Sri Lanka, July 25 -- Who did what to whom and when and where are recurring themes that dominate the historical consciousness.

Whether it is in the Pelopponesian Wars (Herodotus) or in the Mahavamsa (Mahanama) it is these common themes that echo in the pages of historiography.

Of course, these themes begin to explode in controversies the moment you ask why events happened the way it did. There is no end to this discourse. Nor is there any consensus on any one of these tangled issues, though there is an overall view of what happened prevailing at various levels, ranging from the conventional wisdom moulded by tradition to sophisticated intellectual theories that can run wild at times into flights of fanciful fantasies.

Historians

Histo...