The driver was used to the area and having traveled extensively in the rural areas of Sri Lanka, he chose more interior-roads than the main roads in the last hours of our journey.
He asked all of us whether we liked to visit an ancient Kingdom of the Island and the ruined fortification and the archaeological interests.
Though I heard about Panduvasdeva’s Kingdom in Panduwasnuwara I hadn’t visited it. I thought it was a good opportunity. There was an apparent excitement in Steffani, Yong and Romy’s faces as well.
He was driving through a narrow passage along the isolated rural areas. The remaining walls of the ruined ancient Kingdom were the first sight for all of us.
Still the walls were standing so strongly, proclaiming its glorious majestic days several centuries ago.
Panduwasnuwara, the oldest of the capitals in Panduwasnuwara, which according to legend, was the capital of king Panduvasdeva, who succeeded Vijaya, the first king of Sri Lanka around 5th century B.C.
The moated tower where Princess Unmada Chitra, so beautiful that she drove men crazy, was confined because of an ominous prophecy of untimely death in the family. A forested mound is also identified as the tomb of king Vijaya.
Panduvasnuwara’s many other archeological remains date from the 12th century when it was known as ‘Parakramapura’ and was used by Sri Lanka’s great medieval king Parakramabahu I as a stepping stone to his great capital – Polonnaruwa.
Among the many impressive ruins are the citadel walls and moat, the royal palace with carved pillars and guard stones, and a beautiful Bodhigara, the edifice round the bo-tree, sacred to Buddhists.
Street vendors were selling various flowers and ritual items for those visiting the adjoining Buddhist temple. Everywhere around there were small shops selling various items, targeting those who were visiting the ruined kingdom. When we visited some areas of the ancient kingdom, I saw a culvert with a Tamil inscription which was a pointer to Tamil influence in the Kingdom.
That the ancient culture of the Island of some thousand years was a blend of Sinhala and Tamil was evidenced in the culvert.
Yong was asking me, when we went inside a Buddhist temple a lot of questions to which I had no answer.
We bought some jaggery which was filled in a tiny pockets weaved either by a kind of weed or palm leaves. My German friends were savouring to the full the culture and the way of living around there which hasn’t lost its centuries old purity in that highly isolated rural area from the rest of the world.
The calm and quiet that pervaded the surroundings was enchanting. We walked amidst the ruins of the ancient Kingdom which were under large shady trees which might have been centuries old.
The large trees and ruined remains of the kingdom was reminiscent of the scenes of Angelina Jolie casting Hollywood blockbuster “Tomb Raider” which was filmed around the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, one of the world’s most isolated and strife-torn countries.
It was such a marvellous experience to walk in the ruined palace where memories of the past glories of the Kingdom captivated my mind and took on a reality though I had never heard anything about the Kingdom in the past.
Romy was capturing the ancient wonder with her digital camera. I too went near a Buddhist ruined statue and took some photos to remember the lost kingdom and its wonders several centuries old.
We departed after reliving some of the ancient past and our passage was once again through the rural area of the Island passing many beautiful ponds with lotus flowers and paddy lands.
