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the tomb of a colonial exile in Mauritius

Last activity 27 August 2010 by rajabanda

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mohan1977

Hello, just wanted to know if anyone was aware of the location of the tomb belonging to a colonial exile from Sri lanka named 'Ehelapola'?

This is an excerpt from a review of the book 'Betwixt Isles' which discusses the exiles from Sri lanka who were quartered in Mauritius.

"In the following chapters the author describes in painstaking detail the life and times of the Kandyan exiles in Mauritius - their arrivals, living quarters, provisions, health, medical care, clothing, headgear, dietary fads, and categorisation as either State Prisoners, who had been summarily tried for insurrection and had their death sentences commuted to exile, and ordinary convicts who were banished for serious crimes not connected with rebellion against the British.

The first batch of 25 exiles that left Ceylon on 22 February 1819 on the HMS Liverpool were all State Prisoners, and included Pilimatalauve and Mattamgoda, and their two servants.

Ehelapola left the Port of Colombo on 14 May 1825 on board the Alexander, with Captain William Richardson in command. Accompanying Ehelapola were his three servants, an interpreter and his servant, and four ordinary convicts, three of whom had been sentenced to death for murder, but later commuted to banishment for life - not the sort of company Ehelapola was accustomed to before this enforced journey. Ehelapola first set foot on Mauritian soil on 6 June 1825.

Professor Bandaranayake records that Ehelapola had been treated very well by his minders during his exile, and provided with all the comforts that he had requested - a reasonably spacious residence, a butler, his choice of food and wine, an interpreter, household servants, and later, a horse-drawn carriage, that only a few of even the Mauritian elite had the privilege to own.

The author's diligent and tenacious search for the exact location of Ehelapola's Mauritius residence is a detective story of its own. I reproduce below the concluding paragraph of his account of this cameo, for its evocative poignancy that would be familiar to all discoverers.

"We were in fact standing on the very ground that the Maha Nilame would have stood upon... surveying the spectacular mountain range dominated by Pieter Both in the distance, and the solitude of the cemetery nearby. We may, indeed, have been on the very spot where he breathed his last one hundred and seventy five years ago. "

What I would like to know if anyone is aware of the location of the tomb? I have included (below) a very low resolution picture of the tomb I got off the internet. I tried getting through to the author but he is incommunicado. I would appreciate it if someone could take a photo of it and send it out to me as I'm doing a thesis about this character from my nation's history.

Best regards,

Mohanhttp://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~lkawgw/emonument.jpg

Nadeem

Hi Mohan

I know the exact situation of that tomb!  I've been searching it for sometimes, then I got to see it.  I even know where the prison where he was kept.

If you want to know, please email me on gibsonandhills@hotmail.com

regards

rajabanda

I have described the exact location of the tomb in Chapter 1 of my book "Betwixt Isles" (Vijitha Yapa).

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