35-779: Philip Upali Wijewardene (17 February 1938 – 13 February 1983: Sinhala : උපාලි විජේවර්ධන ) was a Sri Lankan business magnate and entrepreneur. In 1983, Wijewardene had a net worth of US $ 50 million. He was the founder and chairman of Upali Group, the first multi-national business in Sri Lanka . Upali Group has businesses in the US , UK , Malaysia , Thailand , Singapore and Hong Kong . The Upali Group diversified from confectionery to electronics, automobile manufacturing, publishing, print media, leisure, and aviation. It developed many brands, including Kandos, Delta, Unic, Upali Air , Upali Mazda and Upali Newspapers , which Insight Magazine UK said
70-455: A "spot" of one additional colour. The comic magazine fell apart after Wijewardene's death and ceased publication in 1986. Ratnayake attributed the magazine's failure to Wijewardene's early demise, the sub-standard printing quality of the paper and competition from other magazines. In 1980, Wijewardene travelled to Silicon Valley and signed five agreements, including one with Motorola . The construction of chip plants started in 1983. However, with
105-662: A Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola for pig in Vedda and offering in Sinhala. Other common words are rera for wild duck, and gala for stones (in toponyms used throughout the island, although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhala, such as olluva for head, kakula for leg, bella for neck and kalava for thighs, that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsan̆garavā , written in
140-569: A house on Thurstan Road , designed by Geoffrey Bawa , which included a helipad for his private helicopter. He also owned a country house , Sunnycroft Bungalow , in Nuwara Eliya . He held the position of Basnayake Nilame (chief lay custodian) at the Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara , a temple that had been supported by his family. An amateur racing enthusiast, Wijewardene participated in races with his mother's Opel Kapitan at
175-759: A mid-air explosion. Later investigations revealed that the plane manufacturer did not make this wheel. According to K. Godage, former Malaysian High Commissioner, the government of Sri Lanka showed no interest in investigating the disappearance further. Rumours later circulated that Wijewardene was to have been named the minister of finance by president J. R. Jayewardene the next day, on his return to Colombo. Sinhala language Sinhala ( / ˈ s ɪ n h ə l ə , ˈ s ɪ ŋ ə l ə / SIN -hə-lə, SING -ə-lə ; Sinhala: සිංහල , siṁhala , [ˈsiŋɦələ] ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( / ˌ s ɪ n ( h ) ə ˈ l iː z , ˌ s ɪ ŋ ( ɡ ) ə ˈ l iː z / SIN -(h)ə- LEEZ , SING -(g)ə- LEEZ ),
210-779: A period of prior bilingualism: "The earliest type of contact in Sri Lanka, not considering the aboriginal Vedda languages, was that which occurred between South Dravidian and Sinhala. It seems plausible to assume prolonged contact between these two populations as well as a high degree of bilingualism. This explains why Sinhala looks deeply South Dravidian for an Indo-Aryan language. There is corroboration in genetic findings." In addition to many Tamil loanwords , several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of
245-463: Is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia . Sinhala ( Siṁhala ) is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eḷu ) word is Sīhala . The name is a derivative of siṁha , the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to a supposed former abundance of lions on the island. According to
280-599: Is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka , who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script , which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala
315-484: Is divided into four epochs: The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: According to Wilhelm Geiger , an example of a possible Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. Sanskrit viṁśati "twenty", Sinhala visi- , Hindi bīs ). This is disputed by Muhammad Shahidullah who says that Sinhala Prakrit branched off from
350-412: Is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil . Along with Pali , it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhala language are attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi , a regional associate of
385-724: The 1952 general election from the United National Party and was defeated by Doreen Young Wickremasinghe . In 1956, he was appointed to the Senate of Ceylon and served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance from April 1956 to September 1958 in the S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike government, then he was appointed Cabinet Minister of Nationalized Services and Shipping from September 1958 to December 1959. From July 1960 to 1962 he served as Minister of Labour and Nationalised Services . From 1960 to 1965, he served as
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#1732790264129420-963: The Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot , ridden by the world-famous jockey Lester Piggott . In 1980, he won the Singapore Derby at the Bukit Timah Race Course and the Perak Derby at the Perak Turf Club in Malaysia with his horse "Vaaron.". He raced "General Atty" too, who won many races in England. He would fly to the races in his private aircraft, and made it a point to fly from Newmarket Racecourse in England to Nuwara Eliya Racecourse in Sri Lanka to watch his horses and ponies racing. In 1978, Wijewardene
