Narapadu Ancient Watch Tower in Mannar

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මන්නාරම නාරාපාඩු පැරණි ඕලන්ද මුරකපොල්ල - Narapadu Ancient Watch Tower in Mannar — මන්නාරම නාරාපාඩු පැරණි ඕලන්ද මුරකපොල්ල – Narapadu Ancient Watch Tower in Mannar

From the Mannar fort, travel 12 km on the Thalaimannar road, turn right at the Narapadu junction and go 1.4 km along the sandy road, where you can see this monolithic tower pointing towards the sky on the plain.

The Department of Archeology reports that this monument was built as a guard post during the Dutch rule between 1658 and 1796. Built on a square base measuring 4½ meters in length and width, this angular tower is about 10 meters in height. The building is made using bricks and coral stones. The top of the tower is made of coral.

The diameter of the tower is about four meters at the bottom and tapers off as it goes up. An arched entrance is made in the northeast direction to enter the tower. A window opened to the west at a height of about four meters from the base and another window at the top of the tower has been installed for observing the surroundings.

A spiral staircase is built inside the tower to climb up to the top. The size of the initial steps is 28×29 cm and gradually decreases in size while going up. This step ends about two meters below the top. There is no clear factor that can identify how the last 2 meters of ascent was accomplished. The top of the tower has an excellent view in all four directions.

History of the Narapadu Watch Tower

Boake (1888) mentions that Sampatturai (in Mannar) is only remarkable for an old tower built by the Portuguese. He assumes that this was a Watch Tower and has been repaired and re-purposed around that time by the British for triangulation purposes.

Samuel Haughton who was the Assistant Government Agent in Mannar from 1879 to 1883 writes that it was not more than 90 or 100 feet high and 7 to 8 feet in diameter at the base tapering at the top. It originally contained a rough staircase inside to access the top. According to the old Dutch families, this was built during the same time the Mannar Fort was built by the Dutch. It was possibly used to watch for sailing ships from the Coromandel Coast of India in order to collect taxes imposed by the Dutch on all vessels passing through the Strait of Mannar (Haughton & Lewis, 1920).

Samuel calls this the “San Pedro Round Tower“, as this was located in the San Pedro area as the British called it. He reports that the tower was in fair condition but the staircase inside the tower has more or less disappeared. From the top, it provided a good view of the entrance to the straits of Mannar called the South Bar (Haughton & Lewis, 1920).

John Scott who was another Assistant Government Agent in Mannar who had visited the site in December 1906 calls this the “Sampeturu Round Tower“. Sampeturu is possibly a sinhalised name of San Pedro. According to him, the tower stood on a square platform 3 feet high and the circumference of the tower is more like 12-15 feet than the 7-8 feet mentioned by Haughton. An octagonal wooden platform, larger than the circular pillar top is built at the top with outer edges supported by wooden struts connected to the brickwork below. A wooden railing has been built around the platform. The platform was possibly built by the British for triangulation purposes.

Close to this tower, you find a large foundation base stone which is used to erect stone pillars of a building. Made of limestone, it has a diameter of 55 cm. The hole inside it is 15×15 cm in size and 10 cm deep indicating that it has been the base of quite a large pillar.

The tower was declared an archaeological monument by the Department of Archeology on 16 August 2013.

References

Boake, W. J. S. (1888). Mannar a Monograph. G. J. A. Skeen (Government Printer – Ceylon).
Haughton, S., & Lewis, J. (1920). The San Pedro Round Tower in Mannar Island. The Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, V : 1919-1920 (Part 1), 44–45.
Scott, J. (1920). The Sampeturu Round Tower. The Ceylon Antiquary and Literary Register, V : 1919-1920(Part IV), 202.
අසංග, එම්. වී. පී. කේ. and නිශාන්ත, අයි. පී. ඇස්., 2018. මන්නාරම දිස්ත්‍රික්කය – පුරාවිද්‍යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව. 1st ed. කොළඹ: රජයේ මුද්‍රණ දෙපාර්තුමේන්තුව, pp.72-73.

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