I was requested to contribute on the history of the Kotagama family of Yalkumbura Bibile to a booklet that the University of Colombo, Zoology Department published on Professor Sarath Wimala Bandara Kotagama Titled "Kota's Nature" on the eve of his retirement from the University of Colombo.
I would like to thank Dr. Nihal Dayawansa for extending me an invitation to contribute to this felicitation volume and to Dr. Hemasiri Bandara Kotagama and Ms. Aditha Dissanayake for providing information and advice that was needed to compile this article.
The article is uploaded for your reading pleasure only as the University of Colombo Zoology Department has a copyright on the book "Kota's Nature."
Prof. Sarath
Kotagama is credited with introducing the birds of Sri Lanka to the non-English
speaking masses, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest environmentalist
of our times. There is no doubt that
most of us have met him already in some form or another. But do any of us know
the story behind the successes of this renowned personality? How, where, when
did he take wing to scale such great heights?
Origins
It is 1817.
The inhabitants of the entire Badulla region are writhing in anger. They are
dissatisfied over the British rulers who promised to uphold and foster the
Buddhist religion and observe the traditions and norms that had prevailed in
the Kandyan Kingdom prior to the signing of the Kandyan Convention. The
appointment of a Malay Muhandiram named Hadji to the Uva Wellassa territory by
Major Wilson, the Resident Agent in Badulla, is also against the wishes and
displeasure of the Sinhalese.
By October
1817 a rebellion brakes out and on October 12th, Major Wilson himself marches
to Uva with a Malay troop under his command and is killed 4 miles off the
village of Kotagama, at Unagolle near the present town of Bibile when an arrow
aimed by the Sinhalese rebels pierces his chest. The difficult terrain makes
the forward march difficult and slow.
The situation
prevailing in Uva and Wellassa becomes more precarious with the major's death
promoting the British to remove the ailing elderly Millawe the Disawa of
Wellassa, and appoint Keppetipola as Disawa of Wellassa.
Keppetipola
who remained in Kandy until October 17, 1817 is sent to Uva to bring the
situation under control. When Keppetipola arrives in Wellassa he finds the
Sinhalese engaged in a fierce battle with the British soldiers. In a
breath-stopping turn of events, Keppetipola sends back all his arms and
ammunitions to the British Agent and joins the Sinhalese rebels to lead the
battle. With this dramatic change, other Sinhalese leaders including
Pilamatalawe Disawa of Sathkorale, Madugalla, Uda Gabada Nilame, Ellepola (the
leader of Viyaluwa), Ehelepola (a brother of Maha Adikaram Ihagama), Godagedara
Adikaram, Badalkumbure Rala also join the rebels.
When events
get totally out of control a worried Governor Robert Brownrigg orders troops
from India to quell the rebellion. When British troops finally arrest most of
the leaders, properties of 18 rebel leaders are confiscated. Pilimatalawe, who
was ailing at the time of arrest, is exiled to the islands of Mauritius. A fate
more cruel await Keppetipola and Madugalla. Both are beheaded in Bogambara
after a trial on November 18, 1818.
The rebellion
is suppressed and remains the last uprising of this kind against the British in
the country. The brutality of the massacre of the rebels comes as a warning to
the rest of the Sri Lankan community and annexed the Kingdom of Kandy to
British Ceylon in 1817.
Uva-Wellassa
now remains uninhabited. Those who survive the brutality of the British take
with them whatever valuables they possess and escape into the deep jungles,
some even to the eastern coast. The area known as Wellassa meaning a hundred
thousand paddy fields is charred down. The irrigation tank system and the
aqueducts and the network of canals feeding the paddy fields are destroyed
beyond redemption. Dwellings and livestock, anything and everything that moves
are destroyed. The message driven home is simple and tragic. Those who manage
to escape would die of starvation. No one should survive.
Time goes by
till the jungle swallows up the once productive paddy lands and the villages of
Uva -Wellassa. Towards the mid-19th century the British become
stable in the country and are busy opening land in the hills for plantations.
