Articles

 EXTRACT FROM AN ARTICLE IN THE WEEKEND NEWSPAPER OF JUNE 24, 1968

 

MIGHTY MUDALALIS OF GALLE   BY WILLIAM PEIRIS

 

Mighty mudalalis flourished in Galle for about fifty years from the last quarter of the 19th century. Their type was rare indeed elsewhere in Ceylon.

 

Five of them stood in a class by themselves. They neither spoke English nor did they know their own language well. But they possessed great business acumen and made big fortunes. Shady methods they detested. They were honest and honourable men.

 

The entire import trade of the town was in their hands. Regular importers of rice, each of their weekly shipments was 50,000 bags. Their profit on a bag was 50 cents. Sugar , subsidiary foodstuffs textiles, cement, and other building materials , drugs and all kinds of consumer goods they imported in adequate quantities to meet the demand not only of Galle and the district but beyond too. They were both wholesalers and retailers of these commodities.

 

The prince among them was Davith mudalali (A.W.P. Don Davith). He had a branch establishment in Colombo as well in 4th Cross Street. As many as a hundred bullock carts used to call at his store each day for rice and other foodstuffs. A well built man of commanding personality , he wore a white cloth and coat and pair of leather sandals. He had his hair tied in a knot and adorned with a bright tortoise-shell circular comb (nemipana).  His well trimmed moustache added dignity to his handsome face.

 

He did not have the mudalali trait of the closed fist . He spent lavishly and was generous to his friends and relatives. He lived in grand style in a palatial mansion in Gintota and kept a fine pair of horses and an elegant phaeton. When the motor car made its appearance for the first time in the early years of the present century , he was among the first to purchase one. The first class carriage in the train was then the exclusive preserve of the 'white sahib' - the ruler of the land. But Davith mudalali refused to believe that he was inferior to the white man. He always travelled first class ,sitting cheek by jowl with the European official and planter , much to the chagrin of the latter. He died comparatively young. His younger son did not carry on the business for long.

Page from the book Rise of the Karava Elite by Dr. Michael Roberts