‍යාව විකෘති කිරීමක්‌ බවත්, බෞද්ධ දැක්‌මට පටහැනි වූවක්‌ බවත්ය. එමෙන්ම හිටපු තානාපති බන්දු සිල්වා මහතා පෙන්නා දුන් පරිදි ආක්‍රමණශීලී විදේශ බලපෑමක ආරම්භයක්‌ බවය.

හෑගොඩ විපස්‌සි ස්‌වාමීන් වහන්සේ කථා කරමින්, නිර්මාණය කරන ලද ව්‍යාජ රාමායණය ගමන් මඟට එරෙහිව කතා කිරීම නිසා තමන් වහන්සේට විඳින්නට සිදුවූ හිරිහැර විස්‌තර කළහ. මහාචාර්ය ඔලිවර් අබේනායක සහ මහාචාර්ය තිස්‌ස කාරියවසම් පෙන්වා දුන් පරිදි බුද්ධඝෝෂ හිමි රාමායණය මිථ්‍යාවක්‌ හා තිරශ්චීන කථාවක්‌ ලෙස නම් කළේය. එයට අවුරුදු දහසයකට පසු වීදාගම හිමි, රාම හනුමන් හාස්‌කම් අවඥවෙන් බැහැර කළේය. බුදු හිමි බැහැර කළ දෙසැට දෘෂ්ටීන් හා අනෙක්‌ හින්දු ධර්මයේ එන විශිෂ්ට චින්තන ධාරාව මෙන් නොව රාමායණය මිථ්‍යා කාව්‍යයක්‌ බව සඳහන් විය. 1990 දී හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදීන් බබ්‍රි මුස්‌ලිම් පල්ලිය විනාශ කළේ එම ස්‌ථානය රාමා උපන් භූමිය කියාය. පසුව ඉන්දියාවේ සේතු සමුද්‍ර ව්‍යාපෘතිය වැළැක්‌වීමට වෙර දැරුවේ එතැනද ඉන්දියාව හා ශ්‍රී ලංකාව අතර පාලමක්‌ තිබුණු බව කියමිනි. මෙහිදී කොටින්ට ආශිර්වාදය දුන් තමිල්නාඩුවේ ඩී.එම්.කේ. පක්‌ෂය හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදීන්ගේ සේතු සමුද්‍ර ව්‍යාපෘති විරෝධයට පක්‌ෂපාත නොවීය. එයට හේතුව, රාමායණයෙන් කෙරෙනවා යෑයි කියන ආර්ය ශේ්‍රෂ්ඨත්වය හුවා දැක්‌වීමට ඩී.එම්.කේ. කවදත් විරුද්ධ වූ නිසාය. ඒ වෙනුවට රාමායණයේ අන්තර්ගතය විකෘති කොට රාවණා වීරයා ලෙස ඩී.එම්.කේ. න්‍යායාචාර්යවරුන් විසින් ඉදිරිපත් කරන ලදී.

සම්මන්ත්‍රණයට සහභාගි වූ සිංහල රාවණා පාක්‍ෂිකයන් කළේ හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදීන්ගේ රාමායණයත්, එයට ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ ඩී.එම්.කේ. පිළිගත් ද්‍රවිඩ වීරයා වන රාවණාත් යන මිථ්‍යා දෙකම බදාගැනීමය.

සේතු සමුද්‍ර විරෝධී බී.ෙ-.පී. අනුග්‍රාහකයකු මෙහිදී සිහියට නැඟේ. ඔහු මධ්‍ය ප්‍රදේශ් ප්‍රධාන ඇමැති චෞහාන්ය. නොබෝදා අපේ මහාබෝධි සමාගම මොහු වෙනුවෙන් පිළිගැනීමේ උත්සවයක්‌ පැවැත්වීය. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ස්‌වෛරීත්වය පිළිබඳව බී. ෙ-. පී. දරන ස්‌ථාවරය කුමක්‌දැයි පහත දැක්‌වෙන ඉන්දීය පුවත්පත් සිරස්‌තල මගින් මනාව පැහැදිලි වෙයි. "ශ්‍රී ලංකාවට සම්බාධක බී. ෙ-. පී. අනුමත කරයි", "යුද්ධය නවත්වා කොටින්ට කථා කරන්නැයි ඉන්දියාව කොළඹට නියෝග කළ යුතුය" බී.ෙ-.පී. - "ඛඔඔE තහනම ඉවත් කරනු", බී.ෙ-.පී. - "ඉන්දියාවේ බී.ෙ-.පී, ජයග්‍රහණය කළ යුතු බව ඛඔඔE ය ප්‍රාර්ථනා කරයි." "හින්දු සම්මේලනය ශ්‍රී ලංකා හමුදාව කෙරේ සිය අප්‍රසාදය පළ කරයි."

ශ්‍රී ලංකා සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරයේ නායක ඊනියා විශේෂඥයකු විසින් ඉන්දියාවේ ඉතිහාසඥයන් රාමායණයේ ඓතිහාසිකත්වය පිළිනොගන්නා බව කියා ඇත. (තුන්වැනි විශේෂඥයා පිටකොටුවේ කඩ කාරයෙකි. හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදී සංවිධානයක සභාපතිත්වය දරන ඔහු, තමා ඉන්දියානුවකු වීම ගැන ආඩම්බර වෙතැයිද, ඉන්දියානු ධජයට තම සහයෝගය පළ කරතැයිද පවසා ඇත.) මෙම ඊනියා විශේෂඥයා විසින්ම ප්‍රසිද්ධියට පත්කරන ලද ඔහු ලියූ පොතේ මෙසේ කියයි.

