Martin Wickramasinghe
An icon of world intellectual heritage:
Dr. W. A. Abeysinghe
Way back in 1964, Joseph Needham, fellow and president of Caius
College, Cambridge, writing a foreword to Martin Wickramasinghe’s
‘Buddhism and Culture’ opined thus:
”I have read these essays of my friend Martin Wickramasinghe with
great interest and appreciation and commend them to all readers in the
Western as well as Eastern world. For the former especially, there is no
greater need than a better understanding of the world-outlooks of the
peoples of Asia, and here we have an enlightened Buddhist telling us of
his reactions to Russian and West European literature, to modern
education, science and learning. With this we can all, as it were, sit
in a basket chair at Nawala (Rajagiriya) and enjoy the conversation of
one of the most active minds of contemporary Ceylon.”
Entry into the Field
For over six decades up to his death on July 23, 1976, as one of the
most actively involved intellectuals, Martin Wickramasinghe has been a
dominant and dynamic figure in the Sri Lankan literary scene of the 20th
century. Though reference has been made by his bibliographers, to a
“tiny booklet of 12 pages entitled Balopadesaya (which incidentally was
published in 2003 by the Martin Wickramasinghe Trust) written by a boy
of 13 years named Martin Wickramasinghe, being the son of late Don
Bastian Wickramasinghe. Officer of Police, his ascertainable literary
career really begins in 1914, the year Leela, his first novel subtitled
as Rasawath Katantarayak appeared in print.
Martin Wickramasinghe |
During a period of 62 years spanning from 1914 to 1976, Martin
Wickramasinghe produced nearly 2000 pieces of writings both in Sinhala
and English, inclusive of nearly 90 books. Those writings can broadly be
categorized into three main groups; creative, academic and journalistic.
In all these three forms of writing, his subject field encompasses a
wide range in the humanities and the sciences.
His main concern however, was with subjects such as language,
literature both oriental and occidental religion, philosophy, culture
and social anthropology.
Journalist of high calibre
As it was the case with many men of letters, Wickramasinghe too
started his writing career as a journalist. The ‘journalist’ during his
time – especially during the pre-Indepdendence era and a few decades
immediately thereafter – was a man of a different mould, in stark
contrast to his present day counterpart, the elegantly dressed
computer-literate media-man who dares to overstep a particular branch of
his chosen journalistic field he is supposed to have specialized.
The ‘journalist’ in Martin Wickramasinghe was an erudite personality
disciplined in a variety of subject fields ranging from Sinhala culture
to Indian Vedanta philosophy and Western rationalism. His valuable and
perennial contributions to various journals and newspapers at that time
before, during and after the time he adorned the highest editorial
chairs of Dinamina and Silumina – are full of meaning even in the first
decade of the third millennium and one feels obliged to congratulate the
‘Martin Wickramasinghe Trust’ for the posthumous publications of many of
those articles in book form.
In his journalistic career, both as a professional and a freelancer,
he used quite a few pseudonyms, in addition to his writings in the
proper name. One of such interesting pseudonyms during the early period,
was ‘Malalagama MV.’
He also wrote under such pen names as Hetuvadi, Vijitha Manuwarna and
Mayurapada. Though written in a very readable jounralistic style,
Mayurapada’s contributions to Silumina were scholarly columns of an
enlightened intellectual of the highest calibre.
He was a pioneer journalist who brought knowledge on subjects such as
biology, archaeology, social anthropology and theory of evolution to the
Sinhala reading public at a time when such subjects were quite alien to
our country.
In the context of journalism in Sri Lanka, Martin Wickramasinghe
emerges not merely as a writer of and a commentator on various subjects,
but as an involved and enlightened intellectual who so selflessly played
his role in the cultural resurgence and national awakening during the
early part of the last century.
Being a trend setter
Martin Wickramasinghe’s contribution to Sinhala fiction, in both
short story and novel, has been evaluated fairly well and a host of
critical studies, mainly in Sinhala, has appeared during the last three
decades. Suffice it to say at this instance, that here too, he was a
pioneer.
He was undoubtedly the first Sinhala writer who was responsible for
the emergence of the truly realistic novel and Gamperaliya, the first of
the celebrated trilogy (the other two works being Kaliyugaya and
Yugantaya) which appeared in 1944 was a landmark in the history of
Sinhala fiction. Then again, nobody disputes the fact that Viragaya was
the first pschological novel, which set in motion a series of such
works, shaping the Sinhala novel into a serious form of art.
Our short story too owes much to Martin Wickramasinghe, for he
successfully fashioned it into a delicate and sensitive mode of fiction,
having immensely derived inspiration from the Chekhovian tradition of
the Russian short story. The numerous translations of his novels and
short stories into English, French, Chinese and East European Slovak
languages including Russian and Bulgarian are fitting testimonials to
the creative genius of the Sri Lankan celebrity, fondly descriled as the
Koggala Isivaraya (sage of Koggala) by a grateful nation.
I personally feel, that it is in his critical works and academic
essays that Martin Wickramasinghe vociferously expresses himself. His
wide knowledge of religion and philosophy, his insight into life and his
incisive interpretations of culture and civilization brought into being
an intellectual par excellence.
Pioneering works
When Sinhala Sahitye Negeema, another pioneer work in literary
studies, appeared in the early years of Nineteen Forties, Prof. Senarat
Paranavithane, reviewing the book in Ceylon Daily News acclaimed it as a
'book, on the whole, is thought - provoking and ought to go a long way
in the creation of a good literary taste among the Sinhala reading
public.'
This landmark critical study was later translated into English by
Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra entitled 'Landmarks of Sinhalese
Literature' and the celebrated translator had this to say of Martin
Wickramasinghe:
"In the meantime ..... the original work .... still continues to be
the most daring and thought provoking estimate of classical Sinhalese
literature that has emanated from the hand of any critic. Most of the
critical works subsequently written has been merely a rehash of the
views expressed by Wickramasinghe. By and large, his estimate of the
classics has stood the test of time and has come to be generally
accepted by the critical reader."
Martin Wickramasinghe was not a writer or a scholar who amassed
knowledge just for the sake of amassing it. Any kind of pedantry was not
evident in his writings. The wealth of knowledge he acquired from
various sources, be it Sinhala folklore, Indian Vedanta philosophy,
Russian Novel or Freudian psycho analysis, he incisively interpreted it
in terms of our culture and society, in a thought provoking manner,
thereby adding his wisdom into the world intellectual heritage. In an
essay as short as this, I do not for a moment think that justice could
be done to this literary collosus, in the context of his contribution in
the academic arena. Nevertheless, I cannot resist quoting a few random
sentences from his interesting comparison of 'The Buddhist Jataka
Stories and the Russian Novel', where he dismisses scholars of the
calibre of Prof. Winternitz, and says thus:
"The spiritual, psychological and sometimes the environmental
elements that combine to make some peculiar characters in the novels of
certain Russian writers, have affinities to those elements of the
characters of some of the Jataka Stories. These affinities may be mainly
due to similarities of experience and the philosophy of life of the
Russian novelists and the Buddhist writers who handled the Jataka
Stories. Ancient India was, like pre-revolutionary Russia, a vast
country, with more or less similar economic conditions, and a
heterogeneous population oppressed by rigid social and religious
conventions."
It was this critical approach to many branches of learning, so
characteristic of Martin Wickramasinghe's intellectual discipline, that
inspired Prof. Joseph Needham to call him 'one of the most active minds
of contemporary Ceylon.' |