Cameos from the past:
The curse and sublimation of Kuveni
Padma EDIRISINGHE
Kuveni was a powerful woman who helped a foreign prince win the
throne of Lanka. But even in death she is powerful.
Today she is venerated as Maha Loku Kiriammaleththo by the Adivaseens
or the Veddas. She is said to haunt the forest glades of Sabaragamuwa
having followed her children there. The tiger curse of Kuveni too is a
well-known fact.
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Legend: A fresco from ‘Sinhalavadana’ in Ajantha Caves depicting
the enticing of the Prince by Kuveni. |
No parents of Lanka would ever name their new born daughter Kuveni
since they consider it an ill-fated name plus the name of a Yakka woman.
All the learned of Lanka may bellow in chorus that Yakkas are not
devils, but just another human tribe who inhabited the island during
pre-Vijaya times or pre-Aryan times, but the stigma attached to Kuveni
cannot be erased.
For the average man and woman Kuveni will always remain a she-devil
who by magical devilish powers assumed the form of a beautiful damsel
and enticed a prince.
Some even go on to identify these Yakkas or Yakkos with the Mara
Senawa, the contingent of Maraya who tried to block Bodhisatva’s path to
Enlightenment. That would certainly subscribe to make them more
vicious... gnashing long teeth, dishevelled hair, claw like finger
nails.
The temple murals from which a good part of our average Buddhists get
their religious education add to the imagination making them more
ferocious than what they really are or were.
Yet no one disputes the fact that the Yakkas were very clever and
strong, even virile subsisting on a diet of kurakkan and wild flesh.
Even today, a feat of massive dimensions is called by our locals “a
Yakage Vedak” a devil’s work.
Kuveni indeed performed a Yakage Vedak or more correctly a Yakkinige
Vedak when she helped the prince. How did the Veddas take her on?
According to many a scholar the Veddas descend from the Yakkas with
antecedents going back to the Balangoda Man.
Adivaseens
It was (as a compilation on Adivaseens by the University of
Sabaragamuwa informs) Dr. Shiran Deraniyagla who propounded this theory
in detail. (The writer is presently translating this compilation into
English that has acquainted her with a new area.) The Veddas are only
too happy to claim descent from the powerful Yakkas who helped King
Pandukabhaya in his construction of the new city of Anuradhapura.
Pandukabhaya seems to have been a skilful diplomat who wooed the race
already existing by devolving posts and other favours on the leaders of
that community. Better than the eternal fighting and murder of each
other by hundreds.
Yet still the chants of “Nahi Verana Verani” were unheard of, in the
island since these were pre-Buddhist days, but the sagacity of
Pandukabhaya prevailed, for the Yakkas too have long memories.
Love
A woman of theirs, the daughter of the leader himself after falling
in love with the Prince just landed had betrayed the island to him and
his race.
They were seething with plans for revenge and grabbing the land back.
On the upper bund of Abhaya Wewa, Lanka’s first major tank the King
built large residences for the two major Yakkas, Chiththaraja and
Kalavela.
Yakkas
In the prince’s wars with his uncles, the appeased Yakkas had helped
the diplomatic ruler much. Land for kurakkan cultivation had been
allotted to them and the writer remembers a newspaper report where the
present day Veddas claim ownership to this land on inheritance rights
from the Yakkas.
However, later the Yakkas and the Veddas descending from them seem to
have wandered away from the vicinity of Sinhala capitals and sheltered
themselves in the slopes around Samanala Kuta or Adam’s Peak.
This is the background to Sabaragamuwa becoming their major abode
before they move on to Uva (Bintenna) and further East later. The two
unfortunate children of Vijaya-Kuveni union too according to legend had
fled to the hills ranging around Samantha Kuta.
The story of how the ungrateful Vijaya, Lanka’s first king chased
away Kuveni with the offspring after importing a princess of noble birth
from South India for his consecration is too well-known history to be
related in detail.
