The return of King Kanakacuriyan
- Peter
Schalk-
When
in December 1995 the Lankan forces captured Yalppanam, President
Cantirika celebrated the event as if it was a famous
repetition of a
historical event, the taking of Yapa Patuna (Yalppanam)
by Canpakap
Perumal (Sapumal Kumaraya). He was the adopted son
of Parakramabahu
VI(1411-66), and he was installed in about 1450 as
King in Yapa Patuna, at
a time when the autonomous Kingdom of Yalppanam under
the Tamil King
Kanakacuriyan was weakened. The place name Yapa Patuna
is connected with
the establishment of Lankan rule in Yapa Patuna through
Sapumal Kumaraya.
He became later later King of Kotte under the name
of Bhuvanekabahu
VI(1469-77). He chose a political involvement that
brought him to the
Sinhala side against the interest of Tamilar who were
loyal to the
separate and independent Kingdom of Yalppanam.
On December 2, 1995, the Lankan
armed forces penetrated the Nallurkovil in
Yalppanam. Pictures of the uniformed conquerors in
the kovil were flashed
all over the country and the rest of the world by
the press affiliated to
the Lankan Government. The conquerors had pierced
the "heart" of the
Ilavar. Political Buddhism was also evoced in
this process. The state
controlled paper The Daily News reported on December
11, 1995, that the
President had expressed her gratitude to the Mahasangha
for their advice,
support and blessings during the recent military offensive
that
established the writ of the Government in Jaffna.
Visiting the Dalida
Maligava, she said that Sri Lankan leaders have always
visited the Sri
Dalida Maligava to invoke the blessings of the Triple
gem on occasions of
national importance.
We are following that tradition
by paying homage to the Sacred Tooth relic
on this occasion when our security forces have liberated
Jaffna, she said.
She did not say that the war to conquer Yalppanam
was holy, but her
conscious connecting the land-taking by war with the
veneration in the
Dalida Maligava is a very clear expression of a martial
form of Buddhism.
Then, the ceremony of conquering Yalppanam took place
in Colombo on
December 6, 1995, led by Her Excellency Cantirika,
who received from the
hand of her Defence General, Anuruddha, a message
dated 2939 in the
Buddhist era, written on a scroll roled up inside
a red velvet container.
[The date refers to years from the nirvana of the
Buddha]. The message
said that in Yapa Patuna her authority and rule was
established. She
repeated the historical incident by using the political
scene as stage
where she played the role of Parakiramapaku VI and
Anuruddha the role of
Sapumal.
Sapumal was celebrated and remembered
in a famous 15th century kavi in
Sinhala called Kokila Sandesaya, that was used as
the literary and
ideological basis for Her Excellency Cantirika, when
arranging the
triumphant ceremony of the victory over Yapa Patuna
in December 1995.
The kavi describes the city, its prosperity, its crowds
of dancing girls,
and mentions that the former Tamil King had escaped
and gone into exile.
"A valiant prince, the guardian of realm
Shines like the seat where Laksmi sits enthroned
To Him, Sri Lanka's light, a message bear.
Though long be the way and great the toil.
Great Sapumal is he, our royal scion,
Who made King Arya Cakravarti flee.
He now in strenght proud Yapa Patuna holds;
And thither thou art on mission bound".
Kokila Sandesaya in Sinhala is known
by many Lankans and is now easily
available in many bookshops. It was written by Irrugalcula
Parivenadipati,
a Buddhist monk, from Mulgirigala in the 15th century.
In the Sandesa,
Sapumal is said to shine like Laksmi's seat (verse
8) i.e, that fortune is
ever present in him, and that Laksmi holds him still
in fond embrace
(verse 28). Cantirika chose a more formal relation
to Anuruddha.
The poem was retrieved from oblivion in 1917 when
W F Gunavardhana,
mudaliyar, published it and added a translation into
English. He also
added comments with a political edge, that for
many decades has
influenced the minds of the readers. He could of course
not forsee the
present development, but he used history as an omen
for the future. He
introduced the poem by saying that the pensinsula
of Jaffna, as part of
Ceylon, had always been a part of the Sinhalese country,
until, during a
time of national weakness, it had been seized and
colonised by Tamils from
Pandya, under a General named Arya Cakravarti, who
erected it into an
independent kingdom and became its first ruler. Then
after some
generations Prince Sapumal came, at the head of an
army, to reduce the
Kingdom of Jaffnapatnam into subjection to the Sinhalese
throne.
The points of this comment are that Jaffnapatnam was
lost through weakness
to a foreign ruler, that the Kingdom of Yalppnam was
illegal because it
was conquered and that the Tamils are foreign latecomers
and colonisers to
Yalppanam in the 13th century. Jaffnapatnam should
be brought back to
where it belongs, to the Sinhalese throne. The Kokila
Sandesaya has to be
read within this context of warism against Tamilar
in the beginning of the
20th century.
In another Sandesa, the Selahinisandesa,
we learn about the victorius
arrival of Sapumal to Kotte. He is describes as Indra-like.
This sandesaya
is read in schools. It is therefore not at all far-fetched
of the
President to make this kavi a charter of her own "royal"
performance. She
knows how to use symbolic action to convey the message
of the
establishment of authority in Yalppanam. She does
not deviate in that
matter from the former Presidents, from "King" J.R.
Jayavardhana who
placed himself in an unbroken tradition of rulers,
and from "King"
Ranasinghe Premadasa who each 2nd January repeated
the royal coronation
ceremony in the Dalida Maligava in Nuvara. Her Excellency
has followed
this royal pattern by reviving the 15th century court
ritual in Kotte. Her
"court" also is a royal stage. That gives her appearance
a traditional
look. Cantirika is de facto not a Queen, but inspite
of their bourgeois
backgrounds, Presidents have taken up
royal roles in state rituals.
