I must honestly confess, I am unable to comprehend what exactly the author is trying to portray in this book. Is it an account of Meemure, that ‘famous traditional Kandyan village par - excellence’ in Ududumbara, or the autobiography of the celebrated and eminent villager known as Sudath Gunasekara, I am unable to differentiate. Therefore, I see it is a rare combination of both.
Usually, no autobiographies are compiled in present day society and similarly, biographies of others are written very rarely. However, it is with immense love and pride that I am writing a review of this book as I myself am a down to earth villager.
I have read many a book written both, in Sinhala and English on Meemure. But, I see some extraordinary aliveness hidden in this book, not found in any other. The reason behind this secret I think is the devoted efforts made by the ‘idyllic villager’ Sudath Gunasekara, who is trying to interpret his vast and valuable wealth of personal experience gathered over the years through participatory observation by living the life of this village, from an analytical mind of an erudite academic.
The fascinating and poetic language in which Sudath Gunasekara has described the material and cultural heritage developed and evolved by the people, who have lived in villages under the shadow of Lakegala over the past 10,000 years, will definitely be an asset to those who do research in and on these villages in future.
Most Western scholars who have carried out anthropological research in Sri Lanka have viewed Sri Lankan society from an ‘Observer’s model’. Their inability to look through their own model (actor’s model) and their failure to grasp social realities as they were, is explained by their not having lived within that society for a considerable time. People such as E.R. Leach, H.C.P. Bell and R.W. Levers are among the few who made an attempt to understand Sri Lankan society in its real perspective.
But, Sudath Gunasekara, born and bred in a remote village such as Meemure, and having completed an Honours degree in Geography during the golden era of the University of Peradeniya, and having held many responsible positions such as, Principal of a High School, DRO Ududumbara, GA , Head of many Departments and Secretary at a number of Ministries, and Permanent Secretary to Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, from which post he retired, on the other hand, has written this book as a policy guideline to develop his birth place using that wide range of rich experience.
The historical, sociological and anthropological information revealed in the book is highly commendable. Ethno botanical and zoological details are praiseworthy and social science and ecological information, extremely emotive.
The language used in the book is lucid and full of local dialect, and the style, excellent and captivating. Under the shadow of Lakegala is an excellent outcome of the wide array of rare experiences and labour of a villager cum scholar’s deep scholarship. To all those interested in real life in unique medieval Kandyan rural Sri Lanka, I recommend this book as an excellent base reference. It is equally useful to an ordinary villager as well as a serious scholar. This I see as the uniqueness of this work. Furthermore, I see this as a rare treatise compiled by a competent scholar on Meemure, a historic village, the best hideout for Royalty in crisis, during the Kandyan Kingdom, situated under the shadow of Lakegala, the unique monolith, identified as the highest and the largest bare rock out crop in the whole world. It was considered as the centre of legendary Lankapura of Ravana the Great of Lanka, the Greatest Emperor the ancient world has known.
The importance of the book is further enhanced by the fact that Lakegala overlooking Meemure also has been identified as one of the unique ‘Star Gates’ of the world by modern writers.
Finally, I would be failing in my duty if I do not mention a word about the author’s love and extraordinary commitment to his place of birth and upbringing about which this discourse is compiled as it is manifestly embedded in the following two fascinating quotations coming at the beginning and the end of the book.
1. Ananda, Even the wind that blows from Kapilawastu brings me pleasure (Gautama Buddha)
`JananiJanmaBhumischa-Swargadapigariiyashi (an ancient Indian saying)
`The mother and the place of your birth are even more precious than the heavens’
2. “I committed these memories of writing and dedicated them to the simple but warm hearted and proud people of this village, in the name of the deep and inseparable love I have for its enchanting surroundings and the eternal bondage that exists between me and the village, from my childhood days and the inspiration I have received from Lakegala.
I wish my mortal remains, one day be interred, under the shadow of Lakegala by those who claim my dead body. Because it was these surroundings that nurtured me for 10 long years in my childhood days and it was also in the same surroundings where I cut my teeth and got my wings.”
Senior Prof H. M. D. R. Herath
Faculty of Sociology, University of Peradeniya,
Sri Lanka