Those who fled Wellassa during the rebellion now trickle back from hiding and
start rebuilding life from scrap. They battle with the thick jungle on every
direction infested with wild beasts. The only source of water in the region is
the Gal Oya which springs at Dorapoda Mountains above the village Kotagama, continues
to flow on its usual path not diverted for cultivation anymore. People open up
land and settle alongside Gal Oya to start life anew.
The Village called Kotagama in Bibile
It goes
without saying that the survivors of the 1817 rebellion who returned to these
areas were true patriotic Sinhalese, persevering, courageous and the decedents
of a special bloodline. Among them were a group of people known by the name,
Kotagama. The earliest record of the surname Kotagama in the village of
Kotagama, Bibile, is discussed in a record of Sinhala folktales by D P
Wickramasinghe. It was common for people to be named by the village then and
was the preferred surname of the aristocracy. Many are the Sinhala surnames
related to their birth places.
According to
Wickramasinghe, the village Millawa (now Mallahewa) was the central location
then in the region of Bibile today. This was the same locality of the Millawe
Dissawe who was succeeded by Keppitipola Dissawe, as discussed before. The
Village Kotagama is to the south of Millawa. Kotagama was a very prosperous
ancient village and home to many a noblemen with riches. The Gal Oya which
commenced in the Dehiyagal hills [Dorapoda – the small world’s end today] flowed
down gently irrigating the lands in Millawa and Kotagama and was the common
border separating the two villages. Wickramasinghe discusses a person by the
name ‘Kotagama Sitano’ who lived in Kotagama - a philanthropic nobleman with
riches, owning large extents of land in Kotagama. He had a single daughter who
inherited all his wealth and who, through wedlock gave birth to three sons. The
folk tale centers around the lady’s final wish to worship “Sri Paada” [Adams
peak]. The two elder sons dismiss the request as she was too feeble for the
strenuous journey. However, the youngest son replicated a Sri Paada in a
location close to Ravana Elle in today’s Ella area and took the mother on a
false pilgrimage fulfilling her wish and becomes the sole heir of all the land
and riches. However, he later splits them equally with his two brothers.
My schoolboy
friend Hemasiri Kotagama [a sibling of Sarath Kotagama] touching on the finer
details that Wickramasinghe discusses in his book, feels that their ancestral
home in Madawal-kumbura, Kotagama, Bibile, has great similarities to the
description in the story. The ancientness of the structure and the short walled
low roof structure of Sinhala clay tiles in the ‘Kotagama Wallawwa’ is a common
characteristic of the simple dwellings that came up with mud walls after the
rebellion.
Fascinated by
this story Hemasiri wonders if their family hailed from this sitano [nobleman]
even though there is no definitive evidence of proof!
However, the family possessed some treasured items that had been passed down
the line that might prove their links to this nobleman. Until recent times the
family had possessed and treasured several artifacts that were said to have
been used during the rebellion.
The insignia
of the Uva –Wellassa region that was carried during the rebellion with some
other items used in the war including clothing of the leaders were treasured
and preserved safely in the Kotagama family till the present generation decided
to hand over this flag and the rest to the Colombo museum where they are now on
display to everyone. The only replica of the flag produced before it was given
to the museum is retained in the family and is currently with Professor Sarath
Kotagama.
The Kotagamas’ of Bibile
I recall here
what my friend Hemasiri had been told by his paternal grandfather or Lokuaththa.
“Our Lokuaththa lived in Madawala-kumbura in Kotagama. The house in
Madawala-kumbura had existed until recent times. It had been in the midst of
paddies and the Lokuaththa carried the title of Athanayake Sri Rajakaruna
Anawlangu Mudiyanselage which all of us also carry but hardly use. Thereby the
full name would be as Athanayake Sri Rajakaruna Anawlangu Mudiyanselage Sarath
Wimalabandara Kotagama. “Wimala” comes from our mother; ‘Bandaranayaka Herath
Mudiyaanselage Wimalawathi Katugaha Manike,’ says my friend Hemasiri.
