Rajamanthri Walauwa

Rajamanthri Walauwa (රාජමන්ත්‍රී වලව්ව) or manor house of Rajamanthri is situated in Karandagolla, Hanguranketha, Sri Lanka. Rajamanthri Walauwa is an eight-room, 200-year-old mansion built by the last Chief Minister of the Kingdom of Kandy in 1804. It was fully restored in 1944. In 1970, Prince Gamini Rajamanthri and in 1972, Prince Samantha Rajamanthri, Julius Rajamanthri's two sons became the new inhabitants of the Rajamanthri Walauwa. To this day, the manor house is managed by Prince Julius' sons.

History

This villa was built in 1804 by the Chief Minister to the last King of Kandy. The kingdom at that time forbade the use of roofing tile to anyone who wasn't royalty. Despite this ban, Chief Minister Rajamanthri built a replica palace with two sprawling stories of terracotta tiles for himself. Two hundred years later, Geoffrey Bawa's protégé, Chief Minister Julius Rajamanthri from Govi Gama Radala caste, began a delicate restoration work that retained the essence of the villa. The estate is a major producer of coconuts, rubber, pepper, cardamom, ginger, cocoa, areca nut, coffee, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, orchids and teak.

Meaning of walauwa

In Sinhala, walauwa means mansion. The English terms for walauwa are "manor" or "manor house", a large house with larger lands. The walauwa and its owners were supported by the larger lands and estates they possessed. These either were land grants from kings since the beginning of the Sinhalese kingdom until the Kandyan era or government service during the Colonial era, or were acquired by a successful enterprise and passed down through generations.[1] The owners were the landed elites of Ceylon; as such they gained a status of power and wealth.

There is another theory that walauwa means a place of judgement.[2] Those people who occupied the walauwa had the authority to pass judgement over people with the authority provided by Royal Decree. Mansions replaced the walauwa in the urban areas towards the latter part of the nineteenth century.

See also

Notes
  1. "Sri Lanka - Decline Of The Sinhalese Kingdom". Countrystudies.us. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  2. "Civil Appeal. 23 Of 2013". Kenya Law. Retrieved 6 April 2014.

References
  • K. M. De Silva (1981). A history of Sri Lanka. University of California Press.
  • Patrick Peebles (2006). The history of Sri Lanka. United States of America: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313332053.
  • Royston Ellis (2011). Sri Lanka (fourth ed.). England: Bradt Travel Guides Ltd, IDC House. ISBN 978-1841623467.
  • D. C. R. A. Goonetilleke (2005). Sri Lankan English literature and the Sri Lankan people, 1917-2003. Vijitha Yapa Publications. ISBN 9789558095829.
  • Sinhalese social organization : The Kandyan Period by Ralph Pieris (Ceylon University Press 1956) ISBN 955-9170-37-6
  • An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies by Robert Knox; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14346
  • Seneviratna, Anuradha; Polk, Benjiman (1992). Buddhist Monastic Architecture in Sri Lanka: The Woodland Shrine. Abhinav Publications. p. 110. ISBN 9788170172819.
  • Scriver, Peter; Prakash, Vikramaditya (2007). Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling and Architecture in British India and Ceylon. Routledge. pp. 206–207. ISBN 9781134150267.
  • Seneviratna, Anuradha; De Silva, Nimal (1999). World Heritage City of Kandy, Sri Lanka: Conservation and Development Plan. Central Cultural Fund. ISBN 9789556131260.

Further reading
  • Sinhalese social organization : The Kandyan Period by Ralph Pieris (Ceylon University Press 1956) ISBN 955-9170-37-6
  • An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon in the East Indies by Robert Knox; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14346
  • Social Change in 19th century Ceylon. Patrick Peebles. 1995, Navrang ISBN 81-7013-141-3
  • The Mahavamsa
  • The adaptable peasant: agrarian society in western Sri Lanka under Dutch rule, 1740–1800, Nirmal Ranjith Dewasiri, ISBN 90-04-16508-8, p. 201
  • Sri Lanka Walauwa Directory by Dr Mirando Obeysekara (Samanthi Book Publishers) ISBN 955-8596-47-7

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