On the trail of a legend
By Udena R. Attygalle
I had long wanted to experience Saradiel country, the place that Sri Lanka’s most infamous bandit made his hideout. Venturing into Utuwankande was like going into Sherwood Forest, the sylvan home of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men.

Deekirikevage Saradiel was born on March 25, 1835. His gang of robbers included Hawadiya, Kirihonda, Bawa, Suwanda, Sirimale and Mammalay Marikkar. Together they were a lawless bunch who waylaid carriages and coaches and robbed people of their valuables. Today the way to Utuwankande is along the Edna Corporation road, about 3 km towards Colombo from the Mawanella town. The junction on the main road is aptly named Utuwankande Junction.

To get to the foot of the hill, you have to walk about a kilometre along the road up to the chocolate factory. A footpath behind the factory will take you along typical village scenery through a mixture of rubber, coconut and banana plantations.

A few buffaloes grazing lazily reminded me of a story about Saradiel. It is said that at one time when this area was being combed by the police, Saradiel had escaped by causing a buffalo stampede and made his getaway by hanging on to the neck of one of the beasts!

Back on the path, I was now making my way up a rubber plantation. The path is made for rubber tapping and trees bleeding rubber acted as guides. The exit from the rubber plantation was sudden and for the first time I could see Utuwankande close up.

It was a magnificent sight. A mass of rocky boulders, clumped together in an awkward fashion, it rose far above the surrounding coconut trees.

The path to the top will take about an hour, but as it was not well marked, the climb was steep and tiring. Full of rock crevices, passes and elevations, it certainly had many places that would have made ambush easy. It was no wonder the bandit king had chosen this rock as his hideout. I knew only a little history but it seemed that of the three well known rocky mountains in this region – Bible Rock, Allagalle and Utuwankande, this was the best for a bandit’s work.

Contrary to popular belief, Saradiel supposedly was not a fearsome-looking, strong man. He was rather small, but such a build would have been ideal for this terrain.

The top was all craggy rocks. At the peak was