Lokuaththa’s
elder brother was then the Chief Prelate or the Mahanayake Thero of the
Malwaththa chapter in Kandy. The Malwaththa Chapter had a strong link with
Kotagama in Bibile and with the influence of the Mahanayaka Thero, Lokuaththa
was appointed as the Lekam [Headman] of the Vasama [Region] and had been the
recipient of or Nindagam [Manor] land by the British rulers. The metallic
script of the offering is preserved with historic value and is currently
retained with Professor Sarath Kotagama.
Hemasiri
continues to say that, Lokuaththa had three sons and three daughters. The
eldest son was educated at Trinity College Kandy and his brother [Hemasiri’s
father] was educated at the Dharmadutha College in Badulla. The other son was
not educated as he opted not to. The general norm then was to have an heir to
the land and property that needed to be protected and retained within the
family and this person was expected to remain unexposed to a western education
as this might mean an exodus from the village. The eldest son George Kotagama the
Trinitian, was appointed the Ratemhattaya for the Uva-Wellassa region. This
appointment he says as heard over family gossip was competing alongside the
applicant of the famous family by the surname Bibile. The Bibile family is the
other aristocratic bloodline in the region from which hails the eminent
Professor Dr. Senaka Bibile.
This again was
with the strong influence of the Mahanayaka Thero says Hemasiri who goes on to
say that they had a photograph of the Mahanayaka Thero hung high up on the wall
of the Issthoppuwa [front verandah] and if they were ever to leave home they
had to get on their knees and pray before the photograph.
Athanayake Sri
Rajakaruna Anawlangu Mudiyanselage Madduma Bandara Kotagama or M.B Kotagama for
short their father; married Bandaranayaka Herath Mudiyaanselage Wimalawathi
Katugaha Manike from Katugaha village Bandarawela. She was the daughter of the Lekam of Katugaha Walawwe in
Bandarawela.
 |
| Madduma Bandara Kotagama |
M.B Kotagama's
affection for social work incited him into politics. He contested the
Aluthnuwara Electorate in the General Elections of 1952 under the UNP-elephant
symbol and was defeated by J.A. Rambukpotha who challenged him under the Key
symbol. That was his first and the last attempt at taking up politics. From
then on he devoted his time to social service.
He joined the cooperative
movement and establishes the Kotagama-Bibile Cooperative Union and was always
elected to the village council and hence was referred to as the Sabapathi
Nilame. A much respected social worker he improved the roads to Kotagama to a
motorable state. The road across Kotagama village connecting to the Badulla
road and to the Mahiyangana roads were completed with tar macadamizing.
In fact he had
got the village road done up in order to drive his Kumarihami to the Kotagama
home on his wedding day. Unfortunately the inclement weather on that day did
not permit the car to negotiate the steep hill and she had had to walk the
distance all the way to the home under a parasol. The author was fortunate
enough to get to know this very dignified lady while working with Professor Sarath
Kotagama. Sadly, she passed away on 22nd April 2007. The villagers called her
Kumarihamy with respect and some did say she was a look-alike of Madam
Sirimavo.
Hemasiri
describes their father to be the simplest person that he ever knew; a man who
possessed the least requisites and needs. He led a simple lifestyle and
owned only two Khaki trousers and cotton shirts turned out at home by the
seamstress mother. An umbrella would always go with him as did the rubber
flip-flops. A special occasion would be grazed by the cloth and baniyama which
again was home made. Professor Sarath Kotagama’s official suite today is
similar to what his father used to wear then.
As for habits,
he went early to bed and was up early as well and would never let his children
sleep beyond sunrise. Only Sarath who had a fortunate symptom of sneezing
continuously if up too early before the sun came up was excluded from this
strict rule.
Madduma Banda Kotagama
and Wimalawathi Katugaha Manike had six children through wedlock. Four boys and
two girls. The eldest was Sarath Wimalabandara followed by Pushpasiri, Hemasiri,
Indrani, Kalyani and Keerthi all had the Kotagama surname and the boys all had
the Bandara name.
