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| Sunday, 6 October 2002 |
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Sel Lipi : GLORIOUS UNCERTAINTIES Swasthi Shree! Thus says his sacred Majesty, the gracious Great King, glorious Chakravarthi, King of the Kings of Maya, Pihiti and Ruhuna, Mahoora of the Vanniala-aeththo and ruler of all lands from Yapapatuna to Sampanthota: Ever since the advent of the bahubootha pettiya or tele-visaya, the people of this resplendent isle have been caught in the grip of an incurable madness. For days on end, they practise the animisalochana pooja, unblinkingly watching grown men, like the near-arahat Murali, flinging the pandhu at other grown men wielding muguras. They unceasingly worship at the altar of the pas-vaga-mahanun, Arjuna, Aravinda, Mahanama, Sanath and Hashan. And so it has been for the past few weeks, as the mallavayas of ten realms performed their wonders on the hallowed fields of Rangiri Dambulla and the Khettaramaya. However, it has come to the notice of the Maha Vasala that this aryan sport, the lom kambili andhina mugdayange keliya is becoming besmirched by un-aryan practices. It seems that the glorious anumaanakam of this sport are no longer so anumana, a degree of certainty creeping in through the behaviour of some of the players. Apparently, the vices of the 'Sport of Kings' have spread like a disease into the very heart of the game of gentlemen. Instead of feeding opium to horses, the pretha like merchants of soodhu resort to feeding kahapanas to the players. In Dambadiva, a web of soodhu merchants has woven itself around the game of lom kambili clad mugdayas. They avoid the laws of the land by using magical ganitha-yanthra and the esoteric mayaloka known as the athara-dela. Sites have been created in this mayaloka, which calculate and display the changing odds as each pandhu is cast. Customers are identified by secret names, without which they cannot participate. Bets are made in multiples of 1000 kahapanas (which is a 'one', 500 kahapanas being known as a 'half'). The soodhuwa is illegal in Dambadiva, but the murakara hewayas are unable, because of the aforementioned magical measures, to apprehend its merchants. It has come to the notice of the Maha Vasala that the sabha which controls this aryan game has sent its nilames, who fight the dhooshanas that may besmirch its name, to this sublime realm. Having met and held discussions with our murakara hewayas, these nilames say that it is difficult to preserve the integrity of this sport from the depredations of the prethas of soodhu. For it seems that no magical measures, as are needed in Dambadiva, are required to circumvent the laws against soodhu in this dharma dveepa. The biggest problem has been to isolate the soodhu merchants from the players. Murakara hewayas have been given the duty of preventing these merchants from conversing with the players or exchanging pus-kola with them. They have gone to the extent of escorting the mallavayas from the rooms in which they don their body armour to the margins of the playing fields. But it seems that the merchants have been using the language of silent mudras to communicate with players on the field. And for exchanging more complicated ideas, they have sent courtesans unto the mallavayas in their ambalamas. The wily courtesans, of course have long experience in evading the attentions of the murakara hewayas. So what is to be done? Is it necessary now to protect the kama of the mallavayas, in order to preserve the glorious uncertainties of this game? And are the lom kambily clad mugdayas not such fools, after all? Swasthi Shree! This rock edict is made on this day of Ravi of the month of Vap of the Year of the Saka Era 1929. - Gotabhaya |
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