Popular novelist Mohan Raj Madawala’s latest novel Rajina (Queen) launched in August last year is now into its 6th edition. The novel is based on the historical, yet, controversial character of ‘Queen Anula’.
Madawala through his research finds a different, strong woman in Queen Anula and through his novel Rajina, he tries to portray the ‘real character’ of Queen Anula, which may not have been seen by many writers of his time.
Following is an interview with Madawala;
Q: History is the basis for your novels, Maagam Soliya, Lovina and Adaraneeya Victoria. Do you accept the allegation that you distort history?
A: Those who make such allegations are ignorant of, at least, what a novel is. Napolean Boneparte and the Davinci Code writer, Dan Brown, had his own versions of history. A novel is a creative experience sandwiched between hypothesis and truth. This will help you understand whether I distort history or not.
Q: You have revealed that Queen Anula and Cleopatra were contemporary rulers. How do you account for this?
A: Really, it is something fortuitous that came to mind. They both were contemporaries.
For two weeks, I was obsessed with this. I would say, ‘I slept with them and shared my meals too, together. My wife questioned me about the woman whom I was thinking of, so deeply.
It is really wonderful how women are gifted with the intuition to know that a man is thinking about a woman at a given time!
Q: So in your novel you have ‘created’ Anula and Cleopatra in your wild fancy?
A: Yes, that is so. Neil Armstrong would not have landed on the moon, were he not so determined.
Q: Is the thought of Anula and Cleopatra mere hypothesis?
A: No, it is not. Although it emerged in me as a thought, later I found certain supportive historical evidence. For example, after about 100 years of Anula-Cleopatra advent, in 1 BC, historians had discovered a map used by navigators, such as, the Romans, Egyptians and Greeks, to reach the Indian Ocean via the Red and Mediterranean seas. In this map one sea route to India’s east coast ran through Mannar. It means even 2,000 years ago the Romans and Egyptians had visited Sri Lanka for trading.
Therefore, that Cleopatra and Anula were somewhat known to each other was not mere hypothesis.
Q: This time you have conjured up your image of Rajina through the Egyptians’ belief in deities?
A: Yes. I am attracted to the Egyptians’ belief in deities. Most of their deities resemble animals – Horus, with a hawk head, Anubis, with a jackal head, Basket, with a cat head, Sobec, with a crocodile head. Egyptians believe in eternal life after death as evidenced by the mummies. They seriously believed in it, though we don’t.
Q: In your novel, Queen Anula made arrangements to construct an Egyptian temple in Sri Lanka. Was this really what Anula thought of, or was it a figment of your wild imagination?
A: For millennia, man has been bound by beliefs and cults. Even in this technology savvy world, you may find a temple or place of worship, somewhere. There are similarities between the beliefs and worshipping practised by different people – between Greek and Roman deities, and the Egyptians and the Indians. The Greek poet Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey, largely resemble India’s epic story, Ramayana; Egypt’s pyramids identify with those of Mayan civilization which we find today in Mexico and in Iraq, of Mesopotamian civilization.
This has made it clear, that it was Queen Anula’s decision to put up an Egyptian temple in Sri Lanka, and of course, not my notion.
Q: Did you really want to exonerate Anula from the Mahawansa author’s branding her as a sex goddess.
A: We need not go back to Anula’s time – over 2,000 years ago. See the situation today. If by chance a woman is suspected, what is society’s reaction towards her? She is branded as a woman of easy virtue, ready to sleep with anybody.
‘Who is the woman who is not liable to sin?’ our Jataka stories have questioned. The practice is to treat such a woman as a social outcast and she is eventually ostracized.
The number of such women, ‘ruined’ by ‘sex-free gentlemen of society’ is incalculable. Even a woman wearing a short dress is more than enough to face such condemnation.
Q: You talk of, not only history, in your novel. You also talk of the present social background. Was it not your idea to express your personal political vision on race and religion, through your novel?
A: I shall narrate an anecdote in answer to this question. The late Dr. E.W. Adikaram, an ardent Buddhist and an intellectual, went to the Angoda Mental Hospital to meet one of his friends.
An inmate who introduced himself as “Sinhala Diyasena Rajjuruwan Wahanse” began to engage in conversation with him. Despite Dr. Adikaram’s efforts to persuade him to understand that he was not King Diyasena, the inmate responding aggressively, said, those who do not accept him as king are all mad. Later, Dr. Adikaram, in one of his writings had stated, if the person who is not really Diyasena tries to behave as Diyasena, he is a mental patient. The person, who claims to be a Sinhalese or a Tamil, when there is no Sinhala or Tamil Nation, is also a mental patient; it is the same with racism or religionism. Anula’s successor to the throne Makalantissa too was a mental patient.
Q: Do you say racism and religionism are both man-made mental aberrations?
A: Yes, it is a real mental disease, an epidemic of worldwide proportions. As in Anula’s time, even today, it can destroy the whole world or mankind.
This mental disorder was the background to The Crusades, the first and second World Wars, and the 30 year terrorist war in our own country.
The day we rightly realize the seriousness of this acute mental disorder, we could make the whole world beautiful.
C.K.J.