Lion, the king of the beasts falls in love with princess Suppadevi and from their union are born twins- the son named Sinhabahu and daughter Sinha Seevali. This traditional mythological story ‘Sinhabahu’ documented in the great chronicle the Mahawansa, was came alive on March 21 at the Lionel Wendt.

As Mahawansa stated, the full story is as bellow,

Long time ago, India consisted of many countries. Vanga was one of the countries of India at that time. The King of Vanga had a very beautiful daughter. Fortunetellers predicted that this pretty Princess would be kidnapped by a lion. One day, when the Princess was traveling to Magadha country (The country where Lord Buddha lived), a lion attacked the caravan near Lala country and kidnapped the Princess. The lion took the Princess to the cave where he lived and blocked the entrance to the cave with a huge rock. All efforts to find the Princess failed. Years later, the Princess had twins, a son and a daughter. The son had hands that looked like a lion. The son was named “Sinhabahu”. (Sinha=Lion, Bahu=Hands) and the daughter was named “Sinhasivali”.

One day, Sinhabahu asked his mother why they are locked inside the cave and why their father will not let them leave. The mother told what happened to her and Sinhabahu was determined to break open the cave entrance. One day when the lion was not in the cave, Sinhabahu pushed the stone and fled with his mother and sister. When the lion came back to the cave, he saw that whole family had fled and he went looking for them. When the lion came to the village, people were fearful of the lion and tried to chase him away. Lion in return attacked people and created panic in the village. After hearing the commotion created by the lion, the King of the Lala country asked Sinhabahu to stop the lion. Sinhabahu went to meet the lion and during the encounter Sinhabahu shot the lion with his arrow and killed the lion. The King of the Lala country, built a city for Sinhabahu, named it “Sinhapura”, and made Sinhabahu King of the city.