"රාමායණයේ සත්‍යතාව සොයා බැලීමට ඉන්දියාවේ ඉතිහාසඥයන් 14 දෙනකු පත්කරන ලදී. ජනප්‍රවාදයේ සඳහන් තැන් මිස, රාමායණයේ සත්‍යතාව ඔප්පු කිරීමට ඓතිහාසික සාක්‌ෂි කිසිවක්‌ සොයා ගැනීමට ඔවුහු අසමත් වූහ. එහෙත් රාමායණය ඔප්පු කිරීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පුරාවිද්‍යාත්මක සාධක තිබේ."

සම්මන්ත්‍රණයේ දී විද්වත් කථිකයන් විසින් මෙකී සියලු ව්‍යාජ සාධක සහ එම කමිටුව සැපයූ ඊනියා ඓතිහාසික ස්‌ථාන සියල්ල බිඳහෙළන ලදී.

සංචාරක බලධාරීන් විසින් නිර්මිත සාක්‌ෂි

හෙළදිව රජකළ රාවණා මිසයිල සහ න්‍යෂ්ටික බෝම්බ පළමුවෙන් සොයාගත් තැනැත්තා යෑයි කෙනෙක්‌ කියයි. අපේ හමුදාවට නම් මෙය හොඳ ආරංචියක්‌ වනු නිසැකය. දකුණු ඇමෙරිකාව හා දකුණු යුරෝපය රාවණා විසින් පාලනය කළ බවද කියා ඇත. මේවා සත්‍ය නම් ලෝක ශිෂ්ටාචාරයම හෙල්ලුම්කනු නියතය. රාවණාගේ ගුහා ලිපිද ඉදිරිපත් කොට ඇති අතර ඒවා ඔහුගේ සංචාරක බලධාරි කමිටුව විසින් කියවා ඡායාරූපගත කොට ඇත. එමගින් දැනට අවුරුදු 17500 කට කලින් පැවති අක්‌ෂර මාලාවක සාක්‌ෂිද සොයාගෙන ඇති බව ඔහු සඳහන් කරයි. එපමණක්‌ නොවේ. රාවණා ජීවත් වූ බවට සාක්‌ෂි ඔහු අනුරාධපුරයෙන් සොයාගෙන තිබේ යෑයි ඔහු පවසයි.

මේ සියල්ල මිථ්‍යා ප්‍රබන්ධ ලෙස අභිලේඛන විද්‍යාඥ, ආචාර්ය මාලනී ඩයස්‌ විසින් ශාස්‌ත්‍රීය තොරතුරු ඇසුරින් ප්‍රතික්‌ෂේප කරන ලදී. ව්‍යාජ ශිලා ලිපි කිසියම් ටැක්‌සි රියදුරෙකු විසින් නිර්මාණය කරන ලද බවට සාක්‌ෂි ඇති බවද හෙළිකරන ලදී.

ඉතිහාසඥයන් හා පුරාවිද්‍යාඥයන් විසින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ප්‍රාග් ඉතිහාසය පිළිබඳ ගවේෂණය කර නැතැයි යන දුර්මතය පුරාවවිද්‍යා නියෝජ්‍ය අධ්‍යක්‌ෂ ජනරාල් ආචාර්ය නිමල් පෙරේරා, ප්‍රාග් ඓතිහාසික සොයා ගැනීම් පිළිබඳ කළ දේශනයෙන් බිඳ වැටිණ. එමෙන්ම ඔහු පෙන්වා දුන්නේ ප්‍රාග් ඓතිහාසික කැණීම්වලින් රාමායණය පිළිබඳ කිසිදු සාක්‌ෂියක්‌ ඉදිරිපත් වී නොමැති බවය.

සීතා අම්මන් කෝවිලක්‌ ඇති බවටද තවත් සාක්‌ෂියක්‌ ඉදිරිපත් වී ඇත. ඇත්ත වශයෙන්ම සීතා අම්මන් කෝවිල තනන ලද්දේ 19 වැනි සියවසේ මෙරටට පැමිණි වතු කම්කරුවන් විසිනි. දශක කිහිපයකට වඩා පරණ නැති තවත් එවන් තැන් සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාර ලැයිස්‌තුවේ රාමායණ මාර්ගය ලෙස සඳහන් කොට ඇත.

මේ ව්‍යාජ විශ්ව බැල්ම ඊළඟට වැටෙන්නේ ලකේගල යෝධ ගල් කුළ මතය. එය රාවණාගේ වාසස්‌ථානය වී යෑයි කියන ඔහු තවත් තැනක ඇති වෘක්‌ෂලතා, හිමාලය පර්වතයෙන් ගෙන එන ලද ඒවා යෑයි ප්‍රකාශ කරයි. මේ සියලු කතා, පිළිගත් විද්‍යාත්මක ප්‍රකාශන මතින් ධනේෂ් විසුම්පෙරුම විසින් බිඳ දමන ලදී. අවසාන වශයෙන් අභ්‍යවකාශයට පිවිසෙන ඔහු ඇමෙරිකාවේ නාසා (භASA) ඡායාරූපයකින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව හා ඉන්දියාව අතර ඇති පාලමක්‌ පිළිබඳ සාක්‌ෂි දක්‌වතැයි කියයි. මේ සියල්ල ඉන්දියාව හා නාසා ආයතනය විසින් ප්‍රතික්‌ෂේප කොට ඇත. "රාවණා ඇත්තක්‌ද? මිථ්‍යා ප්‍රලාපයක්‌ ද?" යන අන්තර්ජාල ප්‍රකාශනයක්‌ ද පළකොට ඇත. මෙය එයත් ඊනියා ගවේෂණ උපයෝගී කොටගෙන නිර්මාණය කළ තවත් අද්භූතජනක කතාන්දරයකි.

