Features

Anuradhapura and Rome: Pliny the Elder and his Encyclopedia of Natural History

Published

3 years ago

2023/08/8

Sahan Weerasooriya

Pliny the Elder at work. (Boeheim Library Oxford)

By Prof.Kirthi Tennakone
ktenna@yahoo.co.uk

Civilisations evolve independently and through mutual interaction. Trade, invasions, emissaries and missionaries and the diffusion of ordinary folk across borders represent avenues of cultural interrelationship. The ideas and information aliens bring and their potentialities affirmatively further the advancement of a nation. Equally important would be the genetic advantage of ethnic mixing. Sri Lanka stands as a prime example of a country that progressed in this manner.

Few cultures have succeeded in exerting their influence far away from their indigenous territory. Here, the first and foremost have been Romans. For that reason, they also gathered a wealth of information about foreign lands.

A man who lived when the Roman Empire was marching towards its climax and wrote a compendium on all affairs of the world, from cosmology to cosmetics, was Gaius Plinius Secundus, popularly known as Pliny the Elder. His 2000th birthday falls this year. He will be remembered for thousands of more years as one of the greatest writers of all time.

Pliny researched and recorded so much about different cultures in the world, until the time he lived. His reference to a visit of ambassadors from the Anuradhapura Kingdom to the Court of the Roman Emperor Claudius fascinated historians worldwide. Pliny dispelled the myth that, apart from Italy and Greece, people living in other lands are barbarians, showing the world in the Anuradhapura era, Sri Lankans were just as civilized as Romans.

In ancient times, large distances limited human movement. The advent of navigation mixed up cultures faster, changing the world. The Phoenicians, the tribes on the Mediterranean coast between Lebanon and Greece, were the pioneer navigators. By about 1000 BCE, their ships sailed almost every corner in the oceans of the region. The Romans acquired ship-building technology and the art of navigation from the Phoenicians, expanded their fleet and conquered lands, becoming the greatest political power in the world by the 1st century. The Roman Empire, lasting for about 1000 years, from 625 BCE, influenced culture and happenings in Europe, the Middle East and Africa profoundly. Despite the motto “Roma Invicta”, meaning undefeatable Rome, the empire failed to repulse an attack by Germanic forces in 476 CE.

The Anuradhapura culture in Sri Lanka evolved independently but followed a path parallel to Rome in its rise and fall. The era beginning around 370 BCE, continued longer than Roman civilisation, overlapping with it for nearly 800 years. Although we advanced to the highest standards in empirical technology, unlike the Romans, our ancestors did not strive to acquire foreign lands by installing a huge naval infrastructure. Instead, they concentrated on agriculture, building remarkable irrigation systems. Anuradhapura was always under the threat of South Indian invasions but succeeded in defending itself until 1017 CE. And later, as the art of navigation advanced worldwide, because of its unique geographical coordinates, the island became an attraction for trade and invasion.

Traditionally, the religion of early Roman civilisation was mythology, but they were also inspired by Greek philosophers. The favoured philosophy was stoicism, which tells people to live following the virtues of wisdom, justice, temperance and courage. Buddhism, a religion as well as a philosophy that originated in India, guided the Anuradhapura culture. The teachings of Buddha are not very different from stoic ideals. In both cultures, the rulers subscribed to religion and philosophies, but many of them, in their deeds, acted contrarily because of their greed for power. Nero, who studied stoicism as a young adult, killed his mother and second wife. Kashyapa I, brutally asphyxiated his father, King Dhatusena, to death by immuring him in a wall. It is said that Dahutsena had previously ordered the burning of his own sister alive. Society often ignores the grave crimes of rulers and highlights their achievements!

Many historians attribute the fall of Rome and Anuradhapura to the fault of rulers.

Ramsay MacMullen, a leading authority on Roman history, argues in his book “Corruption and Decline of Rome” a key factor in Rome’s fall was the steady loss of focus and control over the government as its aims were thwarted for private gain by high-ranking bureaucrats and military leaders. Historians have also said that the oppressive taxation of citizens to support the government and army contributed much to the downfall of the Empire in 476 CE. Poor improvised by heavy taxation, preferred invaders taking over the government.

