Carols have been an integral part of Christmas throughout the ages. In SriLanka there has been a move to make them more meaningful by creating Sinhala and Tamil carols so as to reflect the local religious experience
Christmas celebrations in Sri Lanka have undergone many changes over the years. Most of the customs and traditions Christians follow have a Western flavour, often alien to our country. For instance, the popular carols we sing are about snow and holly and mistletoe, and even the cards we send during this season often have wintry scenes and cosy fireplaces, so irrelevant to our tropical climes.
But, although the Christmas of today displays borrowed practices, it is also fast gaining an identity of its own in third world countries. Those who fervently promote Christian culture and tradition, believe that creating an indigenised festival suited to contemporary local issues is a fitting way to celebrate the feast.
Among the efforts to localise Christmas, the carol takes precedence. The carol has a long history in Sri Lanka, extending far back to the 18 century. Popularising Sinhala carols was undertaken not by a Sri Lankan, but by a Goanese missionary, Fr. Jacome Gonzalves who arrived in the country with the Blessed Joseph Vaz. His mission to establish a Sri Lankan carol tradition was undertaken amidst Dutch persecution of Catholics.
According to Dr. Sunil Ariyaratne, a veteran song writer, Fr. Gonzalves is regarded as the father of Sinhala Christian literature. For it was the example set by this pioneer that rejuvenated the 20 century Christian priests to continue with this tradition.
The first adaptation according to Fr. Ernest Poruthota was the "Rajathun Kattuwa" done in Nadagama style. A nadagam play is usually performed outdoors, through the night.
The Goanese priest realised that if Catholicism was to be spread effectively among the local populace, it had to be taught in their mother tongue. Thus he learnt Sinhala from the Buddhist monks and Tamil from scholars and has to his credit 22 books in Sinhala and 15 books in Tamil.
Fr. Gonzalves travelled from one village to another popularising his Sinhala carols. Dr. Ariyaratne said that the people had written and kept records of the carols taught by the priest. As a result a book complete with his hymns were published in 1872. Carols like "Devindu Upanneya aho" are still sung in churches and elsewhere.
"Some say that Fr. Gonzalves composed the music for his Sinhala carols, while others believe that he added words into already popular tunes. Whatever the interpretation, he was a clever violinist and organist who had even performed before a Sri Lankan king," said Dr. Ariyaratne.
With the arrival of the British this flourishing tradition suffered a severe setback that lasted over a century.
Since Britain successfully annexed the entire country, English was declared the official language of the country and the importance of the native language was downplayed. With time there emerged an anglicised middle class tutored in their etiquette by their colonial masters. Thus Christmas was transformed into a western oriented festival, with Sri Lankans adapting everything that was English. English and Latin hymns and carols were introduced into the services.
The 1930s and 40s of this century saw many a keen Christian rekindled with a sense of patriotism venturing into a new era of the Sinhala carol.
"Bishop Edmund Peiris reintroduced the Sinhala carol tradition of the 18 century by adding Sinhala words into popular English carols. From 1940 onwards, Fr. Marcelline Jayakody took over. He stopped the insertion of words into already popular carol music, and instead composed his own music and words," explained Fr. Poruthota.
In 1934 Fr. Jayakody wrote "Re tharu babalanava" which set the stage for the resurrection of a once thriving local carol tradition and encouraged talented young writers to come up with realistic themes.
"As a child I used to dislike the Sinhala hymns taught by the English, French and German missionaries who merely added Sinhala lyrics into their tunes. This was at the beginning of this century. I thought to myself that I must one day change this tradition," recalled the 95 year old Fr. Jayakody.
Thanks to Fr. Jayakody, today people sing carols as " Sinhala-Sinhala" carols rather than as "French-Sinhala" or "German-Sinhala" carols.
Fr. Jayakody incorporated local traditions, usually a feature of the Sinhala/ Tamil New Year into his carols. He wrote about humble folk, about the rustic country life, local traditions and nature. He believed that Christmas must also belong to the underprivileged, thus the simplicity in his writing.
"... bulath hurullak aran, venda pudanna demapiyan, varen Natththale,
Manamalita mal aragena jayamangala bera gahagena,
Araliya mal, vathusudu mal...
Dina dina vehi Kalu baravenawa
Mahaweli ganga diya borawenawa"
The lines quoted above are about the Sri Lankan tradition of worshipping parents, a practice limited to the new year. The jayamangala song and the beating of drums are features of a Sinhala wedding ceremony. Leaving out descriptions of the snow and the twelve days of Christmas, Fr. Jayakody enlivens the song by bringing in typically local characteristics like the araliya and vathusudu flowers and the Mahaweli river.