ඇත්තටම මෙම ප්‍රබන්ධය ඉපැරැණි කාලයකදී පැවති පියාඹන යන්ත්‍ර පිළිබඳ විශ්මයජනක තොරතුරු හෙළි කරන අතර පුෂ්පක වාහනයේ අනුරුවක්‌ ඇමරිකානුවන් විසින් සාර්ථකව අත්හදා බලන ලදැයි ද සඳහන් කරයි. රාවණාගේ අහස්‌ යානය බැස්‌ස වූ ස්‌ථානය උස්‌සන්ගොඩ හා වර්තමාන වාරියපොල ලෙස හඳුනාගෙන ඇත. විශ්මයජනක තවත් සාක්‌ෂි සංචාරක අධිකාරියේ වෙබ් අඩවියේ දැක්‌වෙයි.

ඉන්දියානු හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදීහු අපේ සංචාරක බලධාරීන්ගෙන් උත්තේජනය ලත් ඉන්දීය හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදී ලිපියක්‌ මෙසේ පවසයි.

"ඉන්දියානු විද්වතුන් මෙන් නොව ශ්‍රී ලංකාණ්‌ඩුව රාමායණය තවදුරටත් මිථ්‍යා සංකල්පයක්‌ නොවේ යෑයි පවසන අතර රාවණා සිටි බව පිළිගනිමින් එය සහතික කරයි. එසේම රාවණා ශ්‍රී ලංකා ඉතිහාසයේ අංගයක්‌ ලෙසද සලකයි. රාවණාගේ මිනී පෙට්‌ටිය මෙන්ම ඔහුගේ අහස්‌යානය වූ පුෂ්පක විමන් සහ රාවණා විසින් භාවිත කරන ලද අහස්‌ තොටුපළවල් පහක්‌ ද සොයාගෙන ඇත"

මෙම හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදී ලිපියෙන් අපේ සංචාරක විශේෂඥයන්ගේ වෙනත් "සොයා ගැනීම්" සහ රාමායණය හෙළා දකිමින් ඉතිහාසයක්‌ නොව මිථ්‍යාවකැයි කී ඉන්දියානු උගතුන්ට බැණ වදී.

ඉන්දියානු සංචාරක බලධාරීන් රාමායණ පුරාවෘතයේ ස්‌ථාන ලෙස හැඳින්වෙන කිසිම තැනක්‌ තම සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාරයට යොදා ගන්නේ නැත. මහාචාර්ය ඔලිවර් අබේනායක මහතා පැහැදිලි කළ පරිදි ආසියානු සංචාරකයන් ඇද ගැනීම සඳහා බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්‌ථාන සංචාරයක්‌ ඇත. මෙම බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්‌ථාන ඉන්දියාවේ සොයා ගත්තේ 19 වැනි 20 වැනි සියවස්‌වලදී අපේ සංඝයා වහන්සේලාගේ සහායෙනි. මීට ප්‍රතිවිරුද්ධ ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයක්‌ අනුගමනය කරන අපේ සංචාරක ව්‍යාපාර බලධාරීහු තායි ජාතිකයන්ට රාමායණ මාර්ගය අලෙවි කරති. ආචාර්ය හේමා ගුණතිලක සිය කථාවේදී පෙන්නා දුන් පරිදි ඔවුන් කළ යුත්තේ තායි ජාතිකයන් සහ අග්නිදිග ආසියාතිකයන් හොඳින් දන්නා අපේ බෞද්ධ පුදබිම් ඇතුළත් බෞද්ධ සංචාරක මාර්ගයක්‌ වෙත ඔවුන් නැඹුරු කිරීමය.

සති අන්ත ඉංග්‍රීසි පුවත්පතක්‌ විසින් ප්‍රශ්න කරන ලදුව සංචාරක අධිකාරියේ තවත් අයෙක්‌ කියා ඇත්තේ ඓතිහාසික නිරවද්‍යතාව සොයා බැලීම ඔවුන්ගේ කාර්යය නොවන අතර මිනිසුන් විශ්වාස කරන ස්‌ථාන තම අධිකාරිය විසින් දිරිගන්වන බවය. මෙය හිතුමතේ කරන සත්‍ය වසන් කිරීමකි. මෙකී ස්‌ථාන හඳුනා ගන්නා ලද්දේ සංචාරක අධිකාරියේ නියෝග යටතේය. මෙම සංචාරක මාර්ගය නිර්මාණය කරන ලද්දේ එදා සංචාරක ඇමැතිවරයාව සිටි කොටින්ට ප්‍රදානය කළ සටන් විරාමයේ අනුගාමිකයකු වූ අයෙකි. එයට දෙමළ නිලධාරීන්ගේ උපදේශකත්වය ද ලැබුණි. මෙම කාර්යය 1961 දී එදා සිටි දෙමළ රාජ්‍ය නිලධාරීන් ටික දෙනකුගේ රහසිගත ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය සිහියට නංවයි. පුලිප් පදායි කොටි හමුදාව නමැති කණ්‌ඩායම බිහි කිරීම ඔවුනගේ ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වයේ ප්‍රතිඵලයයි. එය කොටි සංවිධානයේ උපතට මඟ සැලසීය. සත්‍ය වශයෙන්ම සංචාරකයන්ට පෙන්විය යුතු බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්‌ථාන පසෙක ලා හින්දු මූලධර්මවාදීන්ට වැදගත් වන ව්‍යාජ ස්‌ථාන සංචාරකයන්ට පෙන්වීම, හිටපු තානාපති බන්දු සිල්වා මහතා කී පරිදි ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ස්‌වෛරීත්වයට ඉදිරියේදී විශාල ප්‍රශ්නයක්‌ වනු ඇත.

