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| Wednesday, 25 August 2004 |
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Focus on Books : Fables of Bidpai in Sinhala by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra The oldest literary genre called 'fable' has created a lasting interest in all nations down the centuries. Most fables have been transmitted orally and at a particular moment had come to be written and printed in the form of collections for readers of all ages. A fable is explained as a short allegorical or naturalistic tale conveying a moral or a particular principle of behaviour. It is found that one comes across characters of animals and humans as well as super humans and apparitions, depending upon the context in which it is created or woven. Often at the end of most fables, a moral is appended in the form of a proverb, and as folklorists say, the fable itself might be called an acted out proverb. Most religious leaders like the Buddha, and Jesus Christ made use of
fables, parables and similes to explain the state of good living and
achieve a better climate of purified life. As such parables as utilized by
great religious leaders tend to transmit from one generation to the other
as a unique form of human communication. It may have been easier perhaps for a priest or a sage to pass on a particular message creatively by way of a fable, and today one has to study the essential elements in creative communication in order to gauge the strength of a message. I read the collection 'fables of Bidpai' translated into Sinhala by the well-known folklorist Chandrasiri Ranasinghe as Bidpaige Upamakata and published by Godage publishers. The most striking point about this collection is the space devoted by the translator cum compiler to the tracing of the evolution of the Oriental are Occidental fables quoting several significant sources. He attempts to help the modern reader that some of age old fables posses quite a fine layer of modernity, if examined seriously. As regards the originator of fables named 'Bidpai' he brings in at least near evidence, to prove that it could be surmised as a great sage named Vidyapathi or Buddha, as the most ancient source of fables that encompass as 'Bidpai fables' go back to pre Buddhistic era, and then later translated or adapted into an old Persian language and various other languages such as Sanskrit and Pahlevi. Perhaps the fables of Bidapai may be interpreted as 'Fables of Bidpai' where the reference to Bidpai may be to Buddha, as the Buddhistic sermons centre round fables as a frame story to enrich and explain the doctrinal messages. The author Ranasinghe also refers to the translation of an Italian collection of Bidpai fables, from whence an English translation has been produced by an English scholar, one Sir Thomas North. Later on the well-known compiler of legends, parables, fables and fairy tales of varying types, named Joseph Jacobs, came to compile a fresh anthology of Bidpai fables, titled 'The fables of Bidpai'. In one of my journeys to India, I found a book by Jacobs titled 'Indian Fairy Tales' (Wilco 1960) where the preface as well as the explanatory notes cite the value of Bidpai fables. Jacobs says, 'I have edited Sir Thomas North's English version of an Italian adaptation of a Spanish translation of a Latin version of a Hebrew translation of an Arabic adaptation of the Pehlavi version of the Indian original.' (Fable of Bidpai, London, D Nutt, Bibilothique de Carabus 1888) Like the genealogical table as provided by Jacob to trace the evolution of the oriental tale, our compiler Ranasinghe too takes the pains to present a more elaborate fable as an appendix presumably a good research factor unseen nowadays even in so called learned books. Ranasinghe like his counterparts North and Jacobs, attempts to trace the sources of the evolution, which may help the student of cross cultural folklore studies, embraced in socio literary and socio communication studies. I see that Jacobs is much specific on the authenticity of Bidpai fables than Ranasinghe, for the former says 'when the Hindu reactions against Buddhism came, the Brahmins adapted these (referred to Jataka tales) with the omission of Buddha as the central figure. (As such) there is scarcely any doubt that the so called fables of Bidpai were those derived from Buddhistic sources.' Ranasinghe's long introduction supplements the division of the compilation into four units and three appendices. Most fables in this compilation, commence with 'once upon a time' type, and presented in the simplest and clearest possible use of language, returning the age old story telling technique. As in most Jatakas panchatantra and Aesopian fables, the reader meets all types of humans and animals, Gods and devils enhancing to visualize the modernity in ancient creative sources. From stalking buffaloes to Emily Bronte Selected Writings Author - M. B. Mathmaluwe An author publication 7, Sanganandarama Mawatha, Moisey Crescent Road, Matale I first came across M. B. Mathumaluwe's writings about ten years ago
when I read his article "Good Bye GA" soon after the publication
of my own article on the last British GA of Nuwara Eliya (the last Triumph
Sounds for the Last Brahmin). He wrote with sensitivity and objectivity of
this colonial official, with the first hand experience of a Kandyan
villager. I vaguely wondered who the writer may be - probably a retired minor official of an earlier era, I thought to myself, but with an unexpected felicity of expression. I was put right by my fellow Old Rajan, Saheed (founder of Kandy's Saheed Furnishers). From him I learnt that Mathmaluwe had been his fellow student at Maharagama Training College, after which they both went onto become school principals. Saheed forsook pedagogy for business while his friend continued in teaching and produced an admirable cohort of students who rallied round to publish these 'Selected Writings' as a tribute to their guru on his eightieth birthday. I have always read MBM's writings with enjoyment, and amazement, at the breath of his interests. Rarely, if ever, have I come across a writer who writes with equal sensitivity on life in a remote Kandyan village almost a century ago, and on many writers and poets in English. Articles in newspapers have a short 'shelf life' and soon end up with the ubiquitous 'patthara karaya'. The old schoolboy habit of collecting newspaper clippings of 'useful items' has now ended up, together with clippings, in that well used repository 'the dustbin of history'. It is therefore an undiluted pleasure to read this collection of his best writings (so far!). His memories of his childhood home in the remote village of Mathmaluwe in the then, jungled foothills of the Knuckles range evoked in me a nostalgia for a delightful world so far removed from my own town bred childhood. I particulary enjoyed his earthy account of going on a hunt behind a stalking buffalo. "Waiting for an animal (quarry) to come into position....with bated breath and cocked gun....the buffalo (occasionally) sends down a cascade of warm droppings. "! He writes of the gods and demons village briefs, their customs and their pastimes, with a fondness devoid of mawkish sentimentality. All is summed up in his valedictory poem to a lost way of life "A Heritage Lost" - "The distant wood-bound hills watching ages Passing by, ring this scene of rural peace The rice-fields, their winding grassy ridges' A farmer behind his plough, and the stream - Here today a grey-haired stands lost in dream..." MBM's deep interest in English literature is manifest in his writings on Emily Bronte, Robert Frost, D. H. Lawrence and the Bloomsbury Group. They reveal an original mind, not hindered by the Leavisian scrutiny engendered by our university. His essay on Emily Bronte, that strange, brooding - and amazingly young-genius gives us a fresh insight into her "Wuthering Heights". His interest in literature is eclectic. He writes of Martin Wickremasinghe, the Sigiriya graffiti, folk tales, and that almost-forgotten 'little magazine' of fifty odd years ago - "community". These are not the only themes which have inspired him. He writes of the affinities between Emperor Aurelius and the Buddha, Walisinghe Harischandra's battles with the British rulers to protect the Sri Maha Bodhi, "Dukkha" and the Rubaiyat, the changing status of women, Oppenheimer and the atom bomb as well as the beginnings of a bilingual intelligentsia. What amazes me is the breadth of his vision as best illustrated in "the Evolution of Sri Lanka's Performing Arts" where he boldly (and totally unexpectedly for an eighty year old) expresses his optimism of recent trends in music exemplified, for example, by those icons of today's Sinhala youth Bathiya and Santush! This is a book to be kept by your side and savoured in transquility for its many splendours. - Tissa Devendra. **** Back **** |
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