The Doomed King: A Requiem for Sri Vikrama Rajasinha - Gananath Obeyesekere

On the outset, it must be told that if  Gananath Obeysekara's  (GO )  appeared in somewhat poor light over his questioning of Dutta Gamini Buddhist conscience  (largely thanks to the superb response he received in the hands of Ishanka Malsiri ), he has here shown his mettle to such a degree, that I couldn't help the arising of some respect for him. I am  not naive enough to claim, that GO is  partial, while I am objective -Far from it, (I honestly feel that objectivity is a somewhat distant characteristic to us, and at the ultimate it is associated with the Buddhist concept of equanimity),  but he presents historiography evidences to portray that Sri Vikrama was hardly the villain he was painted to be. That  British designs, and naivety of the Sinhala nobility are what causes the king to be painted in that context.   As such,  Obeysekara builds a case for how English interests painted a very evil picture of Sri Vickrama Rajasinha, that the reader is almost willing to let go of whatever soft corners he or she  may have had for the Kandyan Nobiity, especially Ahalepola. Speaking of Ahalepola, a recent a near masterpiece of a novel by the late Sinhala Guru, Susantha Mahaulpatha, presented what we were inclined to believe as a realistic and impartial account of him. Well, things have changed. Not only does GO convince me that the barbaric manner in which Ahalepola's wife and children were executed was fabricated, I can't help but question as to why he didn't attempt to save them. GO has his own biases, and possible designs, but he builds a strong case for his main argument.

   GO shows how Doyle was the  master strategist, the master spy who systematically won the nobility over and isolated the king. In typical GO fashion ( that we clearly saw when he questioned Gemunu's conscience ), not fearing to transcend the borders of historical fact ( does the anthropologist have that license; maybe he does ? ), he even questions D'Oyly's sexuality as he explores D'Oyly exhaustively with whatever resources he has at his disposal, plus travelling that extra mie to suggest something when there is no proof. .If this book is a Requiem for Sri Vikrama, it is also a tacit admission of D'Oyly's success - albeit a backhand compliment - in achieving what he set out to achieve, almost "going native" in the process, as some of his colleagues thought.

""one must recognize that in our our times the D'Oylys of the world are omnipresent in the modern intelligence services where highly trained men and women with impeccable academic qualifications and knowledge of the local languages and culture are involved in what can degenerate into a nefarious trade. D'Oyly was one of it's earliest representations and ii is his spy system that was instrumental in the dissolution of the last kingdom in February 1815..." ( page 110)

GO makes a very valid observation of  the plight of the Kandyan kingdom:
"In Dutch times kings had some access to ports and during North;s regime Sri Vikrama was willing to make important concessions to the British if he was given access to a few small ports. We have noted how North rudely rebuffed these requests. The suffocation of Kandyan trade meant that even basic commodities needed by villages, such as salt and dried fish were no longer easily available and some people even had to barter their rice for salt." ( page 125). In this context it can easily be assumed what kind of influence D'Oyly would've carried in getting across some of the subtle luxuries the nobility would've been used to all along.

The Anti-Tamil Venom:  . The anti-Tamil virulence of Kirala Sandesaya and Ahalepola Varnanava are the main articles to present a case of an Anti-Tamilness of the times, and they are thought to be written about the time that the king was captured.  It appears that the "Tamil" factor was highlighted once it was decided that Sri Vikrama Rajasinha was a persona non-grata; the king who was almost divine in the Ingrisi Hatana has become so over a decade and a little. This  "invented Tamilness" was something that the authors of these works ( if they are that ) used, to add to the picture of negativity of the king, rather than a common anti-tamilness that the public had as a whole. Note that the the term Tamil was synonymous with "enemy" even those days, with even the Portuguese being labelled Tamil ( even GO  concedes this). After all, in a climate where most of the development work the king carried out has been concocted to give the king evil credentials, would the authors of these poems stop short of dragging an ethnic back ground to make the readers feel the king was  cruel ?  In that sense I felt that GO should've identified the anti-Tamil sentiments in these poems for what they are -fodder for a case against the king, rather than the king being inherently cruel since he was a Tamil ( which, he wasn't).

GO explores historical works which are more balanced in their approach towards criticising the king. He cites Michael Roberts ( Sinhala Consciousness in the Kandyan Period ) and the Goonratne - Brendon & Yasmin ( The Inscrutable Englishman ), and the latter work is referred at such length that a reader may get a natural kindling to give that book a try.

There is a passing reference to how there was possibly  no national  for Tri-Sinhale till 1815, and how the post-1948 Lion flag is Dutch influenced construct. One wonders whether there is a case that is being built here for another cause., where reconciliation means many things.  But one can only wonder, to be fair to GO.  Yet, I felt that there was a paucity of evidence to make such a strong claim.

All in all it is a comprehensive study of the main argument, that King Sri Vikrama was doomed to fail  - part Anthropological, part Historiography, and there is enough substance here to build a case to defend  Sri Vikrama Rajasinha - that he was  a Just, Capable yet human king, who wore the throne in trying times. It is a book rich with detail, be it the records on the nobility, or the stealth of the British, besides its main subject. I believe that it is quite a ground breaking book in its accomplishment, and hitherto would do some justice to Sri Vikrama Rajasinha - unless another "Ishanka Malsiri" turns up and proves that he can challenge GO convincingly.  Yet it is a work which has been written with some tact, but not all slips are covered, I felt.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the  history of Sinhale ,  and  how it's  dissolution came to be.