Decline and fall of Jaffna into
Nandikadal Lagoon
H.
L.
D.
Mahindapala
On January 30, 1908 Ponnambalam Arunachalam, M.
A.
, Cantab, Ceylon Civil Service, Barrister-atLaw, Lincoln’s Inn, took the floor in the Legislative Council Chamber, the highest...
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Decline and fall of Jaffna into
Nandikadal Lagoon
H.
L.
D.
Mahindapala
On January 30, 1908 Ponnambalam Arunachalam, M.
A.
, Cantab, Ceylon Civil Service, Barrister-atLaw, Lincoln’s Inn, took the floor in the Legislative Council Chamber, the highest political institution
of the day, to deliver a lecture on the Sketches of Ceylon History.
Governor Sir.
Henry A.
Blake, G.
C.
M.
G.
, presided over this session in the Legislature as usual.
The lecture was more than an overview of
Ceylon history.
In essence it was an exposition of the Sinhala-Buddhist civilization and culture which
were articulated for the first time in English at the highest political level occupied by the Englishspeaking elite in colonial times.
In the first decade of the 20th century the history of the Sinhala-Buddhist civilization was popular
among the English-educated elite who were rediscovering the glories of ancient and medieval Sri
Lanka that were buried under the jungle tide.
Pioneering British archae
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