Kuveni was killed by her relatives when she went back to them to ask
for help, leaving the two children in the forest glades of Bambawa of
the North West region (a village that yet exists). And when the mother
did not return they trekked towards Sabaragamuwa.
Perhaps the phantom of the mother followed them. She lives in that
form among the Veddas today in a sublimated form according to an article
subscribed by one Dayananda Binaragama to the earlier mentioned
compilation.
She is known as Kuveni Kiri Ammelaththo. Other names for her varying
with Veddah habitats are Indigolle Kiriamma, Unapane Kiriamma, Kande
Kiriamma, Divas Kiriamma, Wellasse Kiriamma, Kukulapola Kiriamma and
Bili Kiriamma.
Gomba
However Maha Loku Kiriammelaththo remains the most popular term of
veneration Gomba, a Vedda leader had once exulted, “We may be forest
haunters, but Kiriamma is our goddess. (“Lankawe Veddo” by E.M.
Ratnapala).
According to Binaragama another prevalent legend about Kuveni among
the Veddas is that she is the elder sister of God Saman that implies a
further elevation of her position. For the Veddas, Devas too were and
are another living tribe.
Kuveni may have culminated herself as the chief benefactress of
mostly the women and children, the Veddas as the title Maha
Kiriammaleththo suggests.
She may, in their imagination have taken wing to become the Akka of
God Saman, patron God of the Sacred Samanala Kande. But somewhere around
the 6th or 5th century BC she was just a spurned woman, subject to the
ingratitude of a male she had helped with dedication forsaking her kith
and kin.
Fled
Needless to say there were no law courts then, no human rights
commissions, no maintenance systems to feed herself and the kids. So she
fled to the shelter of the surrounding nettled forest after she was
chased away from the Palace with her children.
Then a strange thing happened according to folk legend. A tiger cub
from the thick foliage sprang on her path.
Instinct
Almost by instinct, the fury against Prince Vijaya still seething
within her like red hot oil in a cauldron, she had held the Tiger cub on
to her chest and uttered, “May the curse of the Tiger befall all those
of Vijaya’s race”. This curse, according to some sources is known as
Devi Dhosha, devi meaning tiger and dosha, curse.
Whether one believes in curses or not is another matter. But now that
Kuveni is sublimated it is time she removed her curse.
Vijaya’s race has suffered enough for his treachery. But Kuveni even
in her sublimated status may not have access to English newspapers to
read this request though the language itself today is zooming to the
high heavens.
But wait. If this female could have run such a long span of 2500
years plus in our history chanting her curse too there is nothing
impossible for her.
If she is not ready to withdraw the Tiger’s curse, it is time that
mediators take speedy action inclusive of staging a Kohomba Kankariya
before the island’s population gets decimated at junctions and in public
conveyances and crowded places as railway stations and bus-stands where
the murderous Tigers of the North are letting out their killer bombs
like the Reeri Yakkos or blood sucking devils.
Two newspapers on Freedom
“February 3, midnight. As the clock’s hand veered to one minute past,
the burst of crackers heralding the “appointed day” for Lanka’s
Independence crashed into the silence of the night.
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Freedom: Lanka’s history in print |
The peals of church and temple bells rang out the good tidings in the
early hours of the morning. Their message was caught and re-echoed by
the ships from foreign lands, saluting the event of the ancient nation
taking its rightful place in the assembly of Free Nations of the world”.
The above is a part from the impression report that the “Ceylon
Observer” reporter wrote to his newspaper on 4th of February, 1948 on
the heading “Dawn of Freedom Breaks Over Lanka”.
At the same day the “Ceylon Daily News” reporter wrote that Sri Lanka
has reborn as a new dominion nation.
“To day is the appointed day and the new dominion of Ceylon was born
shortly after midnight....... From today His Majiesty’s Government in
the United Kingdom will have no responsibility for the Government of
Ceylon”.
Below the above mentioned article with the heading “Birth of New
Dominion of Ceylon”, there was another article with the topic “Hoisting
of Lion Flag”. In this the writer says how gorgeous were the island-wide
celebration that held under the Lion Flag. However, a day before this
report were published another article had revealed in the same paper,
with the heading “Where Lion Flag Is Not Acceptable”.
