Musings:

The PPs - Past pupils digging roots again

by Padma Edirisinghe

It was only a few months back that the Old Anandians dug not only into their own roots but also dug into the fabric of the Sri Lankan heritage as against the universal matrix. This time it is a girls school in the highlands who has taken over the novel challenge.

The Colombo branch of her PPA has this year got closer to the mother school with what they have named a Cultural Fair. One has only to enter the premises of this fair to comprehend what is going to happen under this pickled subject. Otherwise one is almost in the blues about it.

Names

The name of the educational institution is Mahamaya, one of the most revered names in Buddhist literature. Has the fair anything to do with this savant figure? But no. This PPA does not seem to closet itself into single figurines. In fact, it was this energetic PPA that made history by launching a singular book on the college, tracing its celebrated history.

This saga webs itself into a singular phase of Lanka’s history when a few individuals frenzied with turning the clock back on the annals of the island acts the midwifery role in bringing out an educational institute with a Buddhist flair.

Perhaps the Fair intends to narrate this tale again but no. The fair takes an unexpected turn and brackets a whole series of items, in which certain items predominate i.e. those illustrating the gender bias. And even a territorial bias, warming up to the cradle of their education amidst breezy cold winds. The gender bias is an apt topic for a girls school to take up, a topic swept under the carpet of the sensational history of Kandea, the last kingdom in the island to be dressed with the sovereignty of the island.

Fallen

What had happened to Kotte? The resplendent kingdom of Kotte had fallen under the boots of a foreigner and all emblems of national power even including the sacred Tooth relic had been removed from it. Kandy or Maha Nuwara or the Great City now postured as the main citadel weaving its own story.

But can a mere PPA relate all that long anecdote, however powerful, appealing and sensational it is? The PPA has a level head and does not attempt the task of telling it all though a few telltale pieces of the mother city are presented here and there.

It confines itself into a very cogent role, that of presenting two pathetic female figures embroiled in the later drama of Kandyan history.

One figure is that of Ehelapola Kumarihamy, where the speaker on her brings in a statement that is very relevant and hits the nail on a brutal aspect of modern socio economic factors.

If we observe the world around us today, we perceive a very pathetic factor, i.e. that while mothers are trying to preserve the lives of their offspring the fathers or the men or a considerable part of them are trying to destroy life via varied techniques. That is where the speaker’ s comment fits in to a tee.

Sentence

“It is the men who make wars. ‘Inevitably this would complete the sentence,’ And the women and the children are victimised by them”.
The other female figure focused on, at the fair is Kusumasana Devi or Dona Catherina.
A female who suffered terribly in her short life of 33 years she is an apt testimony of the above adage.
The issue of feminism comes in a phenomenon not given much thought in early history.
It was the role of woman to subdue to her demeaned role and no more was said or done about it.

The Portuguese regarded this princess as a ruse to enthrone themselves as rulers of Kandy, a kingdom they were coveting. So she was robbed of her identity. Many suitors, most of them of the alien race were presented to her, just a few months after her puberty.

Finally she was taken in a grand procession to be made empress of Kandy. She gets subject to many a turmoil in this expedition. Finally, she ends up as queen of Vimala Dharma Surya and begets a son. After the king’s sudden death she is forced to marry the cousin of the deceased, Senarat, an ex monk. Still in her early 20s, she begets six children by him while her son by the earlier king dies suddenly making her suspicious that he was murdered. She even develops fits of lunacy and accuses Senarat of murdering her first born.

Turmoil

In short, her whole life is one of turmoil and tragedy.
‘Do not stand on my grave and cry
I am not there, I did not die
I am the thousand winds that blow
I am the soft uplifting rush,
Do not stand on my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep’

Incidentally, the queen today due to many factors engages in her last sleep in Rockhill estate off Kegalle, the only identified grave of a member of the ancient monarchy.

With a bow to her and to the Mahamaya PPA displaying an overdose of gratitude to the mother school and rekindling the memory of two historical women by a program into which has been invested much labour and brains, I end this piece.