The sole
objective of the father was to give the boys and girls the best of the
education that was available in the country then. So they all went to the best
schools available. All the boys were sent to S Thomas’ Collages as boarders
while the two girls also had their schooling in Bandarawela, Badulla and
Colombo again as boarders. Private education was not affordable to everyone
even during that time and to have six children educated this way with no fixed
income or a salary was definitely a mystery.
The income for
the family was from whatever that was harvested from the lands; paddy, coconut, areca-nut, betel leaf, black peppers etc. Even with these
commodities it is hard to understand how he financed their education. He did
have to mortgage and even sell off some unproductive land at times in order to
meet deadlines.
Hemasiri
recollects his father seated in the arm chair in deep thought, probably
planning out the payment of the coming month’s school fees of the three boys at
St Thomas’ which will be due very soon. He saved carefully….he would turn the
envelopes around and re-use them. Today we are passionately preaching its
recycled usage….. His sacrifices and determination to educate the children did
payoff. Of the six children five are graduates; among the boys, two are
University Professors, one is an engineer while the youngest a very successful
business professional. Both the girls are teachers. No doubt he breathed his
last on 21st September 1987, a happy man.
Of all the
children one turned out to be special and different in thought. Sudu Aiya the
fairer one of the lot, Pushpasiri the Engineer was different from the rest even
during school days. He broke the line while in Mt Lavinia and came home saying
he needs to change school and insisted admission to Ananda College. This been
fulfilled he excelled in the mathematics stream, entered the Peradeniya
University, passed out as a full-fledged Mechanical Engineer and joined the
state run National Milk Board. When the legislators decided to privatize the National
Milk Board he was the Factory Engineer.
Just as Keppetipola gave up his rank to join the Sinhalese, he too
simply left his profession with a paltry sum of Rupees 35,000 as
compensation.
Today Sudu
Aiya lives in the ancestral home educating his children in schools in Bibile
living the same simplistic lifestyle that his father had practiced tending the
same lands that had once given them the income to succeed in life.
Once at the
annual Dhaana Pinkama [Alms giving] now held for the 75th year or so the monk
in the sermon said “Of all the children of this family whatever their
professions are and whatever positions they may hold in society, the most to be
appreciated out of them all is ‘Sudu Nilame.” The monk went on to say that even
he too could learn from Sudu Nilame of how to practice and live an “Alpeachcha”
life. [A form
of moderate asceticism]. One cannot understand Sudu Aiya, and he could only be
compared to Aravinda in Viragaya says Hemasiri concluding his part of this
story.
Sarath Kotagama of Bibile in Colombo
The author has
followed Sarath Kotagama at school with his brother Hemasiri Kotagama. Sarath
however was never in any of the schools with us for he was five years our
senior and was always ahead of us at all S Thomas’ Collages then. The schools
were for different levels at Bandarawela, Gurutalawa, and Mt Lavinia split for
the primary, secondary and senior school education respectively.
St. Thomas’
College Gurutalawa, the first ever outbound school in this country paved the
way to nurture his interest with birds and his favorite sport; basketball and
swimming. An average student in academic activities, but an enthusiastic
founder member of the Birdwatching club formed by the school chaplain Rev.
Father Canon A J Foster in 1960. He played basketball for the school as a
member of the school team but treated swimming as a pastime but represented his
house at the school swimming meets. It is no secret any Thomian is quite alive
and comfortable when in water, for swimming was in the school curriculum even during
the late 1950’s in this country.
Having
completed his secondary education and passed his General Certificate of
Education [Ordinary Level] he proceeded to Mount Lavinia for senior school
education. He sits for the university entrance examination from St. Thomas’
College, Mount Lavinia in 1969 and gains admission to the University of Ceylon
– Colombo campus as it was known then, where he graduated with honors in
Zoology in 1974.
In the year
1977, he proceeded to the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, for his post
graduate studies, and in 1982 he was awarded the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
for his thesis on the “behaviour and feeding ecology of the Rose-ringed
Parakeet (Psittacula kramerii) in Polonnaruwa”. He returned home to serve as a
lecturer in the Department of Zoology, University of Colombo, in the Faculty of
Natural Sciences.