ලිපිකරුවකු වශයෙන් මහජන බැංකුවේදී එදා මා දැන සිටි මහාබෝධි සංගමයේ වර්තමාන බලධාරියෙක්‌ මහත් උජාරුවෙන් සතුටින් ප්‍රකාශ කළේ මෙම ස්‌ථාන ඓතිහාසික ඒවා බවට තම සංවිධානය විසින් ද ප්‍රචාරය කරනු ලබන බවය.

Source:http://www.divaina.com/2010/08/08/feature26.html

Ramayana Trail on fire

2010-08-06T01:40:00.000-07:00

* Historians and archaeologists question Sri Lanka Tourism’s move to distort myth as historical fact
* Sri Lanka Tourism stands firm, says will continue with promotion as long as people believe in the sites

Sri Lanka Tourism says it will continue to promote the “Ramayana Trail” to attract Indian tourists, despite accusations from several local historians and archaeologists that the authorities are promoting a myth while ignoring historical inaccuracies.

“It is not our job to verify historical accuracies but to encourage tourism, which is what we are doing by promoting the “Ramayana Trail”, Director General, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, S. Kalaiselvam told the Sunday Times.

However, a group of historians and archaeologists who gathered for a symposium titled “The Tourism Authorities Ramayana Trial” at the Royal Asiatic Society recently, said, they have investigated the so called “Ramayana Trail” and found it historically inaccurate.

“We oppose the Tourist Board’s initiative in trying to promote the Ramayana Trail in the island. The information regarding the sites is historically and geographically inaccurate and such a promotion would not be favourable to the country,” one of the speakers at the seminar Dr. Susanthe Goonathilake said.

The Tourism Authority has lined up a series of events for Ramayana enthusiasts, which began in June and will continue till September. The trail will take tourists from Nuwara Eliya to Wasgamuwa, Tangalle and Chilaw, as well as many other areas on the way.

“ Sri Lanka is the proud custodian of more than 50 Ramayana sites from the place of Seetha Devi's captivity to the battlefields where vast armies clashed, to the groves of exotic herbs dropped by the monkey god Hanuman, to the ultimate theatre of war where Lord Rama slew Ravana, the ten-headed demon-king,” the Tourism Authority says on its web site.

Mr. Kalaiselvam said as long as people believe in the presence of historical sites in Sri Lanka, they will promote it. Dr. Goonathilake however saw a danger in promoting an Indian myth as fact. “The Indian population has nationalistic and religious impulses which could be used as a pretext for war if the sites become threatened,” he said.

Another speaker Dr Malini Dias who spoke on the “Distortions of archaeological evidence”, said, that historical sites have been misinterpreted by the authorities. For example, she said, Sigiriya, which is the abode of King Kashyape is being touted as the Chitrakoota, the abode of Ravana’s brother.

She added that the inscriptions on certain temples have been totally misinterpreted so as to prove the existence of Ravana’s presence. The early Brahmi cave inscription found at the Molagoda Vihara in Kandy is a clear example as the word Brahamana has been interpreted as a pilot of an aeroplane, she said.

Dhanesh Wisumperuma who spoke on the “Misinterpretation of natural sciences”, said, the bridge known as Adam’s Bridge (a series of rocks that connects South India’s Rameshwaram with Sri Lanka) that was supposed to have been created by the monkey army led by Hanuman, is a natural sand bed and not a miraculous creation as stated in the Ramayana.

Source:http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100725/News/nws_28.html

‘Ramayana Trail’ in focus again

2010-08-06T01:38:00.001-07:00

The Royal Asiatic Society is inviting the public to participate in a symposium at the Mahaweli Centre, Colombo 07 on July 17 on the negative impact on Sri Lanka by promoting the Ramayana legend for tourism purposes.

Leading academics, scholars and intellectuals will be among the speakers. They include Professor Tissa Kariyawasam (Ramayana in Sinhalese literature), Prof, Oliver Abeynaike (Indian Tourist Authorities’ “Buddhist Circuit” but no Indian “Ramayana Circuit”), Dr. Hema Goonatilake (Marketing Thailand for a mythical Ramayana instead of historical Buddhist sites), Dr. Nihal Perera (The factual pre-history of Sri Lanka), Dr. Malini Dias (Distortions of archaeological evidence) former Ambassador Bandu de Silva (Foreign policy implications of the "Ramayana Trail") and the Venerable Hegoda Vipassi (My travails in refuting the Ramayana Trail).

