Navi Pillai and our Koraha

I tried in vain to find an English equivalent for our native word Koraha. Even the popular Somapala Jayawardena Sinhala - English dictionary calls it a large earthen pot which is defective in many ways. In fact the Koraha in my kitchen is not earthen but of aluminium make. Similarly, the Matikoppe (bowl of clay), is not made of clay though the very name suggests it but is again aluminium. Anyway, this is not an essay on linguistic vagaries but one on the famous or infamous Navi Pillai, the United Nations Human Rights chief who vacated her post on September 1. Thank the gods, I hear you say but she is going off with a last dig at us that may carry some negative results if her successor toes her line.

I hate to politicise this column for there is enough politics going around but I was tempted to venture into the subject after reading a piece that appeared on August 17, written by K.M.H.C.B. Kulatunga. He begins it by dwelling on a Sinhala saying that runs as follows,

Yana Yaka Korahath Bindagena Yanno, (The fleeing devil destroys the koraha too on his flight”.) Now you can understand why I was searching in vain for that word and now finally decided to fall back on the Sinhala word though it raises some issues. Before going on to the dry politics of the subject let me pay homage to our own pithy sayings as the one quoted.

Languages

The day I digested Kulatunga's article, it being a rain day that invites curling on the sofa with reading material, I went on to digest the essay written by veteran writer, Dr. Edwin Ariyadasa. He refers to languages that are disappearing from the world this side of 2050 AD. And much to our delight he foresees that our Sinhala language will not be encapsulated into the vanishing lot.

So our words will be preserved unlike the words of Mesoamerica that got expunged by Spanish boots. But pithy sayings as above, though woven humble around kitchen utensils and simple personnel should also be preserved. It is not unnatural that such sayings are usually interwoven with the basic society and its doings.

Say, Horage ammagen pena ahanawa vagai conjures a scene of a villager consulting an elderly mother about his stolen goods but the woman herself is the mother of the robber! Hamine athin valang bidenne nae (pots are not broken by the lady of the house) rescues the poor servant. Some sayings have interesting historical backgrounds. Say, Andi hath denage kenda haliya vagai. (Like the trough of conghee made by seven Andees”.)

Who are these Andees? They probably are visitors from Andrapradesh and to stave off hunger in a strange land put into a pot all the leaves, flowers and roots they get hold of. So any complicated mélange is today in local parlance compared to a vessel of conghee prepared by Andees. Some have piquant tales in the background.

Kaluwa marapan giya vage (As the way Kaluwa went to Marapana.)

Who is Kaluwa and where is Marapana? Kaluwa is a dark skinned acolyte serving the chief incumbent of a temple in the highlands. He wishes to send an important message to a temple far away sited at Marapana and asks Kaluwa whether he could go to Marapana. Next morning.

“Sure. Venerable Sir,” agrees the acolyte with alacrity.

Next morning the bhikkhu wakes up and looks for the boy to hand over the errand but nowhere is he and in the evening he emerges into the sacred premises with a victorious grin on his face.

Kaluwa, Where were you?”

“I went to Marapana and returned,” the boy said.

Wakkade hakuru hanguva vagai (like hiding jaggery in the waterhole) and Gamarala divya loke giya vagai (like the farmer ascending to heaven) resonate with many a village simile coined by villagers out of genuine incidents that were staged in their everyday lives or fermented in their imagination.

Prejudices

Now some readers may be fuming that I have gone flippant on a serious topic. Please excuse me for that meandering and let me get back to how Navi Pillai broke the koraha as she flees the much prestigious UN seat that she soiled with her prejudices.

Kulathunga puts it succinctly that Pillai due to her ethnic connections was fast asleep when thousands of innocent Sinhalese were battered and murdered along roads and farms and elsewhere. “When LTTE terrorists were playing hell inflicting untold misery on 21 million Sri Lankans subjecting them to horrid bomb explosions”, she only retaliated using her high office in the Geneva based UNHCR, by issuing a plethora of statements against Sri Lanka and its security forces. Thus, her hypocritical role is well known. She was not true to UN ideals but true to her prejudices against the Sinhala race, thus tainting the ethics of her highly placed profession.

But not all is over in her malicious campaign against Sri Lanka. Here comes in the devil frisking in the village legends of ours. He must break the koraha too before he leaves. She intends to paint a dismal picture of the island to her successor.

Influence

She further tries to influence UNCHR investigations against Sri Lanka by trying to prevent first hand surveys of the aftermath of the rehabilitation processes that have gone under the present system.

This is how she plans to do it. By the advice given on the eve of her departure. “The United Nations can conduct an effective investigation into reports of war crimes in Sri Lanka without visiting the country.”

That is not an attempt to rid the UN of a bother of a visit here, but just a sinister attempt at breaking the Koraha before she leaves.

How handy the local saying is.