[SUNDAY PARABLE]

The story of Urusitano

Prof. Sunanda MAHENDRA

In ancient Sri Lanka there lived a certain wife and her husband. The wife was the most dominant character at home, for she never allowed her husband to live in peace. She would find some sort of fault in her husband to start shouting in harsh words.

The husband having understood the nature of his wife kept silent and lived patiently for most of the time. But still the wife would find some reason to quarrel. The husband wanted to see that the neighbours are wanted for their existence. One day one of his good friends paid him a visit close upon lunch time.

The husband though greeted the friend warmly thought how he is going to approach his wife and ask her to prepare some food for his friend as well. So after receiving the friend the husband went into the kitchen where the wife was seen preparing food for two. Then the husband kindly requested her to listen to him.

“Will it be possible for you to allow me to live in peace without any dispute for just two hours?”, asked the husband.

“What are you asking me to do?, asked the wife.

“Can you please make one more meal for the friend who has just arrived for it is our duty to receive our good friends warmly.”

“So you say that keep my mouth shut for two hours, is that what you want?”

“Yes, please it would be quiet nice if we can maintain silence at least when a good friend is with us”.

“Alright. You go ahead and talk to your friend an I will keep two hours silent period without interfering into your activities.”

So the husband and the friend engaged themselves in a hearty discussion about bygone things in their lives.

Time flew without their notice, and they were hungry. The husband wanted to see what was happening in the kitchen.

“I will be back in a moment”, said the husband and went into the kitchen to see the wife still preparing the mid day meal.

The wife thought that the two hours has passed.

The husband who thought that he should make enquiries about the meal just asked her:

“What is the delay?, are we not feeling hungry and there is a visitor waiting in the front varendha can’t you quicken your......”

No sooner than said the angered wife got hold of the pot of rice from the hearth and hurled on to the head of her husband.

The good mannered husband who wanted to maintain silence had to bear the agony. Adding insult to injury, he found the brim of the pot of rice hanging round the neck of the husband. It was an awful sight and the husband was put to shame.

In agitation he wanted to say something, but he reluctantly kept silent walking slowly out of the house even without informing the friend who had come to see him.

Those were the last moments he spent in his house. In agony he kept silent thinking of the human degradation and went straight into the heart of the jungle where a family of wild boars lived. He was not afraid of them at all.

He went on studying closely their behaviour patterns and got adjusted to live with them. He ate fruits and other herbal ingredients to make his living amidst the wild boars. The group of wild boars regarded him as one of their own and did not harm him.

Slowly and steadily he observed how they roamed around the jungle. He found the wild boars bringing disaster at times to humans by eating the yams grown in the fields. He too followed them to the crops and pulled out yams.

The impending danger was not foreseen by him.

But it so happened that a team of farmers who cultivated a new crop of yams saw some human footprints on the ground intermixed with those of the footprints of wild boars. They were surprised to see how this had happened. The farmers discussed the matter among themselves and kept a watch on things happening around in the night.

Then one fine day, the farmers saw a figure appearing behind a horde of wild boars. The farmers walked behind the human figure and caught hold of him.

“Who are you?, they asked the man.

But there came no answer from the man.

“From where did you come from?”, they asked. There was not a hum from the man.

“This must be a deaf mute”, they thought and took him to the king.

At the Royal Palace even the Royal Courtiers tried their best to get him to talk. All attempts failed.

Then the King thought: “This must be a stranger from some other land or a spy who had come to get information. If that is so, a person who can make him talk should be rewarded”.

Thinking thus, the King sent a drummer and a crier of Royal messages asking any person to be present in the Royal Palace who could make this person talk. The reward it was announced will be a gamvaraya or an extent of land suitable for cultivation.

This message was received by the wife of the man who left some time ago. She came before the King and said that she is in a position to make the man talk.

First of all she wanted to see whether this is the very same man who lived with her some years ago. She went to the place where the man waited in a deep pensive mood as if to show that he does not belong to this circle of human beings.

“Can’t you make me out?”, shouted the woman.

He did not even lift his head. Then she found a solution.

“Your Majesty I can make him talk, but it will take some time, will that be alright”.

“It is alright by all means, for the day that you make him talk the reward is yours”.

The woman visited the man with some soothing foodstuff that he was fond of eating when he lived with her. This experimentation went on for about three months when the man found that his tongue could be twisted and turned to make some sound come out of the mouth.

“You good for nothing man, you keep on shutting your mouth as if I have done something wrong...

Can’t you at least realise how painful a life I led and how I repented after you left me high and dry?”

The man lifted his head to see the sad face of the repenting woman.

“So you are the woman who made me leave our house? you good for nothing vile woman”, the man shouted all of a sudden making the entire Royal Palace tremble.

“Pardon me my husband”, said the woman.

“I will pardon you, but if you want to live with me for the rest of the time you should come and live in the heart of the jungle cut off from the human eye”.

The King came to know the story of the man who lived in the jungle with wild boars. As he lived with wild boars he was given the name the `Sitano’ or the high clanned man who lived with `ura’ or wild boars. So people came to know him as `Urusitano’.

When he was asked to select a place that he and his wife will make the best use, he selected a place in the interior of the jungle. This place he cultivated making a great tank or a lake that will help irrigate the fields. He got the help of some villagers.

But some of the Ministers in the Royal Palace were jealous about the Royal honour and wealth bestowed on him.

It so happened that one rainy day as the dam of the tank was damaged by some of the jealous Ministers, the good man Urusitano had to rush and see what he could do. A sad feeling arose within him and he realised the futility of living among the cruel men.

So he flung himself into the deep waters of the tank and committed suicide. The wife who felt so sorry about her husband too jumped into the same tank and committed suicide.

Even today, the tank build by this man is known as the `Urusitanoge Wewa’ or the tank of Urusitano.