Presentations will be delivered both in English and Sinhala.

The irony of this whole issue is that Sri Lanka which is historically recognized as the most important seat of Theravada Buddhism is promoting a Hindu fiction while India - the birth place of the Ramayana legend is popularizing the Buddhist circuit instead of Ramayana which is not supported by any historical or scientific evidence, according to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) which earlier filed an affidavit in the Indian Supreme Court to that effect.

Despite all this however ‘Ramayana’ continues to feed the egos of Indian Hindu zealots, especially the Shiv Sena and RSS (Raashtriya Svyam Seva) types. The fiction belittles Sri Lanka although it is apparently no cause for concern to the country’s tourism authorities. (The only aspect favourable to Sri Lanka here was that call emanating from Hindus for the protection and preservation of Ram Sethu or the so-called Rama’s Bridge – the historical rock bridge linking the island with India, delayed the Sethusamundram Shipping Channel Project)

According to the legend Indian Prince Rama defeats Sri Lankan King Ravana who is betrayed by his own younger brother Vibhishana. The latter’s knowledge about the kingdom’s secrets of Lanka proves invaluable to Rama. Vibhishana freely divulges many secrets that become keys to the success of Rama's attack. The latter rewards Vibhishana for his treachery by crowning him king of Lanka after Ravana’s defeat.

Ravana supposedly is a demon king and Rama is a god. And today it is this Indian god who is important to Sri Lankan Tourism Authorities and not Ravana since there is no money in promoting the legend from the Sri Lankan angle. Today the Indian god want us to implement the 13th Amendment and perhaps listen to the modern Vibhishanas who have been justifying Indian, Western and UN interference in Sri Lankan affairs since the outbreak of LTTE terrorism.

As Attorney Gomin Dayasiri noted in the Daily Mirror of July 12 “India’s enigmatic diplomacy in furtherance of sub continent dominance is to contain its neighbours with fractured societies. India suffers from internal divisions and pathologically desires those on the borders must endure the same fate. In the neighbourhood of malevolent supremacy; LTTE tuned by India was to keep Lanka on a checkmate position.”

Source:http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/07/13/%E2%80%98ramayana-trail%E2%80%99-focus-again

SLTDA drags ‘Ramayana’ Trojan horse

2010-08-06T01:36:00.001-07:00

A public symposium held on July 17 on the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) promoting the so-called Ramayana Trail exposed a shocking attempt to distort Sri Lanka’s recorded history merely to attract Indian tourists, ignoring its serious political implications.

The symposium was organized by the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL) which earlier had an internal workshop where it was concluded that the sites being marketed by the tourist authorities were not genuine and had severe potential security concerns for the country.

Speakers at last week’s symposium noted that Sri Lanka is the only nation that is promoting another country’s legend which the latter’s tourism authorities, intelligentsia, judiciary, scientific community and archaeologists have rejected as fiction. What is worse is that the SLTDA is promoting the North Indian Hindu version of it where Indian Prince Rama personifies ‘Dharma’ (good) which triumphs over ‘Adharma’ (evil) represented by Sri Lankan King Ravana). Even today at Hindu festivals in India Ravana’s effigy is burnt publicly.

A near replay of ‘Ramayana’ was seen in the 1980s when India spearheaded a campaign to show ‘Adharma’ prevailed in Sri Lanka in its treatment of Tamils before intervening militarily to restore ‘Dharma’ but failed miserably.

An organized group of mischief-makers continuously attempted to disturb the proceedings at the symposium by raising irrelevant questions in an aggressive manner at question time, showing little respect to the speakers. And before last speaker, former senior Diplomat Bandu de Silva rose to speak all the troublemakers walked out murmuring protests. Suspicions were raised whether they were in the pay of a foreign- organization.

Bandu de Silva stressed, “Ramayana Trail Projects a 100 percent confrontational situation to the Sri Lanka’s established history, religion and norms of the country and replaces all of it and related proto-historic evidence with a mythical age of an imagined Ravana Kingdom and Rama invasion.”

Recalling that the inaugural ‘Bhajan’ of the ‘Ramayana Trail’ was held at Cinnamon Grand, Colombo last month with the participation of 14 Indian law makers, two Sri Lankan Cabinet Ministers and one Deputy Minister, the former diplomat demanded to know who these Indian lawmakers were.

“How is it that they have become interested now when not one of them ever thought of visiting the island when it was in turmoil for over three decades?”

The reason for introducing the Ramayana epic through a tourist programme, Bandu Silva observed, is to dilute Buddhism and remove its potency and hold on the majority of Sri Lankans. Hence attacks on the Mahawansa and the Sangha and various groups making allegations of “Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinism.”

The timing is most important, he noted.

“It is a weak moment for Sri Lanka. Many are the external pressures on the island even the though the war against the LTTE has been won. It is time for our enemies to strike - to open a new front. There is pressure from the U.S. to open the country to Christian evangelism, faith healing and what-not. I see the Ramayana Trail as something complimentary to break up the Buddhist hold. Once it is broken the country becomes an open field serving political agendas of foreign forces.”

Bandu Silva said that it is necessary to see behind the agenda of those promoting Ramayana Trail both in Sri Lanka and India. Although Delhi’s support for this project may not appear explicit, the all pervading scenario lends support to the idea of an emerging Indian Power concept. He focused on B. Raman, former Additional Secretary to the Indian Cabinet – now heading a Chennai-based Think Tank - suggesting the use of Indian tourism as a pressure point against growing Chinese influence in Sri Lanka and paving the way for a potentially volatile situation in bilateral relations.

