The last King in a tiny cell? Never
The picture of the “prison cell” in which our last King - Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was purported to have been imprisoned or incarcerated is familiar to Sri Lankan readers. The mystery surrounding this monument was highlighted in the Sunday Times of August 26. Personal records of Henry Marshall as well as other well researched historical documentation clearly show that the king was treated with dignity by the British and was never restricted to a tiny cramped guardpost in the Fort area of Colombo
Recent publications on the last King of Ceylon quite convincingly show that the British were careful to conceal their atrocious behaviour towards the last King of Kandy leading to the acquisition of the Kandyan kingdom. In his ‘“The Doomed King”, Gananath Obeysekera says that the British had to label and show Sri Vikrama as the embodiment of depravity and evil. He beautifully summarizes the destiny of Sri Vikrama as given a ‘bad press’. The way the British treated the king in Colombo after his captivity and subsequently in Vellore show that they were still suffering the nagging feeling of ‘guilt’; of having deposed an independent ruler of a foreign nation by portraying themselves as the saviour of the long suffering Kandyans.
The interpreter accompanying the Sabaragamuwa men of Eknaligoda had given an account of the events leading to the actual capture of the King. According to Don William Adrian Dias Bandaranayaka, the Interpreter Mudali scribbled a note to D’Oyly informing him that the fallen king was being brutalized by Eknaligoda’s mob and requested three palanquins and suitable clothes for the captive king and the two queens. After treating the royal captives with Madeira and claret they were provided with palanquins. Two mounted officers of the British army were on either side of the palanquins and the rest of the soldiers marched behind trailed by Eknaligoda’s men. Such a dignified exit from his domain would not fit in with a subsequent incarceration in a tiny isolated cell.
The document referred to by Nihal Karunaratna in his “Kandy – Past and Present” entitled, “Narrative of events which have recently occurred in the Island of Ceylon written by a gentleman on the spot”, indicates that the king was accommodated in a spacious house in the Colombo Fort.
The British were careful to legitimize the deposition of the king and took stringent measures to treat him well with the dignity that calls for the maintenance of royal prisoners. Thus he was allowed visitors. Paul E. Pieris in his “Tri Sinhala” copies a request made by the King in which he states that he had several golden and other State hats in Kandy and he liked to have the ones made with pure gold and the other made with super fine cloth mounted with gold and feather along the edge.
Among the other items he requested were two jackets, one made with super fine white cloth and the other with super fine embroidery, one flat gold neck ornament and a knife like a dagger mounted of gold, some rings and lockets of stones. Could these demands or requests be made by a person who was incarcerated in that tiny cell?
Like the above request he made demands about the daily rations for him and his family in addition to silver salvers, silver rice eating dishes, silver cups, silver shembus and a golden betel box.
After being transported to Vellore Fort, the captive king continued to petition the authorities for innumerable requests such as gold ornaments for the queens and the daughters, extra servants and even a horse drawn carriage. Professor P.E.E.Fernando’s published research on the British documents of the Vellore fort show how the ‘guilty’ British tried to fulfil the demands of the king. When one of the queens bore a son the British even considered buying an estate in order to finance the education of the king’s son.
There is so much evidence for the humane treatment of the captive king by the British.
It is the prime duty of the Archaeological Department under whom the present monument in Colombo is maintained to remove the posted sign at the site so that tourists who flock there are not hoodwinked into believing something not true historically.