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by Chandra Edirisuriya

Drawings of animals like the raindeer and bison in caves inhabited by early man are specimens of the work of the most ancient of the world's artists. They must have been without what we call speech. In time however they learned to speak. They had entered, perhaps, more than 50,000 years ago, what we now call the Old Stone Age. As time went on man became more articulate and other forms of art vocal, written, ornamental etc. emerged.

Articles used which were at first made to serve an utilitarian purpose began, in turn, to be turned out artistically, with prosperity. Famed Russian anthropologist G. Plekhanov observed this change thus: "The approach to objects from a utilitarian stand point is anterior to an approach to them from a stand point of aesthetic pleasure."

With the progression of time and the advancement of civilization more and more sophisticated forms of art began to enrich mankind bringing forward a culture, so to say. When we look at the colourful canvas of the history of mankind we would see that artistic manifestations in the form of drawings and paintings, sculpture and carving, architecture, ornaments and apparels, pots and vases, writings and verbal renditions of all forms of art containing folk tales, folk songs, fairy tales, monumental epic poems like Rishi Valmiki's Ramayana, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, the Jataka stories in the Buddhist tradition, novels and historical novels, books of verses like Kalidasa's Shakuntala our own Kavu Silumina and the Sandesa Kavya, dramas or stage plays and the cinema.

The cinema has been the most widespread art form ever since it came into being first with the silent film progressing into the talkie. The visual effect has also been tremendously improved with the cinemascope wide screen and later developments. The documentary film is in itself a work of art when it depicts the life of human beings our brothers and sisters - in different parts of the world. The documentary film on the life of the Eskimo of the North - the Arctic regions around the North Pole like the largest island of the world, Greenland, that saw at the age of 12, at the Olcott Hall of my alma mater Ananda College, Colombo, inspired me love members of the human family who live in more trying conditions.

The Tele Vision has brought about a revolution in the dissemination of audio-visual art forms. Serialised tele dramas like The Big Valley, Dynasty, North South, Falcon's Cresh won popular acclaim and viewed with relish by the English educated. Good English, Hindi and Tamil films and a serialised Japanese tele drama are shown on our TV channels with Sinhala sub titles or dubbed. Serialised tele films like The Lost Valley and Andromeda, also with Sinhala sub titles, have been popular among all.

Some of the memorable films that have inspired me are knock on wood starring Danny Kaye, The Land of the Pharaohs, The Robe starring Victor Mature,, The Ten Commandments starring Charleton Heston, Trapeez starring Kirk Douglas, The Bridge on the River Kwai starring Sir Alec Guinness, Sound of Music, My Fair Lady starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepborn, Gone with the Wind starring Clarke Gable and Vivien Leigh, Mother India, Hum Hindustani, Manzil, Junglee and our own Peralena Iranama, Rekhawa, Parasathumal, Sandesaya, Gam Peraliya among others.

These films drive home to the viewer the sacredness of human relationships and the value of humanity. Hindi films like Mother India and Hum Hindustani inculcate and infuse patriotism or love of one's own country, and admiration of its people, its beauty and the richness of its resources. It is edifying to see such spectacles on the screen. People walk out of the cinema hall after seeing these films that uplift the human spirit, completely reborn, determined to do their duty by and the best for their country performing their tasks with renewed enthusiasm and vigour.

In the early 1960s when I was a university student the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation invited suggestions from listeners with regard to improving the quality and substance of its programmes. I sent a post card suggesting that we play patriotic songs early in the morning when programmes commence. My suggestion was accepted, without acknowledgement, of course, but after a few years the broadcasting of patriotic songs was terminated abruptly as if they had done a mistake and corrected it. People of any country love their country. They are proud of their history, their traditions and the cultural uniqueness. Anyone if rooted in the native soil of one's country will not feel otherwise.

The Nadagam operas of the pre-bi-scope days in this country like Vessantara, Saliya-Asokamala, Siri Sangabo helped to fill the hearts of the people with love of their history and traditions and to be proud of their heritage. The theatre age of the Sinhala opera ended with the advent of Professor Ediriweera Sarachchandra's 'Maname' the epitome of refinement in artistic taste, that has remained unsurpassed. Immediately after 'Maname' we at our alma mater Ananda College, Colombo produced an opera on similar lines as 'Maname' named 'Ravana' on the story of the Ramayanaya of Valmiki, that is popular throughout the South Asian region.

Professor J. B. Dissanayaka had written the script for our play 'Ravana' but after he left school to enter university I made just a few additions to the script before we produced the play.