“Combined with Hindutva extremism the Ramayana Trail’s destabilizing potential of spreading Hindu fanaticism is mind boggling. The Bharathiya Janatha Party claims it wants to make the Tamil issue a Hindu issue and mobilize the whole of India. They speak of Tamils in terms of Hindus. BJP is the alternate Government of India. Its representatives shared Tirumalavan’s platform when he fasted over the Tamil issue. BJP and Rajya Sabha MP S. Tirunavukkuran said BJP supported the ‘Eelam’ struggle at State and National levels. He wanted India to send warships to Sri Lanka and called for anti-Sri Lanka sanctions. Early this month the BJP welcomed the closure of the UNDP Regional Office in Colombo in the wake of the protests against the UN advisory panel on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka.”

Bandu Silva drew attention to the Indian Express and Times of India reports of June 29, on BJP’s Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivaji Singh Chauhan offering one crore of Indian Rupees for the construction of a Sita Maha Temple in Sri Lanka to strengthen ‘bi-lateral ties’. The ‘Bhoomi Pooja’ for this proposed temple was carried out under disguise, according to Bandu de Silva.

“Temples attract many unwanted people. Way back in the 1960s the Ramakrishna Madam at Kataragama was a centre promoting illicit immigration and the madam had to be demolished.”

He said it is debatable whether SLTDA Director-General, S. Kalaiselvam saw the hidden hand of Tamil separatism behind the ‘Ramayana Trail’ when he went all out to support it. It is also worth probing whether those who believe Ravana is a Sinhalese are aware of his metamorphosis in Tamil separatist propaganda. There, Ravana is introduced as a Tamil King – a Shiva worshipper who worshipped at Trincomalee and Mantota – both claimed to be pre-Sinhala and pre-Buddhist ‘Isvaram’ cities. This is turn is meant to perpetuate the myth and make the ‘Tamil Homeland’ claim more ancient-based, according to Bandu Silva. In this context he drew attention to the Eelam/Tamil Homeland literature – among many others - of former EROS member Arul Arudpragasam, now a leading Tamil Eelam propagandist based in Geneva.

“Already there is objection to Sinhala Buddhists visiting the North after the war. Tamil Net and others are raising issues over the Archaeological Department, the Army and Buddhists probing destroyed Buddhist archaeological sites in the North and East.”

Inaugurating the symposium RASSL President Dr. Susantha Goonatilake said:

“India’s tourism authorities do not promote any alleged Ramayana sites, but sponsors a Buddhist Circuit to attract Asian tourists whereas the SLTDA is trying to get Thais interested in the Ramayana trail ignoring that for Thailand and the whole of South-East Asia Sri Lanka is the home of their Theravada Buddhism and they are familiar with many of Sri Lanka’s Atamasthana sacred Buddhist sites.”

Dr. Goonatilake regretted that although the Archaeology Department has strict rules and laws against the destruction of archaeological sites it has no laws for the opposite – creation of bogus sites and artifacts to promote fictions such as the Ramayana Trail.

To market Sri Lanka as the abode of Ravana, the Tourism Ministry has invented a series of mythical sites which have no historical basis, according to him, and has also established a committee titled the ‘Ramayana Trail Executive.’ The ‘evidence’ it has found includes the Seetha Amman Kovil built by Tamil plantation workers who settled in the country only in the 19th Century. Altogether over 50 sites in Sri Lanka are supposedly associated with the Ramayana epic. One committee member had even claimed that the Americans tested a prototype of Pushpaka, Ravana’s alleged flying machine! The RASSL President noted that all this earthshaking ‘evidence’ is on the SLTDA websites.

“The RASSL tried to trace the committee’s expertise from the tourist authorities but failed. We asked their ‘experts’ to address a closed seminar of the RASSL, but they never came”

Dr. Goonatilake said that RASSL could not find any prior formal academic background for the head of the Committee in Sanskrit, archaeology, history, Sinhalese, Pali studies and related subjects. Another committee member turned out to be a Pettah shopkeeper and chairman of a Hindu fundamentalist Krishna Consciousness sect.; These ‘experts’ who have been reluctant to present their ‘evidence’ to the RASSL, had given a presentation to the Indian Cultural Centre in Colombo.

RASSL member and Author Gaston Perera said that this presentation at the Cultural Centre was titled ‘The Historical Evidence of Ramayana and Ravana in Sri Lanka’ in which the substantive argument was the irrelevance of archaeology, history and epigraphy in evaluating the evidence the committee relies on. Perera revealed that the SLTDA’s formulation of the ‘Ramayana initiative’ was a response to declining tourist arrivals during the war and the surge in fuel costs.

Archaeologist Dr. Nimal Perera said that no archaeological data is available on Ramayana but only Balangoda Man between 125000 B.C. to B.C. 1800.

Archaeologist Dr. Malini Dias alleged that the promoters of the Ramayana Trail had totally misapplied an early Brahmi cave inscription at Molagoda Vihara in the Kandy District to achieve their goal. By misinterpreting the word Brahmana as bimana in the inscription, they had translated the word Brahmana to mean a pilot of an aeroplane!

“The cave inscription from Alulena (Rahagala) in Aranayaka in the Kegalle District has been changed by applying white ink on the letters and photographed and the phrase Maha Rakdhaha Ravana puta had been surreptitiously added to the inscription and translated as Emperor Ravana’s son. This part is added at the beginning of the distorted inscription.”

