The Uva-Wellassa RebellionSri Lanka becoming a British colony, and its first fight against the colonial rule; the Uva-Wellassa Rebellion, both occurred at the dawn of the 19th century. The period after Uva-Wellassa Rebellion seems to have been miserable at Kataragama, and Uva at large. Robert Brownrigg, the Governor of Ceylon visited Kataragama on April 5th 1819 while on his tour through Uva and Central provinces which were devastated by the British colonial military. Medical officer John Davy who was in the team accompanying the Governor recorded his experiences in the book, “An Account of the Interior of Ceylon and of its Inhabitants with Travels in the Island”.
|Part of the oldest photograph related to Kataragama Shrine. This was taken in 1819 when Governor Brownrigg visited Kataragama after crushing the Uva-Wellassa Rebellion in 1818.|
Davy was expecting to see a grand, mansion of a shrine at Kataragama, which can justify its fame all over the Island and beyond. But he was disappointed to see poverty and deterioration everywhere. There were a lot of small huts in the village on the left bank of River Menik. A division of Malay soldiers under a local officer’s command was stationed there in those huts. These soldiers might have been used to crush the village-level self-sufficient economy of the local Sinhalese who were dwelling in Kataragama during the Rebellion and the period right after it. Basnayaka Nilame and the 12 Kapuralas (servants of the god) had gathered to Maha Devale (the great shrine) premises when the Governor’s convoy arrived. Davy says that their faces looked gloomy and frustrated. The reason for it might have been that they had to welcome the very person who destroyed the Rebellion in which they had their high hopes of winning the country back.
The British also gave the lands of Maha Devale as gifts to the local traitors who supported them to defeat the Rebellion. But, soon after the military protection was taken off the Sinhalese Kapuralas have come and regained the administration of Kataragama Maha Devale. Ruhunu Maha Kataragama Devale stayed a Buddhist shrine since 161 BC when King Dutugemunu built it and handed over to Sihnalese Buddhist Kapuralas descending from the generation of General Nandimithra. The gold Sannas book of King Dutugemunu which contained all rules and regulations pertaining to the administration of Kataragama Maha Devale is believed to be hidden inside a rock cave at Horabokka.
John Davy says that he did not see a house with people or any recent cultivation on his way to Kataragama. There were no human beings walking on the roads. Houses seen here and there were ruined. Paddy fields were abandoned. Davy had seen a human skull under a tree with a piece of rope hanging with it. What else could have been there for John Davy to see? During the Rebellion Governor Brownrigg unleashed an imperial terror on Uva Sinhalese, which let their soldiers have a killing spree. Innocent Sinhalese, from babies to old men and women were killed. Their homes, paddy storages, and paddy fields were burnt down and the domestic animals like cows and bulls were killed and eaten. Uva Sinhalese were subjected to these crimes in order to terrorize the entire population, to make them poor, to make them starve, to make them physically and mentally weak and thereby prevent another possible rebellion against the British colonial government. Kataragama was left with a population of about 40 people. They belonged to the families of the feudal servants of Maha Devale.
Esala Festival in the 19th CenturyIn those early years of the 19th century, people came to Kataragama only during the Esala festival season. June, July and August are the hottest and driest period for Kataragama. In this merciless climate, scarcity of food and water would drive the wild beasts mad. Yet, the pious pilgrims traveled very long distances; through unfavourable geographic conditions, unpopulated lands, jungles full of venomous dry-zone serpents, wild elephants, leopards, bear, wild boar and most of all, mosquitoes; to the holy city of Katar