The ability to unite Sri Lanka with its vast traditional knowledge including the arts, especially those belonging to the majority Sinhala population, the way done historically when anyone who came to this nation was absorbed seamlessly into its culture, remains an untapped area today.
Among the many areas of potential for bringing Sri Lankans together one component within the heritage of the Sinhala civilisation could be the Hitiwana Kavi tradition (the English translation which could be defined as stand up poetry) where impromptu verse is created by the poet on any given topic or theme.
Humanity
This writer was exposed to such a poetic event held online last Sunday by a group of communication specialists and poets specialising in the subject and what was striking were the points made which included speaking of similar traditions amongst the Tamil community and the need to use the arts for betterment of humanity.
While the majority of the participants were Sinhala what was apparent was the very all encompassing manner in which the event was organised so as to focus on a component of Sinhala culture but in a manner where any citizen of the country can take part.
The event was held with the participation of those such as senior academic in communications, Dr. Kamal Welboda, specialist in traditional Lankan sciences and arts, Kalyani Herath Menike and academic in the stream of communication, Fathima Shanaz and several others who were poets skilled in this craft.
While much time was spent in poets creating their own poetic ‘spoken; verse on random topics, there were some important analysis made on the possible similarities with the wadabaila tradition of Portuguese origin.
Kalyani Herath Menike who recited much of the impromptu poetry made some of the key comments on how this form of poetry which is now mostly seen used on political platforms could be used for communicating key social issues on people centric independent forums.
One key factor was that most of the participants were academics in the stream of communication in the Sinhala medium and what was clear is that there exists a gap in how communication as a subject is taught in the English medium in Sri Lanka.
Tendency
If traditional knowledge and arts within the Buddhist and pre Buddhist civilisation of this country could be absorbed within the university based subject sphere of English language communication departments and made relevant to the current context of the country, much potential exists to use such knowledge to develop a network of insight for many themes of focus in Sri Lanka. It was noted by the experts in this form of poetry that took part in Sunday’s event that although there is a modern tendency to use this poetry more to portray another in a unfavourable though humorous light, that the original form of this poetry was often created themes of nature and the role of humans within the expanse of the natural world.
In a separate discussion with some of the organisers and participants of this event some points raised included the importance of including some arts within the school curricula.
One hypothesis that we could make is that the curse of ragging that we have in the university system which is based on hate may not have been a reality if arts such as these based on our heritage had been absorbed into our psyche for the past 73 years of being free from colonial rule.
“What we teach children is not knowledge but a machine like existence. It is this that is the beginning of ruination of future generations.
If our education system could be less Westernised and more within our heritage there could be much potential to make many positive changes to society and unite our people,” Herath Menike said.
Academically qualified in several Sinhala culture based forms of knowledge as well as Astrology she had by career been an accountant.
She added that the training of the mind to create instant poetry while not easy is perfect for creating a younger population who think through ideas analytically and creatively within the spur of the moment which hones the intellect.
Humour
“This form of poetry relaxes the mind greatly as it often has the opportunity to incorporate humour,” she said.
Dr. Kamal Welboda when asked about some general views held by society that this form of poetry merits less credit as it is ‘less classical’ answered that this form of poetry belongs to the people as historically art did in Sri Lanka.
It was said that the Sigiriya artists were part of that legacy who communicated through art a dimension of everyday life as lived through in that point of time. A poetic or artistic style that develops within a particular country, with its unique features holds a cultural dimension unique to its people. We can see this when analysing the different artistic traditions of the world. Hence in the technological age as we are in today we need more than ever before the nurturing of local arts to establish it within the country.
Nurturing of local arts and heritage is primarily up to ordinary people. For the past one and a half years in this Covid-19 backdrop this is what we see happening in Sri Lanka very widely where there is a resurgence of interest in local arts and traditional knowledge such as indigenous medicine.
It is the lockdown time since last year that gave rise to several of these events being organised by artists, academics, traditional physicians and others.
This above detailed out poetry based event had several preceding ones and organised by a group calling themselves Aluthin Hinthana Api. Sri Lanka’s sad fate is that we have progressed on alien cultural paths without stopping to wonder why and how we have lost what is our own.
World history has shown us that different artistic cultural re-awakenings occur in some of the most challenging socio-economic times and that this resurgence is often by ordinary people. Sri Lanka is possibly undergoing this stage now.