Listen to the giggling waters of the Diyawanna

Can waters giggle? Why not? If they can frolic, dance, orchestrate, turn and twist, they can certainly giggle. Living a “hoo” away from where this historical flow snakes around the Great House, I began to notice this giggling trend.

But writing about Diyawanna's merry giggle first is almost like putting the cart before the horse. For Diyawanna itself that circles our House of People's Representatives is almost an elusive and mysterious topic. Am I going to unravel the mystery? No. I myself have just happened to take residence by it about 15 years back, on a casual whim having relinquished my abode by the Deewali or Diyaweli that springs from the distant Hatara Korale hills.

The Deewali abode was much less noisy and bossy. But it was not in the limelight for no far-seeing ruler had foreseen in it a strategic position to ward off an invader thereby strengthening Lanka's sovereignty.

Now the Diyawanna is not only getting beautified like a damsel about to be given in marriage but she is becoming immodest with her giggles. Immodest? Why degrade it so? She has the right to giggle as she constantly gives ear to the discussions going on. Not so much the discussions but the wit that knits along with them, the word-play and the ripostes. Its providing cheap entertainment? No. One feels sentient to the cauldron of wisdom of the Helas, now coming out in the form of folk tales, Kavi, Sloka, Gaatha and all other verbal items that the House indulges in Diyawanna.

Literature

Old maid, coming down from early Kotte regime, it is not correct for you only to giggle, you should decide to be still at times and lend a wise ear. It all comes out, the literature and knowledge now getting heated in a cauldron of dissent and disposing it all. Not only our own literary facets are revealed but even Indian facets and that is natural. It is the mother India cult. Figures such as Mahaushada, Ane Pidu Sitano, Joojaka, Mantri Devi and Vessantara rush in and out of the debates.

And at home, almost all historical figures walk in procession, the line of kings in full regalia they all parade in and out of the debates. I listen sometimes to the NDTV debates in their own Sabhas but inroads into the past are not fashionable or it seems.

If a member starts to say, “ In ancient India this was done... “another would instantly retort,” Let us not waste on what happened then. Times have changed and so have people and their wants.”. But here our members would go on and on, giving jolly descriptions of what happened in the past and never mind the present which gets hushed up. It is all so absorbing. Does it give any lessons for the present and the future? No As the Lokh Sabha or Raj Sabha says, people's wants are so different. So, the Diyawanna goes on giggling as she listens to it all. She is also in a merry mood what with all the beauty treatments especially around the House.

Who is the dame who is averse to all that attention? But the sad thing is that no one seems to know much about her. In fact, no one seems to place her among the major waterways for her run is very short. Actually, no one knows from where she begins her journey nor where she ends it. Data regarding Lanka's other rivers is complete. The Mahaweli and Kelani begin their flow in the central highlands and the first flushes out her waters to the sea at Gokkanna now Trincomalee. The second dame, the Kelani ends her career at Modera, her last segment very busy what with carrying all the building equipment for the upcoming constructions of the newly burgeoning capital. By the way, an astounding view of the Kelani estuary can be obtained from the premises of De La Salle Church, Modera.

Robust days

To repeat, no one actually knows where the Diyawanna ends and begins even. Most try to close up the issue by saying a tributary of distributary of the Kelani is responsible for the daughter. In my younger and more robust days in the Ministry of Education, as the days when I led the Kotte school girls on a voyage via old Kotte I wished to actually see the place where Diyawanna diverted.

Somebody threw cold water on that by saying that if I wish to wade through crocodile infested garbage I might as well go on that adventure. And yet the place is so close to Colombo that even if a crocodile drags you to it cave like mouth there is enough man power in hand to drag you out, So, if Diyawanna never glorifies itself as to its birth she flourishes midway after it caught the eye of Nissanka Alagakkonara. He saw the fork like bend of the river, now very close to Rajagiriya bridge (where the actual entrance to the capital of Kotte was sited) and decides. “Here I must build a fort” It lay in close vicinity, only 10 miles away form Kolonthota.

These geographical cum historical factors inevitably changed the course of Lanka's history diverting it from its inland focus to an outward and international focus. Witnessing a meteoric rise, Colombo became a mammoth commercial centre where red turbaned Arab traders, Vetti clad South Indian traders and men of various hues and apparel hobnobbed at this hub of world trade. The world itself was opening up what with the voyages of discovery that fuelled more and more the hunger of the Europeans for more land an more treasure. They were seeing veritable Shangrilas in Asia. So, the arrival of the Ferenghis was not an accident orchestrated by Laurenco Da Almeida's son, but almost an inevitable sequel to all that was going on.

Glory

But what happened to poor Diyawanna whose very name needs deciphering though many Sandeshas mention its glory, especially the beauty of the women indulging in Jala Kreed within its hydro glory. Behold Diyawanna, sang the poets. After it rounded the capital it seems to have just fizzled out to a waterway. Today names like Diyawanna garden and Diyawanna Park are the only grandiose reminders. The less grand is the stinking Wellawatte canal, last segment of the fabulous Diyawanna, full of garbage at one time but now getting a face lift! No wonder Diyawanna keeps giggling at the comedy of it all including the literary sessions in the House by the Diyawanna.

Dear, Diyawanna! Giggle.! There is so much stuff powering your giggles. Especially the fact that when you open up “Diyawanna on the internet the only fact it revolves around is the boasts whizzing past on its waters and of course all the latest gadgets that catch the eye. History – zero. Alagakkonara who carved it as a defence strategy against invaders from the North, a conspicuous by absence.

An afterthought. What about a plaque at a vantage point detailing the history of Diyawanna? At one time its main ferry Kontha Gam thota sported a board thanks to historian Douglas Ranasinghe but now it has vanished under the riff raff of Battaramulla that in itself was called Bath Thora Mulla (Rice ferry) Where remains from the Royal table at the palace were distributed among the poor. Why not ape that too? Royal menus or Raja Bojun are not out of vogue even now.