Literature—Sri Lanka, Sinhalese

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Literature Summary

Literature—Sri Lanka, Sinhalese

Sinhalese literature, or literature written in Sinhala, the language of the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka, is distinguished from literature in other modern South Asian languages by its antiquity, its historical association with Buddhism, and the pervasive influences of long colonial domination in Sri Lanka. Buddhist monasteries became the center of intellectual activity after the conversion of the Sinhalese king to Buddhism in the third century BCE and remained so until modern times. The language and its literature declined under colonial governments (1505–1948) but have revived in recent times.

Classical Sinhala

Buddhist texts in the Pali language were at first preserved orally by monks; the monks also composed commentaries on these texts, including historical records, in Sinhala. The early literature is lost, but there are references to it in Pali texts and later writing in Sinhala. The Mahavamsa, the great chronicle of Sinhalese kings composed in Pali in the fifth century CE, apparently drew on Sinhala commentaries. The ancient sources praised the kings' literary ability. The Pali chronicle Culavamsa (41: 55) describes King Moggallana II (531–551 CE) as "having poetic gifts without equal." The oldest extant prose work in Sinhala dates to the tenth century and is attributed to King Kassapa V (913–923 CE).

The restoration of Sinhalese rule by Vijayabahu I in 1070 after Sri Lanka's conquest by invaders from South India was followed by a cultural revival. Vijayabahu himself was considered a poet and patron of literature (Culavamsa 60: 80). King Parakramabahu II (1236–1271), another ruler who restored order after a foreign invasion, was the author of the Kavsilumina, one of the great poems of the classical period. Works in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were written in an ornate style with many words and literary conventions adapted from Sanskrit in what is considered the high point of literature in Sinhala. On the other hand, Gurulugomi in the thirteenth century wrote prose literature in a "pure" form of Sinhala known as Elu and limited the use of Sanskrit and Pali loan words. Sinhala diverged from other South Asian languages in this development of prose. Buddhist monks wrote commentaries and paraphrases of doctrinal texts, historical chronicles, works on grammar and rhetoric, stories of the life of the Buddha, and many translations of Sanskrit works. In the fifteenth century Sinhalese poets wrote in a style closer to the ordinary language than earlier poets did and wrote on more secular subjects. At the end of the sixteenth century, literature flourished under the patronage of the state and Buddhist monastic orders.

Colonial Domination

All this changed after the Portuguese conquered the southwest coastal region of the island, where the Sinhalese government had its capital. The Portuguese persecuted Buddhists, destroyed monasteries and libraries, and rewarded Christian converts. Buddhist monks and laymen moved from the coastal regions to the interior. For over two hundred years a Sinhalese kingdom survived at Kandy in the hilly interior, constantly threatened by Portuguese, Dutch, and finally British conquerors. Pali and Sanskrit scholarship declined, and popular literature developed, much of it influenced by Tamil sources. At the end of the eighteenth century Buddhism and classical literary forms revived under royal patronage in the Kandyan kingdom.

In 1815, the British annexed the Kandyan kingdom, and the island was united under Christian, English-speaking rulers. The British supported Sinhalese (and Tamil) schools but only for elementary education and primarily for the purpose of encouraging conversion to Christianity. Many educated Sinhalese preferred English literature and disregarded literature in Sinhala.

Nevertheless, Sinhalese printing presses began to reprint classical works in Sinhala, woks that had been preserved in village temples on palm-leaf manuscripts, and a literary revival began. Printing also made literature available to a nonscholarly audience, and journals, pamphlets, and newspapers discussed politics and literature in Sinhala. By the late nineteenth century there were frequent controversies over literary styles. Monks and others continued to write in classical styles, whereas Pali texts and foreign literature were translated into a more popular idiom of Sinhala.

Modern fiction in Sinhala has its origins in propagandistic Christian stories in the 1870s. The first novels, often romantic fantasies or morality tales, appeared in the 1890s and became popular in the early twentieth century. Detective fiction also became popular. The most popular author was Piyadasa Sirisena (1875–1946), whose writings emphasized the destructive effects of English influence on Sinhalese culture. His counterpart in theater was the playwright John de Silva (1857–1922). Poets in the early twentieth century continued to use traditional forms until a new generation of poets called the Colombo school rejected classical poetics and themes. They introduced modern themes in poems of romantic love and social criticism, and they were in turn succeeded by writers directly influenced by contemporary Western poets.

Independent Sri Lanka

W. A. Silva (1892–1957) and other novelists attracted popular followings in the 1940s and 1950s with escapist narratives and simple plots. The greatest of Sinhalese novelists, Martin Wickramasinghe (1891–1976), initially was not popular. His Gamperaliya (1944) tells the story of the disintegration of village life under the impact of modern conditions. It is considered the first serious novel in Sinhala, and it contributed to raising the standards of fiction in Sinhala. Wickramasinghe was the most influential literary critic of his period.

Another writer and critic, Ediriweera Sarachchandra (1914–1996), devoted himself to raising the reputation of literature in Sinhala among the English-educated elite, as well as to encouraging serious fiction in Sinhala. Studies by faculty at the University of Ceylon (established 1942) increased scholarly interest in literature in Sinhala.

Throughout much of the twentieth century, literature written in Sinhala was somewhat overshadowed by works written in English. Two outstanding and, indeed, internationally influential writers were Leonard Woolf (1880–1969), the husband of Virginia Woolf and author of a novel, The Village in the Jungle (1914), drawing on his experiences in the Ceylon civil service, and Michael Ondaatje (b. 1943), a distinguished contemporary writer born in Sri Lanka who now lives in Canada.

Radical changes occurred in 1956, when Sinhala became the medium of education for most schools and universities in the nation and the Department of Cultural Affairs (which became the Ministry of Cultural Affairs in 1970) moved literature in Sinhala away from both Western influences and the classical past. Wickramasinghe emphasized traditional Sinhalese-Buddhist values in his later works; he and other writers accused Sarachchandra and others based at the universities of being too influenced by Western literature.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century literature in Sinhala has come under increased political pressure. Sarachchandra was physically assaulted by government supporters after he wrote a satire following the 1977 election that blamed the government's social and economic policies for the deterioration of cultural values. The civil war that began in 1983 has led to increased use of Sinhala in public life, but also to censorship, a surge in Sinhalese chauvinism, and violence against writers. It may be that, as in the past, literature in Sinhala flourishes in times of crisis.