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Cumaratunga's classification of meaning as applied to literature unique - Oscar Gunawardena

by Colombo East group correspondent

In a public lecture titled 'Some stories by Munidasa Cumaratunga' delivered at Suvisuddarama Hall, Wellawatte sponsored by the Colombo South Research Circle, last Saturday, English language poet, literary critic and journalist, Oscar Gunawardena revealed that Cumaratunga's classification of meaning as applied to literature as Disi or denotative, Nisi or appropriate and Vaesi or hidden are found in most of the stories he has written. Cumaratunga was the first literary critic in Lanka to show these three meanings so vital to creative literature and explain them so clearly. He did this for the first time in the famous Kukavi Vada or Poetastor Controversy in reply to an anonymous contributor, Vijita Manuvarna. Cumaratunga said that these three meanings should find a place in characterisation in fiction.

Cumaratunga's classification of meaning is not known to the speaker in any known literary criticism. Not even in the works of I. A. Richards a recognised authority in critical writing, F. R. Leavies or in Sanskrit literary criticism is the triple dimensional aspect discussed clearly in detail as in his Virith Vaekiya or Measured Melodies.

The speaker, Gunawardena selected only four stories of Cumaratunga for analysis on the occasion. The most varied and the subtle meaning hidden in the four stories is worth examining, he said. Cumaratunga's Daepanaya or the Spell of the Cobra is symbolic of the story of a powerful creature, the cobra who with cunning triumphs and overpowers an innocent iguana. The cobra with the flexible mandibles swallows a creature too large for itself. Then using the weapon of poison sacs, reduced the struggling creature to a helpless state of motionless death for glutination. This is symbolic of power, absolute power that corrupts and reduced the captive to a sorry plight. It is reminiscent of the power of an emperor over a large empire he cannot control.

The Kothavi Maanaya or Pride of the Lance, the king's power being flouted by a dangerous creature in the form of a crocodile who carries away the king's lance in other words threatens his sovereignity. This creature is vanquished by a fearless man of the king's camp, one Kappagoda, who with bare hands breaks the throat bone of the crocodile and drags it before the Royal presence. It is symbolic of the usurping of the king's power by an opposing force being subdued by a powerful general on the king's side and the triumph of the rule of law over a challenging force.

Bala Lamaya or Young 'Un is a powerful person, who carries the full weight on his shoulders, who walks the miles before the others, who ploughs and harvests the fields singlehanded, who when playing kicks the ball no other could catch, whose presence on any side wins, who consumes large amounts of jack, who turns the head of a wild buffalo cow and wrings her neck in triumph. This is suggestive of the great 'Sun' that lifts the water of the oceans and brings it down as rain, who conquers the darkness of evil by the power of light, who causes the great thunder and lightening by its great power.

Ballata Naguta Epaaveema or the Dog Abhors his Tail. This tail is satirical in the sense of a wrong weapon being used for wrong strategy and its use altered. The dog notices the land monitor, the bull, the cockerel put their tails to different uses. He tries to imitate but fails miserably. His last straw is when his master compares a dog's tail to a scoundrel in the village. Ultimately he cuts off his own tail in disgust.

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