Page 59 - Vimarsha Volume 2

geographical location and natural resources of the country are some reasons that the
British should maintain their domination in this country since those factors illustrate

the features of a beneficial colony. And ultimately it supports Britain to rise as an
undefeatable empire state.

2. Analysis and Discussion

“An Account of the Island of Ceylon 1803” was published in 1796 based on Robert

Percival’s personal experiences of Ceylon. He had included his perspectives, ideas
and arguments regarding the Sri Lankan Society. However, this book can be
considered as one of the major early writing which was contributed to Sri Lankan

Anthropology that includes writings of Leonard Wolf, Dr Henry Martial and Thomas
Skinner etc. In the book, it contains 18 chapters and in this composition and illustrates

the political, social, cultural and economic factors. In the first two chapters, Percival
paid his attention about the history of the island previous to its being taken possession
of by the English and general description of Ceylon (the harbours, monsoons, climate,

rivers etc) respectively.

However, the third chapter is quite important rather than previous chapters, because
he produced a comparison between the customs and behaviours of Indians and Sri

Lankans which he had witnessed. The explanations of this chapter motivate the reader
to have a comparative understanding of the specific customs and traditions of India

and Sri Lanka and it supports to have an Anthropological viewpoint about the
customs in each country. He mainly describes the pearl fishery industry in
“Condatchy” area in Ceylon and he also explains how Indian priests or conjurers

influence the people who seek for safety in supernatural means in order to dive safety.
However, the author highly criticized these superstitious customs of Indians that he
had seen.

According to Percival, when the Indians engage in taboos of their caste such as when
they did it either by eating things forbidden by the rules of their caste or by having

such connections with people of low castes, they do various unusual superstitious
methods to purify that sins such as arm elevated over one’s head for a certain number

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