Sinagiri

By Mike Lord

Book your next holiday to Sri Lanka, and when you get there head straight for Singiriya!
The story is set in 5th Century Sri Lanka – Taprobane as it was then called. A princess from Eritrea becomes the fourth wife of the Raja of Taprobane. The story relates her journey by land and sea, escorted by her brother, from Assaba to Puttulam, and their adventures on the way, even being attacked by pirates! The story continues with her marriage, and her life in the rock fortress of Sinagiri, meaning Lion Rock (nowadays called Singirya).
But, nobody had told her of the mysterious death of the former Raja, or the strange recluse like life that the present Raja, his son, had taken to. From her friends she learned of the younger brothers pledge to take revenge on his brother, and raise an army in India, which he eventually did. Her marriage to the Raja is somewhat of a sham, and she starts an affair with the son of the historian, who had started to write the Mahawansa. When the Raja is killed in battle by the avenging younger brother, following the discovery of the body of the old Raja, her life changes and she moves from the rock fortress to Anuradhapura, the former capital.
The story is based on historical fact. Battles, buildings and recorded events are set out factually (although the pirates are my imagination). There was a Raja Kasyapu, who killed his father, and then in remorse became a recluse. He was, in fact, killed several years later by his younger brother after the body of the old Raja was found encased (alive) in plaster in the wall of the old palace. Whilst at the rock fortress about 500 court ladies had their portraits painted in a cave on the rock face, and a few still exist today.
But what were their names?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Lord
• Release date: Nov 25, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310335389

Mike Lord

Mike had worked in sub-Saharan Africa for over 25 years, and in south and east Asia for another 25 years. He was an expert in the development of livelihoods for disadvantaged farmer families, who often live in remote and mountainous areas.Mike has now retired and has written three historical novels, and has just completed another based on the family of the Emperor Quang Trung, who is still revered all over Vietnam.

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Butterfly Books

Sinagiri

by Mike Lord

© Mike Lord, 2014.

CRS: 3135681619

Mike Lord has asserted his right to be identified as the Author of this work.

ISBN 9781310335389

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Sinagiri

Author’s note

This novel is set around the final decade of the fifth century in the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, as it is known today. In those days the island was known as Taprobane, and later as Serendipia (from the word serendipity), and later still as Ceylon.

There actually was a King, or Raja, called Kasyapu, who built at that time a fortress palace at a place known today as Singiria. The ruins still exist and visitors can climb up the rock and see painted on the rock face the portraits of several beautiful ladies who lived at that time. One of these portraits is of a dark skinned lady who in this book I have called Abebech. The rest is my imagination, although I do try to follow the official history as closely as possible.

If you, the reader, ever get a chance to visit Sri Lanka please make a point to travel to the north west of the island and visit Singiria. In the early morning make your way up steps cut in the rock, along corridors cut into the rock face, and finally up a rickety steel spiral staircase. There you will see all the existing pictures of the ladies who, I believe, lived at that time in Sinagiri. One is much darker than the others, and could have been called Abebech. No one knows, so please decide for yourself.

I would like to pay tribute to George Turnour, who in the early 19th Century discovered and translated the "Mahawansa" from pali into singhalese and then into English, and Sir James Emerson Tennent, who was Governor of Ceylon from 1845 to 1849, and the author of the definitive Ceylon - An Account of the Island*.

Mike Lord,

*Published by Longman, Green, Longman and Roberts, London, 1859.

The author would like to apologise to readers of earlier editions of this book. The manuscript was typewritten and then scanned, resulting in many ‘typos’ which made reading the book sometimes difficult. As this is an ebook, readers who have previously paid for a copy can download this copy free of charge from the website from where it was purchased.

Chapter One

It was cold in the highland African morning, as she shrugged her shoulders into the blanket around her shoulders. An early mist, that promised a hot day to follow, was hanging over the valley bottoms, which Abebech could just see through the small window in her room. She could smell the cooking fires in the air, and see wisps of smoke lazily rising in the still morning air from houses in the town below the palace.

But today was the day when she would be starting the journey.

Her maids were scurrying around outside preparing her breakfast, and packing for the journey. Last night she had bid a tearful farewell to her father, a man she not only loved but had admired for as long as she could remember. Her father was a tall and kindly man who ruled over a mountainous kingdom with calm power, balancing the aspirations of the priests with the well-being of the people, who were mainly farmers. The country was Eritrea, and the town she had lived in all of her life was Gonder. In the distance she could vaguely see the lake, Tema, which had become more visible as the early morning mists were clearing. She could sense to the right of her window the huge mass of the mountains, called Ras Dashun, in the distance.

