Andare - A social reformer and maestro of fun

By Amal HEWAVISSENTI

Most of the tales associated with Andare are purely biographical of him. The nature of solutions he gives to a particular riddle, his humour and sharp-edged satire directly spring from his outright condemnation of lack of sense and baseless pride of common people and the king himself.

His bitter sarcasm was often levelled on the king, arrogant people and those who blindly stood in attention to and repeated the king's words.

This unequalled folk poet who is generally guessed to have lived in the mid eighteenth century, had a wonderful ability to instantly think what it would be sensible to do in a particular situation and do it.

Opinion varies on whether Andare actually lived or he is a product of popular folklore designed to make fun on people's weaknesses. Yet, most scholars greet the stories of Andare with certain amount of mistrust because only the unwritten folklore supports his identity. Whether he actually lived or not, Sri Lankans immensely enjoy his stories with poetry and his seemingly flippant, off-the-cuff remarks that are imbued with breathless sense of humour.

Interestingly enough, Sri Lankans are used to give anybody who is naturally good in the art of joking, the label of Andare.

We often see him gaining mastery over the king's court and the king himself who is unable to ignore the humour of the situation. In short, he was seriously a powerful vehicle of social reform and his verses and stories are a body blow for snobs and follies of people.

The incorrigible lad

He is believed to have been born in Devinuwara in the Matara district around too hundred years ago. He was the second son of Palawinnage Palliyaguru, an accomplished linguist and the teacher at the Church of Devinuwara appointed by the Dutch.

Andare's personal life specially his childhood is as amusing and funny as his stories. He was sent to the church to get educated but the study work made him strongly detest studies at the church. Andare frequently boycotted classes at the church and used to play limitlessly with the village urchins. His father had the strong need to make him a scholar but he never tasted success of any of his plans.

Andare was a flippant and crafty child with a laughably waggish behaviour and again he proved his dislike to continue his studies even under another teacher.

He soon joined the group of little 'miscreants' in that village and replayed his earlier reel there in spite of the new teacher's strict advising and punishments.

Ultimately his father gave up all hopes and Andare was, since then, free to joke with whoever he met. It is said that little Andare's witty remarks confounded his father and this made Palawinnage happy about his son's passable intellect at such an age. As Andare was free from the grip of his father, the young man got into the habit of playing jokes on anybody without reflecting on age, status or any distinction.

Surprisingly, nobody, not even the king is known to have seriously taken offence at his jokes that were highly charged with uncontrolled humour. However, his life in Devinuwara turned out to be a perfectly bad experience as he was with no fixed job nor income nor a fixed aim other than fooling around. His flair create verses to match up to a situation earned him nothing.

Is he fictitious?

Andare's identity is sometimes regarded as similar to Birbal of Akbar's court in India or Thiruvan of South Indian folktales.

Some argue that Andare is a mistaken identity of several people who might have given birth to some tales that bear resemblance to those of Andare. This is because several court jesters have served several kings in Kandyan dynasty. It seems almost inevitable that he falls under the class of fictitious characters in Sri Lanka such as Mahadenamutta and the anecdot account of King Kekille.

Andare's granddaughter who descended from his sister, have lived in 'Gurunnanse Watta' until recently and his burial ground (called Andare Sohona ) can still be seen at Udamalala. Therefore, it is totally incorrect to say that the idea of Andare blends more with reality than fiction.

A breakthrough turnaround

After the Dutch invasion, King Rajadhi Rajasinghe was uneasy and kept constantly in the look out for the state of affairs in the South where Dutch were in power. The king who himself was a good poet and got to know about Andare in the South and made arrangements to bring him to the Kandian Kingdom.

His historic arrival in the king's court in Kandy opened up new possibilities for him and the king rightly understood his value though sometimes he fell into the scorn by Andare. He, as a talkative folk poet, became more and more popular in Rajadhi Rajasinghe's court because of his wonderful commonsense.

Rajadhi Rajasinha built a separate building for Andare closer to the court and ordered him to do his duties excellently in the court after he saw through Andare's honesty as a court jester.

The most interesting and humorous events began to take place after his emergence at the Royal court. It is obvious that ordinary people, courtiers, relations and even the royalty became the subject of his humorous criticism.

Dramatic events

Once King Rajadhi Rajasinghe was plagued in midnight sleep by an annoying croaking of a frog in the royal pond. Several dextrous persons, under the king's assignment, tried their l best to shoot and kill the troublesome frog but they totally failed. At last Andare, after much effort succeeded in shooting the frog croaking underwater, aiming the arrow in the direction of the sound coming from underwater. He was honoured by the king and was granted the prestigious title Sadda Widda Palanga Pathira for the excellent deed.

Once the king, in the lightest of his mood, asked Andare to tell the biggest lie he knew in the world. Andare, with the inborn diplomacy quickly exploited the situation to mock the image of majestic king. With the usual calm and unruffled mind, he said. "O King! You're the bull king committed to the welfare of the cattle". It should be noted however, that Andare did not risk being subject to king's fury because king and the royalty loved him whatever verbal blow they got in return.

His mocking tone targeted not only the courtiers, and royalty, but likewise many others among whom were people who deliberately did something to insult him and those who were beyond his activities. Andare's satire aims itself at his funny looking wife, girls bathing in the river, a toddy tapper, who refused to give him toddy, women who openly mocked at him, a group of cripples fighting each other or a man who accompanies a lady in marriage.

Most often, the people who failed to bear up with his mocking remarks, had to give some favour for him or satisfy him in whatever way to get rid of it.

Once Rajadhi Rajasinghe went to Mahaweli River to bathe with the Queen. On the banks of the river, the king decided to sit enjoying the soft cushion of white sand beneath him. The Queen too sat behind him and the King, intent on cracking a mild joke on her, asked Andare to create a verse showing "how blindly" the Queen loved the King. Said Andare "My Lord, the Pundits who glorify both of you as a perfect couple of statues wrought of pure gold, are really mad. What they know is how to flatter you and be favoured. They don't really know what matching is. Let me honestly say that you two are just like a margosa tree twisted round by a bitter gourd vine". (both are bitter - perfect matching.)

Once Andare joined the King in his street walks. Andare clearly saw how the King was enthusiastically looking at a pretty woman over the street from a balcony above. In finest sarcastic poetry, he said.

"The hunter woman deserts her husband when she sees the deer. Though the queen is irresistibly beautiful, now she is in the palace.

What to do? Though this ugly woman does not look at you, you feel like looking at her."

(To be continued)