Similar circumstances opened the way for the collapse of Anuradhapura. The kingdom grew into prosperity, of course not without intermittent calamities, primarily because of the principles of righteousness advocated by Buddhism, which created a favourable environment for the collective effort essential to promoting agriculture and technology. Erudite monks in monasteries devoted their entire lives to studies, qualifying them to advise the rulers, their reputation reached foreign lands, notably India and China. In later years, internal strife and greed for power to enjoy royal pleasures escalated, driving the country into poverty. The Buddhist establishment became more demanding than scholarly. Just as in Rome, conditions suited to a foreign invasion emerged.

Although Anuradhapura and Rome advanced rapidly in the 1st century CE, well above other nations, direct contact between the two cultures has been limited. Despite the strength of the Roman navy, their ships could not sail vast distances and reach Sri Lanka because of the difficulty of determining geographical locations without instrumentation, even a compass. The Romans heard stories about Taprobane from Persian traders and Greeks and considered it a different world.

Pliny the Elder’s “Natural History”, a thirty-seven volume encyclopedia, stands as one of the greatest writings of antiquity, covering all branches of knowledge. The book is frequently cited in Sri Lankan literature because it discloses a vivid description of a delegation of emissaries from Sri Lanka to the court of the Roman Emperor, Tiberius Claudius Caesar (41-54 CE). What Pliny enumerates is undoubtedly centered on a fact. Some have endorsed all he has said as accurate and looked for clues in Sri Lankan history, while others consider many of his claims to be taken with a grain of salt. An extract from an English translation of Natural History reads:

“During the reign of the Emperor Claudius, an embassy came from this distant island to Rome. The circumstances under which this took place were as follow: Annius Plocamus had farmed from the treasury the revenues arising from the Red Sea. A certain freedman of his, while sailing around Arabia, was carried away by a gale from the north beyond the coast of Carmania. In the course of fifteen days he had drifted to Hippuros, a port of Taprobane, where he was most kindly and hospitably received by the king; and having, after a study of six months, become well acquainted with the language, was enabled to answer all his inquiries relative to the Romans and their emperor. But of all that he heard, the king was more particularly struck with surprise at our rigid notions of justice, on ascertaining that among the money found on the captive, the denarii were all of equal weight, although the different figures on them plainly showed that they had been struck in the reigns of several emperors. By this circumstance in especial, the king was prompted to form an alliance with the Romans, and accordingly sent to Rome an embassy, consisting of four persons, the chief of whom was Rachias.”

Above is a reasonable and acceptable story. The weight of the Roman silver coin denarii remained constant (3.9 grams) from 200 BCE to 64 CE. The King of Sri Lanka appreciated the fact that Roman currency stood undepreciated for a long period.

Pliny signifies the episode by telling, a 1st century Sri Lankan ruler, having learned from a sailor of a foreign country where prosperity and justice existed, wished to form an alliance by sending an emissary. Pliny was aware that justice did not prevail in Rome all the time. Claudius earned recognition as a reasonable emperor, whereas those before and after (Caligula and Nero) were the cruelest. Pliny finalised his book during reign of Emperor Vespasian, who always sought Pliny’s advice and firmly reestablished the rule of law in Rome.

Pliny does not indicate how he obtained information about the envoys and the year of their visit is not mentioned. He famously accused writers for not acknowledging the authorship of the sources from which information was gathered. Perhaps to avoid being criticized on the same grounds, he seems to have adopted a clever style of writing. On the basis of some good evidence, he researched and wrote a story connecting existing information (not verified), to imply all the details came from the envoys.

According to Pliny, the vessel in distress landed in the port of Hippuros, Taprobane. Although various interpretations exist, there is no evidence of a port by that name in Sri Lanka, certainly not at the time the sailor landed. In other sections of his writing, he states the most famous city on the Island is Palesimundus and there is a river, lake and promontory by the names; Cydra, Megsbe and Coliacum – words derived from Greek. The Ancient Greeks sometimes confusedly described Sri Lanka and Anuradhapura as Palesimundus. It is unlikely the ambassadors have said they are from Palesimundus. According to Pliny, the people of Taprobane, worship Hercules. In Greek Buddhism, the most powerful god Hercules is the defender of Buddha. Many other legends in Pliny’s Natural History, including the statement, the people of Taprobane do not hire slaves, are found in more ancient Greek texts.

