Sinhala / Sri Lankan Swords?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams All,

Further more interesting variation appears in http://vedda.org/knox-veddas.htm where Knox describes a tribal entity called the Veddas with specially developed axe and bow/arrow. A study of the English captives 20 plus years in captivity inspired Defoe's "Robinson Cruseo" and is a treasure of pictorial and ethnographic details now at our fingertips.
The full account needs to be viewed since it is clear that the Vedda were intent on showing a false hand to the English and so as to disguise their actual lifestyle they played to the audience who at the time soaked up all they were fed with..
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Salaams all...Spears of Sri Lanka. For interest from...http://srilanka.for91days.com/tag/tradition/
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[napoleon]

saalams ibrahiim,interestingly the veddhas still exist in ceylon as an ethnic minority of small number i think 500 or so still living a traditional life,just got through reading knox,puts things more in perspective for me, with clear references to kastane and piha kaetta,

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by napoleon

saalams ibrahiim,interestingly the veddhas still exist in ceylon as an ethnic minority of small number i think 500 or so still living a traditional life,just got through reading knox,puts things more in perspective for me, with clear references to kastane and piha kaetta,

Salaams Napoleon ~ Its not a bad way of breaking into the subject whilst having a weather eye on the poetic licence of the author..Knox is good background stuff though he appears a little late in proceedings, however, it makes good reading. Well done for ploughing through it !

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by napoleon

... interestingly the veddhas still exist in ceylon as an ethnic minority of small number i think 500 or so still living a traditional life, just got through reading knox ...

Hi Napoleon
It looks like they have never been so many
I see that Robert Knox arrived in Ceylon in 1659, one year after Portuguese João Ribeiro left the island (captured by the Dutch in 1658), where he has been since 1640. Ribeiro wrote his work (Historic Fatality of Ceylon) in 1680 and this was only published 1685. Although Knox wrote his work in 1681, Ribeiro’s experiences are earlier, especially in what touches local war episodes. However both descriptions of the Vedas don’t differ so much in the essential.
On the other hand, i am surprised in that Knox places the Vedas in the 'Land of Bintan' (Indonesia?), whereas Ribeiro places them in the Northern Ceylonese lands of Vanni, between Jaffna and Trincomalee, in the middle of two separating rivers, along 10 leagues of coast and 8 leagues inland, an area of very dense bushes; and they were so few that within these 10 leagues they wandered in those bushes and almost wouldn’t communicate ones with the others… despite a legend told by locals that would implicate in these people being in large number.
Ribeiro also stresses that they wouldn’t stay in permanent villages. Each family stayed in a place no more than six months, enough to plant seed and harvest the result; then they moved somewhere else.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by fernando

Hi Napoleon
It looks like they have never been so many
I see that Robert Knox arrived in Ceylon in 1659, one year after Portuguese João Ribeiro left the island (captured by the Dutch in 1658), where he has been since 1640. Ribeiro wrote his work (Historic Fatality of Ceylon) in 1680 and this was only published 1685. Although Knox wrote his work in 1681, Ribeiro’s experiences are earlier, especially in what touches local war episodes. However both descriptions of the Vedas don’t differ so much in the essential.
On the other hand, i am surprised in that Knox places the Vedas in the 'Land of Bintan' (Indonesia?), whereas Ribeiro places them in the Northern Ceylonese lands of Vanni, between Jaffna and Trincomalee, in the middle of two separating rivers, along 10 leagues of coast and 8 leagues inland, an area of very dense bushes; and they were so few that within these 10 leagues they wandered in those bushes and almost wouldn’t communicate ones with the others… despite a legend told by locals that would implicate in these people being in large number.
Ribeiro also stresses that they wouldn’t stay in permanent villages. Each family stayed in a place no more than six months, enough to plant seed and harvest the result; then they moved somewhere else.

Thank you for this additional perspective from Portuguese resources, which gives us valuable insight from much fuller spectrum. Nicely added Nando!!

All the best,
Jim

[napoleon]

thank you ibrahiim ,fernando and jim,particularly for the portugese reference, a bit more reading if i can access a copy,i think the thread is still going well,but also feel that,any pics of examples,absolutely any,however rusty to anything gold mounted, gem encrusted, with or without inscriptions(are there any?) ?.regards napoleon

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by napoleon

thank you ibrahiim ,fernando and jim,particularly for the portugese reference, a bit more reading if i can access a copy,i think the thread is still going well,but also feel that,any pics of examples,absolutely any,however rusty to anything gold mounted, gem encrusted, with or without inscriptions(are there any?) ?.regards napoleon

Salaams Napoleon...Just picking up on "anything gold mounted, gem encrusted" Do you refer to the Kastane? If so, I think you mean to post this on The Sinhalese Kastane: Its Development, Decoration and Symbolism...I am not certain what other weapons (not counting the Piha Kheata) would fall into that category..For some stunning pictures of Kastane Pinterest does some good pictures and also some of our own museum visiting members have taken great pictures in various venues like The Wallace Collection ~ just tap into Forum Library.

Good luck on your continued research. Thanks

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Rick]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams All,

Further more interesting variation appears in http://vedda.org/knox-veddas.htm where Knox describes a tribal entity called the Veddas with specially developed axe and bow/arrow. A study of the English captives 20 plus years in captivity inspired Defoe's "Robinson Cruseo" and is a treasure of pictorial and ethnographic details now at our fingertips.
The full account needs to be viewed since it is clear that the Vedda were intent on showing a false hand to the English and so as to disguise their actual lifestyle they played to the audience who at the time soaked up all they were fed with..
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Alexander Selkirk's adventures were the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe ....

