The Doric Bungalow is a ruined building located about 1.5 km south of Arippu in Mannar District, Sri Lanka.
History
This building is the house of Frederick North (1766-1827), the first British Governor of Ceylon during 1798-1805 (Wisumperuma, 2005). According to information in the Ceylon Government Gazette dated 22 March 1802, Governor North had laid the first stone of the Government Lodge preparing for the residence of the Governor during the time of the pearl fishery on 18 March 1802 (Wisumperuma, 2005).
The building, according to popular belief, was planned by the Governor himself (Wisumperuma, 2005) to be built on a low cliff near the beach to revive and supervise the pearl fishery off Kondachchi Bay, which was one of the sources of earnings for the western rulers for centuries. Started in 1802, the construction work of the building was finished in 1804 (Wisumperuma, 2005). Binham (1922) mentions that G. J. Nagel (an Assistant Civil Architect or Assistant Engineer of the district of Jaffna) was given a gratuity of 750 rix-dollars in 1802 for superintending the works at Arippu (Asanga & Nishantha, 2018; Binham, 1922; Wisumperuma, 2005). According to Binham, a gratuity may have been given to Nagel for the construction of the Doric building (Binham, 1922).
The building was later started to call "The Doric" (Doric: one of the three-column types of ancient Greek architecture) due to its architectural features (Wisumperuma, 2005). Besides North, this mansion was
used by a few successive governors, government agents, and other officials,
including superintendents of pearl fishery (Wisumperuma, 2005).
Erroneous interpretations
Since the mid-20th century, a number of erroneous
interpretations came into existence on the remnants of the Doric
(Uragoda, 1975; Wisumperuma, 2005). These ruins have been misidentified
by some writers and the general public with other edifices such as the Dutch fort at Arippu, a Portuguese building where princes Dona Catherina was
kept under protection (Uragoda, 1975) and also the "Alli Raani Kotte",
the palace of a local mythical queen named Alli Raani whose existence
is not proved by any historical or archaeological evidence (Wisumperuma,
2005).
The building
The two-story building has been constructed using bricks and mortar (Wisumperuma, 2005). It had four small bedrooms on the ground floor but only two are identified today (Asanga & Nishantha, 2018). A flight of steps leading to the first floor was at the centre of the building. Also, a large dining hall and the bedroom of the Governor are said to be on the first floor (Asanga & Nishantha, 2018). However, the first floor is completely demolished today.
A descriptive account of the building with a drawing of it can be found in the records by Cordiner (1807);
"The Governor's house at Arippu, on the western coast of Ceylon, is situated two miles north of the scene of the pearl fishery in 8 47' north latitude and 7 40' east longitude. It is undoubtedly the most beautiful building in the island, and almost the only one which is planned to any order of architecture. The design was purely Doric and was given by the Honorable Frederick North himself; but the house although of a splendid appearance is of small dimensions; the internal accommodation not entirely corresponding with the grandeur and elegance of the outward structure; but completely answering all the purposes for which they were intended. There are four small bed rooms on the ground floor, one at each corner; a spacious flight of stairs occupies the center; and two well proportioned rooms above extend from east to west of the building, ornamented on each side by graceful colonnades. One of these is used as a dining room, and calculated to contain a party of twenty persons. The other is his excellency's bedchamber. At one end of it a winding staircase is cut off, leading up to the terraced roof, from which there is a most extensive prospect of the level country in three directions, and in the forth of the open sea, and a fine view of the line of boats, when they are returning from the banks of oysters. The house is pleasantly situated on an elevated bank, about a stone's cast from the sea; apartments are delightfully cool being completely surrounded by Venetian doors, or windows reaching to the floor, and constantly fanned by a regular succession of land and sea breezes. Near it several sets of temporary rooms are constructed of wooden pillars and Palmyra leaves, affording accommodation for persons for whom the Doric building cannot contain."
Citation: Cordiner, 1807. pp.37-38.
The Doric beacon
A tower located near the Doric building is called "the Doric beacon" (Wisumperuma, 2005). It is believed to be used as a navigational mark for the boats returning to the shores of Kondachchi Bay.
Destruction
The Doric decayed over time after it was abandoned. As it is located near the sea, the building has been exposed to extreme weather/environmental conditions including sea erosion (Uragoda, 1975). The western portico of the building that was facing the sea completely collapsed after 1980 mainly due to sea erosion (Wisumperuma, 2005). Some parts of the walls of the northern section of the building collapsed in or after 2003 (Wisumperuma, 2005).
A protected monument
The Dorick building in Arippu village in the Grama Niladhari Division of Arippu East in Musali Divisional Secretary’s Division is an archaeological protected monument, declared by a government Gazette notification published on 16 August 2013.
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Attribution
2) This painting by Cordiner (1807) has been drawn and published more than 100 years ago and therefore in the public domain.
3) Doric Bungalow by Gavin karunaratne is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
4) Doric bangalore beach by Gayan Perera is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
4) Doric bangalore beach by Gayan Perera is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
References
1) Asanga, M. V. G. K.; Nishantha, I. P. S., 2018. Mannarama Distrikkaya
(In Sinhala). Department of Archaeology (Sri Lanka). ISBN:
978-955-7457-10-9. pp.47-50.
2) Binham, P.M., 1922. History of the Public Works Department, Ceylon, 1796 to 1913. Vol. 2. Government Printer Ceylon. p.107.