Abebech, called her brother, as he appeared at the door. Come on, we’re all waiting to go.

She turned away from the headwaters of the Blue Nile, from where she had seen many travellers come and go over the years, and turned to greet her brother.

Mekoria was just a year older than Abebech and would be acting as her chaperone and escort all the way to distant Sinagiri. She was going to be married to a king, who was called a Raja, whom she had never met. The Chief Priest had arranged the marriage several years ago and she was quite happy in her mind that such a thing was normal and would be her duty to her father. She reasoned, her mother had never met the man she was to marry until the time of the ceremony. But just now she could not spend time daydreaming, and had to be on the move as quickly as possible.

Before she finally left the room she could not resist looking at her reflection on the surface of the water basin. Tall, slim and like most other people in Eritrea dark black, almost ebony, she had long black curling hair down to the middle of her back. Today, for the journey, her hair had been tied behind her head by one of her maids. Her eyes also were large and black, and sparkled to compliment the smile of satisfaction on her face.

Her eldest maid, called Meaza, came into her room and made sure that everything had been packed and taken down to the caravan waiting below.

Downstairs, just inside the gates of the palace, Abebech could see that the last of the baggage was being loaded onto the train of camels and donkeys that would take them to the coast.

Here excitement grew. She had never been all the way to Assaba on the coast, although she had travelled north with her father to Asmara when the weeding had been arranged. She covered her head with a woollen shawl and climbed onto the kneeling camel, and arranged herself under the small canopy that had been strapped to the top of the camel’s back.

The camel was given the orders to stand. She was used to the lurching movement and had been prepared to hold tight to the canopy until the camel had regained its feet. She could hear orders to be on the move being given by her brother, and then, as the camel lumbered forward she quickly became used to the backward and forward motion of the animal beneath her.

A large crowd of onlookers had assembled around the train of animals to see them leave. In the palace she could see her father and most of the royal family waving and calling to her, although in the excitement she could not hear the words they shouted. The crowd of people moved back as the train had started forward, and wishing everyone luck, and now some of the small boys ran after them waving, whilst others just a little bigger were imitating the foot soldiers marching on either side of the train.

Her brother, who was astride another camel, rode up alongside her. Like his sister, Mekoria had the fine featured face of the Eritrean people, with thin lips and a fine straight nose, but unlike his sister had short black crinkly hair, and often shaved his head. It never occurred to him why most Amharic men had short crinkly hair, and the women thick black wavy hair, which they usually wore long and unfettered, or plaited down their back. When he got older he knew he would probably join the army, as a cadet, but now everything he did was exciting and by way of an adventure. He was aware that he was one of several sons, and would be unlikely to succeed his father; but he expected to be given some responsible position when his eldest brother did gain accession.

So we’re finally off, Abebech. Are you nervous? he called, and before she could answer, continued, This is great; I don’t know when I’ve been more excited! He made his camel trot forward, before she could think of an answer, toward the head of the column of animals.

She looked behind her, and could see her three maids with their shawls around their shoulders walking alongside some donkeys that were laden with baggage. They were chatting and gossiping among themselves, and at the same time restraining their combined nervousness and excitement beneath their shawls. She knew that their chatter would not last long in this thin mountain air as the journey progressed, and indeed, as the track outside the town turned upwards and towards the sun still in the east, they became more intent on their walking than on their talking.

She thought back to the meeting with her father last night, and the Chief Priest who had also been there: the two men that she most respected in her life.

Her father had sat with his legs crossed in front of him on a small leather covered stool, and looked towards the priest. The priest was dressed in black with a tall black hat, and wearing a large silver Coptic Cross on a thick silver chain around his neck. His face was bearded, and the carefully brushed long whiskers were now turning white.

Father Johan, her father began, "As you know, Abebech will be leaving in the morning, and I’m sending Mekoria as her escort all the way to Sinagiri. It will he exciting for him and he will learn a lot on the journey. He can stay in Sinagiri as long as he likes, but I would think he’ll want to be back home before the heat of the summer.

The tall priest smiled at her and said kindly, Abebech goes with the blessing of the church and the people. She will be our ambassador in a strange land with strange people with different customs, and she will have many things to absorb, and I wish her well.

Abebech smiled nervously at the priest. This was a man she had known since earliest childhood. She could confide in him and tell him things that she preferred to hide from her father. He always had a kind word, or a calming hand, and the knack of knowing the answer to her problems as a child. Since she had become a woman the bond of friendship remained, and she knew that she would always be able to trust this priest. What she did not know was the extent to which the wisdom of Prester Johan was famed and sought after, far and wide beyond the borders of Abyssinia. Even kings in far-off Europe, in places called the Vatican and other places that she had never heard of, sent their emissaries to her father’s court to pay their respects to this priest.