It is evident from the "royal"
ceremony on 6th December 1995 that Her
Excellency Cantirika, takes the role of Parakramabahu
VI, and Anuruddha
Ratwatte, the role of Sapumal Kumaraya. In propaganda
literature, Ratwatte
was explicitely referred to as the modern day Prince
Sapumal. The
ceremony was formed with help of some historians who
evidently had offered
their services to the politicians. We learn on December
6th from the
Government paper The Daily News that historians had
already looked upon
the liberation of "Yapa Patuna of ancient fame", as
a historical parallel
to its re-taing by Prince Sapumal in the 15th century
by vanquishing the
forces of "rebel chief" Arya Cakkaravartti.
The names of these
"historians" are not given.
The ceremony is a projection
of regressive symbolic thinking. The title of
"General" was conferred to Ratwatte at the Wickrama
Samana
(GallantryAwards) ceremony on Independence Day, 1996.
Tiru Velupppillai Pirapakaran has been given by implication
the role of
the former conquered Tamil King Kanakacuriyan in exile.
The homology
breaks down, however, when we see what Sapumal Kumaraya
II
(=AnuruddhaRatwatte), found in Yapa Patuna. He did
not find prosperity and
crowds of dancing girls, but ruins and some hundred
elderly and sick
people who could not escape from the war. From the
point of view of
Ilavar, the final military establishment of Lankan
authority is an
establishment of Lankan hegemony.
The other side of authority,
is, as we know, hegemony. The "royal"ritual
does not express authority to the Ilavar, but haughtiness
of power that
neglects the aspirations of the Ilavar and shows contempt
towards them.
Haughtiness of power counteracts confidence-building
as expressed in the
winning-of-heart-and-mind-programme started after
the military victory by
the Government in Yalppnam.
Furthermore, the implicit
connecting of Tiru Velupppillai Pirapakaran with
King Kanakacuriyan is explosive: King Kanakacuriyan
came back around 1467
from Indian exile with an army and re-established
the Kingdom of
Yalppanam.
The historical advisors of
the President were evidently not well versed in
history or they withheld this information from Her
excellency. Their
historical paradigm to be repeated by the President
includes its own
destruction. If history repeats itself, then King
Kanakacuriyan has to
come back. In April 2000, he already knocks at the
door of Yalppanam.
The ceremony of conquering Yalppanam has left a deep
scar in the memory of
many Ilavar. They discussed and remembered the incident
again and again,
and it became a part of their state of mind, of a
humilated mind, that
called for revenge. The ceremony was taken up as a
human rights' violation
in 1997 in the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights, 53rd Session,
Geneva, March-April, 1997.
On November 27, 1995, Tiru Veluppillai Pirpakaran
made a speech in
connection with Great Heroes' Day. At that time the
lion flag had already
been hoisted over Yalppanam. He reacted very emotionally
as can be
expected. The following is an official translation
by the LTTE of a part
of his speech.
"The Sinhala military devils may hoist victory flags
in depopulated Jaffna
which has been reduced to rubble. The Sinhala
chauvinistic gangs in the
South may light crackers in jubilation assuming that
they have captured
the kingdom of Jaffna. Chandrika may send peace
signals believing that
military hegemony has been achieved. In these
circumstances we wish to
make it absolutely clear that as long as the Sinhala
army is occupying
Jaffna the doors for peace will be firmly closed.
The LTTE will not
participate in the peace negotiations imposed at the
point of a gun
subjecting itself to military pressure. This
is the message we wish to
address to Chandrika regime. It will be nothing
other than political
stupidity if Chandrika government thinks that it can
bring about peace and
political settlement by occupying Jaffna and uprooting
hundreds of
thousands of people. The invasion of Jaffna
is a gigantic historical
blunder made by Chandrika regime. As a consequence
of this act the
Colombo government has closed all avenues for peace
and plunged the entire
island into grave conflictual situation."
Revenge the Ilavar got, indeed,
in a Tamil kuttu, "droll", "ludicrous
action", "dramatic performance" enacted at Maviranal,
"Great Heroes Day",
in Paris in November 1996. Then, a group of
actors enacted the solemn
ceremony again on the stage, but this time as a farce.
The roles of the
President and the role of the General were staged
by young Ilavar who had
gained an intimate knowledge about personal characteristsics
of the two
Sinhala leaders' public verbal and bodily performance.
The kuttu ended by
the arrival of the Tamil freedom fighters and their
struggle against the
brutalised Sinhala army. The freedom fighters were
victorious, of course.
History repeats itself not only for the benefit of
Sapumal Kumaraya, but
also for the benefit of King Kanakacuriyan. He came
back from exile with
an army and re-established the Kingdom of Yalppnam.
The young Ilavar on
the stage made the President and her General prisoners
and ordered them to
do heavy labour consisting of carrying tombstones
to the graves of the
tiyakikkal, "martyrs", of the Ilavar. Parts of the
public in the theatre
got so emotionally involved that it rose from the
seats, raising their
fists, shouting and scolding the two "prisoners".
The Ilavar journal Hot
Spring, issued in London, had on its front page a
picture from the kuttu
showing "the President" in rage, and her "General".
It is evident that
this theatrical performance aimed at reversing the
process from virtual
reality to reality by anticipating the re-capture
of Yalppnam by the LTTE.
That was in 1996. In 2000 or later, virtual reality
may become reality,
because history has to repeat itself. We have to thank
Cantirika and her
Sinhala Court historians for this deep insight.
-Peter Schalk-
From:circlenews-digest@tamilcircle.org>
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