Ruminations:

The devil in election literature

by Padma EDIRISINGHE

Have you really seen a devil? Not likely... Yet the devil continues to play a predominant role not only in ancient and medieval Lanka but even in modern Sri Lanka and could even go on to the future now that it has entered election literature on the pro LTTE Tamil Web.

In popular Sinhala parlance devils are known as Yakas or Yakkos. The issue whether or how far this term Yaka is co-terminous with Yahsha said to be a tribal brand, I leave to the learned ones to mull over. But according to my own simple observations the term Yakko is today bandied about freely though in strangely different connotations.

The word Yaka, thanks or no thanks to temple frescoes spawns a fierce image. Yet a male meeting a friend after a long time would burst out, "Yakko, umba koheda mechchara kal hitiye?" (Devil! Where were you all this time?). An affectionate hug as that exchanged between turbaned leaders of desert kingdoms will always follow. In that instance the term "Yakko" has been in a very endearing context. I wonder what other culture has incomprehensible vocabulary somersaults like this.

But our females are more rational. No woman will pop out with a query to another female as "Yakinniye? (You, she-devil, where were you all this time?") unless she wishes to get "slippered". on her cheeks. Sometimes Yakko is used in the plural as, "Yakko, meka hari vedakne" (Devils! This is a hell of a work. No?) Here it is to the entity of the world's devils one is complaining to, perhaps about pre-election atrocities or unbelievable pre-election pledges culminating with Vishvashaneeya Venasak.

Join his party

During pre-election times a prominent politician was going on over the magic box with his life story. "For a long time a leader was asking me to join his party. He would say "Yakko, mage paksheta varen bang" meaning, "Devil, you join my party" Here too affection and intimacy are implied. But degrading the devil is more the rule. Ultimate degrading term is Mala Yaka. "Moo mala yakek" means that the fellow has gone to the dogs, just incorrigible. But Mala Yaka really means a Dead Devil. Again how contrary! Then Yaka is also used for a very clever person. When someone has done a marvellous job, associates will remark appreciatively, "Moo hari yakekne". He is a real devil. So the contrary interpretations go on placing the devil in a paradoxical position and destablishing the poor devil.

Sometimes the word is used for an unknown person. "Kavuda ae apu yaka?". Who is that stranger who came? Really and verbally these are the many faces of the Sri Lankan Devil. Though nobody has actually seen this devil who over the centuries has lent himself to so many guises, his image is very popular. Pitch black complexion, frizzy hair, large protruding teeth, broad red lips and a vicious grin that guarantees to make a hot snack of you alive. According to the learned ones, it is the temple frescoes that have manufactured this image. So nobody dares to test its authenticity since temple frescoes are considered sacrosanct. So the poor devils always have themselves portrayed so. Litigation is impossible for them as they do not exist in flesh and blood. In fact how did the term "Poor devil" that imposes on the devil a measure of helplessness spring? Humans, the manufacturers of words, are certainly a very funny lot.

Near brush with a devil

Years back my family and I had a near brush with a devil. The family was on a field off Pusulpitiya in Central highlands on our way to the Raja Maha Vihara.

"This is the field where the Yaka did his work" informed the guide.

"What work?"

"Don't you know the story? The temple has a huge Buddha statue that was carved on this field. The sculptors went on making it bigger and bigger forgetting the problem of transporting it uphill to be installed in the shrine. Finally nobody, not even the elephants could lift it. Then a Yako was summoned. And he carried it safely all the way up."

My children clapped at the stupendous feat. Yakos seemed to abound in the Gampola area at one time, offering their services generously to humans.

From that day, the term "Yakage wedak" was used, the guide went on. Actually even today for any feat impossible to achieve we say "Mekanam yakage wedak"... which means "This is really Devil's Work." Sometimes we hear eerie tales of how Yakkos were liberated for work by humans.

Now that I am in a story telling mood let me relate this too. There was a young woman who was taken on as a domestic servant by a family. These were the pre - ID days. No one bothered to explore the origins in that non - suspicious age. So the maid became bosom friends with the mistress to the point that she had lice removed by her...

Can you remove it ?

One day in a lice picking session so popular in our villages, where females exchange the most intimate of confidences, she told the mistress, "Manike, I have a thorn right on my head. It got entangled in the jungle. Can you remove it?" The unsuspecting Manike removes it before you could say, Jack Robinson or Kalu Bande, the humble young servant evaporates and there stands before the mistress a black and hideous devil, red lips and huge teeth and the murderous grin.

The Manike almost swoons in fright while the devil thanks her before vanishing into the forest, giving the following explanation too...

Even devils have feuds and a powerful Yakko had pricked this thorn on him provoked by some issue and had said he would be liberated only after a human removed it.

He was free to assume any guise to get it done. So please do not go about removing thorns from heads though requested. However, the broad theme of this piece is the preponderance of Yakkos in not only our conversation but it our literature including folk tales and the visual arts where the Yakko is portrayed in multi-faceted ways. Some have blood-chilling names like Sanni yaka, Reeri yaka and Hooniyam yaka. In fact, only one Yaka has a pensive name. That is Jayasena yaka haunting Ritigala mountain. What make this Yaka's parents to baptise him so befuddles one. And if a yaka enters a woman's soul or body or whatever it is, a full paraphernalia of dances and rituals have to be performed to get rid of him as well as of the family coffers.

"Yakshavesha" is the term used for this habitation by a Yakko that ends with the impoverishment of the family. "Yakshavesha" was also the title of a pre-election TV skit later banned, but its main figure was not a devil but Adolf Hitler... Why this Austrian or Prussian was brought in during pre-election era was a riddle to many for his objective was world supremacy that no one in our island can dream of.