Overview

Rata Sabhāwa, an unwritten rural judicial tradition formulated by oral history, culture, feudal, and caste customs, was the collective lex terrae, law of the land, practiced in Nuwarakalaviya region and adjacent districts of Sri Lanka until the mid-1930s, when the colonial government policies tolled its demise. This book examines the history of this Sabhā system, and variants in the neighboring Kandyan country, and how it functioned as the primary source to promote social order and conflict resolution in communities. In examining the preventative and punitive methods that existed in this system - some bizarre, some outright discriminatory, often caring, humane, and understanding - this volume reveals that the Nuwarakalaviya region functioned as a princely state ruled by Chiefs facilitated with greater independence and semi-sovereign authority, without any patronage from the King and colonial powers in other parts of the country.

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9798218157654

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A landmark contribution illuminating a bygone judicial and cultural institution in Sri Lanka.- M.U.A. Tennakoon, author of Drought Hazard and Rural Development: A Study in Perception of and Adjustment to Drought.

Author Information

Lokubanda Tillakaratne is a native of Nuwarakalaviya and writes about Ethnograpy in Sri Lanka. He is retired from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Author of Echoes of the Millstone; Pulse in the Jungle; (and in Sinhala: Montaray Withthi; Gammedde Ninnadaya, and Rata Sabhāwa).

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