His Doctoral
research at the University of Aberdeen, in association with Professor George
Mackenzie Dunnet ensured his childhood dream had come true; to be a
professional ornithologist in this country.
Having
achieved his childhood dream and being appointed an academic in higher
education as a profession he wanted to do more with regard to bird studies and
bird conservation in the country. And so, together with his longtime friend Rex
I de Silva a proficient naturalist and an expert on seabirds, he applied to be
members of the Ceylon Bird Club in 1975. However due to the restrictive
membership policy of the Ceylon Bird Club they were denied membership in
keeping to the colonial attitudes of the club and the need to qualify on a
standard of bird knowledge that was to be tested by a selection committee.
This led to
the forming of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka [FOGSL] in 1976, with a
few other academics. Thus, the founding members of FOGSL are Dr Sarath
Kotagama, Dr. S U K Ekaratne, Mr. P B Karunaratne, Mr. Rex I De Silva, Mr. L B
Ranasinghe and Mr. G L de Silva.
The FOGSL
which reached the masses had a much broader social base than the Bird Club. He
was now free to go ahead with his conservation work through his own
organization and enhanced the interest of bird lovers by publishing a number of
field guides in Sinhala and Tamil. This made birding accessible to a larger
population who was not conversant in English. The Field Ornithology Group today
is the largest birding organization in Sri Lanka, a major conservation NGO and
the national affiliate of Bird life International and has truly displaced the
Ceylon Bird Club as the authority for birds in the country.
For all his
successes, life had not been rosy for him as the eldest in a family of six
siblings when the resources at home were dwindling, when his father had to be
assisted for the higher education of his brothers and sisters.
I remember an
incident where he recalled the constraints he underwent as an undergraduate.
The day was the launch of his first Sinhala Bird Book the “Sirilaka Kurullo” at
the Mahaveli Center in Colombo. The Chief Guest was his Botany Professor and
the then Vice Chancellor of the Colombo Campus (1969 - 1974), Professor B. A.
Abeywickrama. It was a strict requirement that an array of lead pencils that
are categorized and coded for softness and thickness be used for sketching and
shading techniques for drawing botanical subjects under the microscope. Sarath
was humble enough to tell his audience that day that he could not afford to own
such a set of pencils due to the difficulty and responsibility that he had to
shoulder due to the difficulties at home bringing up and educating his
siblings. He was not embarrassed to explain this to his professor who
understood and had been very generously considerate. In gratitude and with due
respect for this gentleness he selected Professor B A Abeywickrama as the first
person to be presented with his book as a mark of respect for his consideration
that day which did not go waste.
The
mid-seventies and early eighties finds him a very busy man in the University as
an academic, deep in the humid forests in Sinharaja absorbed in research work,
in the Accelerated Mahaveli Development Scheme a member of the EIA team and
with all this penning a series of articles to the then famous science based
newspaper the ‘Vidusara” on Conservation, Environment and the Fauna of the
country. These were very popular among the advance level students and these
articles became collector’s items that were passed down the line to the
siblings pursuing education in the science stream. Young Dr Sarath Kotagama
sporting long hair something that was strictly restricted in schools then was a
special person in the leading schools in Colombo; especially among the girls’
schools in the city. He was the most sort after resource person to address the
school’s science societies.
My friend Dr
(Mrs) Jayantha Dayasena once narrated of an incident to me when on a birding
trip in Akuressa to see a solitary Comb Duck that preferred to hang on a full
winter migration in the Maramba tank.