Since the Greek invasion of Persia in 492 BCE and Alexander’s conquest of territories further east and his march to India in 327 BCE, the Greeks seem to have acquired a wealth of information about Sri Lanka and the surrounding region. Based on the data they collected, Eratosthenes (276-194 BCE) estimated the size of Sri Lanka, and later Ptolemy drew a map. Geographic locations were given names by the Greeks. It is said that more than 90% of ancient Greek literature was intractable since the pre-modern era. Presumably, during Pliny’s time, many of these documents were available.

When there are so many uncertainties and ambiguities in Pliny’s account, Sri Lankan authors have presented lengthy arguments to trace the origin of the name of the leader of the delegation, mentioned as Rachias, primarily to ascertain his ethnicity – a glaring reflection of our immaturity. Can we be certain someone would remember and spell a foreign name correctly?

Pliny also wrote the Sri Lankan ambassadors who visited Rome were astonished to see the constellations Great Bear and Pleiades, as these are not visible from Tabrobane soil. It may be because Sri Lankans are not stargazers; instead; they confidently believe their destinies are fixed by the positioning of planets, which they never dare to see by looking at the sky. And having seen the northern sky upon arriving at the shores of Italy they were amazed. Pliny also presents another inadmissible story; according to the ambassadors, in their country, the star Canopus lit the night, casting shadows. It is true that in Sri Lanka, Canopus appears higher in the horizon compared to Italy, but everyone knows, no star is sufficiently bright to cast shadows – possibly an exaggeration by Pliny.

The historical chronicles of any culture are important and need to be venerated. At the same time, we should keep in mind, their contents not be taken as absolute truth for natural reasons. As the accurate recording of data did not exist in those days, many claims stem from hearsay, folklore and speculation. The writers were biased and opinions and facts are intermingled. A danger would be the use of their contents as supporting evidence for decision-making.

Reading chapters of Pliny’s book, devoted to other subjects indicates he resorted to rational argument, compared to Eastern historians of the time, but sometimes linked factual and fictional data and assertions of others without critical examination. Pliny was a polymath, but not an original thinker like Plato or Aristotle. Although he denounced extravagances, his thinking seems to have been influenced by Roman elitism.

Pliny the Elder’s (22-79 CE) biography is strange, unique and exemplary. Born to a wealthy family, he studied in Rome, beginning his career as an officer in the army.He served in Germany. Africa and Spain as a higher- level administrator in the Roman Empire. Literarily and philosophically inclined, he devoted his entire spare time to reading and writing, did not get married and led an honourable life entirely free of vices. His nephew, named Pliny the Younger, has said that his uncle did not waste even a minute distracting from official duties or studies. He read and wrote until late at night. At the time he was eating or taking a bath, a servant was instructed to read a book aloud for him to listen to. He rarely walked, but carried in a chair by slaves, so that he could read while moving. His incomparable volume of writing and his knowledge in areas of science, engineering, geography, history and art attest to what his nephew said.

The last appointment, Pliny held was commander of the Roman fleet. In CE 79, he lived with his sister and nephew near Pompeii and close to the naval headquarters. On August 24th afternoon, Pliny was working on a manuscript, when his sister told him smoke was rising above a mountain. He wanted to rush to the scene out of scientific curiosity. Minutes later, he received a message from a friend, telling him Mount Vesuvius had started to erupt and asking help for evacuation. He commanded a fleet of boats for rescue missions and traveled to shore, ignoring warnings of the assistants who followed him. Because of his feebleness, he suffocated to death by inhaling toxic gases.

Pliny was a defender of the Roman cause and the Emperors, particularly Claudius and Vespasian sought his advice. Many times he made statements implying prosperity of the Roman Empire exceeded all the other parts of the world, but often he lamented the extravagances of citizens and corruption of rulers as a deterrent to progress.