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Rick

Alexander Selkirk's adventures were the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe ....

Salaams Rick, Not entirely ~

See Wikepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Knox_%28sailor%29 Quote''During the voyage Knox wrote the manuscript of An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, an account of his experiences on Ceylon, which was published in 1681. The book was accompanied by engravings showing the inhabitants, their customs and agricultural techniques. It attracted widespread interest at the time and made Knox internationally famous, influencing Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as well as sparking a friendship with Robert Hooke of the Royal Society. It is one of the earliest and most detailed European accounts of life on Ceylon and is today seen as an invaluable record of the island in the 17th century.'' Unquote.

I think the word influencing carries enough inspiration to be supportive in the construction of the tale..

Also note from Wikepedia : Quote"Robinson Crusoe /ˌrɒbɪnsən ˈkruːsoʊ/ is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. This first edition credited the work's fictional protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. It was published under the considerably longer original title The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.

*Epistolary, confessional, and **didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character (whose birth name is Robinson Kreutznaer)—a castaway who spends years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued.

The story is widely perceived to have been influenced by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on the Pacific island called "Más a Tierra" (in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island), Chile. However, other possible sources have been put forward for the text. It is possible, for example, that Defoe was inspired by the Latin or English translations of Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, an earlier novel also set on a desert island.

Another source for Defoe's novel may have been Robert Knox's account of his abduction by the King of Ceylon in 1659 in "An Historical Account of the Island Ceylon," Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons (Publishers to the University), 1911.

In his 2003 book In Search of Robinson Crusoe, Tim Severin contends that the account of Henry Pitman in a short book chronicling his escape from a Caribbean penal colony and subsequent shipwrecking and desert island misadventures, is the inspiration for the story.

Arthur Wellesley Secord in his Studies in the narrative method of Defoe (1963: 21-111) painstakingly analyses the composition of Robinson Crusoe and gives a list of possible sources of the story, rejecting the common theory that the story of Selkirk is Defoe's only source.

Despite its simple narrative style, Robinson Crusoe was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. Before the end of 1719 the book had already run through four editions, and it has gone on to become one of the most widely published books in history, spawning numerous sequels and adaptations for stage, film, and television".Unquote.

Notes;
*(An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents)
**(A didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice)

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams Rick, Not entirely ~

See Wikepedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Knox_%28sailor%29 Quote''During the voyage Knox wrote the manuscript of An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, an account of his experiences on Ceylon, which was published in 1681. The book was accompanied by engravings showing the inhabitants, their customs and agricultural techniques. It attracted widespread interest at the time and made Knox internationally famous, influencing Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as well as sparking a friendship with Robert Hooke of the Royal Society. It is one of the earliest and most detailed European accounts of life on Ceylon and is today seen as an invaluable record of the island in the 17th century.'' Unquote.

I think the word influencing carries enough inspiration to be supportive in the construction of the tale..

Also note from Wikepedia : Quote"Robinson Crusoe /ˌrɒbɪnsən ˈkruːsoʊ/ is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published on 25 April 1719. This first edition credited the work's fictional protagonist Robinson Crusoe as its author, leading many readers to believe he was a real person and the book a travelogue of true incidents. It was published under the considerably longer original title The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates.

*Epistolary, confessional, and **didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character (whose birth name is Robinson Kreutznaer)—a castaway who spends years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and mutineers before being rescued.

The story is widely perceived to have been influenced by the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on the Pacific island called "Más a Tierra" (in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island), Chile. However, other possible sources have been put forward for the text. It is possible, for example, that Defoe was inspired by the Latin or English translations of Ibn Tufail's Hayy ibn Yaqdhan, an earlier novel also set on a desert island.

Another source for Defoe's novel may have been Robert Knox's account of his abduction by the King of Ceylon in 1659 in "An Historical Account of the Island Ceylon," Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons (Publishers to the University), 1911.

In his 2003 book In Search of Robinson Crusoe, Tim Severin contends that the account of Henry Pitman in a short book chronicling his escape from a Caribbean penal colony and subsequent shipwrecking and desert island misadventures, is the inspiration for the story.

Arthur Wellesley Secord in his Studies in the narrative method of Defoe (1963: 21-111) painstakingly analyses the composition of Robinson Crusoe and gives a list of possible sources of the story, rejecting the common theory that the story of Selkirk is Defoe's only source.

Despite its simple narrative style, Robinson Crusoe was well received in the literary world and is often credited as marking the beginning of realistic fiction as a literary genre. Before the end of 1719 the book had already run through four editions, and it has gone on to become one of the most widely published books in history, spawning numerous sequels and adaptations for stage, film, and television".Unquote.

Notes;
*(An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents)
**(A didactic novel that set out to expose social injustice)

Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

Beautifully posted Ibrahiim!!! and thank you for all this detail. Quite honestly I had not even heard of Knox before you started posting this material, and for that matter had no idea of these other influences on the 'Robinson Crusoe' classic!
This is the amazing thing about taking the time to research things, and though often digressing from the topic or item being studied, how many other things can be learned along the way.
Thank you for always taking that extra time to thoroughly present these kinds of details!

All best regards,
Jim