Sri Lanka Travel Diaries - Bathalegala

You don't generally get the chance to see the popular Bathalegala, from an extremely abnormal point. Typically we see it from far – a solemn square sentinel in the far off rocky skyline, approaching over other shake and mountain, on our way up or down the Kadugannawa Pass along the Kandy Road. It is a recognizing highlight of that view, rising 2,618 feet above ocean level and considered a delightful point of interest which has tested painter, artist and picture taker from time immemorial.

It was amid the British Period that this stone was named Bible Rock, as its appearance is very likened to an open book when seen from the Kandy Road, which the British manufactured.

We were going along the picturesque Hathgampola Road in the wake of killing from Mawanella. At in the first place, we didn't know what this stone was, that continued approaching occasionally, overwhelming the encompassing planes, for we were very unfamiliar to the region and were in quest for, all together, another fascination.

Pursuing the stone

When it struck us this was the Bible Rock, the trip took an alternate turn. We started to pursue the stone – watching its changing shape and halting commonly to catch it unmistakable carefully. At a certain point, it appeared that the street was passing directly under this magnificent monster. The stone, which at one point could have effortlessly gone off as the Sigiriya Rock fit as a fiddle and size, now stood relatively triangular over us. Elastic trees bordered its base and it appeared that the relentless shake stood problematically adjusted on that fragile periphery.

Tragically, we could just look and appreciate this powerful living rock that day. Promising ourselves a climb to the main one day, we must be happy with thinking back upon such an enterprise by W.T. Keble, as he archives in his book, 'Ceylon Beaten Track', in the early piece of the nineteenth Century.

Verifiable records

Kebel expresses: "I came down to Attapitiya to climb Batalegala, or the Bible Rock. I turned back a little route along the street and swung to one side up a domain street until the point that I went to the foot of the stone. Here I found a guide, an old man with silver hair and dark mustache, who wore a white shirt and a brilliantly hued fabric.

"He was old, however I have never observed anybody more agile on two little, supple uncovered feet. I works up the slope through the elastic trees until the point that I went to the edge of the wilderness. Here, I mixed generally on each of the fours through a long passage under the scour by which the dairy cattle discover their way to the summit of the stone. My guide bounced up in front without minimal exertion, as though he were the watchman soul of the slope. I landed at the best, in soaked dresses, secured with siphon nibbles, yet my imperturble control, dark headed, delicate looked at and thoughtful, remained on the peak, cool and dry, and unbitten, shading the sun from his head with a vast dark umbrella.

"He disclosed to me that there were no remaining parts of antiquated structures upon the slope. In any case, two holes which he called attention to upon the north side, gained the notoriety of having protected Walagambahu when he fled from the northern trespassers.

"I sat down under a little tree and watched out finished the wide green guide through which the Colombo-Kandy Road wound its imperceptible way. I had taken a gander at the Bible Rock so regularly from that street that it appeared to be bizarre that I could hardly observe a hint of the street from the stone. There was Ora Kanda toward the west, and the little protuberance of Kegalle past it. Toward the north were the Three Sisters and Alagalla. Utuwankanda was a level smear at my feet. Away toward the east, I could see the railroad and the street merging amongst Balane and Belungala. The watch towers of the Kadugannawa Pass. Distant behind them, the slopes of Kandy appeared against the eastern sky.

"The highest point of the stone structures a long restricted hoard's back, with a puddle of water amidst it, which serves the steers that encourage upon the coarse grass developing among the rocks. At each finish of the stone, north and south, are the stupendous slopes that influence it to resemble a book to voyagers descending the Kadugannawa Pass.

"My guide demonstrated to me a cairn upon the most astounding purpose of the stone which had been utilized as a trig station. Away toward the south he brought up the Maha Oya tumbling over the Ahupiniella falls – 'the fog that leaves the sky'.

"In 1931, he stated, I was upon this stone in the night. There was an incredible blaze here and lights were lit all around. There was a bana lecturing more than a thousand people were accumulated on the slope. We remained till one toward the beginning of the day and after that we left.