According to Pliny, the Sri Lankan delegates who visited Rome said, in their country, an elderly man of mild and clement disposition without children is elected as the king and if he happens to father children, abdication would be the consequence; this is done so that there may be no danger of the sovereign power becoming hereditary. We know this was not practiced in Sri Lanka or in Roman Empire. Perhaps, Pliny wrote these lines as a message to Roman polity, because he witnessed the dangers of imperial succession based on hereditary claims. Though an ardent advocate of Roman expansionism, he hinted that justice and fair play stood higher in Anuradhapura those days than in Rome.

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Related Topics:Pliny the Elder at work. (Boeheim Library Oxford)

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Features

Beyond traditional jobs: Why Sri Lanka needs to facilitate the gig economy

Published

2 days ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

Image courtesy Oxford University

by Kapila Chinthaka Premarathne
Head of the Department of Agricultural Systems and a Senior Lecturer in Agricultural Economics at the Faculty of Agriculture,
Rajarata University of Sri Lanka

Beyond the Graduate Unemployment Number

Sri Lanka’s economic recovery has improved macroeconomic stability, but youth unemployment remains a significant labour-market concern. Around 43% of Sri Lankan youth aged 15–24 with postsecondary education are unemployed, the highest among the Asian economies compared in the IMF analysis, compared with about 36% in Bangladesh and 13.2% in Thailand. This reflects a problem of skills mismatches and the difficulty of connecting higher education with changing labour-market demand. The concern goes beyond unemployment itself. Sri Lanka has invested heavily in educating its younger population, yet the conventional labour market is not creating enough opportunities to convert these qualifications into income. Many young people possess degrees, technical knowledge and growing digital familiarity, but remain outside formal employment because suitable jobs may not exist in the right place, at the right time or under conditions compatible with their circumstances. This makes it necessary to think beyond traditional employment models and explore new ways of connecting Sri Lanka’s educated youth with economic opportunities.

This is where Sri Lanka needs to reconsider how it understands employment

Employment has traditionally been viewed through the employer–employee relationship, with qualifications leading to a formal job and regular salary. While this model remains important, digital platforms are creating new ways to generate income, allowing individuals to work for multiple clients across geographical boundaries without permanent employment. Sri Lanka therefore needs to look beyond simply creating conventional jobs and consider whether it is building the conditions for its educated population to participate in the growing global market for digital services.

The Opportunity of the Gig Economy

The gig economy extends far beyond ride-hailing and delivery services. Digital platforms increasingly connect skilled individuals with opportunities in software development, design, accounting, data analysis, digital marketing, translation, online education, research and consultancy. This is particularly relevant to Sri Lanka, where a highly educated population faces a relatively limited domestic market for specialised skills. Digital platforms can overcome geographical constraints by connecting Sri Lankan workers directly with international clients.

As highlighted in my previous LSE South Asia article on women and the gig economy, such work should not replace formal employment but can create additional income opportunities when supported by appropriate skills, digital infrastructure, training and institutional support. A skilled person in Anuradhapura, Jaffna, Batticaloa or Monaragala could potentially serve clients in London, Melbourne or Dubai without first relocating to Colombo. This makes the gig economy relevant not only to employment but also to Sri Lanka’s emerging digital services-export strategy.

A Digitally Familiar Generation

Sri Lanka’s younger generation is growing up with smartphones, social media, online learning, digital applications and digital financial services, giving them a level of digital familiarity that previous generations did not have. However, digital familiarity does not automatically translate into digital employability. The challenge is to transform everyday digital use into productive skills such as data analysis, artificial intelligence, software development, digital marketing, financial analysis and online professional services.

Sri Lanka therefore needs to move young people from being consumers of digital services to producers of digital value. Universities, vocational institutions and training providers can play an important role in converting existing digital familiarity into marketable skills that connect young people with both domestic and international opportunities. This is increasingly important as technological change and AI reshape labour markets and intensify the need for skills that match emerging forms of work.

The Gender Dimension

The gig economy may be particularly relevant to women, who often face barriers to conventional employment arising from childcare, eldercare, mobility, social expectations and rigid working arrangements. For mothers and women living outside major urban centres, fixed working hours and daily commuting can make formal employment difficult even when suitable jobs exist.