Abebech and I have talked several times and she knows where her duties lie, continued the priest, but on a personal basis, this is the beginning of her new life, and although she may be both nervous and excited just now, I know that she’ll make a great success of her new life. The priest smiled at her again, and she relaxed a bit in the presence of two such powerful men.

As Abebech could neither read nor write - it was not considered necessary for anyone but priests and male members of the nobility to read or write - any messages would be sent through her father’s emissary to the king, although he was called a Raja - her husband-to-be. Such a thing would only be necessary in a dire emergency, as on her marriage she would become the property of her husband. Abebech knew this and had accepted it as normal.

The conversation continued for a time and then the priest begged permission to leave. When he stood he walked across the room to where Abebech knelt, placed his hand on her head and blessed her. She was close to tears at this stage.

After the priest had gone, she knelt dutifully before her father, who indicated that she should rise and stand. When he embraced her, tears finally flooded, and she noticed through her own tears a distinct tic in her father’s right eye, which always signalled a moment of strong emotion for him.

As she wiped away another tear in memory of last night she noticed that the train had settled into a smooth rhythm, and she was lulled into sleep.

Chapter Two

She was awakened by the train coming to a halt, and voices being raised. They had arrived in a small town, where they would be spending the night. They moved through large wooden doors into a walled compound, where they were due to sleep, in a house belonging to one of her father’s friends. In fact, they took five days to reach the coast and the bustling seaport of Assaba.

By midday on the sixth day, the train wound its way through the town towards the port itself and stopped alongside a large dhow, moored to the quay. At least it looked like a very large dhow to Abebech, but she had only seen the fishing canoes and smaller craft that plied across Lake Tema. The Omani sea captain had been contracted in advance, and was effusive in his greetings.

Allah be praised on your arrival! he called in Koranic Arabic. May the Merciful One grant you a safe journey on my ship.

He bowed, and then lapsed into halting Amharic. He was not a tall man and was distinctly tubby in appearance, but had a long pale face with sharp black eyes, a huge beaked nose and a scraggly unkempt beard. He wore the squared headdress of most Arabs, kept in place with an okhal, which looked as if it had been made from a. piece of rope.

The camels were coaxed into a kneeling position and Abebech and her brother climbed down. They were stiff from five days riding - in the case of Abebech five days lying prone and jolted under the canopy. In deference to the Omani, Abebech kept her head covered as she climbed, with her three maids, the thin plank leading to the centre of the ship from the stone jetty. Around her the labourers were busy unloading the baggage, and getting the packages loaded onto the dhow.

There were, of course, the bride’s clothes and also bundles of fine cotton, brought from Egypt, and other gifts and artefacts made in village workshops in Eritrea for presentation to the R4ja and to members of the king’s court who, at this stage, she could only imagine and were still nameless. A small detachment of five soldiers and one officer had been detailed to accompany Abebech and her brother on the ship, whilst the others prepared to return to Gonder. The animal train and their attendants would be paid off, except for the two special camels belonging to her father, which would return to Gonder.

This all took time, which gave Abebech an opportunity to get herself organised in the small makeshift cabin in the prow that had been set aside for her, and her maids, who were travelling all the way with her. The Eritrean people did not keep slaves, unlike their neighbours in adjoining Egypt, but servants had a similar lifestyle to slaves, although they enjoyed the protection of their masters.

The cabin walls were made from woven reed matting and afforded only minimal privacy. Her brother would be sleeping on the deck in the open with the soldiers and the captain of the dhow. Abebech also noticed that the captain had just two assistants, hardly a crew, who spent most of their time making themselves look busy whenever the captain was around, or doing precisely nothing when he wasn’t looking.

The mast in the centre of the dhow held a large single sail on a long pole on which the sail had been wrapped and tied. The captain had a crude wooden oar projecting from behind the ship, which Abebech learned could also be used to guide the ship under sail, or propel the ship very slowly when in harbour. Abebech noticed that there was a small area of cloth at head height held by a rope in each corner which provided the only shade from the sun in the stern of the ship.

Mekoria came over to the small cabin, and chased the maids away. He sat down and accepted gratefully the cup handed to him by his sister.

That’s better, he said, gasping at the relative coldness of the drink. I’m dying to see bow this ship is actually sailed. Do you think that the captain would let me have a go, or at least give him a hand?

Having seen his two assistants, said Abebech, indicating one of them lying snoring in some shade on the deck, "I’m