They were
university entrance students in Visakha Vidyalaya Colombo then and had gone to
the Colombo University to invite the young long haired Doctor for a lecture at
school. Directed to his office room the girls found the room empty and started
looking for him inquiring of his ware about when someone pointed them to where
he was last seen. The girls followed in the direction and ended up in the rat
house of the Zoology Department. Being girls they were nervous and was offended
with the reedy odor of the vermin. A person in a ponytail and trousers rolled
up to the knee clad in a worn out ‘T ‘shirt was attending to the cages and
washing off the rat droppings from the floor was the only one around. The girls
asked him if Dr Kotagama had come this way. The man looked over his shoulder,
smiled broadly and said ‘I am Kotagama …please be at my office I will come over
after finishing this work.” The girls were petrified. They had never expected a
University Don to be doing such work.
This snippet
summarizes the simplicity of this man from Bibile who came to Colombo, but
never forgot his roots. This fact alone is proof enough that the decedents of
his generation that rose from the ashes of the Uva-Wellassa rebellion in 1817
do have a concern for the country and they are of a special breed. I have never
asked him why he grows his hair and beard long and I have never heard him
explain why either, but I have a strange feeling that the true identity and the
tradition of the Sinhala folk was to sport long hair and beard and he knows he
is a true Sinhalese. He is delighted to say that he is a descendant from the
Uva –Wellassa, as for the English language he says one should master it to win
the world of knowledge but should only be used as a tool. Linguistic priority
should be to one’s own mother tongue.
His brother
Hemasiri narrates thus of the elder one, “him being the Loku Aiya [Big brother]
had set a grand personal and social image that we brothers and sisters had to
follow by having to excel in higher education, become professors, or be ideals
in persona as much as possible. In all his books documents etc. from school to
university he wrote as Sarath DOD Kotagama. DOD meant ‘Do or Die’. Such was his
character in pursuance of what he wanted to be. I believe we too followed his
motto apart from growing long hair. We had to always be simple in life
following him.” Hemasiri continues to say ….. He was an
extreme workaholic and was committed to his passion.
He has also
had a very limited involvement in swimming as well during his undergraduate
days. This being mainly through his association
with Ananda Ranasinghe his undergraduate friend whose family dominated the
sport of swimming that was limited to the Colombo schools then challenged only
by the Ambalangoda sea swimmers. Ananda Ranasinghe was a scientist at Southern
California Coastal Water Research Project in the USA. Both Ananda and Sarath
held office in the Amateur Swimming Association in the country. I do remember
once at the Annual 2 Mile Sea Swim that the Association conducted from Mt
Lavinia to Dehiwala and back in the early seventies in which I too
participated. When Sarath Kotagama was ready to give the start off after
registering the participants an officio wanted the registration be done
differently to what has been in practice before, he vehemently objected to change.
However, in the end he walked off the beach with his clip board and I know he
relinquished his position in the association and that I feel was his last
engagement in the sport.
Time goes by
and he is now well known in the whole country. The people in Bibile are
contended and proud of his achievements as a man from Wellassa. There was also
this hilarious encounter when I was once with him on conservation work and was
traveling from Ampara to Colombo via Bibile. Our driver was a Malay by the name
‘Mathin’, the official transport provider to FOGSL then. It was the height of
the unrest in the country in early 2000 when we were stopped at the Pitakumbura
police checkpoint at the turn off to Nilgala. The police constable approached
the vehicle and instructed the driver to go over to the desk and sign the
registration book when he recognized the long haired person sitting on the
adjoining seat. The constable went round and wished him and said “Sir we have
heard of you but it is only today that I saw you in person, we are very proud
of you to be one of us” meaning a man from Bibile. He then called back Mathin
who was almost at the desk and waved him to proceed through. Mathin now curious
of what happed turned towards Sarath Kotagama inquiring if the constable was a
school friend. Sarath Kotagama stared far into the cloudless clear blue sky and
is still to answer Mathin.
Being a man of
principles he would not hesitate to express his feelings at any forum. However,
being outspoken in most cases is not that favourable. In the mid-eighties there
was a bitter disagreement on policy within the Zoology Department in the
university and Dr Sarath Kotagama walked out of the Colombo Campus and joined
the Open University and took over a consultancy post at the Council of the Central
Environment Authority [CEA].
