From Thumpane to Timbuktu:

A fool's journey

This incident took place some years back when I was younger. That is a superfluous fact to mention for all human beings never recede in age but only advance. To go on, I was having a snack in a rather posh restaurant which however opened on to the main road. Due to congestion caused by more people eating out, I happened to occupy a seat by the entrance with the counter close by adding to the mess. Just at the next table sat an elderly human exhibiting a scholarly visage.

Suddenly as if from nowhere a female entered and extended a hand to him. Begging?

Not exactly. This was what she said. "Sir, I like to partake of a lunch here. Can you help me?"

She had approached the correct person by some intuition for immediately he opened his wallet and handed her a crisp 500 rupee note. She thanked him and walked to the counter and ordered a chicken buriyani.

The man at the counter gasped and shouted, "There she has come again. The she-devil ! "

Pandemonium

There was some pandemonium with the supervisor of the place intervening too and the woman was ordered to get out. Now stood up the scholar who added to the chaos, by shouting, that it was very unfair.

"A beggar's money too is money" he declared as though proclaiming some universal truth..

"Sir. The thing is this woman has become a pest. She is driving away decent customers"

"Okay. That is my money. Give me a packet and I will give it to her."

The transaction was then closed and the woman went away hugging the packet, of course after due supplications to the local Vessanthara. The latter had seen me watching the whole tumultuous show and now he gave me a grin.

"That was great of you"I said. "Very noble." Give praise where praise is due. He grinned again and said, "But I am from Tumpane"

"Velivita Saranankara's city?" I exclaimed "City of fools "Exactly. Of fools like me doling out cash to she-devils"

Further dialogue revealed that he is an ex-Commissioner of Prisons who comes to Colombo now and then to participate in such dramas. Knowing an ex-commissioner of prisons personally, I inquired after him.

Dismay

"Dear fellow. He is dead and gone" he informed much to my dismay.

"What happened? Accident?"

"Exactly. He had walked out in the night to buy a cigarette and got run over by a speeding vehicle on Galle Road. Perhaps he was smoking on the sly unknown to the family".

"Good heavens. What happened to his collection of the verses penned by prisoners committed to gallows ?"

"How do I know? But I too am a writer. Just now I am doing a piece on how Tumpane got that notoriety of being a fools' paradise"

"Was it after the almsgiving to the dogs that Saranankara himi had initiated?"

"Could be for whatever wisdom the thera had he was unaware that the canine tribe is minus table etiquette and would grab others' share barking non-stop too".

For the uninitiated to this drama, I will now regale with the Dogs Almsgiving or Balu Dana, a very relevant topic too when Danasalas abound and passengers in vehicles are simply drawn out to eat and drink. A minister, by the way has made his own statistics and remarked that Sri Lanka is the only country that this sort of "By force feeding" happens.

Back to the Balu Dana. Velivita Saranankara thera is a rather unsung figure in our literary circles for in a period when learning and literature had plummeted to a very low ebb due to the constant wars it was he who played the pivotal role in the much needed resuscitation.

Alms

Having made his mark in the religious field too he earned the post of Sangharaja too. He set the whole island vibrant with a new literary glow for the torch of learning was carried to the low country too. Of course the illustrious prelate let his mind wander on many other things as to why only the robed ones are offered alms.

There are the canine members running amok the streets of the Kandyan suburb where his temple was, some famished. Why not offer them food?

The prelate's word was law in the vicinity and on his request many a person laid out food one morning on the streets and the dogs and bitches needed no special invitation but went on to savour not only one parcel but almost all other parcels. A loud cacaphony resulted. The royal palace was not far away and the noise reached the ears of the king, Kirthi Sri Rajasinghe of Nayakkar dynasty, but now Sinhalised to the very core.

Went on the local Vessantara, "On inquiry he was told the facts of the Balu Dana that made him say:

"Thanathura Sangharaja vuvath, gama Thumpane" (Though holding the post of Sangharaja he is from Thumpane). So the name had stuck on earlier, is obvious.

Fools' paradise

"In my retirement I am doing a search on what factors led to the name Thumpane since it seems to connote a Fools Paradise. I will send you a copy of my research" He never did for the simple reason that he did not know my address. I hope he reads this and send it to me via the Beira Lake. Why did I suddenly remember this incident?

The topic sprang within me reading an article on Timbuktu, a North African city. It transpires the way names of places as cities and villages are spawned. Some display some coherence or justification while others are just tagged on. For example, many say, "Oh.just go to Timbuktu" visualising some inaccessible wilderness roamed by an ignorant mass of the two-footed but just read on this African city, not only a flourishing hub of trade in days of yore but where words and books were respected like the relics of saints and many came from far afar to browse among the collected manuscripts.

Or we will leave that reading to a later date.