Page 39 - Martial Science Magazine Special Edition 2015

The monarchy maintained a reasonable army that con-
sisted of full time soldiers, but the majority of country-
men were ready to answer the call to arms in the name
of king and country. Hence Masters of Angam were sca-
ttered throughout the land under whom civilians who
engaged in different trade such as farming, pottery, also
trained in the martial arts for mental and physical dis-
cipline as much as to be able to protect their country in
a time of need. Out of these schools several managed
to be outstanding and make the books of history. Af-
ter years of insurgency, the foreign invaders managed
to divide and conquer the island through trickery. This
spelled fatal to the Sri Lankan martial art world, as its
new foreign rulers, the appointed governor of Ceylon
Robert Brownrigg banned and outlawed the practice of
Agam. Extreme measures were taken that included im-
prisonment, persecution, and an order to shoot in the
knees of any known practitioner of the art.