The God King, White Man and two cities

by Padma EDIRISINGHE

[Part 2]

He had covered incredible distances and as he walked Southwards in the island set eyes on sculpted figures and buildings so massive and marvellous that he never imagined to have been created by such a fallen and puny race ruled by what seemed to his prejudiced eyes, an imbecile. A few days later illustrating the miracles of the world, he was putting into paper (borrowed from the ship captain) all his memoirs of the strange reign of this oriental monarch, very valiant and discerning yet who would put to death anyone who touched his royal physique.

And violating all norms of hospitality that its kings were famous for since the days of the first Roman writer of history captured those who dared to come in and experimented a new kind of prison life. They were put in charge of village elders who used weapons of stone (Kollu ara, Tamil) and allowed freedom within bondage.

Strange animals

Actually, the Lion king began with collections of strange animals, his hobby begun or fostered by the habit of foreign envoys sending him strange animals, poor creatures who sometimes died on the way as they ascended the steep rises. He enjoyed this hobby till he advanced to humans. “Was the king interested in genetics?” somebody wanted to know on that day of the talk on the White Man held in the LCC City, electrifying the audience with a new line of thought.

It had been the White Man all along in what could be the first public address on this character. The academic elite had monopolised him in chambers such as the RAS Chamber. Though S.D. Saparamadu himself in his preface writes that It was the lowly social class that the White Man associated here.

He was certainly wise for had he sought higher company that would have been disaster. A Dutch man had once volunteered to teach him Dutch and after learning it, records the White Man had decapitated him for teaching him a lot of “Gibberish”. Was the king also interested in genetics other than some Western languages which Father Negrao had already taught him? Could be. He was in some ways like a child, open to the wonders of the universe which were just knocking against him. Wonder of the universe!

Renaissance

That was the hallmark of the Renaissance too. There they continued to come into his ports, in ships, galleys, vessels of all sorts, They were all brought to his court unless some managed their escape. He was fascinated by the variety. Red skins, frizzy hair, orange skins, straw like hair, black skins. He let them roam. Many unable to escape from the highland maze just settled down with Kandyan dames.

Did he go on to study the captives, their mannerisms? No. He was too busy successfully fighting with the two super powers of the world then. So, the poor souls gave their last gasps here. Only our: White Man managed not only to escape but to prese in the days of the Ancunt to the world his travel memoirs including details of an Oriental monarch‘s rule.

Unluckily for us it was a despotic rule. The book's whetted the European thirst for travel and adventure while the writer himself clad in a saruwalaya who once sipped tea off a coconut shell in the back verandah of the Kollara household died a multi-millionaire having amassed wealth by redeeming his lands, wealth fattened by the income from his book and it many translations and also by the captaincy of a new ship that traded slaves, out of all people! Some memories are very short for their own gain.

In the LC or the Lion City the Hall where higher—ups gathered in the days of the ancient regime was called the Audience Hall or Magul Maduwa. In the LC increasing in dimensions and in the number of higher—ups and those who aspired to that status, many such large Halls had sprung to cater to varied purposes. Rarely were academic topics dished out in these as many considered them such a bore and also as no financial gains immediately accrued. No one was paid for attending them.

Some whispered it was all old stuff while others pondered on the fact, why make such a fuss. What if one of our own had sailed to the West or got captured by a tyrant king there, come back and inscribed his tale on an ola script will the same fuss be made? It was all due to pooja to the White Man, an obsession that the Black Man will always suffer from.

Questioning voice

Then rang a voice, always a questioning voice that had the boldness to ask something different and something to this effect. Can you consider or have you considered the White Man and the Lion King in the context of the New Age creeping on to the new world in the 15th and 16th Centuries? Silence. Utter silence. Of course, you cannot expect the speaker to jump to his feet every time a question was asked. That would be making him a cheap showman. But the audience too was completely silent that was perhaps taken to mean that “Gibberish” was being asked by somebody and better be silent.

Well. Readers may be asking why didn’t you, the writer, condone or remark on what was said? No. To be very frank I was like the pussi cat near the fireplace, nursing a burnt wound, a wound I suddenly remembered. It kept me bottled up with so many things that I had read about the God King. Why? I even knew him while he was in his womb. His mother had grown mad in the later stages of pregnancy as all the life’s vicissitudes that had tortured her kept pouring into her.

Orphaned at one year, brought up by an alien race, kidnapped and exposed to life’s secrets at 11 or 12, a widowed mother of four by 15, married again to an ex—priest, her favourite son murdered by him (or so she thought), again be getting three sons and so as she was heavy with the Lion King’s embryo she, a Sath Daru mother at a tender age, goes totally mad.

She forgets her own language that she had picked up after coming to the highlands, talks in a foreign language bewildering those around herGratitude and recognition of service are cardinal virtues advocated by Buddha (and even by other religious leaders) and most of our top officials are Buddhists. But the only true Buddhists in this whole drama are LPN Silva and Chandra Silva, now deceased.

Concluded