This is a novel for young readers, written in Sinhala throughout. There is no English text in it, so it will suit a reader comfortable in Sinhala or a household keeping the language alive abroad.
Bandusena Gunasekara takes the life of Viharamahadevi and tells it as fiction. The story turns on the moment the sea rises over the land and brings great destruction, and on her decision to offer herself to the waters to stop it. From there it follows her to the court of King Kavantissa, whose queen she became, and on to her role as the mother of Prince Gemunu, who went to war to free the country from the Cholas. Her name is fixed in the island's history as a woman of courage, and that is the figure the book sets out to draw.
The telling is pitched at a younger audience rather than at readers of historical scholarship — a narrative version of a story most Sri Lankan children meet first in school and in family retelling, given room here to run as a continuous tale. Published in Colombo by M. D. Gunasena & Co. (Pvt) Ltd.
- Author: Bandusena Gunasekara
- Publisher: M. D. Gunasena & Co. (Pvt) Ltd
- Language: Sinhala
- ISBN: 9789552129612
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