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| Sunday, 29 June 2003 |
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Beggar's Opera Sel lipi by Gotabhaya 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: It has come to the notice of the Maha Wasala that, at Welipaenna in the Pasyodun Rata, a beggar has been robbed by two miscreants. It appears that the said beggar had betaken himself to the local temple, where he had been paid thirty kahapanas, being part of the pin-padiya or beggars' portion that is paid out to the impecunious from time to time in this, our dhammadweepa, from time immemorial. One would have thought that this act of charity might have melted the heart of the sternest of criminals, but no, the highwaymen had waylaid the man in a deserted spot and taken from him every kahapana he had, thereafter fleeing the scene of their crime on a two-wheeled rathaya. It turned out that the beggar had secreted two lakhs and sixty three thousand kahapanas about his person. He had complained to the murakaara hewayas that he had collected this money in order to purchase a small piece of property, about an eightieth part of an amuna of land (that is, five perches in the parangi measure), in order to build himself a dwelling. In order to explain how this money was still about his person, the beggar had explained that the gahapati who owned the land had presented to him the required part in exchange for his guarding the remainder of the property. This gahapati has proved himself to be a selfless and noble person, in the great tradition of dhaana, seela, bhaavana, for which the inhabitants of this resplendent island are justly famed. It might be argued by the miserly that for a beggar to possess several lakhs of money, not to mention several fractions of an amuna of land, should be unheard of. Such people argue that beggars possessing this wealth should stop begging, as there are people hard at work who own far less. These people ignore the fact that they themselves are beggars, indeed that every person in this country, from the lowest to the highest, lives off alms. After all, why did the purohitha go to the Eastern Capital, if not to collect alms? He went there, to Japaanaya and returned with promises of 450 kotis of kahapanas, not the kahapanas of this sublime realm (where money is not valued at all), but those of Amerikaawa. Of course, not all that we receive from the paradeshakkaarayas, the foreigners, is pure alms. They are not so filled with merit-obtaining virtues as the gahapati of Welipaenna, aforementioned: they more often give us loans than alms. As the purohita has reported to the Maha Wasala, the greatest problem facing this semi-divine realm is the repayment of our debts to these aliens, the interest alone on which is 1,350 kotis of kahapanas every year. The total revenue to the state coffers this year, reports the purohita, is to be spent on the repayment of loans. So when the citizens of this land, where every prospect pleases, step out and view the mighty mansions of Colomb-thota, the new rathas on the highways and the magical yanthras that fill so many homes, they should meditate on the fact that these do not in fact belong to us by virtue of the sweat of our brows, but are either the gifts of meritorious foreigners or are obtained by pawning our silver to the paradeshakkarayas. Swasthi Shree! This rock edict is made on the day of Ravi of the month of Poson of the year of the Saka Era 1930. |
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