Talk Show with Jay Dino:

Sri Lanka in the Indian imagination

Elephant Pass, where soldiers from the north (Jaffna Peninsula) and the south (the mainland) met a couple of days ago, and celebrated the victory of its recovery, is a geographical feature probably coming down from pre-historic times when the Indian sub

continent is said to have been formed by a volcanic eruption, which caused the sea bed to be pushed upwards and formed into land. It may have been as old as the ideas of Adam's Bridge or Adam's Peak.

Which are themselves later versions of ancient Hindu myths about Rama and Sita, Hanuman and Ravana and of god Saman. The Ramayana was finalised in its present form in the seventh or eighth century BC i.e. before the Vedas and the Buddha.

Lovely Women

Rama and Sita

Harish Trivedi, Professor of English, University of Delhi writes about The Golden Island of Demons and Lovely Women: Sri Lanka in the Indian Imagination in a collection of essays published in honour of Professor Ashley Halpe'.

Taking an inclusive or catholic view of history and myth, Trivedi, compares the fight between Rama and Ravana to that between David and Goliath in the Old Testament.

"Ravana is huger and 10-headed; he also rides a mighty chariot when he comes out to fight Rama, a vehicle that can be said to be quite like an impregnable armoured vehicle of our times.

Rama in contrast is without any chariot at all and indeed barefoot. Rama expounds to Vibhishana (the brother of Ravana, who has defected and crossed over to Rama's side) that the only impregnable chariot is that, in which valour and patience are the two wheels, might, discrimination and self control and the desire to do well for others are the four horses, which are yoked together by the reins of forgiveness, even-handedness etc (Tulsi Das, 735)".

In the Old Testament, like Rama, David is a barefoot shepherd's boy who arrives on the battlefield armed only with a sling or catapult. But he slings one stone at Goliath's forehead and when the giant falls, dazed by the blow, cuts off the giant's head with the giant's own sword.

Lanka made of gold

Immediately after winning the battle and reclaiming Sita, Rama sets off home in the aeroplane, called the Pushpaka Vimana, which Ravana had and which he lost to Rama.

Rama's younger brother Lakshmana now asks him, if he would not like to retain any part of the resplendently rich kingdom of Lanka, that he has just conquered and Rama replies:

"This Lanka made of gold does not attract me, Lakshmana, one's mother and one's motherland are preferable even to heaven."

From this most ancient of epics one can be a 'time traveller' as if by the dandu monara yanthraya of the Sinhala imagination, to the most recent 'epic' written by the late Nihal de Silva called 'The Road From Elephant Pass'.

Romeo and Juliet theme

It is a modern epic journey from the battlefield of Elephant Pass, when it was overrun by the LTTE, through the wilds of Wilpattu to Colombo, meeting various hazards on the way, by a male Sinhala soldier and a female Tamil LTTE cadre, on a common mission. The story tells how as the journey proceeds the enemies gradually become friends and finally lovers, re-enacting the Romeo and Juliet theme in the Sri Lankan setting. It ends in tragedy for the lovers but does foresee a better turn of events for the two communities.

It emphasises the possibility of transforming enmity into love through a nuanced process of human interaction for a common cause.