Dr. Dias also said that the Buddhist Vihara of Isurumuniya in Anuradhapura has been desecrated by making it a temple for king Ravana’s parents Visravasmuni and Kaikali.

Buddhist scholar Dr. Hema Goonatilake told the audience that the Thais, Burmese, Cambodians, Laotians, Southern Vietnamese and the Chinese in the South Kunmin Province, consider Sri Lanka’s sacred Buddhist sites such as Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, Samanthakuta (Sri Pada) as also belonging to their religious heritage.

“In fact the Mahawansa is so entrenched in their consciousness that they believe Sinhala King Dutugemunu is their hero too. If we are to market Sri Lankan cultural sites, it should be Buddhist sites and not a fictional Ramayana.”

At this point a member of the audience welcomed Dr. Goonatilake’s proposal and said that Sri Lankans are the only nation that does not appreciate its own history.

The others who addressed the symposium were Professor Oliver Abeynaike (Indian Tourist Authorities ‘Buddhist Circuit but no Indian ‘Ramayana Circuit’), Venerable Hegoda Vipassi (My travails in refuting the Ramayana Trail), Professor Tissa Kariyawasam (Ramayana in Sinhala literature) and Dhanesh Wisumperuma (Misinterpretation of natural sciences)

Source:http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/07/20/sltda-drags-%E2%80%98ramayana%E2%80%99-trojan-horse

Selling off the history via the ‘Ramayana Trail’

2010-08-06T01:30:00.001-07:00

Plans by the Ministry of Tourism to allegedly distort the history of Sri Lanka, under the guise of tourism promotion through the introduction of a ‘Ramayana Trail” came under heavy fire of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka (RASSL). They argue that when Sri Lanka has a magnificent history of its own, the Tourism Authority is imposing an artificial one targeting a small segment of Indian travellers, specifically Hindu fundamentalists, for funds. India, where the epic Ramayana originated, refute it as a story with no historical basis and they have no “Ramayana Trail”, whereas Sri Lanka has invented sites related to Ramayana and promote them without bringing our “Buddhist circuits” to the spotlight, The RASSL charges.

Ramayana Trail

Ramayana Trail is a special programme inaugurated in New Delhi in early 2007 by the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority. The tour is promoted as the “ultimate religious experience” according to the Hindustan Times and the RASSL states that the programme specially targets a group of Hindu fundamentalists. Under the programme, the tourists are introduced a trail of 52 sites associated with the epic Ramayana. According to eminent archeologists both in India and Sri Lanka Ramayana is a story with no historical basis but a literary piece; a great epic poem.

Tourism development Authority is bringing up historical evidence and a series of arguments to prove the validity of the epic and to convince that the particular sites are the exact places one comes across in the great epic.

“With the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ending in May 2009, interest in the trail is rapidly increasing in India. In 2009, more than 4000 Indians exclusively visited Sri Lanka to go on the trail. At least 650 are slated to arrive in the first week of December,” Hindustan Times claim in November 2009.

RASSL denies the Ramayana Trail

“One and a half years ago when I was in India a group of Archeologists, in a mocking tone, inquired from me about the “Ramayana Trail” Sri Lanka is promoting to a segment of Indians. As the Royal Asiatic Society, we started digging into the case. And what we came across was a gross distortion of Sri Lankan history,” says Dr. Susantha Goonatilake, the president of the Royal Asiatic Society Sri Lanka.

“Leading Indian universities and eminent Indian academics refute the Ramayana story as having no historical basis. In India, their “Buddhist Circuits” are a main tourist attraction. But here in Sri Lanka the very myth is promoted for monetary gain. Promoting a myth is a serious threat to the actual recorded history of the country,” Dr. Goonatilake claims.

About six months ago, the RASSL has held a closed discussion with eminent archeologists and experts in Sri Lanka on the “Ramayana Trail” which is being carried out by the Tourism Development Authority. There, it had been acknowledged that the Ramayana Trail has no basis but is a distortion of the recorded history of Sri Lanka, and was claimed to be a threat to the territorial integrity of the country.

Afterwards, Dr. Goonatilake has informed Mr.N.C.K Kiriella– Chairman Ramayana Trail Executive Committee of the Sri Lankan Tourism Ministry, to send details of the expertise of his expert panel for which Mr. Kiriella has asked for two weeks. Dr. Goonatilake says that there’s no reply yet.

A subsequent request by the RAASL for a discussion with the Ramayana Trail Executive Committee had also not been responded to according to the RAASL.

Ramayana and its present controversies

Ramayana, written by the great sage Valmiki is one of the two great epics of the Indian culture and literature (the other is the Mahabharata). It is being hailed as one of the greatest epics written in the history of India.

Anyone who has read Ramayana would know the valour and the wisdom of the protagonist Rama, who is said to be an avatar of god Vishnu in Hinduism, the solemn love, purity and innocence of his beautiful wife Sita and the undaunted loyalty of Luxmana, the brother of Rama. Rawana, whom Valmiki projects as the king of Lanka plays the role of the villain in the love story. In order to take revenge for Luxmana cutting off the nose of his sister Suparnika, Rawana kidnaps Sita to his abode “Heladiva” and later falls for her.

