Rain-making by Ritigala Uthumanan, Aravinda’s near six that was snatched from mid-air, and visiting the sites of ancient Parakrama sagara (Koththabadhdhanijjara), and modern Moragahakande

by D L O Mendis
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and the National Science and Technology Commission held a workshop on Traditional Knowledge at the Culture Club at Dambulla, September 17 - 20, 2002. Participants included some delegates from African countries, on the first day. Others like myself were from urban backgrounds, and at least one, Mudiyanse Tennakoon of Nikawaretiya, was from Sri Lanka’s rural hinterland. A number of well-prepared presentations led to some rich and productive discussions, brilliantly moderated by Mallika Samaranayake of the Institute for Participatory Interaction in Development.

At this time the ICC cricket matches were being shown on TV, but little time was lost on this account. However, after dinner review of each day’s cricket highlights were of interest, and one of these showed a breathtaking catch - a big hit by Aravinda de Silva that was nearly sailing over the ropes, when it was literally plucked out of midair by an athletic outfielder. Later, this gave rise to a serendipitous train of thought in my mind, during presentation of a paper by Professor Anoja Wickremasinghe. Describing her experience studying cultural patterns and traditional knowledge in a Rajarata village near Ritigala, she said that at the early stage of organizing her research project she had asked a local villager whether there was a path to climb up the mountain? The reply of the peasant had been as dramatic as it was unexpected: "Please do not refer to ‘Uthumanan’ in that manner!" he had pleaded. Surprised, the professor gently probed for more information, for after all the word Uthumanan means Excellency, and in recent Sri Lankan usage, refers only to the Head of State.

Uthumanan

The response of the Ritigala peasant as related at the workshop was as dramatic and breath-taking to me, as the catch that had dismissed Aravinda. He had said that when the seasonal rains were late, and the people were starving, they would make a symbolic ritual offering to Uthumanan imploring his kind intervention. Then, said the villager, Uthumanan, heeding their pleas, would reach out and snatch the rain bearing clouds that were drifting past high in the air, and give the village fields and the forest the gentle life-giving rainfall that they so desperately needed!

Momentarily, there flashed across my mind the picture of the catch being snatched out of the air by the fielder shown on TV the previous night. But, that mental picture (almost sacrilegious in the context of the workshop discussions) was instantly replaced by another more relevant (and more acceptable) one. Since I had been trying to arrange a post-workshop visit to the site of the ancient Parakrama sagara, (described as Koththabadhdhanijjara in the Culavamsa), near Elahera, and explain the stupidity of the modern Moragahakande reservoir proposal, here was something to clinch everybody’s interest in the visit! So, I told the participants how the Konduruweva range of hills, an anticline in geological terms, performed a similar function like Ritigala Uthumanan, intercepting rain bearing clouds, to supply no less than seven streams (called oya and ela) flowing from the Konduruweva range of hills in an easterly direction. In ancient times, during the northeast monsoon season, ample quantities of water flowed into the Parakrama sagara lying between this range and the Elahera canal. A brief history of the origins of Parakrama sagara, (not to be confused with Parakrama samudra in Polonnaruwa), is as follows.

Parakrama sagara

King Vasabha (69-109) built Elahera anicut across the Ambanganga, called Kara ganga, just below the Konduruweva range of hills and diverted water via the 24 mile long Alisara canal, today’s Elahera canal. This contour canal in the syncline (valley) between the Konduruweva and Sudukande ranges, intercepts runoff waters from the seven streams to irrigate more than 10,000 acres of land, now called System G of the Mahaweli scheme. (Brohier Vol. 1, pp. 28-33, and Fig. 1). More than two hundred years later King Mahasena (276 - 303) built Minneriya weva at the tail end of this canal. Mahasena and later kings extended the Elahera-Minneriya canal beyond Minneriya weva, intercepting in succession, Gal oya, Alut oya and Kitulutu oya. This diversion irrigation ecosystem functioned for another more than 300 years until King Agga Bodhi II (608 - 618) built Gantalawa (Kantalai) weva at its tail end. Three canals from Kantalai weva connected with Tambalakamam bay and the sea. This system functioned for more than 550 years through periods of violence and strife, during which the capital of Sri Lanka was moved from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruwa in the 8th century. King Parakrama Bahu (1153-1186) unified the country, restored the irrigation networks and built many new systems (Arumugam, pp. 16-20). In particular he built three ‘seas of Parkrama’ - Parakrama Samudra, Parakrama sagara and Parakrama Thathaka (usually written as Parakrama Talaka). Parakrama Samudra has been identified and restored many years ago. The other two great reservoirs remained unknown until recently when Parakrama Sagara was identified as lying between the Konduruweva range and the Elahera-Minneriya canal. (In a similar manner Parakrama Thathaka may have been located between the inlet canal to Parakrama Samudra, starting from Angamedilla anicut and the Sudukande range of hills).

The Water Resources Development Plan, 1959, and Moragahakande

The Water Resources Development Plan, 1959, prepared by hydraulic engineers without understanding the ancient water and soil conservation ecosystems, has been used to identify new sites for new large reservoirs. Of these, Uda Walawe reservoir (1965-1969) and Lunuganvehera weva (1978-1986) have been constructed without considering alternatives, with adverse consequences that increase with every passing day. A third great reservoir shown on this map, Moragahakande, has been subject to several feasibility studies at great cost. Moragahakande reservoir is located upstream of Elahera anicut, and the Konduruweva range. Its principal channel, originally called NCP canal, but now renamed the Upper Elahera canal, is a double banked canal passing through the bed of the ancient Parakrama sagara, and further down located on the central dividing ridge of the country. It is a hydraulic engineering design to transfer water from Amban ganga at Elahera to Minneriya reservoir, without receiving any inflow from the seven streams that spring from the Konduruweva hills. One can imagine the Uthumanan of the Konduruweva range shuddering at the stupidity and arrogance of modern hydraulic engineers.

Colossal sums of money have been spent on Moragahakande project studies, which monies would have sufficed for restoration of the ancient Parakrama Sagara. As stated many times before, this is a repetition of the calculated deception practiced by the technocracy and bureaucracy in promoting construction of Lunuganvehera reservoir on the lower Kirindi oya after the anticipated change of government in 1977, without studying an alternative site at Huratgamuva. History will repeat itself unless politicians stand up and resist the machinations of the technocracy and bureaucracy, backed by so-called aid-givers, to build Moragahakande reservoir and virtually destroy forever the far better ancient Parakrama Sagara.

National Water Heritage

The visit to Koththabadhdhanijjara site on Nikini poya day, met with unexpected disappointment. The ancient dressed stone foundations of the "flood escape that was walled up" (as Kothathabadhadhanijjara has been translated by Geiger) at Elahera, cannot be seen. It now lies under a few feet of sand upstream of the Irrigation Department’s modern concrete anicut. Removing this accumulation should be a priority item in the schedule of the proposed Sri Lanka National Water Heritage, and another Centre could be established at this site, about 40 miles from the first site for a Water Heritage Centre at Minneriya.

Small compensation for the IUCN Workshop visitors driving further along the Elahera-Minneriya canal road on Nikini poya day was the remains of the ancient tamarind tree at Diyabeduma. Boats plying between Elahera and Trincomalee along the canal system centuries ago were anchored to this tree whose ancient stump and recent shoots are protected by a new iron palisade. Local people told us that the ancient iron ring which was used to anchor the boats, which was to be seen in the 1950’s, is now embedded in the flesh of the ancient stump, that apparently had been still alive in the past few decades.