Our history masters Lakshman Dissanayake and Somasiri Devendra handled the production. Masters Dayaratne Perera and P. A. Weerasinghe helped us. Masters K. L. F. Wijedasa and if I remember right Nimal Abeywardene acted in the roles of Ravana and Rama, respectively. Sita's role was played by a Miss Kodagoda from Anula Vidyalaya, Nugegoda. Some Indians are still afraid of even the name Ravana. K. M. P. Rajaratne who was my University visiting lecturer or J. R. P. Suriyapperuma our Political Science Master or Professor Tilak Ratnakara who also taught political science at College, said that a taxi driver in India on being told by the passenger in the back seat that he was from Lanka turned back all the time to be assured that he was safe.

We Sri Lankans derive much inspiration from the Ravana legend. Valmiki wrote the epic poem Ramayanaya inspired by the sorrow of a bird who lost her mate when a hunter shot his arrow through his heart. Valmiki said:

Kraunchah dwanda viyogoththah

Sokah slokathvamagathah.

The sorrow generated by the separation of the pair of koil birds is rendered into verse. The 550 Jataka stories in the Pan Siya Panas Jataka Potha are similar to Aesops Fables.

The Jataka stories depict the manner in which the Potential Buddha or the Bodhisatva acted with wisdom in solving day-to-day issues of life.

The Jataka stories like the epics and the works of great poets and novelists like Homer, Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Maxim Gorky, Ivan Turgenev, A. S. Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, Guy de Manpassant, Alberto Moraira, Jean Paul Satre, Francoise Sagan, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, the Bronte sisters - Anne, Charlotte & Emily, Pearl S. Buck, John Steinbeck, Earnest Hemingway, James A. Michener, William Faulkener, Norman Mailer, John Updike, Arthur Koestler, R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Bernard Shaw, Bentrand Russel, Aldous Huxley, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Boris Pasternak and our own Dr. R. L. Spittel have by their writings ennobled the human race.

Their influence on the moral stature of generations of readers has been immeasurable. Their works, some of which have been made into films, have influenced men and women to be of service to society. The inspiration derived from the masterpieces of these giants of literature have created leaders who have courageously and with sincere feeling served their countrymen.

The salutory effect of art with substance, on the human mind and heart will help to uplift human beings and society in turn. TV channels showing teledramas with the most obnoxious scenes depicting violent crime cannot be condoned.

The final episode of a serialised tele drama, made in very bad taste, contained nothing but the contract killing in the most revolting manner of two people by shooting on the head pointblank with a silencer pistol. The jubilant manner in which a ruffian who put a demon to shame finished off in cold blood the bewildered victims sent shivers down my spine. One can say this is art. But how many are capable of stomaching this kind of extremely sordid crime, calmly and composedly, as art? The vast majority of viewers who are not equipped to absorb the shock and their frustration in being unable to do anything useful in life, learn to commit crime the way it is shown on TV. Nothing else except what is shown on TV catches the eye of the wrong person so easily.

Art is self-expression whatever the medium is. Basic art or realistic art is a reproduction of what one sees and feels. Wordsworth said poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling. This is true of all art. Imagination and creation come in later to create the ideal. This is also true of all forms of art. One can say that showing scenes of violent crime on TV is to educate the viewers of the undesirability of crime. In this context I am reminded of what amateur non-professional purveyors of pornography do in this country.

They describe how an adult has the most obscene homosexual relation with a young boy narrating all the physical details of the acts done and at the end says parents should look after their young children so that they will not fall prey to adults.

Violent crime is not portrayed in any medium of art in socialist countries. Socialist realism is the doctrine that literature etc. should present an idealized portrayal of reality. Socialist realism as distinct from social realism presents an optimistic picture of the lives of the people. As opposed to socialist realism, social realism is a form of art, especially before 1950, which presents a realistic picture of the social and political condition. I am at a loss to understand why all the dastardly crimes including underworld contract killings are shown on the TV screen as art without an compunction.

We have a unique culture of our own. Everyone in this country loves his country, irrespective of race or religion. This sense of patriotism should be nurtured and fostered. Those who embrace alien cultures and despise their own indigenous culture were called Thuppahi by one of the greatest patriots who lived in this country, Philip Gunawardane.

Anagarika Dharmapala and Munidasa Cumaratunga were great cultural guides who emphasised the need for national identity which every nation in the world feels proud about. There are attempts by those who have foreign roots to ignore our history. But no country in the world disowns its past.

Epilogue

"By the time Leo Tolstoy wrote his book on the nature of art, in his late sixties he was probably the most famous and revered man on earth. Not only was he the author of two massive novels whose pages seemed to drench in sunlight. The new religion he had evolved - a purely ethical faith urged non-violent resistance to all forms of violence, whether governmental or personal, physical on spiritual - had reached not merely Europe and America but China and India as well (We have seen its influence in later years in the lives for example of Gandhi and Martin Luther King)

From "What is Art?" - Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). Chesapeake - A Novel by James A. Michener.

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