The ordeal began at 9:30am in a hastily dug 10-foot deep trench tightly sealed with wood and soil. At 4pm later the same day, Janaka was pulled from the ditch unconscious and rushed to a local hospital.
Dr. D.G. Costa of the Kantale hospital said a postmortem failed to determine the cause of death! What?
Basnayake's mother, L.D. Leelawathi, said Janaka lived to perform unusual acts. She did not give examples of what those could be, but given this unusual act, we can only guess he was lucky to have gotten this far.
The irony of course is no Guiness 'record' exists for longest time buried alive. The Guiness people aren't stupid.. Why Janaka thought there was a Guiness buried alive record no one knows because he took that secret to his 'grave'.
