THE FLAG OF SRI LANKA

During the period Ceylon was under British rule, King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, (1798 - 1815) ruled in Kandy, having it as his capital. He was the last King of Sri Lanka and the British could not capture Kandy due to the hilly terrain, and subsequently in 1815 the British were successful in taking him captive.

The British after taking control of the whole Island took to Britain the Kings Royal Standards (Rajakiya Dhajaya) including the National flag which had been adopted until then. With the capture by the British it ended the Sinhala Independence after over 2358 years.

Many years later, Mr. E.W. Perera an advocate and a member of the Legislative and State Councils went to Britain to lobby support in the House of Commons against the British Governments excesses against the Sinhala people. During his visit after a strenuous search, he finally found these Royal Standards which were removed by the British, at the Royal Military Hospital in Chelsea, London. It was displayed in the hail with the Eagles of Napoleon Bornaparte, such was the esteem and prominence shown by the British authorities to the Sinhala Royal Standards.

The Sinhala flag was drawn by a British artist, courtesy of Ms Southwood & Co Regent Street London, on a request of Mr. D.r.wijewardene, to the same colours and sent back to Lanka. If not for the efforts of Mr.e.w.perera and Mr.d.r.wijewardene, we would not have obtained a copy of the original Sinhala lion flag. This made Sri Lankans aware of the actual pattern of the flag. The yellow border on the flags represented the Sangha who in ancient times played an important role in guiding the Kings. The four pinnacles at the four corners depicted Buddhism which was the religion of the majority.

After we received independence in 1948, the first Prime Minister Rt. Hon. D. S. Senanayake appointed a seven member National Flag Committee headed by Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike to redesign the flag. They incorporated to the flags two Stripes of green and orange representing the two major minorities, the Muslim and Tamil communities. In 1978 when Sri Lanka was made a Republic, a further modification was made, where the four pinnacles on the four corners were replaced with Boleaves.

It is interesting to note that the “Lion” was used in our flag even during the time of King Dutugemunu and King Parakramabahu of Kotte. It is recorded in our national chronicles, the Mahavamsa and the Chulavamsa that the flag with the lion symbol was invariably used by the monarchy from the time of King Vijaya in 486 BC to the fall of the Sinhala Kingdom during the reign of King Sri Wikrama Rajasinha in 1815 the Flag was redesigned and introduced as a national flag of independent Ceylon in 1948:

No other country in the world possesses a national flag steeped in history and tradition as the Lion Flag of Sri Lanka. It is an internationally accepted fact that our National Flag is the oldest in the world.

The royal standard of King Sri Wickrema Rajasinha

Edward W. Perera. Sinhalese Banners and Standards (Memoirs of the Colombo Museum Series A. No. 2), 1916.

“A word may be said in passing about what is perhaps the most important flag in the collection, the Royal Standard of Sri Wikrama Rajasinha, King of Kandy (A.D. 1798-1815). While in London, in 1908, 1 attempted to trace the Sinhalese royal flag, from a statement by Bennett that the banner of the last King of Kandy was deposited at Whitehall, together with the Eagles of Napoleon. The search at the United Service Museum was fruitless. A gleam of hope raised by a statement of an official of that institution that some of the flags had been removed to Chelsea Hospital was dispelled the next moment by the positive assurance that no Kandyan flags were among the number. The next best thing was to examine the charges in the arms of Sir Robert Brownrigg, Bart., who was granted the banner of Sri Wikrama Rajasinha as an honourable augmentation on the fall of Kandy. Through the courtesy of Mr. Farnham Burke, then Somer set Herald and now Norroy King of Arms, I was permitted to examine at the College of Arms the original letters patent displaying the Sinhalese banner, and to secure a copy for the Colombo Museum. Soon after wards, however, I discovered the missing banner quite unexpectedly at the Chelsea Military Hospital. Acting upon a suggestion of the late Lord Stanmore (the Hon. Sir Arthur Gordon), who evinced a lively interest on the subject, the writer visited that institution, and was rewarded with the discov- ery of three Ceylon banners. A coloured key-plate on the wall led to the discovery of the flags, which were hanging in the Great Hall, along with other standards and the eagles of Napoleon. Two were hopelessly faded, and the third could only be recognized after being renovated. The notice board beneath intimated that they had been taken by Captain Pollock in 1803*. Two of the Flags were, judging from the key-plate, clearly representations of the royal flag, and the other probably the banner of the Atapattuwe Lekam, of which no copy has yet come to light in Ceylon. The writer sketched the flags from the key-plate, and the last is reproduced from his sketch. The Royal flag itself was copied in colours shortly after by Messrs. Southwood & Co., Regent street, London, for Mr. D.R. Wijewardene, to whom I am indebted for permission to reproduce it “

The Flag reprinted from the original copy of Messrs Southwood & Co., by Lake House Printers & Publishers PLC.

* According to the book” THE KANDYAN WARS” By Powell, Capt. Pollock who was engaged in several battles against the forces of the Kandyan King could have captured the flag in any of the battles.