Since gods marry each other, so should royals

Is incest a dirty word? Then, those who indulge in it earn even a dirtier word. Incestuous relationships, according to what I know, are sexual relationships between siblings of opposite sex, and between father and daughter or mother and son. The Internet, however, expands it to include first cousins and even nephews and nieces.

I have never given this taboo topic much thought and the closest I came to the topic was when many years back I was on circuit to the valley of Uva. In fact the phenomenon was limited to a walauwa, which too I never set foot on. It first appeared through a thick green copse and as the road meandered down to the valley taking many fantastic curves, it continued to make its appearance. The giant mansion displayed a shroud of white.

Next to me sat a co-officer from the area, now migrated to the metropolis for convenience (illustrative of population migration to Colombo especially by those intent on distinguishing themselves) and from her I inquired as to its details. Her complexion, very fair, changed from a sweet pink to a beetroot red while she whispered in my ear, ‘That is where a brother and sister live together”.

Odious

To quote the Sinhala she used, “Oya thamai aiyai nangie ekata inna walauwa”. Living together in a house be it a mansion or a wattle and daubed hut, by a pair of siblings is no sensational matter, but the way she behaved told many things left unsaid.

“They are living in sin,” was the untold message.

There was the famous female educationist who dealing with topics as delinquency, both juvenile and adult, always referred to a woman earning her bread and butter or rice and sambol in the Nugegoda market. Today it is a place to admire but not then.

Putrid were the environs and the woman after a hard day's job shouting herself hoarse to buyers had always “a strong one” before coming home. Believe it or not, then after dinner she, a widow, would use her son as a sleeping mate.

These are the little incidents that I came across in my limited circle and I myself would have gone to the Great Beyond, only with them till I came across a magazine that told a lot about the topic. The magazine has captured world readership with its titillating tales and almost bizarre generalisations about perverse human behaviour. In the whirl of words I drew a few conclusions that I present for the benefit of readers. It was more prevalent in the upper strata. This is common to both East and West.

Incest

Royal families practised it more. There is a hint of incest in the initial saga around the genesis of the Sinhala race and there too it is webbed around the higher strata. Then it is openly recorded in many a book that the children of Kuveni, spouse of Prince Vijaya, who were stranded in the wilds of Bimba bonded sexually and begot the Veddah tribe (a blow to the Veddah as Adivaseen concept). Some say it was the Pulinda tribe that they begot.

One does not continue musing on a single topic and as a hundred other topics distracted me I forgot all about these illicit affairs till a piece on royal incest almost struck me in the eye. It even bolstered the generalisations as the story moved from country to country. Here is one staged in Hawaii as narrated by a Western traveller.

“In 1820 Hawaii was rife with idolatry, hula hula dancing and among the ruling family, incest. The writer quotes another historian named Joaane Carando who states, ‘In Hawaii incest was not only accepted but even encouraged as an exclusive royal privilege”. Luckily for the moral aspect, the writer opines that almost every culture has held incestuous relationships taboo but strikes a discordant note when it comes to royalty.

Royalty

“In many societies, as in ancient Egypt, Inca, Peru and at times in Central Africa, Mexico and Thailand, royalty has been exempted from this practice. Specific examples are given. There is Hawaiian king Kamehameha who got into a Western kit after shedding tribal robes, but was not ready to adopt a ban of royal incest. And king Rama V of Thailand (b. 1853) was married to his half-sister,according to Internet info.

A most famous case among children sired by incestuous bonds is the pharaoh Tutankhamen and king Charles 11 of England, a result of a dynasty line where cousins frequently married each other. Health and developmental problems were their characteristics. Here is the explanation.

“Overlapping genes can backfire. Siblings share half their genes on average, as do parents and offspring. First cousins genomes overlap 12.5 percent. Mating between close relatives can raise the danger that harmful recessive genes, mostly when combined repeatedly via generations, will match up in the offspring to elevated chances of health or developmental problems”.

Results

The writer David Dobbs gives as pernicious results of such combinations. Tutankhamen’s cleft palate and deformed foot and king of England, Charles 11's small stature and impotence. A startling revelation, yet rather dubious.

“Royal incest occurs mostly in societies where rulers have tremendous power and no peers, except the gods. Since gods marry each other so should royals. Where do these gods exist?

There is also a political aspect in royals taking to incest. “Marrying family members ensures that a king will share riches, privileges and power only with his close relatives”.

That is okay as long as they are close family relatives, but marrying your own sister or mother, is simply going too far. Robert Knox seems to have levelled a charge of incest against the mighty Rasingh Deiyo but of course Knox's bias can be explained. King Senarath had illicit relations with Dona Catherina’s daughters too is a matter doing historical rounds, but luckily he had not fathered them. They were his step daughters.