Digital gig work can provide greater flexibility, allowing women to undertake professional assignments from home or their communities and potentially serve international clients without relocating. As discussed in my earlier LSE South Asia article, this opportunity is most meaningful when supported by digital infrastructure, skills training, virtual work hubs, mentorship and appropriate institutional support. However, flexibility should expand women’s economic choices rather than simply add paid work to existing unpaid household responsibilities.

Pressure on Labour-Market Opportunity

The value of a job cannot be judged by salary alone, as commuting, working hours and household responsibilities can significantly affect its real economic value. Flexible digital work can potentially reduce some of these costs by allowing people to work from home or nearby digital hubs and participate in employment on a part-time or project basis. While gig work cannot solve all household pressures, a more flexible organisation of work can create additional employment opportunities while helping households manage their limited time and resources more effectively.

A Possible Third Option Between Unemployment and Migration

Sri Lanka’s migration and brain-drain concerns highlight the need to explore employment opportunities beyond the domestic labour market. While overseas migration will remain an important individual and economic choice, digital work can provide another pathway by allowing skilled Sri Lankans to serve international clients without physically leaving the country. Software developers, designers, analysts, researchers, translators and consultants can potentially earn from global markets while remaining in Sri Lanka. Digital gig work cannot eliminate migration or reverse brain drain, but it can create an additional option between domestic unemployment and physical migration—working for the world while remaining in Sri Lanka.

Recognising and Making Digital Work Reputable

A major institutional gap is that conventional systems are designed around salaried employment, while a freelancer may earn from multiple clients without a single employer or salary certificate. This can make legitimate digital workers difficult to recognise when they seek loans, leasing, insurance or business finance. Sri Lanka could address this through a voluntary digital-worker or independent-professional registration mechanism, providing a recognised economic identity based on qualifications, verified skills, platform activity and documented income, without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Such recognition should also make digital income bankable. Banks could assess verified platform earnings, bank transactions, contracts, invoices, tax records, savings and repayment history alongside conventional employment documents. A standardised digital income statement could further help workers demonstrate their financial capacity. The key shift is from asking “Who is your employer?” to asking “Can your income be verified and is it sufficiently stable?”. This would allow successful digital workers to build financial credibility and use their earnings to access credit, acquire assets and develop their own businesses.

Digital Payments Are Part of the Labour Market

Access to reliable international payment systems is essential if Sri Lankans are to participate effectively in the global digital economy. Recent developments in PayPal’s local banking arrangements, including its partnerships with Sampath Bank and Commercial Bank, indicate progress in this direction. However, the broader priority should be a regulated and efficient digital-payment ecosystem that allows workers to receive international earnings, transfer them to Sri Lankan bank accounts, document their income and meet relevant financial and tax requirements with minimal friction. International payment infrastructure is therefore not simply a technology issue; it is an essential component of Sri Lanka’s emerging services-export economy.

Building Infrastructure Outside Colombo

Digital familiarity alone is insufficient without reliable internet, electricity, computers, software and suitable working environments, particularly in rural and underserved areas. To ensure that the gig economy supports regional development rather than becoming another Colombo-centred opportunity, Sri Lanka could establish regional digital-work hubs through universities, vocational institutions, libraries and public-private partnerships. These hubs could provide connectivity, equipment, training, mentoring and assistance with platform registration and international payments. If graduates must migrate to Colombo simply to access such infrastructure, the geographical advantage of digital work is significantly reduced.

From Freelancer to Entrepreneur

Gig work should not be viewed as an end in itself. A person may begin with small online assignments, develop regular clients and professional credibility, and eventually establish a small digital enterprise. This creates a potential pathway from graduate to freelancer, professional service provider and entrepreneur, allowing individuals to create markets around their own skills rather than waiting for conventional vacancies. Universities can support this transition by teaching students not only subject knowledge but also portfolio development, market identification, client communication, digital platforms and contract management. A degree demonstrates educational attainment, while a professional portfolio demonstrates what a graduate can offer to the market.

