Era of modernity in Sinhala fiction

In the previous week’s column, I tried to trace the evolution of the Sinhala novel, looking at the life and times of Piyadasa Sirisena who is considered as the father of modern Sinhala fiction. In this week’s column, I would like to explore the phase of Sinhala fiction beyond the literary productions of Piyadasa Sirisena.

Before venturing into that era which profoundly changed the form and content of Sinhala fiction leading to the birth of Sinhala artistic novel, it is imperative to look, briefly, at the genesis of modern Sinhala fiction.

Rudimentary form of Sinhala novel

Although the exact timeline cannot be established as to the emergence of the early form of the novel in Sinhala, the evolution of a rudimentary form of fiction can be traced back to the 1930s when the new genre of fiction known at the time as Nava Prabanda (New Fiction) came into being. Dr. Punchibandara Sannasgala in his voluminous publication History of Sinhala Literature, osbserves, “New fiction or new creations can be considered as Nava Prabanda. This kind of fiction can be seen in every evolving literature. These new fictions are full of false or untruthful information. There is no space in Pali literature for false fictions. However, Sanskrit literature does not lack in Nava Prabanda. They have grown into great literary creations. Sanskrit literature is enriched in short fictions such as Vasava Datta as well as long fictions such as Kadambari.

There are multiplicities of benefits of Nava Prabanda. They are full of information about society at the time. Their nature is that they are exhilaratingly absorbing stories. The fictions contain social conditions of the day, day-to-day life and vividly realised descriptions of the attitudes of society. The objectives of Nava Prabanda include intensifying the literary zest by offering advice and ideals, inculcating the reading habit and educating and informing the readers.

Until the 19th century, new fiction did not exist in Sinhala literature. If there was any objective society expected of such fiction, such purposes would have been largely fulfilled by Jataka Stories. Among the Sanskrit books that came into circulation were subject specific books which had been translated into Sinhala although Sinhalese intellectuals were reluctant to translate great Sanskrit fictions such as Kadambari into Sinhala. ”

Amutu Kata

According to Sannasgala, Amutu Kata (rudimentary form of fiction) came into being in the latter part of the 19th century in keeping with the changing atmosphere of society in terms of its aims and objectives. The influence of English life and culture was pervasive and there were distinctively two dominant groups in society; one group which ardently followed English culture while another fostered an indigenous way of life. Diverse English fiction came into circulation. Among them were biographies and new fiction. It was obvious that new fiction was influenced by early religious texts such as Pilgrim’s Progress. One or two such books in circulation were translated into Sinhala. Pilgrim’s Progress (1886) and Gulliver’s Travels were such book which were translated into Sinhala.

The Buddhist intellectuals who read those books foresaw the possible damage that such publications would cause to the fostering of Buddhist values in society. They began to write new fiction extolling the Buddhist values. Bentara Elbert Silva can be considered as a prominent writer at the initial stages. In 1894, he wrote a number of novels such as Adara Hasuna, Siribari and Vimala Ha Vesak Dutaya which can be considered as the early writings of the modern Sinhala novel. Bentara Elbert Silva described his writings as Amutu Kata. These writings with descriptions of places, persons and interspersed with poems had contributed to the emergence of subsequent Sinhala novel.

What is interesting to note is that although Amutu Kata was not rich in literary devices such as the apt use of metaphor and diverse tropes, they provided the foundation for the emergence of modern Sinhala novel. In fact, Sannasgala states that this form of fiction has influenced the pioneer writers in Sinhala novel such as Piyadasa Sirisena and Martin Wickremasinghe.Sannasgala observes, “The next two fictions which were modelled on Amutu Kata were Meena and Theresa. Meena was a romance that A. Simon Silva wrote in 1905. It was based on Ramayana.

He wrote Theresa, an Amutu Katawa in 1907, describing the highly Westernised society. Except Vesak Dutaya, the hitherto Amutu Kata that were written had women’s names. It was a Sanskrit norm to title fiction with women protagnists’s names; even the titles for two fictions Vasava Datta and Kadambari were given after two prices , the protagonists of the fictions. Therefore, one can come to the conclusion that Amutu Kata was almost similar in basic feature to Sanskrit new fictions.

It was during the early part of the 20th century that the form of fiction known as Amutu Kata which commenced in the latter part of the 19th century, gradually grown into great literary writings. Piyadasa Sirisena (1875-1946) can be considered as a writer who wrote a number of such Amutu Kata. His maiden novel was Jayatissa Ha Rosalin which appeared in print in 1907. By the time Piyadasa Sirisena began writing fiction, there were a couple of Sinhala fictions , propagating Christianity. It was noted that Christian priests began to write new fiction as an strategy to convert masses into Christianity.

The story known as Paul Deke Katava ( The story of the two families) which was serialised in the magazine Ruvan Maldama (Garland of Gem) from 1866-1883, was published in 1866, as a book entitled Vasanavantha Paula Ha Kalakanni Paula under the authorship of Isaacs de Silva. The model family in the novel was described as a Christian family. This idea was further enunciated in the fiction Grama pravurtiya published by Fr. H. Kannagara. The story depicted the last villager in the hamlet embracing Christianity even changing their names. Piyadasa Sirisena’s stance was to write counter to this series of books in the form of Christian sermons. ”

It is obvious that Piyadasa Sirisena’s literary career commenced as a counter cultural movement aimed at attacking the cultural project of the Christians and as a part of a wider socio-cultural revival which culminated in gaining the political independence. It was this milieu defining nature of Piyadasa Sirisena’s works that made his books immensely popular in his time.