Musings:

Andare in Mediterranean land

by Padma Edirisinghe

Is there a Jerusalem in the vicinity of Rome? According to a tour guide there is. He was such a clever guide that even the blood stains caused by the sufferings of Jesus on the cross are yet visible and he could magically flaunt them. Most of the party opted to follow him along the shown byway , especially those of the Xtian faith , just to save a separate trip to the Holy land. A few including me opted to stay behind and mope in the restaurant of the hotel we were staying. For us, perhaps more saner, Rome and Jerusalem are so distinct and no replica can officiate.

As I sat admiring the mountain range, probably the Alps that rose before the hotel, a horde of youngsters rushed in. They were dusky hued and their hair , frizzy. The girls at the counter greeted them in sisterly style .Perhaps they were "regulars" . Without so much as a By your leave , lady, one of them sat at my table provoking me to inquire their bio-data. They just could not be indigenous to Italy. The lad guffawed and said, " We are from Senegal. (that is as far as I can remember.) Went one day to our chief man and told him, send us to Europe and we will do anything there. Sweep the roads, wash the drains. Anything. So here we are. Now interval when we swallow hot dogs" . He grinned after that gulping down the poor dog and said that I remind him of his aunt back home. No wonder ,I am also dusky hued and frizzy haired.

Melee

Just then in the melee a man hollered, "Andare!" . All sorts of unexpected things happening. So Andare has come to this beautiful Mediterranean land from Sri Lanka and further time wise from the buried reigns of our Nayakkar kings. The times were then turbulent as now but the kings were very tactful and had appointed court jesters to maintain their mental equilibrium. One, named Andare served , again, as far as I can remember in the court of Rajadhi Rajasinghe. Now here he was 1,000 of miles away.

Luckily for me a member of our group who too was a non-believer in the tour guide's magic tale stood close to the hollering man and as I went there , on being questioned by him was about to give an explanation about the name. He had also introduced himself as a University lecturer .

"Were you ever a colony ruled by the Spaniards?"

"No. By the Portuguese."

"Both are the same. Land grabbers. Spaniards played hell in America while the Ports played hell in Asia. Found their own land too small to house the growing population. Shipped the excess including beggars and rastiados to the colonies . Shipped European culture too including religion , language, dress, names and what not'.

But still I was left with some issues and on coming back home hunted for a book on the famous Andare that gave his background tale in detail.

Conquered

The Dutch now came onto the scene . Our second rulers of the lowlands they were more methodical and had zoned the conquered land into parishes.

A Church was the nucleus of each Parish that looked after the social and religious aspects of the area. Naturally to each was aligned a Parish school. All children who entered the school were converted and given Euro names. The boy attending a parish school in Devinuwara or Dondra , the beautiful city by the coast too was baptized as Andre. More to boot, his father himself was the headmaster of the school he attended. His son however played a different role.

He really played truant , turned everything taught into a joke, composed poems and riddles out of facts and became famous for his creativity. His very name was soon mangled to suit the local tongue and even his name Andare crossed mountains to reach the inland kingdom.

At this time as aforesaid the Kandyan kingdom was in turbulence due to messy politics and the courtiers were on the hunt for a rare item ie, a human who could make the king laugh.

This Kavataya role according to that book is not anything novel, for even earlier kings had resort to such techniques. Only difference is that they seem to be more rampant during the Kandyan period where even a Kavikara Madulla, a panel of poets enlivened the court.

Episodes

Much encouraged in this set up, the immigrant from lowlands went on playing pranks even on the queen. The humorous episodes he engendered amidst the hills and in the royal court are too numerous to be included in a short article as this. One is the Deaf Affair. Andare had later got married to an Udarata Manike (damsel from the upcountry) , who yearned to visit the court and talk to the queen.

"I will certainly take you .But the queen is deaf and you will have to talk loud". Always in and out of the court, next he told the queen , "Your Highness, my better half is coming to see you soon. She is deaf and you have to talk to her loud". You can imagine the pandemonium that erupted when the two met. The king himself hearing the commotion , inquired about it and when told details, quipped, "That is typical of Andare's Mad Strategies".

Years passed and as all mortals do the man died ,but not on the family bed but on the road to the South .Desiring to see his own native land of Dondra or Devinuwara before his death he had been travelling and due to fatigue had died on the way. The king hearing of it had rushed to the scene and burst out laughing for Andare had died exhibiting a posture that could make anyone, lowlander or highlander just burst out laughing.

Singular

A tombstone is said to have been erected where this singular person, Andare passed away. Anyway it is a pity that the famous man did not leave a progeny famous for creativity and boisterous fun that could provide merrymaking stuff even to royal figures battered by a 1,000 woes.