Facilitation Must Be Matched by Protection

Promoting the gig economy without appropriate safeguards could simply transfer employment risks from institutions to individuals. Digital workers may face uncertain incomes, weak bargaining power and limited social protection. Sri Lanka should therefore facilitate digital work while also ensuring opportunities for independent workers to build savings, access insurance and participate in portable social-protection mechanisms. Flexibility should create greater economic choice without compromising long-term financial security, particularly for women.

A regional Example from India: Think Globally and act Locally

India provides a useful regional example of how the gig economy can be approached as a policy issue rather than simply as informal or temporary work. NITI Aayog has estimated the size and future employment potential of India’s gig and platform economy and has developed recommendations covering employment generation, skills, financial inclusion and social protection. More importantly, India has begun creating institutional mechanisms around these workers. Its e-Shram portal provides a national database of unorganised workers, including gig and platform workers, creating a recognised identity through which workers can potentially access employment, skills development and social-security services. India has also explored platform-led skills development through skill certificates, skill passports and on-the-job training, while NITI Aayog has proposed cash-flow-based lending models that could allow platform workers to demonstrate creditworthiness through their earnings rather than conventional employment or collateral.

Social protection has also entered the policy framework. India’s Code on Social Security, 2020 formally recognises gig and platform workers and provides a basis for schemes covering areas such as accident insurance, health, maternity, disability and old-age protection. India is still developing and refining these arrangements, and Sri Lanka need not replicate the Indian model.

However, the experience demonstrates an important policy lesson: the gig economy can be supported through a system that identifies workers, develops their skills, makes their income more visible to financial institutions and extends appropriate social protection. Sri Lanka could develop its own simpler framework suited to its smaller economy, beginning with recognising digital workers and building the institutional conditions that allow their skills and earnings to become part of the formal economy.

Rethinking Employment and the Next Opportunity

The 43 percent figure for educated young Sri Lankans should encourage a wider discussion about the changing nature of work. Sri Lanka will continue to need conventional employment through firms, industries, farms, professional organisations and public institutions, but the changing labour market also requires new opportunities to connect educated Sri Lankans with global digital markets. The gig economy can provide an additional pathway to increase female labour-force participation, reduce the pressure for migration and brain drain, and connect Sri Lankan skills with markets beyond geographical boundaries.

This does not require a complicated bureaucracy. It requires recognising legitimate digital workers, facilitating access to international platforms and payment systems, allowing verified digital income to support credit assessment, developing portable social protection, and strengthening digital infrastructure and skills beyond major urban centres. Better data on digital workers would also help policymakers develop evidence-based interventions.

The future of work is therefore not only about creating more jobs, but about creating more ways for Sri Lankans to work, earn and build livelihoods while continuing to live and contribute in Sri Lanka. The gig economy should be recognised as part of an emerging digital labour market and services-export economy, where workers can build professional identities, earn internationally, access finance and eventually develop their own enterprises.

Features

Are religions getting redundant in the modern world?

Published

2 days ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

by Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

We are living in an era of astonishingly rapid scientific advancement. From the time Apple launched the ‘iPhone’ in January 2007, the first targeting the mass market, smartphones have taken over the world, making them indispensable. According to the latest statistics, there are around 8.1 billion mobile phones with 7.4 billion active smartphones, for the world population of 8.25 billion. Except for a tiny minority of the very poor, most people have at least one smartphone.

We are now entering the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and smart robots. Recently, a ‘Chinese’ robot ran 100 metres faster than Usain Bolt! Though Alan Turing proposed the idea of ‘Thinking Machines’ way back in 1950, the real AI boom commenced with the release of the generative AI chatbot, ChatGPT, by OpenAI in November 2020. Number of technology firms in the US as well as in China have joined the race, China catching up very fast, quite unexpectedly. There is a frenzy at the moment, raising expectations, as the imminent floating of these companies is likely to value the two leaders, OpenAI and Anthropic, trillion dollars each!

