Published in my column in The Nation on Sunday, 29 September 2013 and in Colombo Telegraph on the same date.
By Darshanie Ratnawalli
By Darshanie Ratnawalli
His name was Knox. Robert Knox. English. He was a prisoner in Lanka from 1660 to 1680. Finally he escaped from Kandy or more specifically from Rajasinha II, who claimed to be the sovereign overlord of the whole of Lanka and its people. The world-view Rajasinha II inherited as a ruler of Sinhalē (a perception of pan island Chakravartihood) comes across in his correspondence with the Dutch. He told them that “the black people of this island of Ceilao, wheresoever they might be, [are] my vassals by right”-
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment