The fifteenth century route to Yapa Patuna

Many a bird flew across Lankan skies somewhere between the 14th and 16th centuries in the style of busy messengers. They always took care to fly over popularly used routes for obvious reasons as provision of food, security and opportunity to feast eyes on places of popular interest. The Sandesha poets were most keen on the last factor as these provided a venue to ventilate their descriptive powers.

The Kokila Sandeshaya written during the reign of Parakramabahu the 6th (1415-1470) is said to encase the longest route taken by any Sandesha bird. From the Southernmost point of Dondra or Devundara, the cuckoo flies all the way to Jaffna to hand over a message to Prince Sapumal who conquered the North for a father who adopted him. After his successful invasion he becomes Yuvaraj of the peninsula and settles down there. He returns to take over the crown of Kotte, that entailed the title of Chakravarthi, on the death of King Parakramabuhu. It was however a short reign.

Like it or not, according to scholar poets like Repiel Tennekoon, now forgotten Sapumal himself was a Tamil earlier carrying the name Sembagappaperumal. How come? Racism seems to have taken a back seat in that by-gone century. Ironically people in court and outside seemed to have been more broad-minded than in this enlightened age. Sapumal's father served in the royal court of Sri Jayawardenapura, Kotte and the little son was soon to attract the attention of the monarch who adopted him and brought him up as his very own. Both father (Sapumal's biological father) and son seem to have been of the consensus that the island should be under one Chatra and the King reigning in the capital city of Kotte had to be the sole monarch.

The break way of the North had begun a good many years back and with the divisive cleavages in the South increasing. By the dawn of the 15th century the North had become almost independent under the Arya Chakravarthi line. Prince Sapumal by a triumphant invasion subjugated the terrain.

What was the route taken by him? No war records exist to indicate the route and one can assume that the route taken by the cuckoo and indicated in Kokila Sandesha was the same triumphal route. Of course Sapumal began his march from Sri J'Pura while the cuckoo has to fly from Devinuwara in the South. So a long sea side trail or flight is added well to put first things first what was the message? Author of Kokila Sandesha was a Monk - poet residing at Irugalkula Thileka Pirivena in Devundara according to a verse in the text and he celebrates the conquest of the North in his own way i.e. by invoking the blessings of the Gods on Prince Sapumal and his warriors and then informing the prince via the cuckoo that he has done so.

This was the conventional pattern of messages of many of the Sandeshas. Flambeau carrying, one could say. Maybe to some extent, but they served many other purposes especially in indicating historical, geographical and social factors of the times including the study of place names. Some