(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...
Photo By : Vignuthan Maheswaranathan
Travelling about 900 meters on the Point Pedro road from the Nallur Kandaswamy Kovil in Jaffna you will come across an arch of a colonial building right next to the road with a canopy covering it from the elements of nature. This lone arch is known as the Sangili Toppu or Poothathamby Arch. Some believe that as the entrance to the place of the last regional king of Jaffna, King Sangili.
The general consensus is that this was the entrance to the mansion of a wealthy Tamil individual Poothathamby, a local administrator from the Dutch period. Thus this arch is known as Poothathamby Arch.
Irrespective of its origin, a few hundred feet away from this structure you will come across the foundation of a building which has been conserved.
Some consider these ruins as the ruins of the Dutch period schools. There is evidence of Parish schools during the Portuguese period and Christian schools during the Dutch period. These schools are comparatively small and built with timber and sand. But the ruins of Sangili Toppu spread from these mounds to the Yamuna Eri Pond in the South and through the Portuguese church to the present Education Department. In 1957, Mr. Sanmukanathan who studied this area pointed out that the ruins contain the foundations belonging to the Sakiliyan period. Dr. P. Ragupathy studied this area and discovered many potteries belonging to the 10-13 centuries (Pushparatnam, 2014).
is generally thought of as a part of the Sangili Toppu building complex. Next to this lies a large artificial pool now restored after the war. This foundation has been now designated as a protected archaeological monument.
References
- Pushparatnam, p (2014) Tourism and Monuments of Archaeological Heritage in Northern Sri Lanka. Jaffna Sri Lanka: Department of History, University of Jaffna.
Also See
Map of Ruins of the Sangiliyan Mansion
The map above also shows other places of interest within a approximately 20 km radius of the current site. Click on any of the markers and the info box to take you to information of these sites
Zoom out the map to see more surrounding locations using the mouse scroll wheel or map controls.
Traveling directions to Ruins of the Sangiliyan Mansion
Jaffna can be reached through 2 directions. The first one is over the Elephant Pass which is the normal route to Jaffna. The other entrance is from Pooneryn over the newly built Sangupiddi Bridge. This road connects to Mannar.
| Route 01 from Colombo to Jaffna (Through Kurunegala) | Route 02 from Colombo to Jaffna (Through Puttalam) |
| Through : Kurunegala – Dambulla – Anuradhapura – Vavuniya Distance: 400 km Travel Time: 7-8 hours Driving Directions: see on Google map | Through: Puttalam – Anuradhapura – Vavuniya Distance: 400 km Travel Time: 7-8 hours Driving Directions: see on Google maps |
| Travel directions from Jaffna town to Ruins of the Sangiliyan Mansion |
| Distance : 5 km Travel time : 10 min Time to spend : 15-30 mins Driving directions : see on google map |