In this writer says: “Neither the Lion Flag nor the Nandhi flag is to
be used for decorative or other purposes in areas like the Northern
Province where the Lion Flag is not acceptable. And Government has
decided that in such places the Union Jack alone should fly from
official flagstaffs”.
The above mentioned article could be taken as one of the first
documents which shows the necessity of a National Flag which would be
worth a fortune to a social scientist because of the same reason.
“Colombo was Robed in a Mantle of Splendour” was the heading of the
“Ceylon Observer” which published on 5th of February, 1948.
In the same paper there was an article which had been written on the
topic “First Day of Ceylon’s Freedom”.
This report was significant because of the simple and understandable
way this reporter had told that the freedom came to Ceylon to stay
forever.
The heading of “Ceylon Daily News” on the same day was “New Era of
Independence Begins’. And its sub-heading was “Decorated Streets and
Floodlit Buildings”. It also spoke about the prisoners that were
released in the Independence day.
Three days before freedom, a famous writer, Jastin Jayawardana, wrote
an article to a newspaper with a poem from Rabindranath Tagore’s
Githanjali.
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
where knowledge is free;
where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow
domestic walls;
where words come out from the depth of truths;
where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
where the dear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary
desert sand of dead habit;
where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and
action; Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake:
- Hela Isuru
University of Peradeniya BBA Online Programme
The structure of the Conventional University system in Sri Lanka
allows only a very small percentage of students to pursue Undergraduate
Degree Programmes.
The latest statistics have revealed that out of several hundred
thousands who sit the G.C.E. (O/L) Examination, only 48% qualify to
pursue higher studies. Out of the total number who sits the advanced
level examination, only 15% get the opportunity to enter the
Universities.
The internal graduates who come out of the Universities too need
continuing education to keep themselves abreast of what is going on in
their respective fields. Those others who fail to obtain internal
university degrees should be provided distant and continuing education
to obtain knowledge they missed at one stage of their lives.
What has been the response of the Higher Education Institutions in
other countries in this regard? Most Universities in the developed world
have engaged in distance and continuing education to an extent beyond
what they were ever before.
There is a need to provide alternative pathways for obtaining
competence and higher educational qualifications for career advancement.
Presently, these goals are met by the External Degree Programmes
conducted by many conventional Universities to some extent.
CDCE is now in the process of developing an online BBA programme, as
our first Pilot Online Degree Programme to be offered through the CDCE
and conducted by the Department of Management Studies of the Faculty of
Arts, University of Peradeniya.
The proposed online BBA programme will run over a period of 3 years
duration. The students who follow the 1st year programme will receive a
certificate, and the students who proceed to the 2nd year will receive a
Diploma, while students who complete all three years, which consists of
23 course units and 90 course credits, will be entitled to obtain the
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Degree. Course titles and
number of credits are given in the chart given.
Until the centre develops to a level capable of delivering all
courses online, it will continue to offer programmes in the traditional
and conventional modes which encompasses print media partly supported by
electronic media.
- Professor R.L. Wijeyeweera, BDS, Ph.D (New York)
Director, Centre for Distance and Continuing Education (CDCE),
University of Peradeniya and Former Dean, Faculty of Dental Sciences,
University of Peradeniya
Course Title Credits
Business Mathematics and Statistics 4
Business Communication 4
Organization and Management 4
Business Economics 4
Financial Accounting 4
Behavioral science 4
Human Resources Management 4
Programming Fundamentals 4
Entrepreneurship 4
Financial Management 4
Management Science 4
Cost and Management Accounting 4
Marketing Management 4
Auditing and Taxation 4
Strategic Management 4
Management Case Studies and Seminar 4
Management Information System 4
Business Risks and Insurance 4
Tourism Management 4
Project Management 4
International Business 4
Business Law 4
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Total Credits 90 |