The Ramayana Executive Board of the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority is claiming the validity of Ramayana and its relevance to Sri Lanka whereas the RASSL is opposing it. The Board has located several inscriptions related to the great epic but the RASSL continuously points out the invalidity of the data and that Ramayana is still a myth.

In the symposium held last Saturday, the RASSL brought in a set of expert historians with valid academic qualification to present their stance to the story and as a rebuttal to what the Board is saying.

The Ramayana Executive Board reportedly points out that there are many inscriptions of Rawana and his dynasty misconstrued and published in “Inscriptions of Ceylon” and they show a connection between certain historical sites to the story of Ramayana. Their list consists of historical sites including the Cobra Hooded Cave – Sigiriya, Pulasthi Statue – Polonnaruwa, Vessagiriya – Anuradhapura, Isurumuniya Lovers – Anuradhapura, Rumassala, Rawana Ella Cave, Rawana Falls, Ritigala, Nala Sethu (Adams Bridge), Wegiriya and Molagoda.

In relation to this, the Secretary of the RASSL, Dr. Malini Dias, addressing the gathering at the symposium said, “The Brahmi cave inscription of Molagoda Vihara in Kandy District is totally misapplied by the Ramayana Trail Executive committee. By misinterpreting the word Bamana as Bimana in the inscription, they have translated the word Bamana to mean a pilot of an aeroplane.”

“The cave inscription from Alulena (Rahalgala) in Aranayake in Kegalle District has been changed by applying white ink on the letters and the phrase Maha Rakdhaha Rawana puta has been surreptitiously added to the inscription and translated as Emperor Rawana’s son. This part is added at the beginning of the distorted inscription, Dr. Dias added. Also, Dr. Dias said that the historical site at Sigiriya, identified as the palace of king Kashyapa I has been branded by the Committee as the Chithrakoota palace of Lankapura, the abode of king Kuvera, elder brother of king Rawana.

“Mr. Kiriella has misinterpreted the statement made in the chronicle Mahavamsa, that king Kashyapa lived at Sigiriya like the Kuvera of Alakamanda,” said Dr. Dias. “Isurumuniya in Anuradhapura is desecrated by making it a temple for king Rawana’s parents Visrasumuni and Kaikali,” she highlighted.

The promoters claim that, though the exact location of the Rawana’s kingdom is not historically identified it is accepted as Sri Lanka. This pre-historic or rather pre-Mahawamsa kingdom, near the present Arugambay has been completely destroyed by a tsunami or an earthquake.

Arguing on a claim by the promoters that the islands and shoals of shifting sand located between Pamban Island in India and Mannar Island in Sri Lanka is manmade Mr. Dhanesh Wisumaperuma of RASSL, an expert in history and environment claimed that this socalled “Adam’s Bridge” is a natural formation and not a bridge built by humans.

At the same time, Mr. Wisumaperuma refutes the story that Ritigala, Dolukanda and Rumassala are the remnants of the rock that Hanuman brought from the Himalayan region. He stresses that they are natural hills.

Mr. Wisumapperuma also showed the invalidity of the story which the Ramayana Trail committee says about Ussangoda, in relation to geography. Ussangoda, according to Mr. Kiriella’s team was the landing place of Rawana’s plane before it was burned by Hanuman. “Geologically, this is a serpentine rock formation and the surface is covered with Red Earth. This soil contains a high concentration of heavy metal. That is why the diversity of vegetation is low in such sites,” he explained.

Due to these superstitions, the geographical value of such places has been undermined, he further said.

At the symposium, Dr. Hema Goonatilake spoke on marketing Thailand and South East Asia for a mythical Ramayana instead of historical Buddhist sites.

Measures taken to uncover the truth

Sri Lanka seems to be giving priority to ‘Ramayana Trail’ over real historical sites in the Cultural Triangle and elsewhere in the country that needs to be much more popularized among the global community the RASSL firmly believes. “We are a society established under the constitution. We will be taking all the actions in our power to bring this to the notice of the relevant authorities,” said the President of RASSL.

Dr.Goonatilake says, “The head of the state is our patron ever since we were established. We intend to write to the president directly about this and request him to look into bringing this distortion to an end”.

“We will write to the Director General of Archeology with a copy to the Defense Secretary, Secretary to the ministry of Ministry of National Heritage & Cultural Affairs and Secretary to the Ministry of Buddha Sasana urging to take legal action to bring this destruction to a halt,” he added.

Several attempts were made to contact N.C.K Kiriella– Chairman Ramayana Trail Executive Committee of the Sri Lankan Tourism Ministry regarding the Ramayana Trail, could not be contacted at the time this edition went to press.

Ramayana Trail- Executive Committee

“The Ramayana Trail Executive Committee is on the look to prove the historical phase of the Ramayana for which there are historical and archaeological evidence available in Sri Lanka,” publishes the Ramayana Trail Executive committee’s website.

The Ramayana Trail Executive Committee is under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism in Sri Lanka.

The members of the committee are Dr Suriya Gunasekera, an authority on Sri Lankan pre history. Dr Subash Chawla an authority on International Ramayana, Mr B.M.U.D Basnayake Additional Secretary Ministry of Tourism and Mr. S. Kalaiselvam Director General, Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority . The website of the Ramayana Trail identifies Mr. N. C. K. Kiriella as the Chairman, Ramayana Trail Executive Committee of The Sri Lankan Tourism Ministry.

Source:http://www.dailymirror.lk/print/index.php/opinion1/16407.html