It was Fr. Jayakody who translated the popular German carol "Silent Night" into Sinhala. There is no Christian country that hasn't translated this carol into their native language. "Without 'Silent Night' there is no Christmas," declared Fr. Jayakody.
"The specialty in his carols is that they are not sung only by Christians, but also by other religious groups, because of their relevance to Sri Lanka" said Dr. Ariyaratne.
"Christ came into this world to elevate man and human nature and make it more sublime. It is this message that must be conveyed".
The Christmas carol tradition will continue, although Dr. Ariyaratne feels that Fr. Jayakody still remains unique in incorporating Sri Lankan identity and culture into a Western influenced festival. The Sri Lankan carol tradition has had its influence on other religions as well. In fact the present Vesak Bakthi Gee tradition is a direct adaptation of the Christmas carol. According to Dr. Ariyaratne there is no evidence in history to say that the Budhists conducted Vesak Bhakthi Gee. When the Christmas carol tradition was practised locally, the Buddhists came up with "Vesak carol" which is today popular as Bhakthi Gee.
Another year has almost evaporated and glamorous advertisements in the media, posters, shopping guides flamboyantly flash the message and jolt us into the reality that another Christmas is upon us.The message of the commercial world, of the spending, eating, drinking, clothing, merry-making binges of luxury and super extravagance simply screams out. This message gets across amply locally and globally for it has many adherents.
But what of the message of Christmas? The message of peace that should find a rousing echo in the hearts and minds of the faithful; the objective of the Christ Child's birth in a straggly stable, bereft of the basic meagre privileges of a new-born babe - which after all, is what Christmas is about. This message is submerged. Christ is on a low key, everything else takes priority .Who will get across this message so unpalatable in contrast to the gourmand fantasies that assail us during the season.
Today the goodwill, the peace, that should accompany the celebration of the great event of the birth of the Prince of Peace seems distorted beyond redemption. Competition, glamour, merriment, complexes, have taken its place and a warped view of Christmas has assailed the world .
War cries of hatred "blow in the wind", arrows of flint whizz in the air in place of the guiding star, symbolic of enlightenment and peace that should illuminate not only the crib but also our hearts. Nation against nation, community against community, brother against brother, the rancour goes on unabated. No peace or goodwill around us, no peace or goodwill within us. Yet ironically the celebration goes on with a bang!
He, was Prince, no doubt. But the Prince of Peace, of the poor, of the degraded, of the neglected, not the Prince of ostentation. The very Kings who visited him in their curious search, in their rich attire, bearing valuable precious gifts were reduced to humble adoration, to meekness, to the realisation of the hollow mockery that was their position on viewing this birth .
The poverty manifested at this birth has its overtones in society. Today many are pauperised for no fault of their own. The chagrin, the unpredictability, the uncertainty of war, have rendered thousands homeless. Their status reduced to that of refugees, undergoing similar or worse hardships than that experienced in the stable. Do we care? The inequality in society that has created a yawning abysmal gap that is ever widening. Some luxuriating in merriment and carousal to hail the birth of a babe born in a hovel; others grovelling even below the poverty line. Is it our concern? Christmas with its materialistic connotation of a surfeit of food provides us much food for thought too. One is reminded of the Biblical story of Dives and Lazarus. In this season of satiation and glamour, opulence and merriment do we for a moment think of how the other half survives. Where is our praise,our gratitude to bountiful providence for the mercies we have received or is it that since we are not the ones affected we turn to our affairs, we couldnÕt care less.
A peep into the crib is rightly a peep into our hearts. It makes us pause, think, effect a change. A difficult task, midst the tugging attractions, the temptations of the season but nevertheless a humane one, which makes us identify ourselves with the reality of that birth in the stable.
Former Senior Professor of History & Political Science, University of Colombo.
This is a book that offers refreshing reading and provokes the reader to reflect, and regret. Ketheswaran critically reviews the abortive past endeavours to resolve the enduring ethnic conflict that is wrecking and ruining the 'paradise isle', Sri Lanka.
He takes the reader through a long but pointless journey of futile discussions, incomplete negotiations and broken promises which has ultimately led one nowhere. The travails of the genesis of a 'nation' which never succeeded in becoming an inclusive nation is incisively traced and analytically recounted.
The time during which a just dispensation could have been made when 'Tamil civil society' in the initial post-independence years' was primarily conciliatory', and there was no 'demand for federalism and regional autonomy' was vainly allowed to slip by.
The author properly identifies the 'Sinhala Only' Act as the measure that triggered discontent and disillusionment among the Tamils which later escalated following the commission of one folly after another. A request for the use of Tamil by 'the Tamil speaking minority' was considered to be only as 'what the communists and communalists want' by a leading but vitriolic educationist who was in the forefront to thwart any solution meant to meet the difficulties that the Tamil speakers had to contend with when they were suddenly rendered illiterate and required to use for official purposes a language alien to them.
