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| Sunday, 20 October 2002 |
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Features |  |
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Authentic account of Portuguese occupation "Five Hundred Years of relations between Portugal and Sri
Lanka" Despite its long title, "Five Hundred years of Relations between Portugal and Sri Lanka" is a fascinating and an authentic account of what happened during the Portuguese occupation of the coastal belt of the island. In fact, the Portuguese territory extended from Mannar to Yala in the south. The first part of the book is an attempt to describe the two countries during the century preceding their first direct contacts. Portugal was experiencing the dawn of its maritime expansion and Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was known then, was consolidating its political unification under the King of Kotte. The second part of the book is devoted to review the one and half centuries of Portuguese presence in Ceylon. The eventful years between 1506-1658 marked many conflicts and alliances leading to political intrigues and war. The third part of the book describes the period immediately following the expulsion of the Portuguese by the Dutch. In addition, the author has commented on the difficult relationship within the religious triangle formed by Catholicism - Protestanism - Buddhism. Following Vasco da Gama's voyage, the portuguese collected more information on Ceylon. Eventually, Don Lurence de Almeida set foot in the Colombo Port in 1506. He had a rough idea of the island, its natural and mineral resources. He also felt the strategic value of the island lying close to the Indian sub-continent. The author says that the Portuguese presence in Ceylon during the first half of the 16th century was structured precisely around domination of the narrow sea more than the island. In fact, they built a fortress in Colombo that could serve as the heart of portuguese power in the Orient. The book vividly describes how the foundation of Portuguese hegemony were laid from 1518-1524. This was followed by another stage (1524-1539) when they began to intervene in the island's affairs systematically. Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Sitavaka began to assert its power. However, the alliance between the King of sitavaka and the Portuguese helped them to propagate Christianity. Another significant event took place in 1543 when the Portuguese made an abortive attempt to convert King Bhuvanekabahu to Christianity. The King permitted the establishment of missionaries in his kingdom, facilitating conversions and even authorising the construction of churches in Kotte itself. With the Buddhist revival at the time, however, the King was forced to withdraw some of the concessions. After breaking off with Bhuvanekabahu, the Portuguese tried to change the political scene in Kotte by converting his son and a nephew. Nevertheless, the Portuguese never succeed in placing a Christian King on the throne of Kotte. The Portuguese made many attempts to conquer the Kandyan Kingdom. With internal rivalry coming as a blessing they managed to sign a peace treaty with the King of Kandy who acknowledged the sovereignty of the King of Portugal. Then the Portuguese turned their attention to foreign defence. In the wake of such a colourful and eventful history, the Portuguese were defeated by the Dutch and they in turn by the British. After a few centuries, Portugal signed a cultural agreement with Sri Lanka in 1999. The author is of the view that the fifth centenary of the arrival of the Portuguese in Sri Lanka will be marked in 2006. As such, "Five Hundred years of Relations between Portugal and Sri Lanka", is a timely publication. The value of the book has been enhanced by the inclusion of some of the rare maps of Ceylon. The book is an ideal companion for those who study the island's history and others interested in the country's interaction with foreign powers. - R.S. KARUNARATNE Dynamic analysis The Delectable Sweetness, Corrupt Muskiness of the Blue Mango It is dynamic analysis that proves it. The most successful writing achieves its effect by producing an expectation in the reader's mind before his sensibility is fully prepared to receive the first impact of the work he reads. What the reader makes, as Theodore Spencer once noted, is a proto-response, and this preconditions him to the total response towards which his appreciation subconsciously tends. David Davidar, journalist and publisher (he is the Chief Executive Officer of Penguin Book, India) is an accomplished writer and has, like all good writers, manipulated the proto-response with sheer sensitivity. He knows that the writer's presentation is more immediately effective than any truth of literal chronology. He does not state the inevitable sequence but, with the deftness of the fine story-teller, prepares us for it. In "The House of Blue Mangoes" I find a sort of analogy, like "Oedipus Rex" to Euripides and "The Iliad" to Dante. The village of Chevathar, although fixed in time and locale, remains timeless. It could be true of any village in the long past, today, and in a future where tradition clings like a damp pony tail to the back of a neck. Thus, we have dynamic suspense, a series of pungent constructs full of texture and eruptions of major reaction. I will not make bold to offer story (saga?) outline or allow myself to be drawn into the traps many modern-day reviewers (critics) fall. It is not the tale, but the telling of it that matters, for it is this latter that makes great literature - masterly is the better word. The book uses, even in its poignant historical treatment, the many symbols of the dynamic. Inexorable limitations are