Gajaman Nona

A talented folk poet

She has gone down into history as Gajaman Nona. I doubt whether even one per cent of the Sinhala population knows her true name Dona Isabella Perumal Cornelia. That was how her parents named her. Her parents were Don Franciscu da Senaratna Kumaraja Perumal and Dona Francina Grero. Her father was the Gajaman Aarachchi, an officer in the elephant department. (Gaja is a synonym, word with the same meaning - for elephant.) In course of time, the daughter came to be known as Gajaman Nona.

Dona Isabella Cornelia was born in 1758 in Bambalapitiya not far from Milagiriya Church. Her mother was a teacher in the church school. At that time, the Dutch were ruling the low-country (pahatha rata) of Lanka. The family came to reside in Weragampita in Matara, after her father was made the aarachchi (officer in charge) of the Matara Thombu. Now, what is Thombu? It is the registrar of births, marriages and deaths and of land owners.

Coming to Matara was a step up for little Isabella too. It helped her inborn talents to blossom. Her uncle, Don Daanchi de Silva Abeygunasekera took Isabella under his tutelage. Don Daanchi was known as Paltaayamay Lekam. (Paltaayama is granary). Paltaayamay Lekam was a well-known poet, one of the reputed poets known collectively as the ‘Matara Poets.’

Paltaayamay Lekam taught Isabella, Sinhala, Pali and the art of writing poetry. Later under Karatota Dhammarama, a learned bhikkhu, she studied Pali, Sanskrit and ‘Chandas - alankara.’ Chandas is metrical verse and ‘alankara’ figures of speech like similes and metaphors. She learned how to compose verses in a variety of meters and to use similes, metaphors etc. to make the verses more colourful and add to the meaning.

She had an inborn ability to composed kavi-verses on the spur of the moment. It is said that she did this even as a child. Once when she found the pot she had kept on the ledge of the well missing, she burst into verse requesting the culprit who hid the pot to return it at once.

She developed this inborn talent under the tutelage of her teachers, Paltaayamay Lekam and Karatota Dharmarama thera. Soon she was composing Kavi on various occasions and became known as a poetess.

At the age of 22 she was given in marriage to Merrennage Gardias Aarachchi who was the officer of the Talpe Pattu in the Galle District. It was a happy union as he was a lover of poetry and appreciated her poems. But their happy marriage didn’t last long. The aarachchi died very soon after their son was born. The young widow was left forlorn with a baby son.

Many wanted to marry her. But marriage had no attraction for Gajaman Nona.

However, after much coaxing and advice from her father she consented to a second marriage and Gajaman Nona became the wife of Muhandiram Gabriel Hendrik Siriwardana Wimalasekera of Uyanwatta, Matara. She had three more sons.

Gajaman Nona was not destined to enjoy a happy wedded life. She was widowed a second time and left to bring up four sons by herself.

Life was hard. Her father helped her as and when he could and he was a tower of strength, but feeding and bringing up four small boys was not easy. She earned a little money teaching girls of well-to-do families.

This was a time when people of learning and of positions like Mudaliyars and Muhandirams were corresponding with each other in verse - wishing one another on special occasions, complimenting the receiver, asking for help etc. Gajaman Nona composed such verses on request from friends and relations for which she was paid. These payments helped her tide over difficult times. She herself wrote to well-known persons wishing them well and telling them of her plight. They too sent her gifts in cash.

Although she was down and out Gajaman Nona was not downcast. She had tremendous courage was outgoing and witty. She had many admirers. They sent her verses expressing their love for her. She kept them at arms length. But one man corresponded with her regularly. He was Elapatha Mudali.Dayananda Gunawardana’s play Gajaman Puwatha is based on the love lyrics exchanged by these two - Gajaman Nona and Elapatha Mudali.

In 1796 the Dutch gave up that part of the island they ruled, to the British. The British divided the land into districts and appointed agents to manage them. John Doyle who knew some Sinhala was appointed Agent for the Matara District.

With her father gone - Gajaman Nona was unable to fend for herself. She took courage and addressed an appeal to John Doyle. In four very moving verses she told him that her sons were demanding food and she didn’t have the means to give them a square meal. In one line she says, ‘with hands raised in reverence, I am telling you my sorry state to get some help.”John Doyle gave her a land to maintain herself and her sons. This land and the area surrounding it is known as Nona Gama. It is on the Tangalla-Hambantota road and is now an important junction town. At Nona Gama a road branches off to Wellawaya in the Moneragala District.

Here you find a statue of Gajaman Nona, set up by President Premadasa. She is dressed in the popular style of the day - ankle length skirt and long sleeved blouse.

The six verses she addressed to John Doyle are among her well-known compositions. The best known and most popular is her poem “Denipitiye Nuga Ruka” the banyan tree in Denepitiya, a village a short distance inland from Weligama. This tree stood there by the stream, well into the 1960s, when a storm felled it down. Another tree grew from the trunk, which I saw in the 1980. I was told recently that this tree has been cut down to make way for a cultural centre, What a pity!!

Denipitiye Nuga Ruka is a very special poem. It is the first poem on a single subject, written in Sinhala, and its form, with short rhyming lines is also an innovation. Elapatha Mudali wrote a poem Nugapitiye Nuga Ruka, imitating Gajaman Nona’s poem.

Another well-known poem is that which she wrote on her father’s death. In six verses she gives vent to her grief, sadly recalling the love and help he gave her.He was killed by an elephant in 1801 near Kasagala Vihara.Gajaman Nona wrote a long narrative poem of 206 verses titled Dedi Soka Malaya. Written at the request of Amadoru Samaraweera Aarachchi of Matara. It tells how five Sinhalese men including the aarachchi were exiled to India on the orders of the Govt. Agent for some offence and of their subsequent escape from India.

Pinkam Waruna an account of a pinkama was written on the request of Mudaliya Tilakaratna Disanayaka of Matara.Besides these, very many verses she composed on various occasions have been preserved.

Numerous stories about Gajaman Nona have come down by word of month. One such story told to me by a friend who spent her early childhood in the deep south is about her dressing up as a man and attending classes in English because these classes were only for men!!

Gajaman Nona died on 15 December 1814.

- Sumana Saparamadu