However, trouble is brewing in the AI field. On top of the concerns raised by environmentalists regarding the huge power drain by AI centres, there are recent reports of some AI models hacking independently into other systems, without human input. Worse still, a senior researcher at Anthropic, who has previously worked for OpenAI as well, resigned in early September on ethical grounds stating that the way the two companies are fast-tracking AI poses an existential threat to humanity. Surprisingly, instead of a rebuttal the head of Anthropic supported his view, soon joined by three more heads of leading AI developers. Whilst they agreed on slowing progress, President Trump has claimed that slowing is totally unnecessary as long as a super intelligent President like himself is at the helm! There does not seem to be an end to Trump’s grandiosity! He was joined by Tony Blair. In contrast, King Charles held a summit with representatives of all AI developers to find a way AI could be developed without a threat to humanity. That is how wise leaders act!

Less sophisticated AI tools are already in widespread use and installed in computers, laptops and smartphones. Some of us are using these automatically. However, the more advanced AI tools like ChatGPT can change even reality. For instance, AI can generate videos hardly distinguishable from real ones. What you enjoy watching on YouTube may be just the creations of AI! Some people use AI to write articles; only a few of them admit that they do so. Very soon we may be reading stories AI creates and listening to music, courtesy of AI. Technology seems to be fast becoming the new religion? Or, will the existential threat move us more towards religion?

Religion, perhaps, is as old as humanity itself; various belief systems evolving and disappearing coupled with the fortunes of the associated civilizations. Just like AI, religion is also a creation of the human mind which our ancestors did to explain many phenomena which appeared, at that time, to be supernatural. Starting with Animism, perceiving the divine in the natural world around, humans went on to Polytheism, believing in many gods like in Hinduism, culminating in the concept of Monotheism.

World’s oldest religion, Hinduism, still in wide practice, is devoid of a founder or a single text. The earliest scriptures, Rigveda, is considered to be around 3,500 years old but archaeologists have discovered symbols of importance to Hinduism as far back as 7,000 BCE. Though it is considered to be Polytheistic, it can be argued that it was the precursor of Monotheism, the concept of a creator God, as Brahma was the creator in the triad, Trimurti, Vishnu being the preserver and Shiva being the destroyer. It seems to be a sensible balancing act; create, destroy and repair with improvements.

It is pretty obvious that as science expands, the importance of religion contracts but it is hardly likely religions would be totally redundant. We have no choice as to which family we are born to and that invariably determines what your religion would be, if any. Religion is the first brainwashing a child encounters and most remain in the same faith, often trying to defend even the indefensible, but some change through conviction or conversion due to one of many reasons. Further, religious rituals have social values and religious practices often come to one’s solace at times of distress. Therefore, many will continue with the religion they were born to but with declining enthusiasm, at times. However, some religions seem to be facing problems like falling attendances in places of worship. With education and tech savviness expanding, one would expect the youth to be less enthusiastic about religion but the converse is true in some religions, some youth becoming very militant unfortunately.

While most religions make you subservient to a supernatural power, the Buddha was wise and bold enough to remove those shackles. He proclaimed that one’s destiny is in one’s own hands. However, many Buddhists appear to attach greater significance to rituals than to practising the Dhamma.

Buddhism as a religion may become less relevant as the frontiers of science expands but the Buddha Dhamma, especially Abhidhamma and Vipassana, would receive increasing recognition, the Buddha remaining an authority on consciousness and the mind.

Scientific progress should be for the betterment of society but AI developers are taking huge risks, taking massive loans threatening the world economy, for one aim: profit! Some do not seem to care even if their actions pose an existential threat to humanity.

Perhaps, if the Four Sublime Attitudes (Sathara Brahma Vihara) expounded by the Buddha; loving kindness (Metta), compassion (Karuna), empathetic joy (Muditha) and equanimity (Upekkha) are adopted as universal values, the world would become a safer place to live in, with or without AI.

Features

‘The Bullet that Missed’

Published

2 days ago

2026/09/25

Thilina Walpola

Tales of Mystery and Suspense 21

by Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Another book that is part of a series, today—one that is fun without the brooding concentration on criminality in different forms that marks the Rebus novels. This one about the Thursday Murder Club, is a romp as its two predecessors were interspersed with deaths and what might be deaths.

The Bullet that Missed

begins with a meeting with the presenter of ‘South East Tonight’, a programme about the area, in which Coopers Chase is situated. The meeting is held because the club has decided to look into the murder of the producer’s assistant, Bethany Waites, whose car was found at the bottom of a cliff ten years ago. There was blood in it, but the body was never found.