found. Even Solomon Dorai, headman of Chevathar, had the limit of his own life. Father Ashworth pleaded, prayed for life to go on, oblivious to the truth of all existence. Even as he prayed, called, in the name of God, for the senseless killing to end, he was skewered by the bare-bodied Muthu Vedhar who was to know the fire of Solomon's avenging silambu. Who is the hero? Or rather, who are they? They can be as solitary and as maladjusted, beyond the routine of the village. They need that capacity for change just as Hamlet had. They become - Aaron and Daniel and Kannan - symbols of individualism that reverberate profoundly. So many approaches to death. It is a kind of death, for sure, when west units with the east. The enterings and leavings make pilgrims and conquerors wonder which is gender, more attractive. Ideas follow ideas with superb characterization and even the sufferers tune their own musical instruments. The maps show death as places of discovery that intensify into both domestic and spiritual realms. Even Whitman in "Passage to India" had no real success with this device which Davidar has used so extraordinary well. Above all is the Chevathar Neelam - "blue mangoes, Ramu, the pride and joy of our family as far back as I can remember. I recall appa going down to the river during the harvest and filling the first basket, the fruit blue as the sky, invested with streaks of sun. The Chevathar was full of water those days, and far below the surface we could see mangoes that had dropped into the river, glimmering mysteriously like the eggs of some rare sea creature..." It is the blue mangoes that hold them all together, calls them home. The true products of the village of heart's desire. Davidar cleverly, and with sure mastery, presents the abstract through the concrete, emphasizing the continuity of tradition where the sweat of the first Dorai will be the blood of the third. Like Bishop King's famous lines, every pulse is a soft drum beating the approach of the many who take their place on stage. The symbol of the tie that binds is boldly explored. The blue mangoes are the spiritual ropes, like "The Collar" of George Herbert, Daniel's mother would sing her lullaby. The book raises the purely aesthetic problem of his emotions may be stirred by complex situations which, to the western reader, are much less perspicuous to the intellect and, even after many readings, remain obscure at two or three points. Yet, the emotional impact is powerful and Davidar has brought in World War days, a hoity-toity British scene (tiger shooting included) and an affective connotation of words, phrases and images in formal combination. In its aspects literary history. In another, it is immediate experience. There is a positively pastoral introduction and epilogue and throughout, despite the occupation, the Japanese onslaught, the Extremist struggles, European clothes and the intricacies of knotting a tie, the book depends to some extent on pastoral machinery. The work is also impressive with its many crescendos that always culminate in a triumphal resolution of tensions. We are reminded that all earthly life is continuous with eternal in which temporal unforunates are recompensed. It is to Davidar's triumph that he never lost sight of Chevathar. Changing times are expertly drawn. Rebellion claims those who haven't the time or patience to explain or give tongue to their motivation. The implications are twisted for the later generation of the headman of Chevathar can command the sympathy of those they rebel against. All said and done, the tiger remains the symbol of the fierce force in the soul which is needed to break the bonds of experience. "The House of Blue Mangoes" is an exceptional work in which characterization is carried to the very powdery clouds of a Chevartharian sky. Davidar has not, like some ringmaster, crack-whipped his characters in and out of the pages. Each one is a someone, and essential ingredient lovingly encouraged to live and be. This is the approach, the kind of writing that makes this book truly memorable. It is no small wonder that Penguin India (headed by Davidar) produces some of Asia's finest literature. Standards must prevail - standards that Davidar himself has set! - Carl Muller Nihandiyawe Geethaya Well known writer and attorney-at-law Kapila Gamini Jayasinghe's latest novel 'Nihandiyawe Geethaya' in Sinhala (translation of American author Sandra Brown's Eloquent Silence) will be launched on October 24, 3.30 p.m. at Library Service Council Auditorium, Nidahas Mawatha, Colombo 07. The main speech will be delivered by Prof. Kusuma Karunarathne, Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Colombo. The story is about a dedicated young teacher for the deaf. Her past conceals a wound still unhealed, her present is a facade, and she uses her career to hide her loneliness. Drake, daytime TV's most popular star, has two secrets - the daughter he believes may never have a normal life and the dead wife he can't forget. Jennifer is the beautiful hearing-impaired child who may become a pawn between the man and the woman she needs most. Now, in a chic New Mexico arts community, the three are given a chance to be a family ... but first each must find a voice to express the deepest fears and greatest needs of the heart. Index to the Mahavamsa This revised edition of John Still's Index to the Mahavamsa (1907) is a reference book useful for quick and ready information on items of historical, religious, archaeological and cultural interest. The need for such an edition has long been felt as it was not available in every bookshop in the country. This is revised, annotated and edited by Raja de Silva. It is a Sarvodaya Vishva Lekha Publication. |
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