Journalistic view on Lankan Tamil literature

K S Sivakumaran

As far as I know the only academic belonging to the Sinhala community and from the Sinhala Department to show some interest in Lankan Tamil literature and the arts is Prof Emeritus Tissa Kariyawasam. He gave his views in Sinhala to the Sinhala audience.

Prof Tissa Kariyawasam

From the English Department those belonging to the Sinhala community that wrote in English were Professor Emeritus Ysamine Gooneratne, Prof. Walter Perera and Prof Rajiva Wijesinha. They have commented in writing something pertaining to this writer while referring to Lankan Tamil Culture. Another Sinhala was Prof Wimal Dissanaike who gave a half an hour talk on the English Service of the then Radio Ceylon based on this writer’s maiden booklet-Tamil Writing in Sri Lanka (1974).

[SUBHEAD] Prominent journalists

But there were other academics and non-academics, among them three prominent journalists, who showed interest, were Professor Emeritus Ashley Halpe, Dr Lakshmi de Silva, Tissa Abeysekera, Tissa Jayatileke, Dr. Nihal Fernando, and Emeritus Prof J B Dissanaike. The journalists concerned were the late Mervyn de Silva, A J Gunawardena and the late Ajith Samaranayke. Susil Siriwardena got some of my articles translated into Sinhala. Denagama Sriwardena and Sundara de Mel assigned journalists to interview us for their publications.

At the same time beginning with S Muttiah of the then Sunday Times, Denzil Pieris of the then Evening Observer, Mervyn de Silva of the then Ceylon Daily News, Reggie Michael of the then Daily Mirror, Rita Sebastian of the then Sunday Times, Rex de Silva of the then Weekend, Vijitha Yapa of the then Sunday Island, Gamini Weerakoon of The Island, Lasantha Wicktramatunge of the then Sunday Leader, Jayatilleke de Silva of the Sunday Observer and later Daily News, Rohan Abeywardena of Sunday Standard and the present editors: Prabath Sahabandu of the Daily Island, Lynn Ockersz of Daily News, Rajpal Abeynaike of Lakbimanews and Malinda Seneviratne of The Nation have kindly given space in their papers for me to write on the Lankan Tamil Cultural Scene. Hana Ibrahim of Ceylon Today has also published two or three articles of mine. I thank them all. But the sad fact is that none of the journalists and editors cared to get my views on Lankan Tamil Literature in an interview format so far despite the fact that this writer is in the field for more than half a century.

Let that be.

The purpose of this week’s column is to put on record a fragment of the history of Lankan English Journalism in relation to Tamil Literature in this country and to focus on some of the views of Prof Tissa Kariyawasam.

Way back in July 1988 the Bulletin of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the Nagasaki University in Japan in its Vol 29, No 1 published an interview with Tissa Kariyawasam. An academic of the University, Le Roy Robinson, a Black American conducted the interview.Just a sample

Tissa K: “Nadagama came to Sri Lanka with the Tamils of South India. In the Northern and Eastern provinces there was genre of Nadagam or Koothu plays among Tamils. Such as Naatuk Koothu, Kaaman Koothu, Vada Moadi, Then Moadi,. The South Indian Nadagam was introduced into Sri Lanka when some local rulers, Sinhala kings of Kandy, established relations with South Indian royal families to bring over princesses as royal consorts of Sinhalese kings. That was very early in the 17th century. Also Indian performers visited Kandy, and Nadagama had royal patronage.’ Robinson: So then Sinhalas and Tamils were”mixed” early in Sri Lankan history?

T K: Yes, the Sinhala and Tamil people were mixed from early periods of our history. Some Tamil kings ruled the country. They have been described in the Chronicles of Sri Lanka. During the period of Kotte in the 15th century, some Tamils were married to members of the royal families.

R: Changing the subject, would you mind going into the contemporary Tamil drama in Sri Lanka?

T K: Let me start with 25 years ago or so. The Tamils in Sri Lanka had a long heritage of folk plays, as I suggested, but local Tamil playwrights ignored this traditional treasure and imitated their counterparts.

R: Going back a little, has there been much production of Sinhala plays in the Tamil language?

T K: As you know, only a few Sinhalas understand Tamil. And politically motivated fights have created a big gap between the Sinhalas and Tamils. So in the field of culture, there is little influence or any other bond between these two cultures. One Tamil literary journalist, K S Sivakumaran tries at least to introduce Tamil and Sinhala cultures to each other in his newspaper writings. He’s been doing this for almost thirty years. This is a funny situation. Please read the rest of the interview for more views by Tissa Kariyawasam on the aspects of culture in Sri Lanka. Readers are invited to read his long essay in Sinhala on Lankan Tamil Literature included in a book published by the Godage Brothers.

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