A sane and sensible solution was denied and there commenced the passive agitation of the Tamils which was suppressed by violent retaliation from some extremist elements of the majority community.
Later on, as the author recapitulates, began the marginalisation of the Tamils so as to eclipse them from the politics and the economy of the island. State sponsored colonization resulted in a rise in the population of the majority community in the Eastern Dry Zone by about five times from 1949 to 1959.
This trend, according to Ketheswaran, manifested itself 'in changes in electoral representations and redemarcation of electoral constituencies, to the detriment of the Tamil polity - particularly in the Eastern Province'. Eventually the disastrous result of such heady actions was that Sri Lanka society was rent apart.
Ketheswaran remains lucid and logical when he examines the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayagam pact, its abrogation owing to the pressure of intolerant and extreme personalities, the shameful riots of 1958, and the unsuccessful 'Salvage Operations' undertaken thereafter.
The author takes a critical look at the Senanayake-Chelvanayagam agreement and the foiling of it because it could 'Divide the country' as a few irrational elements obstinately and irrationally concluded. Thence began the painful 'march toward self-destruction': the rift in society became sadly clear and surer.
Thereafter, Ketheswaran saliently delineates the relationship between the constitutional reforms in the 70's and the emergence of the cry for Tamil Eelam. As he rightly discerns the grievances of the numerical minority community aggregated and then originated into Tamil youth militancy. The author arrives at cogent conclusions about the damages that were wrought in Sri Lankan society owing to 'The education policy, most inappropriately labelled as 'standardisation' which was severely unfair to Tamil students.
He appropriately and supportively quotes the views of Prof. C.R. de Silva to strengthen his understanding. Throughout the study, Ketheswaran buttresses his usually valid generalisations and acceptable conclusions by quoting sustaining evidence from contemporary personalities and learned commentators who knew much about the intricacies of the conflict.
Ketheswaran's language and style lead him to make candid observations. In evaluating the Tamil response to the 1972 Constitution he unhesitatingly describes it as 'High Voltage Nationalism,' and in connection with the 1977 General Elections he distinguishes 'Political Demagoguery.' A dispassionate well-argued study is made of the '1978 Constitution and Tamil Question' and in the process he uses interesting and relevant evidence.
Ketheswaran sticks to a strict chronological order as he proceeds to recapitulate the sad events that accounted for the incremental worsening of relations between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils. The anti-Tamil riots of 1983 not only severely damaged inter-ethnic relations, but worse, it led to a miniaturization of the communal conflict that had plagued the island since independence in 1948.
As the author notes the situation deteriorated so as to make India a sanctuary for Tamils who fled to survive violence, and more importantly made India a mediator in an external issue indicating the failure of the Sri Lankan authorities to solve a problem that was created by them, and now confronted them as a monster. Yet, at the end, the writer pungently states 'talking stopped and fighting intensified'.
But however the myopic practices of the larger lot of Sri Lankans led, as the author convincingly concludes, to an 'Internalization of External Mediation' following the India-Lanka Accord and the 13th Amendment. Ketheswaran cites diverse sources and furnishes the reader with a full and well-probed account.
He exhibits a first-hand understanding of the events and times; a brief but catastrophic period in contemporary history. Negotiations in these years fizzled out and left the country in a worse position than ever before.
Ketheswaran sees in the sequel thereafter a missed opportunity to be lamented as having been 'so close and yet so far'. The account focuses on the proceedings of the Select Committee headed by Mangle Moonasinghe.
Ketheswaran Loganathan writes objectively and with muted emotion. He has assiduously consulted several sources and clearly used his findings to advantage so as to present ably in a forthright and lucid manner his considered conclusions, cogently and forcefully.
He dissects the clumsy handling of sensitive issues and diagnoses the causes for the repeated failures of leaders who had to face the formidable problems posed by the continuing conflict which has cost the country immensely.
The valuable nine appendices in his book are highly informative and usefully enhance our understanding of Ketheswaran's study. Many are the lessons to be learnt from his easy to read book so as to steer clear from pitfalls and stem a march to folly if one has to handle adroitly a national question of cardinal importance; it still is not too late to do so, affirms the writer.
Continue to Plus page 3 - "Brothers, we are treading where the Saints have trod" * Tiruvempavai in Jaffna * Placing Christ's birth in history
Return to the Plus contents page
Please send your comments and suggestions on this web site to
info@suntimes.is.lk or to
webmaster@infolabs.is.lk