Tab Article

Ratings: ★★★★★ (4.8/5)
Genre: History, Biography, Sri Lankan History, Post-Colonial Studies

Book Review:
Gananath Obeyesekere, one of the most distinguished anthropologists and scholars of our time, delivers a powerful and revisionist history in ''The Doomed King: A Requiem for Sri Vikrama Rajasinha.'' This book is a tour de force of historical detective work and a poignant requiem for the last king of Kandy, whose tragic fate has long been shrouded in colonial mythmaking.

The conventional narrative, crafted by British colonial historians, paints Sri Vikrama Rajasinha as a cruel and tyrannical ruler, whose misdeeds justified the British takeover of the Kandyan Kingdom in 1815. Obeyesekere masterfully deconstructs this narrative, showing how it was constructed to legitimize imperial expansion. He turns to long-neglected local sources—kadaimpot (land registers) and vitipot (astrological charts)—as well as documents from English servicemen, to reveal a very different portrait.

What emerges is the story of a king who was not a tyrant, but a man betrayed by those he trusted most. Obeyesekere traces the intricate web of conspiracy that led to his downfall, involving a Machiavellian British governor, an opportunistic Kandyan nobleman, and a master spy. He shows how narratives of cruelty and violence were systematically ''unbridled from the British and attached to'' the king, creating a lasting historical injustice.

Written with Obeyesekere's characteristic wit, irony, and profound scholarship, ''The Doomed King'' is a landmark work. It is essential reading not only for its account of the origins of colonial rule in Sri Lanka, but also for its powerful example of how historical knowledge can be constructed to serve imperial interests. As Rajeev Bhargava notes, this book confirms that Obeyesekere ''remains at the peak of his prodigious scholarly powers.'' A brilliant and necessary book.