R.W. IEVERS (1850-1905), EXCEPTIONAL CIVIL SERVANT IN ANURADHAPURA (c. 1890)

On this pious Poson season, I am taking a moment to remember an extraordinary colonial official, R.W. Ievers (1850-1905), Government Agent (GA) of North Central Province (NCP), who was a pioneer, along with a few other British colonial officers in the 19th century in bringing Anuradhapura and the region from out of the darkness that engulfed it for centuries.

- LOKUBANDA TILLAKARATNE

Nearly two decades before Ievers started as GA in 1884, Emerson Tennant wrote Anuradhapura as a "city that has shrunk into a few scattered huts that scarcely merit the designation of a village."

He showed his intellectual versatility and love for such a city fallen on hard times by first writing the Anuradhapura Anthem (1890), a little-known celebratory poem of 12 verses. He followed it with his watermark contribution — The Manual of the North Central Province (1899, 276 pages), which was the first of its kind in the province and sowed the seeds for later generations to study the province's life, history, and culture.

After working at many stations and positions in Sri Lanka for nearly two decades, Ievers became the longest-serving GA in the province (2 months short of 10 years) between 1884 and 1893, showing us where his heart belonged — Anuradhapura.

He shared the Anthem with his colleague, the first Archaeological Commissioner of Ceylon, H. C. P. Bell (1851-1937), who himself spent 23 continuous years in Anuradhapura as country's first archaeological commissioner. Ievers's calling and cohesion with Bell were mighty forces in turning archaeological work in the late 19th century into overdrive.

These poems describe the city and the times before the restoration of its hundreds of archaeological sites, which began in the late 19th century. To some, these quatrains may look like a jovial piece of poetry written to kill time in this dreary province. Still, their grim assessment of the ruined monuments in the city, which in 1900, the Belgian geographer Jules Leclercq called "forgotten solitudes", and the fervent hope Ievers had for their restoration, are remarkable.

Bell was captivated by the poem's theme and breadth. After Ievers's death, Bell sent it to the Times of Ceylon Christmas Number in 1917. He did this because, as Bell's granddaughters would call decades later, Ievers had been his 'greatest friend.'