Funday Times

A Sri Lankan folk tale retold by J.B. Disanayaka
The Great Wise Man at the paddy field
Maha Daenamutta was the Great Wise Man of the land. People thought that he knew everything. They sought his advice whenever there was a problem.
He had five pupils, very loyal and obedient.

Pol Bae Muna had a face (muna) like the split half of a coconut (pol bae).
Kotu kitayya had a body as thin as a stick (kotuP.
Puvak Badilla had a skinny belly (bada) like an arecanut (puvak).
Rabbada Aiya had a fat belly like a ripe arecanut (rabbada).

Idi Katu Paencha was as skinny as a sewing needle (idi katu).
Most of the people in the village were farmers who cultivated rice paddy. For generations, they cultivated paddy in the way their forefathers did.
First, they tilled the field to make it muddy by means of a plough tied to a pair of buffaloes.

Second, they ploughed the field again, this time to make its level even, by means of a wider plough known as the poruva, pulled by buffaloes.
Third, they levelled it again by hand, with the help of an at-poruva and with its help made drains for water to flow down the field without disturbing the paddy seeds sown.

Now the field is ready for sowing paddy. A farmer, who had experience in sowing paddy, took in his left hand a basket of seed paddy (bittara vi) and sowed it with his right hand.
However, as he walked in the field he left behind his footsteps in the mud thus making some seeds go down in mud. In this way, they lost some of the seeds.

Once a farmer thought, “Isn’t there any way to prevent the farmer leaving his footsteps in the mud?” Perhaps there is. He sought the advice of the Great wise Man.
He told him the problem. “Oh, that’s no problem”, he said. “My pupils and I can solve it in a very simple way”.

The farmer had a sigh of relief. At last, a problem that lasted for generations would be solved by the wisdom of this Great Wise Man.

Maha Daenamutta called his pupils and instructed them to cut a bamboo tree and to make a stretcher. They did as they were told. He went with the stretcher to the field of the farmer. Maha Daenamutta asked the fattest of his pupils, Rabbada Aiya, to get on to the stretcher with the basket of seed paddy. He then asked the other four pupils to lift the stretcher with Rabbada Aiya and get on to the field. They obeyed their teacher.

Now there were four men in the field carrying in their stretcher the man who was sowing paddy. In this way, they prevented the man who sows the paddy from leaving his footsteps on the mud! There were only the eight footsteps of the four men who carried the other man. But, that’s another problem!

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