Insights to cosmology as a creative knowledge source

Professor Sunanda MAHENDRA

The term cosmology could be understood from several diverse points of view. The etymological reference is made to the Greek term kosmos meaning the universe, and the eventual subject dealing on it. Trying to perceive what universe means has its roots in several subject areas as astronomers would refer to various planets and their findings as observed from Earth.

Creative religious literature may refer this to hell, heaven and other places. This, though unseen, presumes to be significant to the well being and behaviour of individuals. Reading Sinhala Sahityagata Suralova Bambalova Saha Apaya I was exposed to three worlds referred to in Sinhala literature.

Ven. Anuradha Sudhammika Theri attempts to trace various references to the three worlds: suralova, bamblova and apaya. Her work is a post graduate thesis adapted for publication, perhaps amending some of the high flown areas. The reader, however, may get a glimpse of what these mythical worlds are as referred to in the classical contexts.

Sura lova and Bambalova are heavenly abodes where the good human beings enter, while apaya is the hell, where the evildoers enter. Ven. Sudhammika Theri's task is to pinpoint some early Sinhala classical works such as Jataka Potha, Saddharmaratnavaliya, Amavatura and Butsarana making reader aware of the significance of these places. The researcher, perhaps unknowingly, tends to indicate that the very worlds, though denoted as 'hell' and 'heaven', exist in the realistic plane of this very same plane of living.

She also indicates that some religious stories are good fairytales and good fantasies. The mysticism had to be understood as another plane of the realism we discuss today.

The very same hell or heaven could be perceived as a literary creative technique used as a magical device. Ven. Sudhammiks Theri attributes some of these worldly visions like suralova and bambalova are the legacy of a pre-Buddhist myth and legend. They have been utilized for various sermons and instructions of Buddha with the lapse of time.

This heritage had been a lineage of 'Bhanaka tradition', which had been implanted in various oriental countries, resulting in the dimension of the very original nature, as changes may have been a socio-cultural necessity. This work has three major chapters and the fourth is a conclusion of the findings with several contemporary interpretations.

As a reader I felt that the three major chapters contained good material drawn from both Pali and Sinhala texts. Scholar monks who had access to both languages had utilized Pali as the basic source of inspiration, as the research indicates.

Quite a number of words in classical Sinhala literature are clarified with their etymological contexts giving vent to broader studies. Though the three worlds are described broadly, there are several sub division in each of the categories.

For example there are several heavenly abodes too. Similarly there are several apayas or hells.

The work is an amalgamation of the religious studies and literary studies. In various other forms of literature one may find several similarities upon comparison. This could be taken up in comparative literary studies.

Ven. Anuaradha Sudhammika Theri's work may not be taken into serious consideration by our pack of pseudo-post modernists. But I wonder why it could not be so. If Roland Barthes' 'Mythologies' could be regarded as a series of insights to modern literature, the same could well be applied to this work as well. As such the work could provide many a reference to the traditional knowledge sources inherited over the years, but with a discriminative critical insight. The warning is that the work is an interpretation to the Buddhist literary sources.

Buddhist cosmological knowledge had gone to several creative literary works both ancient and modern. The god concept as expounded in most Buddhist texts cannot be discerned as authentic teachings of the Buddha. As such devas or 'gods' in classical Sinhala texts are mostly reinterpretations as moral guidance via creative means. Some good creative examples come from the Petha Vatthu and Saddharmaratnavaliya, which is more an adaptation of Dhammapadattakatha in parts.

The present work gives way to insights of this nature. The method adopted in the research is more of deskwork format. This is an excellent work compared with many a source book in comparison of Pali and Sinhala passages to exemplify the concept of cosmology.

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