3) Cordiner, J., 1807. A description of Ceylon, containing an account of the country, inhabitants, and
natural productions: with narratives of a tour round the island in 1800,
the campaign in Candy in 1803, and a journey to Ramisseram in 1804 (Vol. II). pp.37-38.
4) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: Extraordinary. No: 1823/73. 16 August 2013. p.7A.
5) Uragoda, C.G., 1975. " The Doric" at Arippu. Journal of the Sri Lanka Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 19, pp.26-32.
5) Uragoda, C.G., 1975. " The Doric" at Arippu. Journal of the Sri Lanka Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 19, pp.26-32.
6) Wisumperuma, D., 2005. The Doric at Arippu: Its date and identification. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, 51, pp.79-96.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 21 May 2023
A short note for local school students
ඩොරික් බංගලාව
ඩොරික් බංගලාව ශ්රී ලංකාවේ මන්නාරම දිස්ත්රික්කයේ අරිප්පු පිහිටි නටඹුන් ගොඩනැගිල්ලකි.
ඉතිහාසයවර්ෂ 1798-1805 සමයේ ලංකාවෙහි ප්රථම බ්රිතාන්ය ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයා වශයෙන් කටයුතු කල ෆ්රෙඩ්රික් නෝර්ත් ගේ නිවස්නය ලෙස මෙය සැළකෙයි. 1802 මාර්තු 22 ලංකාණ්ඩු ගැසට් පත්රයේ සඳහන් තොරතුරු අනූව 1802 මාර්තු 18වන දින ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයාගේ නිවස්නය වශයෙන් සූදානම් කරමින් තිබූ රජයේ නවාතැන්පළට නෝර්ත් විසින් මුල්ගල තබා තිබෙයි.
බටහිර පාලකයින්ට වැදගත් ආදායම් මාර්ග අතුරින් එකක් වූ කොණ්ඩච්චි මුහුදු බොක්ක ආශ්රිත මුතු කැඩීම නගාසිටුවීම හා අධීක්ෂණය කිරීම උදෙසා වෙරළ ආසන්නව පහත් බෑවුමක මෙම ගොඩනැගිල්ල ඉදිකිරීමට බොහෝ දෙනාගේ විශ්වාසයට අනූව සැළසුම් කර ඇත්තේ නෝර්ත් ආණ්ඩුකාරවරයා විසිනි. 1802 වර්ෂයේදී ඉදිකිරීම් ආරම්භ වූ ගොඩනැගිල්ලෙහි කටයුතු 1804 වසර වනවිට නිමාවට පත්විය. බින්හැම්ට (1922) අනූව 1802 වර්ෂයේදී යාපනය දිස්ත්රික් සහකාර ඉංජිනේරුවෙකු හෝ සහකාර සිවිල් වාස්තු ශිල්පියෙකු වූ ජී. ජේ. නාජල් වෙත අරිප්පු හී අධීක්ෂණ කටයුතු වෙනුවෙන් රික්ස් ඩොලර් 750ක පාරිතෝෂික ගෙවීමක් සිදුකරන්නට ඇත්තේ ඩොරික් ගොඩනැගිල්ලෙහි ඉදිකිරීම් සඳහා විය හැකිය.
ප්රදර්ශිත ගෘහ නිර්මාණ ලක්ෂණ හේතුවෙන් මෙම ගොඩනැගිල්ල පසුකාලීනව "ඩොරික්" වශයෙන් හැඳින්වූ බව සඳහන් වේ. නෝර්ත් ට අමතරව, මෙම මන්දිරය අනුප්රාප්තික ආණ්ඩුකාරවරුන් කිහිපදෙනෙක්, රජයේ නියෝජිතයින් සහ මුතු මසුන් ඇල්ලීමේ අධිකාරීවරුන් ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් නිලධාරීන් විසින් භාවිතා කර තිබේ.
දෝශ සහගත අර්ථකථන20වැනි ශත වර්ෂයේ මධ්ය භාගයේ සිට ඩොරික් ගොඩනැගිල්ලෙහි ඉතිරිවූ නටඹුන් සම්බන්ධව වැරදි අර්ථකථන කිහිපයක්ම ඉදිරිපත් විය. සමහරක් ලේඛකයන් හා පොදු ජනයා විසින් මෙම ගොඩනැගිල්ල වෙනත් ඉදිකිරීම් කිහිපයක් සමග වරදවා වටහා ගනු ලැබිණි. සමහරුන් විසින් මෙය අරිප්පු ලන්දේසි කොටුව ලෙසත් සමහරුන් විසින් දෝන කතරිනා කුමරිය ලැගුම් ගෙන සිටි පෘතුගීසි ගොඩනැගිල්ලක් ලෙසත් වරදවා හඳුනාගෙන තිබිණි. ඒ අතර තවත් සමහරුන් විශ්වාස කොට තිබුණේ මෙය අල්ලි රාණි නම් මිත්යා රැජිනකගේ මාළිගා නටඹුන් ලෙසයි.
පුරාවිද්යා ස්මාරකයමුසලි ප්රාදේශීය ලේකම් කොට්ඨාශයට අයත් අරිප්පු (නැගෙනහිර) ග්රාම නිළදාරී වසමෙහි පිහිටි ඩොරික් ගොඩනැගිල්ල 2013 අගෝස්තු 16වන දින ප්රකාශයට පත් රජයේ ගැසට් නිවේදනය මගින් ආරක්ෂිත පුරාවිද්යා ස්මාරකයක් ලෙස නම් කොට ඇත.
