The children books have been sorted as per the age groups here. However, if you are looking for a particular author, kindly visit our advanced search
ALTHOUGH I cannot recall the context, a phrase which I read some years ago in a book-review has stuck in m memory: This book could hardly escape being English- orientated’. I have tried hard to avoid incurring similar strictures, but this is still not the book which I would like to have written. It tells the story of the occupation of Kandy primarily from the viewpoint of the British, Asian and African soldiers who invaded that ancient kingdom, and it has far less to say about the Sinhalese villagers who defended their hills against their assailants. This I could not avoid. The British story is well-documented: there is no lack of official documents or private memoirs. But the Kandyans left little or nothing in the way of written records of their misfortunes. If any comprehensive account of the events seen from their standpoint does exist, it has still to see the light of day. Inevitably, therefore, this book tells the story as the British participants saw it, and more often than not they were bedeviled by the prejudices of their kind,
Perhaps I may be chided for dignifying these skirmishes with the status of wars. Certainly they were not wars as the term was then understood, with armies equipped and organized to a similar pattern maneuvering towards a climax of formal battle or siege. But the fighting cost a multitude of lives-Sinhalese, British, Malay, Indian and African, and was in many ways a portent of the type of conflict in which European-type armies were to become more and more involved during the subsequent century and a half, a trend which continues to develop. Time and again, an unsophisticated people, by making good use of its terrain and climate, has managed to defend itself against an army superior in technology and training, but designed for a different purpose.
One of the pleasures of writing a book such as this is the friends which one makes in the process. In Kand, Professor Kingsley de Silva and Mr Justin La Brooy of the Department of History of the University of Ceylon and Mr Ian Goonetileke, the University Librarian, all took my wife and myself into their homes and were unstinting with their help and advice. In Colombo, Mr Ray Wijewardane was generous with his hospitality and found the time to read and comment upon several chapters of the typescript. Professor de Silva and Mr Labrooy read it all, producing a variety of helpful comments, as did Professor E.F.C. Ludowyk, late of the Department of English of the University of Ceylon, whose help at all stages of my work was, without any exaggeration, invaluable. Mr Goonetileke checked the bibliography, as well as giving me the run of his excellent Library and showering me daily with a gentle rain of fresh sources, culled from the depths of his awe-inspiring but modest erudition. They were among the friends I made. None of them are in any way responsible for any errors which may remain or for any of the opinions which I have expressed.
Sinhale And The Patriots 1815-1818
Author: P.E.Pieris
Our Price: $89.00
History of Ceylon Book - IV
Author: H. C. Ray,
Our Price: $39.00
Memoirs Of The Archaeological Survey of Ceylon Vol
Author: S. Paranavitana
The Rock And Wall Paintings of Sri Lanka
Author: Senake Bandaran
Our Price: $129.00
Go to Top
