Dhara -Profund fiction

Dhara widens the scope of the Sri Lankan novel.

This has to be asserted straightaway.

To me, it is 3-D fiction, that swaddles you and enfolds you, absorbing you into its mystifying and eccentric reality.

At surface level, the Sinhala expression "Dhara" simply means "Stream" - a continuous flow - a non-intermittent movement.

Novelist Kathleene Jayawardene, names her latest work "Dhara", probably as an echo of the Sinhala rendering of the Joycean "Stream of Consciousness," which appears in most instances as "Vignana Dhara." James Joyce, the most reputed exponent of the technique of the "Stream of Consciousness," resorted to this style, to chronicle the "Interior Monologue" of a character, tracing the contours of ideas that sweep along in the mind of an individual. In this approach there is no attempt to tame the dishevelled and unkempt thought-processes by imposing grammatical orderliness or syntactic niceties upon them.

It is starkly evident, that Kathleene Jayawardene never made an effort to follow or to be influenced by the exponents of the "Stream of Consciousness" mode. This is exactly where Kathleene Jayawardene's fiction - generating brilliance lies. Her creative preoccupation was to evolve a fitting vehicle to give adequate vent to the simmering conflicts that raged within her.

She has come up with a 'construct,' that is an eloquent tribute to her inventive skills as an unusually gifted creator of fiction.

For the first time in the tradition of Sri Lankan fiction, she brings in a "gandhabba" (an astral presence) as the protagonist in a novel.

An exegetical discourse on the concept of "gandhabba", is not that relevant in this context. The novelist adapts this "phenomenon", merely as a convenient device to dwell upon the essence of her meditations on the complex web of existence. The choice does not in anyway indicate a specific religious adherence or a particular spiritual allegiance on the part of this novelist. But, what is really significant is to observe the creative efficiency the novelist demonstrates by the deployment of this strange mechanism.

Kathleene Jayawardene

The central character of the novel, Vasana, is transformed into an "astral body," enabling her to roam the Earth, at will.

The novelist has to convey a state of experiencing, that has never been recorded before. She (vasana) discovers that her bodyless spirit, has begun to float through space, at the speed of wind - or even faster, at the speed of light. Her refined non-physical "presence" does not occupy even a little bit of space. The delicate and light ethereal "being," begins to discover its miraculous potentialities. It can be present in many places simultaneously.

Immediately, she becomes bereft of her physical body, a scintillating beam of light appears before her. Breath-taking landscapes, dominated by mountains and peaks emerge. Shades of light and colour, that scorn the conventional varieties, flank the tunnel-shaped path, her "spirit" traverses. The vast space, over which the body-less spirit, exerts its power, is limitless.

In the midst of all this, the bodyless spirit, suddenly realises, that they killed her, just a moment ago.

I dwelt somewhat extensively on the initial phase of Kathleene Jayawardene's latest novel 'Dhara' to communicate an inkling of the overpowering surprise, that awaits the reader when he takes up this work. You tend to pose a question at this stage: When she convincingly establishes, Vasana's transformation into this 'bodyless presence' (gandhabba state) what can she do or better still, what cannot she do?

The rest of her novel, is her creative response to this question. What follows in effect, is the most intriguing fictional inventiveness in the field of the Sinhala novel, in recent years.

What is impressive and highly admirable, is the strong sense of discipline she imposes on herself. When you discard the conventional parameters of 'Realism' you cannot rein-in your imagination, that is throbbing and waiting, raring to go. Like a pet dog, that has just been untethered, after a spell of restraint, the unleashed imagination too would be inclined to run around, toppling everything in sight.

But Kathleene Jayawardene's well defined philosophy and her clearly determined goal for her new work of fiction, curb her wayward fancy. The eloquent outcome of all this, is a neatly structured work of fiction, that is unmistakably and unswervingly, on target.

As she states in her introductory note to the novel, one of her intentions here, is to probe the nature of 'Power' wielded by men and women. When power escalates, he is elated. At the decline of power, he is depressed and furious.

The other purpose, she pursues with a missionary zeal, is to expose man's inhuman attitude towards animals. In her work, she sets aside space for animals to have their say, without inhibition. She acts as the intermediary to enable animals to present their grievances against humans.

In her bodyless state, Vasana finds herself endowed with the gift of understanding animal language. Her first encounter is with a bat, that is in a towering rage about man's injustice to animals.

When asked about the latest injustice bats have to suffer, the bat is quick to rejoin: "The injustice is not to bats, but to fowls."

The writer takes note of the fowls dressed and ready for the table. The 'Gandhabba' engages in conversation with a non-poisonous, snake, a pig in the process of being slaughtered slowly, a monkey-among other animals.

The articulate animal is a new entry into contemporary fiction. Traditional literature is replete with animals that talk. "Panca Tantra', an Indian literary classic and the sacred Buddhist work" pansiya panas Jatakaya' (The Birth Tales) introduce talking animal characters, without faulting the pace of realistic narration.

In her 'Dhara ' Kathleene Jayawardene, re-introduces the articulate animal into mainstream Sinhala fiction.

The method is extremely effective, in driving a point home.

Exploiting the technique of the 'Gandhabba' to the hilt, novelist Kathleene Jayawardene, aims sharp barbs at follies and foibles of men and women.

Her work looks quite incisively at the ethnic issue, exposing entrenched prejudices that mar harmony. Throughout the work their is a process of sleuthing. Her beloved son Damsale, has been assassinated. She relentlessly pursues the killer, giving the work, enticing plot-material.

Novelist Kathleene Jayawardene, has evolved a style of writing, in which verbal maturity is writ large. Her keen feeling for words and phrases, especially in demotic use, imparts a compelling liveliness to her agitated prose. Even in contexts, where advocacy is predominant, she does not betray the slightest traces of didacticism. And, above all, she is never pontifical.

In her evolution as novelist, she has evolved from mere arithmetic to calculus.

Where will she go from here? We will wait, until her next effort appears.