455-729: The Middle Indian Prakrits that had been used during the time of the Buddha . The most closely related languages are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language . It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and
490-587: The UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon According to Wilhelm Geiger , Sinhala has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of the parent stock of the Vedda language . Sinhala has many words that are only found in Sinhala, or shared between Sinhala and Vedda and not etymologically derivable from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Possible examples include kola for leaf in Sinhala and Vedda (although others suggest
525-464: The 13th century CE, recognised a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. The grammar lists naram̆ba (to see) and koḷom̆ba (fort or harbour) as belonging to an indigenous source. Koḷom̆ba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo . The consistent left branching syntax and the loss of aspirated stops in Sinhala is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect. This has been explained by
560-566: The 1970s, introducing radios, calculators, wall clocks, air-conditioners and television sets. These were assembled locally under the import restrictions of the time. In 1970, Wijewardene founded the Upali Motor Company (UMC), which began assembly of Mazda Capellas under license in his Homagama plant These cars were known locally as the UMC Mazda or, more colloquially, Upali Mazda. Over 500 units were assembled. In 1978, UMC began
595-815: The Andapana Estate in Kamburupitiya. He was chairman of several companies including Ceylon Glass Company and Ceylon Chocolates Ltd. He built Andapana Hospital and later handed it over to the government. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1953 New Year Honours for his social services in the Southern Province. He unsuccessfully contested the Akuressa Electoral District in
630-506: The British manufacturing company Lever Brothers as a management trainee and was assigned the responsibility of overseeing soap processing. However, he left Lever Brothers in 1961 due to a disagreement with the chairman. Wijewardene ventured into business by setting up a confectionary company and establishing a candy ball machine on his property on Bloemendaal Road. He later expanded the business and branded it 'Delta Toffee'. In 1970, after
665-716: The Eastern Prakrits prior to this change. He cites the edicts of Ashoka , no copy of which shows this sound change. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o ) in Sinhalese Prakrit. There are several cases of vocabulary doublets , one example being the words mæssā ("fly") and mækkā ("flea"), which both correspond to Sanskrit makṣikā but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiā (Western Prakrits) and makkhikā (as in Eastern Prakrits like Pali ). In 1815,
700-587: The Katukurunde Races in the early 1960s. Wijewardene attended Ladies' College, Colombo , along with his two older sisters. Afterwards, he enrolled at Royal College, Colombo and later attended St John's School, Leatherhead . He studied economics at Queens College, Cambridge from 1956 to 1959, earning a BA degree. At Cambridge, he held the position of secretary of the Marshall Society . On his return to Ceylon in 1959, Wijewardene joined
735-563: The Upali Group of Companies in the mid-1960s, consolidating his holdings and forming a conglomerate of companies. Wijewardene began soap manufacturing, introducing the brands Crystal and Tingle Sikuru . In the aviation sector, he founded Upali Air in 1968. Flight operations started in the late 1970s with several aircraft for private, domestic and international flights. He started the Upali Electronic Company in
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#1732790264129770-592: The aircraft disappeared while flying over the Straits of Malacca . Extensive search operations by air and naval units of Sri Lanka, India, the United States, the Soviet Union, Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia failed to locate any evidence of a crash. A wheel that was thought to be part of the disappeared plane was found on Pandang Island , leading the authorities to conclude that the plane had suffered
805-502: The assembly of the Fiat 128 , known locally as Upali Fiat. In 1981, he started Upali Newspapers and published daily and weekly newspapers, including Divaina , The Island and Navaliya . He used his aircraft to deliver newspapers to remote areas such as Anuradhapura and Jaffna. In February 1981, he published a comic, Chithra Mithra . Within a few months, the magazine reached a circulation of 200,000. The media initially described
840-681: The chronicle Mahāvaṃsa , written in Pali, Prince Vijaya of the Vanga Kingdom and his entourage merged in Sri Lanka with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom . In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India, including additional migration from the Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), as well as Kalinga and Magadha . This influx led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. The development of Sinhala
