In each and every inch of this land of Sri Lanka, several feet below our real past heritage has been buried. It is our true story. The miraculous things, this ‘Lakdiva’(land of Sri Lanka) together with a large number of its archipelago, gave to the world history are innumerable. We have the proud right to ask the question ‘What are the things not given to this world by the Sinhalese?’ We have given so much things to this world since the ancient past. But the problem is that we have been unable to know about these things exactly. Though ecclesiastical codes have been made about some of these things during different times, we have seen them going underground again. Thus, it is not a wonder that some of our past heritage events went underground and buried in a way that they cannot be recoverable again. Since the ancient past from time to time our heritage was destroyed because of the foreign invasions. Some places of historically importance were destroyed without leaving any trace to recognize them. These are not accidental incidences. They are the big crimes intentionally done in the hope of preventing a great civilization from rising again in future. They thought that they could eradicate the Sinhalese by burying their history. It is not an exaggeration that some of these happened through invisible forces. Also, it is a common secret that some European countries are still using the things stolen from our country and trying to improve their technology.
But if you read the book named ‘Hela Isiwara Maha Ravana’ written by venerable Bopitiye Ariyagnana thero you can understand that nobody is able to keep anything hidden forever. The world famous name of a king who lived in the past in our country, and the stories regarding this powerful king who astonished the whole world with his amazing creations and his conceptions cannot be deliberately distorted or hidden in the world’s history. Though the people in Sri Lanka as well as in the neighboring countries knew that this powerful mighty king is not anyone other than Ravana, anyhow, the name of Ravana has been prevented from writing in the world’s history.
The word ‘Ravana’ means the sky or the energy of the sun. The powerful mighty king Rawana who lived in ‘Siw Helaya’(Land of Sri Lanka) was called by the names ‘Dasis Ravana (king with ten heads) and ‘Vidas Ravana’(king with twenty eyes).The meaning of the names of ‘Thaprawan’ and ‘Thapraban’ is Ravana’s island. Ravana was a powerful mighty king who endowed the world with Astronomy, Sinhalese Medicine, Astrology, Atomic Technology, Airplane Technology and many more. He was not only an expert violin player but also a person who acquired high proficiency in ‘Susata Kala’(64 Arts and Crafts).
Though he was called as a villain in many places, he ruled the country with ‘Dasa Raja Dharma’( Ten righteous governing policies) and as a result he was revered as a God for his goodness in Sri Lanka. Ravana’s ancestry was as powerful as himself and there are so many evidences that his ancestry ruled the country in a rightful manner. Pulathisi, one of the kings of Rawana’s ancestry who ruled the country before Ravana had made the country a prosperous land. King Ravana who went beyond that became a powerful ruler whose fame spread even in the neighboring countries. ‘Pushpaka Vimanaya’ and ‘Dandu Monarayanaya’(an air plane) are considered to be his distinctive productions. Moreover, creations like ‘Kumara Thanthraya’, ‘Rasa Rathnakaraya’,“Ravana Samhitha”, ‘Naadi Prakashaya’,’Uddeesa Thanthraya’ were discovered during the reign of King Ravana and their basic models can be seen in places like Sigiriya etc. But the thing is that some other countries have obtained patent licenses on them. Though the history is full of stealing of intellectual properties, nobody can stop the glory of King Ravana coming to the present. Ravana was a king who was very interested in fine arts. ‘Siwa Thandawa Sthothra’ was one of the pieces of work written by him. Although India claims for the ownership of ‘Thandawa’ we can realize that it was born during the reign of Ravana because some ‘Thandawa’ features can be seen in Sri Lankan lyrical arts.
It is mentioned in folk legendary that he made a great effort to improve the ‘Angam’ Martial Art which was one of the ancient martial arts in Sri Lanka. He had recruited the groups of ‘Angam’ artisans as officials for the state defense by granting them various incentives and gratuities.
It is stated with evidences that Sigiriya is not other than ‘Lankapura’(Rawana’s Kingdom) in the books written by both professor Anuradha Senavirathna and scholar Nagoda Ariyadasa . When constructing Sigiriya, King Ravana created it as a three-storeyed building. It is said that the ground floor of this building is inside the Sigiriya Rock. The building that we see today as Sigiriya Fortress is its second storey. The third storey is said to have been an observatory building to observe the heavenly bodies. According to some ancient Indian documents the name ‘Lankapura’ which was used to identify Sri Lanka is actually the city of Sigiriya with Rawana’s ‘Gurupaa’ or ‘Gurulu paa’(Gurulu’s foot).
Actually, we should study the origin of Sinhalese not starting from the ousted person from India called Vijaya but from the glorious king called Rawana. ‘Siw Helaya’ means the four ‘Hela’ tribes named ‘Yaksha’,’Raksha’,’Asura’ and ‘Naga’ from which the Sinhalese nation originated. After all these four tribes embraced Buddhism the disparities which had been among them were dispensed. Along the path which had been cleared by King Rawana, the ‘Siw Helaya’ had come for a long distance. Nevertheless, while Vaalmiki who scornfully says in his so called Ramayana (an Indian epic) that King Ravana was a villain and a barbarian who abducted others’ wives, various people in India even today are making fraudulent attempts to tarnish the virtuous name of King Ravana with the intention of sinking the history of Sri Lanka associated with him. But nothing will be able to stop his name being highlighted.