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by Somadasa Wijeratna

The eminent linguist, journalist and poet of the first half of the 20th century, Cumaratunga Munidasa's 116th birth anniversary was celebrated under the sponsorship of Cumaratunga Munidasa Foundation at the Library Services and Documentation Auditorium, Colombo 7, on July 25, the birthday of the late writer. "Kumara Gee" an ensemble of children's songs composed by him was also launched by Gevindu Cumaratunga, a descendent of the writer, to mark the occasion. Ven. Ahangama Ananda Thera chaired the commemorative meeting.

The proceedings began with the lighting of the traditional oil lamp by the distinguished invitees among whom were Professor Chandrasiri Palliyaguru, Professor Vinnie Vitharana, Arisen Ahubudu, Indu Cumaratunga, and Psychiatry Specialist D.V.J. Harischandra who also garlanded the Cumaratunga bust. Students of Gemunu Dhamma School, Wellatota, Talpe, chanted the commemorative song.

Cumaratunga Munidasa was born on July 25, 1887 as the 12th of the 13 children born to Palavinnage Dona Gimara Muthukumarana and Abious Cumaratunga, a renowned native physician in the village of Idigasaara, Dikwella, Matara in Southern Sri Lanka. Abious Cumaratunga Vedamahathmaya was the most respected and trusted healer who had inherited a legacy of time honoured medical practice in indigenous medicine. He owned a fabulous library which was a repository of valuable Pali and Sanskrit scriptures pertaining to Ayurveda, Astrology and Buddhism, the contents of which the Vedamahathmaya was well conversant in.

The house itself was virtually a herbal laboratory cum a hospital filled with patients and the smell of herbal medicine and medical equipment used in indigenous medical treatment.

Munidasa Cumaratunga received his primary education in the Dikwella Buddhist School. This education was enormously supplemented by the visiting family tutor John Kavithilaka. When Munidasa was in the 5th standard, his father passed away and the eldest of the sons took over the family steering vacated by the demised native physician.

Accordingly Munidasa was admitted to St. Thomas' College, Matara where he studied up to the 7th Standard in English.

In the course of time, Munidasa, as the pious child he was, became intent upon entering the Buddhist Order. So he studied Sanskrit under the tutelage of Ven. Kahave Ananda Thera of Vevurukannala Pirivena. At the same time his main concern was the Pali and Sanskrit treasure trove of his demised father that he mastered with thorough discipline.

As time passed by, destiny decreed otherwise and in obedience to his elders Munidasa abandoned the wish of donning the saffron robe. Instead, he gained entrance to the Government Teachers' College in Colombo and on completion of the course,was posted to the Bilingual School of Bomiriya, as a Government teacher. Subsequently, on his capability as a teacher, he was promoted Principal of Kadugannawa Bilingual School where he remained for 11 years to be promoted Inspector of Schools.

In 1921 when he was 34 years of age, he entered matrimony. His bride was Lilie, the daughter of T. Hendrick Peiris of Pallimulla, Panadura. Munidasa and Lilie begot two daughters and four sons.

After 5 years of service as an Inspector of Schools he gave up the yoke of Government service to pursue his independent writing career. Ever since, he wrote and wrote and wrote till he breathed his last in the wee hours of March 02, 1944 when he was 56 years and 7 months old.

Cumaratunga Munidasa was a prolific writer. Cleansing the Sinhala language was his main concern.

That was the time the Sinhala language had perished to the hilt owing to the emergence of whitish black dominance. His task was to teach the Sinhala people how to write correct Sinhala. He wrote nearly 32 textbooks on Sinhala grammar. He wrote definitions to Sinhala Buddhist Classics and revived some of the Sinhala magazines that were almost defunct. He wrote poems and composed many children's songs made of the untarnished Sinhala short in rhythm and easy in understanding and therefore, appealing to the childish taste.

The Sinhala Encyclopedias Chief Editor Professor Vinnie Vitharana, delivering the commemorative address at the meeting last Friday stated that in the history of the modern poetic field Cumaratunga Munidasa was the first to identify the difference between a verse and a poem. He identified verse as a phenomenon with no verbal embellishments while a poem contains aesthetic imagery drawn by using the language as a tool. A poem contains a "Disi Arutha", a visible meaning, a "Nisi Arutha", a curiosity rouser and a "Vesi Arutha", an underlying meaning. This vision of Cumaratunga Munidasa created in us a desire to read and appreciate poems again and again, observed Professor Vitharana.

Psychiatry Specialist Harishchandra, addressing the commemorative meeting dealt at length with the many aspects of the psychological impact on readers of Cumaratunga Munidasa. He said that when he read the children's verses composed by the great writer he regressed to his childhood ecstasy. "During my school days I consumed Cumaratunga Munidasa's writings as food to fatten my scores at the examination. Today, as a mature man I realize the nutritional value of that food which nurtured a cultured mind", he observed.

Speaking further, Dr. Harischandra said that if Domm's Day were to dawn tomorrow, he would shed tears for two reasons. One is for the eternal destruction of the Pali Canon (Thripitakaya). The other is the destruction of Cumaratunga's poem "Nelavilla" (Lullaby) which he considered to be the best of its kind under the sun. He appealed to the educational officials who were present at the meeting to include Cumaratunga Munidasa's many books as compulsory reading under the curriculum of studies in schools. "As Shakespeare is to Western classical literature, so is Cumaratunga Munidasa to the Orient" remarked Dr. Harischandra.

May those at the helm of education in this country, pay positive attention to the plea Psychiatrist Harischandra made on the occasion of the 116th birth anniversary of the late Sinhala scholar Cumaratunga Munidasa,the unrivalled poet of his time.

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