සැළලිහිණි සංදේශය

A sandesa (“message”) poem has four parts: a sender, a messenger, a recipient and the message itself. The form came to Sinhala from Sanskrit tradition, where lovers sent word through clouds and swans. In Sri Lanka, the messengers became birds: the peacock, the cuckoo, the parrot, the swan, and here the starling.

But Sinhala sandesas turned the form to a new purpose. They are not love letters. A monk-poet asks a deity for something the kingdom needs, and the bird’s route becomes an excuse to paint the land: cities, rivers, temples, seasons, people. Read today, they are also a portrait of life in the fifteenth century.

Sri Rahula (c. 1408–1491) was a monk and scholar, head of the Vijayabahu Pirivena at Totagamuwa, and a favourite of the Kotte court. He was honoured with the title Shadbhasha Parameshwara, “supreme master of six languages.” He is also credited with other poems in the same tradition, and the final verses of this poem name the Vijayabahu Pirivena as the place where it was composed.

The poem is addressed to Vibhishana, the guardian deity of Kelaniya, and asks him to grant a son to Princess Ulakudaya Devi, a daughter of King Parakramabahu VI (reigned 1412–1467). In the closing verses, the poet records that the prayer was answered; the prince, tradition says, was Vijayabahu, who later took the throne.

Parakramabahu VI united the island under Kotte and was a great patron of literature; his reign is seen as a golden age of Sinhala poetry. The poem also glances at real events: verse 29 greets Prince Sapumal, returning in triumph from the conquest of Jaffna.

1. 01Greeting & the errandසැපදුක් විමසුම්The poet welcomes the starling and asks her to carry a message to the god at Kelaniya.Read from verse 2 →
2. 02The royal cityජයවද්දන පුර වැනුම්A tour of Kotte: moat and ramparts, elephants and horses, mansions, and the women of the city.Read from verse 6 →
3. 03Palace and departureරජ දැක්මShe bows to the Tooth Relic and takes leave of King Parakramabahu, then leaves at moonrise.Read from verse 18 →
4. 04Night, dawn and the roadමග වැනුම්A night at a Hindu kovil; dawn; then Adam's Peak to the east, the sea to the north, paddy fields and lotus lakes.Read from verse 22 →
5. 05River and eveningකැලණි නදී වැනුම්The Kelani River, naga maidens playing the veena, a long glowing sunset.Read from verse 43 →
6. 06The templeපින්කම් වැනුම්Worship at the Kelaniya temple and a recollection of the Buddha's visit to the island.Read from verse 59 →
7. 07The godවිබිසණ දෙව් වැනුම්Vibhishana, brother of Ravana, described from crown to feet over fifteen verses.Read from verse 77 →
8. 08The messageඅස්නThe plea: grant a son to Princess Ulakudaya Devi, so that the royal line may continue.Read from verse 93 →

The poem is written in Elu, a literary form of Sinhala that is older and more compressed than everyday speech, so many verses need a gloss even for Sinhala readers. That is why this site pairs every verse with an explanation in modern Sinhala and in English.

Each verse is a quatrain with strong end-rhyme and heavy internal sound-play. The metre, called samudraghosa (“the sound of the ocean”), rises and falls like waves. The poet speaks directly to the bird, flatters her, teases her, and gives her stage directions. Notice, too, how warmly a Buddhist monk describes a Hindu kovil and its Tamil hymns, and how women appear as dancers, bathers and worshippers in public life.

The Sinhala text comes from an open digital edition and may contain transcription errors; verse 1 appears to be incomplete in that source. The Sinhala and English explanations on this site were written to help learners follow each verse. They are interpretive paraphrases, not authoritative translations, and have not been reviewed by a scholar of Elu Sinhala. Verses marked “General sense” are especially dense, and a few passages are obscure even to specialists.

Who made this, and how you can help improve it, is on the developer page.

For serious study, consult a printed edition with the traditional sannaya (word-by-word gloss), or Edmund Jayasuriya’s English translation. Corrections are very welcome.

• Sinhala text of the poemSinhala Wikibooks, itself taken from e-Pothgula (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Translating Worlds through Words: The Bird-View of the Selalihini SandeshayaStanford Humanities Center, DIBUR. Background, structure, route and date
• Kala Korner: Selalihini SandesaThe Sunday Times (Sri Lanka), on Edmund Jayasuriya's blank-verse translation
• Parakramabahu VIWikipedia. Reign, patronage of poetry, Prince Sapumal and Jaffna
• Sandesha KavyaWikipedia. The messenger-poem genre
• Sinhala Wikipedia: සැළලිහිණි සන්දේශයAuthor, purpose and number of verses