Or, rather, the book begins with an account of Bethany Waites deciding, on the night she vanished, to meet someone in connection with a case of massive fraud that she had been investigating, after sending the producer, Mike Waghorn, a message that she had found new evidence though he had no idea what it was. The night she died, she sent him another message: “I don’t say this often enough, but thank you.”

CCTV cameras showed her leaving her place, but then the vehicle vanished, before being sighted near the cliff, with two people in it. Investigation of the fraud had led to the imprisonment of a woman, Heather Garbutt, though it proved impossible to pin anything on Jack Mason, the mastermind for whom she had worked.

The Club conducts investigations on several fronts, including through Connie Johnson, the drug dealer they had helped imprison in the earlier book. The psychiatrist Ibrahim, the most respectable member of the Club, interviews her in an attempt to get her to find out more from Heather, who is in the same prison as she. They also investigate the CCTV record of the night Bethany vanished, and deduce that she went to an apartment block and exited from its other side, and that is why she was not seen leaving the town. But some time had elapsed between her being seen in the town and then on the cliff.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been kidnapped, along with her husband, and taken to a house in Staffordshire, where she is told by a man called the Viking that she must kill a former KGB agent now in London, who has a profitable career in money laundering. The Viking tells her he will inform Viktor that she was responsible for stealing the diamonds, the story of which is told in the previous Murder Club Mystery, and Viktor will then kill her.

Elizabeth, who has an affair with Viktor, knows he will not kill her, but when the Viking says he will also send Viktor a picture of Joyce, she decides she must act, and goes to see Viktor, and fires when she gets him in the bathroom. But, of course, she fired into the ceiling, and Viktor is then taken to Coopers Chase, to stay with Joyce until they have dealt with the Viking. And Viktor then enjoys the camaraderie of the retirement home so much that he wonders whether he too should settle there.

Elizabeth does trace the Viking, or rather her husband does, for he has noticed rare books on the shelves in his library, and an antiquarian book dealer friend managed to find out who bought them. But before they could confront him, he comes to Coopers Chase, for he has seen the bullet hole in the bathroom of Viktor’s flat and realized he was fooled.

But he cannot bring himself to kill Joyce straight away, and she knocks him out with a drug in a cup of tea. When he meets Viktor, they both decide to fall in with the plans of the Club.

Before this, Heather has been found dead in her cell, with a note saying that ‘they’ were going to kill her, and only Connie could help. Before that she had admitted that she was frightened to name the man behind the fraud. Jack Mason said the same, after Ron had won his confidence. The Club had deduced by then that the body was buried in the garden of Heather’s house which Jack had bought, after she had been jailed, and digging reveals a gun and money, but no body. Jack tells them that the mastermind had said that Bethany was buried with a bullet with his DNA on it.

The Club is now working with the Chief Constable of Kent, Andrew Everton, who writes thrillers himself, but in the form of e-books. He is in search of a publisher, and delighted when Mike Waghorn puts him on his programme, as is Donna, who is substituted at the last minute for Chris.

The Club finds out whom Bethany visited in the apartment block—Mike’s assistant Pauline, who tells them later what she and Bethany had been doing. But this is after the man behind the fraud has been unmasked up in the house in Staffordshire, where he was trying to hire the Viking and Viktor to find the money that he had stashed away, using accounts that he could no longer trace. He has also confessed to murdering Bethany, hoping this will persuade the two money launderers to help him, but it turns out that he did not do this. Nor did he kill Heather, the incriminating note having been placed in her room by Connie, who decided that Heather’s suicide should be treated as murder so that the person who had been blackmailing her should be found out.

It was Jack Mason’s murder that was brought home to the crook. It turns out that Bethany, her appearance altered by Pauline, has vanished, to a new life in Dubai, where she has taken control of the missing millions. She has gone there because the threat, she received through the bullet she was looking at in the preamble, was to Mike and she wanted him out of danger.

Yet another whimsical conclusion to a whimsical book with enough loose ends left hanging for another sequel.