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| Wednesday, 1 September 2004 |
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Focus on books Rediscovering Cumaratunga by Prof. Sunanda Mahendra The modern day Sinhala reader should be grateful to Visidunu publishers for the effort they made in order to help rediscover and re-evaluate the ocean of literary and classical treasure left behind by the scholar Cumaratunga Munidasa (1887-1944).
In this compilation, there are 24 essays with a preface and three appendices. All in all, it is the best compilation so far come to stay on the aspects of the scholar Cumaratunga's contribution to national culture and literature. His halo of skills are not confined to a secluded literary venture, instead spread into various fields such as journalism (being the editor of such periodicals as Lakmini Pahana, Swadesha Mitraya, Subasa and an English paper titled The Helios) teaching at the school level and at training school level, commentator, social reformer, debater and the creative writer both in prose and verse. His ability in the field of linguistics is a subject taken seriously by the scholars such as Prof. Wimal Balagalla, Prof. Sarachchandra Wickramasuriya, Prof. W.S. Karunatilaka and the late scholar and educationist, Dr. Gunapala Senadhira. I visualise how unfortunate that the university scholars during his lifetime undermined or neglected his literary activities, leaving him in a constant battle with them. But how very ironic on their latter part, that is represented in the present volume to rediscover him after so many years. This acid irony rests on various factors, presumably the most dominant one being his supreme erudition which naturally over pervaded the lesser luminaries at the time. Creative prose Anyway, I sincerely feel that the modern day literary scholars as teachers should take up his three short creative prose narratives, 'Magul Kema', 'Hatpana' and 'Heen Seraya' far more seriously. Cumaratunga is depicted in the preface to this volume of essays as a pioneer researcher cum investigator, whose main function had been to peep into the realms of learning. As you read some of his commentaries and notes written from poetical works titled as 'Tisara Sandesa Deepaniya' you are sure to get almost all narratives and allusions to terms, parables, anecdotes, myths and legends called from sources at home and abroad (mainly the Sanskrit and the Pali sources). Few years ago the scholar teacher, Da. Du. Na. Weerakoon compiled a short encyclopedia of literary terms as unearthed and commentated by the scholar Cumaratunga (see Cumaratunga Munidasayange Vivarana Shabda Koshaya, Godage 1996). Scholar Cumaratunga had been constantly using the term 'Vimasuma' for research and investigation. At one instance he had said that, 'Irrespective of the source of learning, that lie before you, it is our function to research it. Then it is your duty to comment as how it be re-researched or re-investigated. It is only via this function that the purity of an area of study comes to be revealed.' As far as I perceive this is one of the most profound statements that has to be examined from various points of view. Then he had said that 'even if I were to fall into the pits of the hell on investigation, I should consider it a haven instead of a hell.' This pronouncement was made in his periodical Lakminipahana (1937.07.03). Innovations Most of the new terms that we use today have come as innovations of Cumaratunga via his editorials, feature articles and columns contributed to his periodical from time to time. The terms such as 'Sarasaviya', 'Lakisuru', 'Ritiya', 'Gata', Pata','Vimasuma', 'Garu Buhuman', 'Miyasiya', 'Livisariya', 'Hela' are a few to be found extant in literary sources they were widely used by him, in his writings and popularised in his lectures and discussions with his admirers, who happened to be a group of literary opinion makers of a stem type. His attempt to recreate a form of new narratives through, folk, religious and historical sources is seen for the most part in his Sinhala school texts such as 'Siksha Margaya' and ''Kiyavana Nuwana'. He tries to kindle an interest in the investigation of folk and historical sources by a tinge of wit and humour, which is appealing to the child as well as the adult. Perhaps it may look a point of tangent to state that the Visidunu Publisher, Gevindu Cumaratunga is the grandson of the late scholar Cumaratunga, who has shouldered this stupendous task of compiling an array of learned essays, of contributors living and passed away. He in a certain tone of dismay feels that his grandfather Cumaratunga's services are rather undermined or scoffed at by some mediocrities, in a deliberate attempt to tarnish his image. But I feel that such a thing would never happen to the image of Cumaratunga, if necessary scientific study is floated from various points of view. Perhaps this compilation as is mentioned, could be the stepping stone. A distinguished essayist Selected Essays Author M. B. Mathmaluwe An author publication 7, Sanganandarama Mawatha, Moisey Crescent Road, Matale Of the thirty essays that form this book the first five are around the life in the village he was born. This subject is generally not the theme of our Anglicised literati but being myself a kind of half bred villager I found this of absorbing interest. M.B. Mathmaluwe's name may be familiar to readers of this page where it has figured prominently over the years and this selection is something his former pupils, when he was a Principal of a school in Matale, have made as a gift to their guru who is now an octogenarian. Going over these essays they gave me the impression of being the work of a dignified and cultivated gentleman, who never raises his voice either in praise or in blame. He is certainly very attracted to the culture and life of the village, but his emotions regarding his birthplace figure only in two poems, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the section on the village, a kind of prologue and epilogue to this section. The prologue is saddening. It is about his visit to his old Mahagedera. He awaits 'with bated breath' as he enters to hear a voice or a footstep, but what does he hear - only the sound of bats and the drone of the beetles. It seems symbolic of what has happened to his village and village life. And the epilogue is even more touching. He has taken his grandson to show the young man his 'heritage,' and while watching with him the lovely village landscape