875-497: The features that may be traced to Dravidian influence are: ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නවා dannavā know ඒක අලුත් කියලා මම දන්නවා ēka aḷut kiyalā mama dannavā it new having-said I know "I know that it is new." ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new ද da Q කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නේ Chandradasa Wijesinghe Chandradasa Sarath Wijesinghe , OBE
910-607: The island of Ceylon came under British rule . During the career of Christopher Reynolds as a Sinhalese lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London , he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature. The Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for his work. He wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815 , selected by
945-410: The magazine as "romance, booze, money, travel, dreams, adventure, and wild women," crammed into 16 pages. It expanded into 32 pages, with a different story on every page. Editor Janaka Ratnayake noted that the publication had "many topics—romance, detective, sci-fi, heroes, two pages built around movie stars, and almost a page of pen pals" (1993). All the stories were serialised and in black and white with
980-476: The passing of his maternal uncle, senator Sarath Chandradasa Wijesinghe , Wijewardene assumed control of the 'Ceylon Chocolates Company'. He expanded the 'Kandos chocolates' brand from a domestic to an international market, and with the help of a friend, Ratnam, he cultivated 14,000 acres of cocoa in Malaysia. During the transition of the business, he acquired cocoa plantations, processing plants, and factories in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. Wijewardene founded
1015-584: The start Sri Lankan civil war and bombing across the country, and some of the engineers assigned to the construction of the plants were killed, and the chip manufacturers left Sri Lanka for Malaysia. Wijewardene was influential in restarting horse racing at the Nuwara Eliya Race Course . He was the chairman of the board of stewards of the Sri Lanka Turf Club and raced in Sri Lanka and England, where his horse "Rasa Penang" won
1050-798: The surrounding areas to learn English and computer technology. Wijewardene, a licensed pilot, travelled on a Sri Lankan diplomatic passport as chairman of the GCEC. He owned a private jet, a Learjet 35 A, which he had modified with another controller for the rear body. His plane took off from Kuala Lumpur at 8:41 p.m. on 13 February 1983, bound for Colombo. On board with him were his Malaysian lawyer S.M. Ratnam, Upali Group Director Ananda Peli Muhandiram, pilot captain Noel Anandappa (ex- SLAF ), co-pilot captain Sydney De Zoysa (former Air Ceylon Captain), and steward S. Senenakye. Fifteen minutes later,
1085-615: Was a Sri Lankan planter, businessman and politician. He was the President of the Senate and a Cabinet Minister . Born to Muhandiram D. F. Wijesinghe and Mrs. S. L. Goonatillake Wijesinghe, who were wealthy plantation and graphite mine owners from Kamburupitiya , Wijesinghe was educated at the Royal College, Colombo and became a planter , managing his estate group of companies which included estates in many districts including
Upali Wijewardene - Misplaced Pages Continue
1120-667: Was a press baron, and his cousin J. R. Jayewardene became the second President of Sri Lanka , serving from 1978 to 1989. Ray Wijewardene , a cousin, was an engineer, aviator, inventor, and Olympic athlete. His sister Anoja married Stanley Wijesundera , a professor of chemistry and later the first vice-chancellor of the University of Colombo, while his other sister Kalyani married Dr. G.M. Attygalle. On 7 November 1975, Wijewardene married Lakmini Ratwatte, daughter of Dr. Seevali Ratwatte, niece of Sirimavo Bandaranaike , and granddaughter of Barnes Ratwatte Dissawa . Wijewardene moved into
1155-563: Was achieved "largely through bravado and wit." Wijewardene was presumed dead on 13 February 1983, when his private Learjet disappeared over the Straits of Malacca soon after leaving Malaysia en route to Colombo . Wijewardene was born on 17 February 1938, at his paternal grandmother's house in Sri Ramya, Colombo , to Don Walter Tudugalle Wijewardene and Anula Kalyanawathie Wijesinghe. The youngest and only son of his parents, he had two older sisters, Anoja and Kalyani. The Wijewardene family
1190-772: Was appointed by President J. R. Jayewardene as the first director general of the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC), which subsequently evolved into the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka . The Sri Lankan political establishment did not favour his arrival in politics. Wijewardene worked to attract foreign investment to develop local industries in the new open economy. He formed free trade zones in Katunayake, Biyagama and Koggala. He set up an organization called 'Ruhunu Udanaya' and worked to create opportunities for young people in Kamburupitiya and
1225-599: Was from Kelaniya . His grandfather, Muhandiram Don Phillip Wijeywardene, a timber merchant, founded the family business. Wijewardene lost his father when he was eighteen months old, and was raised by his mother in the family home Sedawatte Walawwe in Kolonnawa . The Wijewardene family had made its money by supplying timber for construction in the city of Colombo . They reinvested their profits in various ventures, including real estate, and became influential in local politics. Upali's paternal uncle, Don Richard Wijewardena ,
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