Trek of the Sinhala Encyclopedia ....

By Padma Edirisinghe

Today the most popular houses are the houses of fashion. Only odd creatures like me would spare a second glance at houses that shelter encyclopedia offices. They are minus worldly glamour and immediate cash across the counter.

Anyway sauntering along the Main Street of Battaramulla alias Baththotamulla, the yellow board trapped my attention. Over that kingdom, fragrant with knowledge, sat a familiar figure, Prof. K.N.O. Dharmadasa, present Editor of the Sinhala Encyclopedia (also spelt Encyclopaedia).

I cannot proceed without pausing at Bath-thota-mulla, now Battaramulla. There is no visible thota or food there now. But in bygone days there had been one, perhaps on a tributary or distributary of the mighty Kelani.

According to folklore of the area, all the left over food of the Great Palace at Sri Jayawardena Pura, Kotte had been daily dumped at this ford, to be carried by boats to feed the poor in distant villages.

Hence it earned the name Bath Thota Mulla, changing to Bath Thera Mulla and ending up with Battaramulla. That very salutary act of giving over leftover food to the needy can be emulated by present institutions often accused of wastage of rich food daily which by coincidence are sited just in the proximity and also handle the destiny of the country like the Chakravarthi’s Palace at Sri J’Pura, Kotte before the Portuguese onslaught on the island’s sovereignty in the 16th Century.

My narrative seems to go the way of “koheda yanne, malle pol”, a popular local expression for going off the tangent. Now to keep to the topic let us examine what an encyclopedia is. And even try to delve into the roots of the word.

The word encyclopedia comes from the classical Greek “enkyklios paideia” which means a well rounded education.

Though a vague idea of this compendium has been existing for a long time the term itself has been first used in the title of a book in 1541 by Joachimus Fortius Ringelbegius. As to what an encyclopedia, is to put it very tersely, “it is a comprehensive written compendium that contains information on all branches of knowledge” and purposes of it are, according to Diderot, one of the early encyclopedists,

* to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe

* to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live

* transmit it to those who will come after us so that our offspring become better instructed, virtuous and happy

* that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come

* and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race

Many pages can be invested on the spread of Encyclopedias in Europe but we will come back to our own native soil. It may come as a surprise to many that our own scholars of the ancient period have put out what may be considered a Kosha grantha of equal momentum and centuries ahead of when the Western encyclopedias emerged, running from Anuradhapura to Dambadeniya period.

Almost approximating to a dictionary it has been categorized into the Nigandu or Kosha genre, a Shabda Kosha and not a Vishvakosha (the Sinhala word for Encylopaedia). “Piyum Mala” and “Ruvan Wala” which gives lists of words in usage plus synonyms, are two of these put out somewhere before the 12th Century while the encyclopedias of Europe began to take formal shape around and after the 15th Century.

Anyway the emergence of the Sinhala encyclopedia in 1955 cannot be connected to these. It was fed by a new background and a fresh national resurgence springing from Sinhala becoming a medium of higher education in the 1950 decade.

A wide hiatus had to be filled, a hiatus resulting from Sinhala becoming marginalized for 500 years due to the spectre of colonialism. Even before that, signs of decline had been manifest due to constant conflicts.

Sri Lanka being majorly a Buddhist country it was natural that those who initiated the compilation of the Sinhala encyclopedia included it in the agenda of the 2500 Buddha Jayanthi celebrations.

An encompassing of all branches of knowledge without making a distinction between the Arts and Science spheres and the different categories that fall within them, was envisaged.

The end-product was earlier to consist of 15 volumes, each comprising 750 pages, but the explosion of knowledge in the intervening period has now necessitated a compilation of 20 volumes.

It must also be mentioned that Encyclopedia Brittanica has served the pattern of the Sinhala Encyclopedia. Whatever said and done the lead given by Britain to the modern intellectual fervour of the world cannot be disputed.

The pioneer and first editor of the Sinhala encyclopedia was Prof. D.E. Hettiarachchi. Under his mentoring the first volume was out in 1963 and five more volumes followed. With his demise the project had gone into abeyance.

In 1988 the 7th volume emerged under the editorship of Dr. Harischandra Wijetunga. Again began a period of inactivity when Prof. Dharmadasa took over and brought out the 8th and 9th volumes.

In 2003 Prof. Mendis Rohanadeera as editor was responsible for the 10th volume and just now Prof. Dharmadasa back in the saddle has now completed the 11th volume. And is busy preparing the 12h Vol. with the help of a team of experts in the particular areas.As the volumes are arranged according to alphabetical order the particular letter in the 11th volume is (cha).

This encumbers a wide array of topics beginning with this letter as Chitra kalava (drawing), chtra pataya (film) and China which have occupied about 200 pages along with relevant photographs, maps and illustrations. So one can imagine the magnitude of the work involved via this example alone.

The internet today serves an additional source of information to the encyclopedia fattening it further. Prof. Dharmadasa is hopeful of finishing the 12th Volume in about a month. It will also have about 750 pages (A4) and include sketches, maps and photographs. Many renowned scholars as Ven. Kotahene Pannakitti thera, Dr. N.M. Perera and Dr. Charles Godakumbura have contributed articles.

Today attention is focused on personalities too, especially those who have contributed widely to the progress of the country in varied ways. Further national folklore and folk culture are gaining increasing attention of the editors.

Central letter of Volume 12 is (ja). Hence jana kala (folk arts) and Jana shrthiya (folklore) will be encompassed in this volume together with information on Japan and Germany, both countries having names beginning with letter Ja. A group of assistant editors too work with dedication.The Sinhala Encyclopedia Project is indeed a fascinating adventure in collecting the world’s corpus of knowledge accumulated so far and presenting it in a very systematized way to the Sinhala reader who at present is starved of such knowledge.

Any way there seems to be a want of publicity to the valuable work being done at the Ford or Thota of bygone days now disappeared along with the waterway, under crowded habitats, afford that fed a populace, starved both of knowledge and food.