with its magnificent hills and rills and a lonely ploughman ploughing in the distance, he suddenly realises that he has himself spurned his heritage when "with hopes 'to progress'/ He left his home for the far city's love." In between these two poems, however, there are plenty of memorable incidents that he recalls, some being the drama and the excitement of the periodic intrusions into the surrounding jungles in pursuit of game. An animal that is used for this purpose is, surprisingly, the buffalo. He refers to John Still who describes the buffalo as the "most intelligent bovine animal that I have ever known." John Still is, of course, referring to the virtues of the buffalo as a stalking animal. It is to that work he is referring, so much so the term 'dadameema,' (though I had used this term before) I had not known that it was actually a 'meema,' meaning a buffalo, that was being spoken of. In the English language the reference is not to a buffalo but to a stalking-horse, behind which a hunter steals upon the unsuspecting victims. Great similarities Being an avid reader Mathmaluwe has found that the Sinhala farmer and the English rural farmer have great similarities. The sense of community, mutual help and the interpersonal relationships of the ande-cultivator and the landlord or the squire are very much the same. There is one difference, however. There were no paid agricultural labourers here. England's green and pleasant land though partly ruined by the invasions of the dark Satanic mills, have more nostalgic writers in that country of their 19th and early 20th century agricultural glory than Sri Lanka which boasts of a 2000 year old greater agricultural glory. Among them were A. G. Street, Flora Thompson, Richard Llwellwyn of How Green was My Valley and a regular publication The Countryman which I think is still in publication. To this list I may add two more titles, Famine in England and Alternative to Death by the Earl of Portsmouth, two books that deal with the folly of modern man who has chosen to neglect the importance of soil; but that needs to be discussed on some other occasion. The rest of his essays cover a wide area of his cultural, literary, historical and contemporary interests. I like his essay on Walisingha Harischandra which was very illuminating for me. Not so widely known and remembered as the man he looked up to, Anagarika Dharmapala, yet he is honoured for the great struggle he made to save Anuradhapura being buried under the shops of butchers and other sundry stalls of commerce. Though I was aware that Harischandra was the saviour of this great historical and spiritual centre of the Buddhists, I did not know the details of the struggle he underwent to save the city. Here for the first time I came to know of the details of his struggle which remain a great feat of heroism, a noble struggle against the forces of ignorance which could open the eyes of our younger generation to a facet of our past still hidden from them in the lessons they should be learning at school. The archaeologist, H.C.P. Bell, does not come out very well in this episode. Dr. Paranavitana has shown that the diggings he had done were not the work of a trained archaeologist. And worse, he had permitted the road engineer to remove stones from this sacred city to be blasted and used as rubble to pave the roads. This enraged the Buddhists of that time. 'Indeed,' says Mathmaluwe, 'it is not far wrong to say that all the roads built during this time in Anuradhapura have been built of stone removed from the ruined monuments!' Different approaches Writing about the Arts he rightly perceives the different approaches to it from the East and the West. It is not only Ananda Coomaraswamy he quotes in defence but also Eric Newton who, in his European Painting and Sculpture (one of those many books put out by Allan Lane in his Pelican series for the benefit of the average reader) notes to the surprise of the many at that time that, "The idea of serenity has never been so completely caught and held by any European sculptor as the countless cross-legged Buddhas of Ceylon." Coomarswamy took a long time to get the Europeans to accept this view. When he was in Ceylon on his first visit as a geologist he had a running battle with the Observer of that time to clear the wrong notions about the skill of the unknown Asian sculptors. Finally he did get his point across as we can see from people like Eric Newton remarking that, "Roughly speaking, the story of art is the story of two unconnected groups with different points of view." All this has been taken notice of well by Mathmaluwe in his essay on The Artist's Responsibility to Society. But it is a pity that he appears not to have noticed the deleterious influence of the contact with the West on the arts of Ceylon in particular when Coomaraswamy says, "As in India, the direct and the indirect results that followed in Ceylon with her contact with the West have been most disastrous." This is evident to me in his essay on The Evolution of Sri Lanka's Performing Arts. Except for two of our performing artistes Sarathchandra, who revived the folk play, and Amaradeva, who restored the folk idiom, the rest in my opinion do not qualify to earn the title Asian. Not that I am opposed to borrowings and influences. My point is that in that process the Asian identity must be dominant. The example I can quote for this is the superb work of Lionel Ranwala in his field of music, an unimpeachable artist whose untimely death was a national disaster. There are many other interesting essays like the notion of 'dukka' in human life as seen in the Rubaiyat, the affinity in the thoughts of Emperor Aurelius with Buddhism, essays on the notable lives of some Sri Lankans, on Robert Frost his favourite poet and two essays one on the bilingual intelligentsia and the other on the function of the folk idiom, the one helping to answer some questions raised by the other. This book of essays is a very flavoursome potpourri, which can be dipped into from time to time whenever the need for some intellectual stimulation arises. S. Pathiravitana **** Back **** |
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In order to mark his 117th birth anniversary that fell on July 25, a
commemorative ceremony was held on the 26th at the Museum auditorium.
Followed by a series of lectures by modern scholars, a volume of learned
essays is now published by the said publishers, titled Suwahas Naya
Mannasi Isivarayano (the prophet with thousands of insights).
