Studies in folklore of Yapahuva

Folklore has been one of the favourite studies down the centuries. Apart from the understanding of cultures and people who matter in those cultures there are many other areas left to be revealed and the world transmitted orally and brought out in the form of publications demarcating the areas from which they stemmed.

As such, this discipline was at the outset linked with oral literature where the emphasis was more verbal than written. But over the centuries the study of folklore included many other aspects as a special discipline that envelopes the in-depth study of gauging the folk conscience in many cultures.

As noted by the well known anthropologist Margaret Mead, the study of folklore involves many other subject areas like literature, history, religion, sports, sociology and communication. In this direction, the study of folklore has encompassed many other disciplines enabling the scholars to select their own field of interest passing on the discipline as a subject in social sciences. Books have been written over the years enabling the scholars to perform research studies.

Travelled vignettes

Gangode Andahare is a collection of eleven vignettes in the province of Yapahuva, where the author cum investigator has travelled much, meeting people of various fields collecting material that he wishes to present as basic structures of folklore.

The study includes findings about the cultivation aspects, where he selects the areas both the hena cultivation and the paddy cultivation with special reference to the behaviour patterns in the process which he denotes as ‘adahili’ or beliefs.

Quite a number of examples are drawn to show how the cultivation process was venerated and honoured in a manner that ushers in a blessing to the people as the main flow of food supplies that helps one to exist. Although a number of small books by way of manuals have been written on these aspects from time to time , this may be the only work that concentrates on one province of interest. Then Kandepola presents a detailed account of the mannerisms and attitudes of householders inclusive of their family alliances and inter-relationships, hierarchies and other factors. The unprecedented relationships that exist in the village relationships as a family is underlined.

The entire village looks more like a single family all related to each other. The helping hand rendered by one to another in the building of houses regardless of the ranks and status and other domestic matters are shown with examples. Then he presents a picture of the caste systems and other tribal matters that exist side by side, especially due to the various functions undertaken by inheritance rather than by birth. No one is born to this world with a caste brand. But once a person is born to a family of a particular profession that person inherits the legacy of the ancestors.

This factor is shown as waning off gradually due to the inflow of a new tradition of new thinking and social interaction. The art of weaving mats denoted as pannam kalava, though is gradually diminishing from the local cultures due to the use of technology, is still in vogue in the Yapahuva. The scholar Kandepola gives the reader a glimpse of the situation that prevails today as a reminder that all handicrafts are not lost even with the entry of technology. Various sensitive areas of the craft are brought to the forefront via examples which is a reminder of the studies and works of Dr Ananda Coomaraswamy on the arts and crafts in our country during the medieval period. The ways and means of the hunters and the honey collectors too become a subject of interest in this work, as it high lights the mannerisms of the hunter and his need to hunt concentrating more on the traditional use of traps and other mannerisms than a total disaster brought to animals.

The point driven in is that hunters too possess certain types of human ethics and customs. The types of charms or yantra mantra in the village has been a favourite area that uncovers the attitudes of the average human living conditions. Together with the charms go, hand in hand some of the traditional medical treatments at village level. A person who knows by heart the number of magical words becomes a person who can reach many human sicknesses and predicaments.

In this direction the domestic attitude may have been that a vedamahatmaya (village physician) may know his medicine, but there is yet another person who goes beyond that sphere of a mystic personality. He is no other than the mantara karaya (the charmer of magical stanzas or exorcist).

Living practitioners

The chapter titled ‘yantramantra saha behet’ envelopes with examples the aspects of this subject area. The researcher has gone and met some of the living practitioners of these charms in order to examine and ascertain the validity by uncovering the so far hidden entities of the subject.

The pantheon of gods and goddesses of the Yapahuva area are highlighted with examples drawn from legends and myths connected with their functions. He lists the times of the arrival of such gods to invoke blessings and the type of help they render and what one should do to obtain such a help. There are protective divinities as well as others who will bring perhaps adverse results if they are not being properly honoured.

Kandepola shows a special interest in speech patterns of the masses, their proverbs, dictums, sayings s and wisecracks.

This may lead to a special study of the linguistic patterns as extant in Yapahuva area. Patterns of language and the verbal communications change from time to time due to many social changes and interactions. Yet the study of these aspects may be of vital value.

Prior to this venture he embarked on a project in collecting folktales of Yapahuva [yapahuve janakatha]. This is more of a companion volume to that collection of tales. All in all, the work of Kandepola is commendable as it is more a collection of human facts in a changing world, linked to the study of the folk conscience and the resulting human behaviour.

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