First Sinhala newspaper:

Lankaloka

Padma Edirisinghe

In a country mostly populated by Sinhalese, it may appear rather strange that newspapers in the Sinhala medium made their debut much later than the English newspapers. But that was almost an inevitable situation in a country predominated by the interests of the colonial masters. So while a number of English newspapers were catering to the English readership, Sinhala and (perhaps) Tamil papers were yet to see the light of day.

And when they did, they appeared in a very rudimentary form under names as Novus Kadadasi (paper carrying news) and Aranchi patra. The latter term came to general use though the first Sinhala newspaper, born in June 1860 has used the term, Lankalokaya nam Patraya. Word Patraya or Pattare has trailed over the years and centuries ever since then.

Lankalokaya was born in a press at Galle and in size was about a foolscap paper. Price six pence. Publisher W A Etin who had published it on behalf of Mudaliyar C W K Jayawardena. Editor William Perera Ranasinghe though Dr K D G Wimalaratne had made a later correction as that the real editor was Ven Bulathgama Dhammalankara Siri Sumanatissa Thera According to Dr K D Paranavithana, Consultant to the Archives, this venerable, was a close associate of the contemporary Siamese king Chulalankara. When the royal friend had asked the Thera what he desires as a gift he had, opted for a printing press and the king had made arrangements to have one shipped from London. Today, this press that put out Lankalokaya lies at Ranwella Temple off Kataluwa.

Researchers delving into the origin and evolution of Sinhala newspapers have failed to lay hands on the initial copies of this newspaper. The earliest copy now deposited in the Archives and claiming discovery by Dr K D Paranavithana at Kumara Kande Vihara in Dodanduwa when going through a bundle of old documents. Presented to the Archives it has been the one issued on September 10, 1860. It is introduced as the sixth Patraya of the first book whatever that means.

Lankalokaya has been issued (for some obscure reason) on the 10th and 24th of every month. Were these dates to fall on a Sunday the paper would appear on the following Monday. That obviously makes it a non-Sunday newspaper. The very first page has been allotted to advertisements. Here is a typical advertisement the flavour of it however lost in the translation into English, since the Sinhala used has a rare indigenous and unsophisticated quality of its own sometimes overlooking grammatical restrictions.

“A pound will be gifted to those who give us information on the thieves who rob the food stored in the carriage stands of Habaraduwa, Goiyapana and Mirissa, meant for the horses of the Matara bound carriages”.

Talk of present day lawlessness! Were some of them as equally starved as some, who cry today over the rise of COL, to descend to the level of stealing food meant for animals? The world is certainly weird. Word used for Matara bound carriages in this advertisement is Ashva Koachchi (Horse-driven coaches). The word Koachchi (an adaptation of the English word coach) stayed on to be used for the fuel powered Yakada Yakas long after the horses were retired and is still bandied about in local use, a popular alternative to the word, Dumriya, vehicle using steam.

The above advertisement has been inserted by Mohideen Bawa and Company, who obviously were the businessmen who supplied food to the horses, an indication that the Sinhala businessman like the Sinhala newspaper was still lagging behind.

Yet to mitigate the majorly dry news conveying aspect it had contained a few articles by Free-lancers on Ayurveda and religions. Actually this paper supplied a God-sent opportunity to these writers as literary-wise it was a very decadent age where native writers were a forgotten lot. The rest of this paper was replete with local news including news from the Courts and foreign news, the latter usually copied from English newspapers whose editors were very generous to supply these news, never considering the Sinhala papers as rivals, as the readership was widely different.

Here is a specimen of the Court News.

“Number 6 - the charge against Galgoda Vidanalage Hamy, that of letting cattle stray into the garden and killing them (?) is hereby dropped on the advice of the Second Counsel of the Maheshika (Queen of England).

Here is general news. “The family members of the deceased Governor Ward including his Kumarihamy reached Galle Harbour last Friday”.

This news is rather mysterious for it is a commonly accepted fact that only one British Governor (one of the two Andersons) died here. An explanation can be provided by a reader. Perhaps the veteran writer Tissa Devendra could help in.

And here is another bit of sensational news, revealing the forms of punishment meted out to law-offenders in the early period of British rule that covered a good part of the globe giving them a widely spread out “punishment complex”.

“Of the 28 criminals shipped to Malacca six have died. There were two notaries in that group, one of whom is Goonetileka of Harispattuwa”.

Criminals had also been sent to Cape Town in Africa. The hazardous oceanic trip itself was a punishment and many died on the way. Some were also sent to Mauritius. Its most famous Sri Lankan prisoner was Ehelapola Maha Adikaram who of course lived long to undergo a natural death. His tomb lies there. Now all that is mine and not published in Lankalokaya that seemed not to have carried long narratives. Anyway there seems to have been a Letters to the Editor column, that eventually became very popular feature. For it exercised the creative talent of many writers in the country, their talents “withering in the desert air”. Many however wrote under assumed names fearing retribution, especially when they criticized State actions. These names themselves were very creative. But they progressed as a vibrant component of the Sinhala newspapers in the later papers such as Lakminipahana that followed Lankalokaya which seems to have been an improvement on Lankalokaya. The venue of publication too changes from Galle to Colombo, to No 77 of “Vonvondaal Strret”, a premise graced by elephants! Etun Bandi watte. Editor Jayasuriya Arachchige Hendrick Perera. However, we must remain grateful to those enterprising “actors” behind the maiden Sinhala newspaper for daring to break into new ground at a time when it was considered that the major race did not deserve a paper using its own language.

Writer is indebted to Siri Thilakasiri, author of 19th C Sri Lanka for some of these facts