P S W Gunawardhana's book is published by Godage International Publishers, an established Colombo house that issues titles in both Sinhala and English. This one is in English throughout, which makes it readable for buyers abroad who have an interest in Sri Lanka but do not read Sinhala.
The name in the title belongs to the late sixteenth century. Konappu Bandara was the given name of the man who came to the Kandyan throne as Vimaladharmasuriya I, in the years when the Portuguese presence on the coast was pressing inland and the interior kingdom was finding its footing. Readers with any grounding in the period will recognise it at once.
It is a substantial volume rather than a short study, and it belongs on the shelf of anyone building a collection of Sri Lankan historical writing in English — students of the Kandyan kingdom, readers of the island's dynastic past, and members of the diaspora looking for books from Sri Lankan publishers that they cannot easily find in local bookshops.
Titles of this kind are printed in Colombo for a domestic readership and are rarely stocked outside the island, which is reason enough for an overseas reader to pick one up when it appears.
- Author: P S W Gunawardhana
- Publisher: Godage International Publishers
- Language: English
- Pages: 376
- ISBN: 9789552091858
Browse the rest of our book collection.