But not
everything ends with drastic results. It was here in the CEA that he met his
fiancée. The Administrative Secretary of the Director General of the CEA was a
regular contact point on council meetings. These contacts developed into a
lifelong contact and in 1988 he decided to tie the knot with Miss Namalee
Perera the DG’s Secretary, only she was not the DG’s sectary any longer. Things
got back to normal and he soon was back at the University of Colombo, as the
new Professor of Environmental Sciences.
Today, they
are a family blessed with a daughter and son…Tharani and Odatha. When they took
a decision to start a living in a house of their own things once again started
to defy conventions. They bought land that was affordable in Akuregoda but
things did not go as panned from the beginning. The land being a triangle in
shape was not favoured by traditional vastu etc. A decision was made to make
the land a square, letting an arrowhead shape end to sit out of the premises by
doing a gate structure. This was accepted and the house building commenced.
Being a
practicing environmentalist he planned to build the house primarily with reused
material. This led to problems with the artisans as most were superstitious and
did not want to handle material from broken down buildings for fear of bad omen
and spells. Finally, a professional Architect Kapila Sugathadasa was consulted
and the house came up with almost seventy percent of reuse material. A
twin level abode is their home built primarily of discarded hardwood railway
sleepers and hewed cabook stones salvaged from broken down houses. The doors
and windows are also units salvaged in total.
Being a man
with bare necessities the house only has a refrigerator, washing machine and a
gas stove to be called modern-day utilities. All the other furniture is
basically what was brought from the ancestral home in Bibile. This decision to
use the old family furniture was a blessing to the mother who was delighted to
give them away. They are the “Lanu Endha” [timber framed bed with no bed head
and woven with coconut fibre rope] that the visitor sits on. The four poster
bed the parents slept on and some old pottery and utensils. The traditional ‘koraha’
the ubiquitous item then in any Sinhala home the large rimed bowl in the
kitchen in which the rice was washed was also the bath tub for the babies. This
bath tub in which almost all the siblings took the baptism is now installed as
a hand wash basin and is around 70 years in usage.
The old Kotagama
Walawwa in Bibile, occupied by his brother Pushpasiri and the one which Sarath
Kotagama built in Akuregoda both have the bare necessities that a Sinhala
household consisted of in the past. Only the space usage and land use have
changed with time requiring the latter house to go for twin levels.
I was
fascinated with this building and the theme used by Architect Kapila Saparamadu
and introduced my niece Aditha Dissanayake; the one time features editor of the
Sunday Observer for a write up on the house. Aditha published a brilliant photo
write up under the heading “Ecstasy of Railway Sleepers” to the paper on
Sunday, May 27th 2007 also with a catchy sub heading “Refuse has
never looked so good.”
This is all
about a unique story of a family that came out of the remote locality in
Kotagama, Bibile in Uva Wellassa where even to this day people fear to discuss
of the turmoil and perils that the innocent in the year 1817 had to undergo
during the suppression of a revolt against an unseen queen that lived many seas
away. Just as it is said the winner takes it all; there is a monument to
mark the victory of the British in Wellassa but none for the one who was
defeated.
A lone marble
monument sits by the side of the road to Kotagama from Bibile about three miles
to the Kotagama Wallawwa where Major Wilson was arrowed down by a Sinhala
rebel. This valley was later named Wilson's Valley by the British. But was
never in usage as there was hardly any survivors to identify the valley by that
name.
The Kotagama
siblings have excelled in academia… a consolation for the parents, and the
return of Pushpasiri back home to live a life as their ancestors did, leave
behind all the riches in the city would have also been a pleasure in a
different form for the parents. The third generation may only know that their
grandparents were from Bibile and they still have an uncle living a different
life in that grand old house in Bibile.
But Sarath Kotagama must be a happier man today. His son Odatha Kotagama too sat for his university entrance from S Thomas Collage in Mt Lavinia like the father, but revealing how fate comes in all forms when the father was selected to the University in Colombo, Odatha is selected to the Uva Wellassa University in Badulla. A contrasting coincidence of the third generation going in the opposite direction from Colombo to Uva Wellassa.
