Angampora

A wood carving at Embekka Devalaya, depicting angam fighters in one of the main locks, 14th century AD

According to apocryphal Sinhalese folklore, angampora's history stretches to as far back as 3,000 years,[10] with the Yaksha tribe (one of the four "hela" - the ancient tribes that inhabited the island) being identified as originators. Two ancient scripts named the Varga Purnikawa and Pancha Rakkhawaliya go further, identifying nine hermits as founders.[10] Folklore goes on to describe Rana Ravana, a mythical warrior said to have lived 5,000 years ago, as the most feared angam warrior of all time.[11]

Weapon demonstration

Practice thrived during Sri Lanka's medieval period when Bhuvanekabahu VI of Kotte's successful campaign to conquer the Jaffna Kingdom included fighters who excelled in this art.[12] Descendants of a heroine named Menike or Disapathiniya who lived around this time is credited with the art form's survival in the ensuing centuries: dressed in male attire, she is said to have defeated the killer of her father in a fight inside a deep pit known as ura linda (pig's pit), during a historic fight.[1][13] Angampora fighters also fought alongside the army of Mayadunne of Sitawaka in the 1562 Battle of Mulleriyawa.[14] Tikiri Banda aka Rajasinha I of Sitawaka, who succeeded Mayadunne, became a faithful sponsor of this art.[11]

There were two major schools of angampora, Maruwalliya and Sudhaliya, which routinely fought each other (in fights known as angam-kotāgæma), in the presence of the king.[15] The leaders of the schools were known as Maruwalliya Muhandiram Nilame and Sudhalaye Muhandiram Nilame, respectively.[7] The huts used by angampora fighters for training were known as angam madu, and were built according to the concepts of Gebim Shasthraya, the traditional philosophical system of architecture.[16]

Angam techniques were used by the locals in their resistance against the early colonial occupants of the island's coastal areas.[17]

With the advent of colonial rule over the entirety of the island in 1815, Angampora fell into disuse and has been claimed to have nearly been lost as a part of the country's heritage. A widespread internet claim states that the British colonial administration under Robert Brownrigg, shortly before it had taken full control of the whole island by 1818[18], allegedly issued a gazette banning the practice in 1817, "figuring that a populace trained in hand-to-hand combat would be more difficult to control."[19] The alleged measures against practicioners included burning down any angan madu (practice huts devoted to the martial art) and shooting the knees of offenders, crippling them.[12][20]

Contrary to 21st-century claims of the martial art having been banned or persecuted, no contemporary accounts of such a decree have been made available. However, a British report on the pre-colonial government of the Kandi Kingdom mentions two court-recognized combat schools rivalling each other, called the Soodalia and Mawroowalia, each of them led by a champion. They were assisted by ten weapon-masters spread through the lands, who trained future practitioners. Pracitioners would perform gladiatorial battles for the court, which would occasionally lead to conflicts, tensions and unrest between the adherents of the schools.[21] For this reason, the British administration abolished the court positions of the Sudaluya and Maruwaleya martial art champions as "unnecessary" in 1818, as part of their restructuring of the local government.[22]

The martial art re-surfaced from an area known as Beligal Korale, around Kegalle, subsequent to the end of British colonial rule in 1948.[1] The Jathika Hela Angam Shilpa Kala Sangamaya, the highest governing body of the art today, was established in 2001.[12] Sri Lanka's Ministry of Culture and the Arts has also taken action to support the survival and preservation of angampora:[7] several public exhibitions have been mounted with the aim of increasing public awareness of-, and fueling interest in it.[23] A collection of weaponry used in angampora is also kept on display at the National Museum of Colombo.[24]

Angampora has been the subject of a number of films and television dramas in Sri Lanka. One such film, Angam, directed by Anjula Rasanga Weerasinghe, explored the origins of the art through traditional folk-stories and scientific examination.[25][26] Jayantha Chandrasiri's tele-dramas Dandubasnāmānaya and Akāla Sandhya also featured angampora.[3][27][28] These depictions have boosted the art's recent revival.[3]