Island’s famous mat designs. (inset) Radio presenter Dr. Swarna Chandrasekera
Two British visitors to Ceylon during the time of ancient kings wrote extensively on the island and its culture.
Dr. John Dewey and Robert Knox waxed lyrical about the islanders’ knack for singing and the ancient art of folk poetry. Dewey travelled the island in his duties as the personal physician to Governor Robert Brownrigg (1812-1820) and wrote the celebrated book, An Account of Interior of Ceylon and Its Inhabitants, in 1816.
Robert Knox, a prisoner of King Rajasinghe II for 20 years, too focused on the folk poetry in his remarkable book, An Historical Relation of Ceylon, published in 1681.
Writer and educationist Dr. Swarna Chandrasekera, presenting her weekly programme featuring universal women’s literature and culture, said both authors were unanimous in praising Sinhalese, the island’s main language, as beautiful to listen to and highly evocative.
“The folk poetry developed into one of the most significant cultural elements during ancient kings’ reign as the rulers held frequent poetry sessions in the royal courts supported the poets. During King the reign of Rajasinghe II, Sinhala and Tamil bards were invited to compose and recite poetry before huge audiences of courtiers and ordinary people,” said Dr. Chandrasekera, who presents a weekly feature on Sawana web radio based in Toronto.
Some of the famous poets came into prominence mainly due to royal patronage. The most talented ones were Andare, Lokuru Naide, Mungkotuwe Rala and Dunuwila Gajanayake.
After the printing industry came into being the folk poems were published for the benefit of posterity, but unfortunately, modern music and songs became massively popular, belittling the contribution of native poetry, according to Dr. Chandrasekera.
Some of the most popular and creative folk poems were based around weaving grass mats, a popular rural handicraft, which facilitated the young women in the village to express their creativity in shapes and colours while weaving items needed for the house.
Dumbara valley in the Kandy region was famous for its mats, rugs and slats, but the pastime was popular in remote areas where raw materials were abundantly available. Young maidens with a knack for weaving grass mats and other things like rugs, slats, wallets (hambiliyas), boxes and reed ware needed for day-to-day needs were most sought-after by eligible bachelors.
Women cut reed or ‘pan’ growing in swamps with a small sickle, tore them into strips before drying. The other step of t5he craft was dyeing the strips to express their creativity in colours. The natural dyes were made from barks, leaves and various fruits.
Dark red was made from pathangi (Caesalpinia sappan) or Indian redwood, goraka (Garcinia cambogia) and bael (Aegle marmelos) fruits were mixed to make yellow, beige was made by boiling ensal (cardamom), copper from sandalwood bark, boiled aralu (Terminalia chebula) and bulu (Terminalia bellirica) for black, katarolu (Clitoria ternatea) flowers and madan fruits for purple and crushed sivanguru for brown.
There are several varieties of reed or grass that the villagers still use for weaving. The most popular is Havan Pan (Cyeres dehiscens). Then there are other types like Thun-hiriya (Eleocharis plantaginea), Gatapan (Scripus erectus), and Pothukola (Scleria oryzoides).
In a book of folk poetry called Garland of Grass Mats, which V.D. de Lanerolle, teacher, writer, and journalist, compiled, one refers to a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law who wove mats for a king.
The monarch was so impressed by the women’s craftsmanship and rewarded them with treasures equal to an elephant’s weight, but the husband’s mother had claimed the whole prize without giving anything to the daughter-in-law.
The rivalry of the husband’s mother and daughter-in-law is a recurring theme in family disputes. The two women later competed, trying to outdo each other by weaving mats with creative, intricate designs.
The mother-in-law embellished her creation with birds and flowers, integrating various combinations of elaborate designs. Her son’s wife, too, tried her best to illustrate her skills with flowers, particularly difficult designs integrating buds of beautiful rath mal (jungle geranium).
The mother, who was already sad about losing her son’s affection from the day the bride stepped into the house, weaved a rabbit. The daughter-in-law followed with a colourful fox in her design, signalling the extent of her wrath over the older woman’s hostility. Rabbits are the perennial prey of the fox. When the older woman added an innocent deer, the daughter-in-law wove a leopard, hinting that she was capable of challenging any of her moves with violent intentions.
The mother weaved an elephant in all its splendour, but the young woman added a ferocious lion with the strength and power to destroy the pachyderm.
When the mother wove a cockerel used by hoodoo men to destroy people with witchcraft, the daughter-in-law quickly fashioned a kola diviya (fishing cat) to neutralize the challenge.
Assessing the daughter-in-law’s boundless creativity, the mother planned her final assault by creating the Mara (Death) and his troops menacing the Buddha when he was on his way to attaining Buddhahood. Undaunted, the young woman weaved the vajrasana mat on which the Buddha realized the ultimate truth under the Bo tree.
Star-struck by the daughter-in-law’s remarkable talent for weaving mats, the mother accepted defeat singing a poem praising her and praying that she would, in her next life, be born in the same womb as her sister. “You are like a mother to me, not just my daughter-in-law,” she added, making peace with her.
The late playwright Dr. Ediriweera Sarachchandra took this folk theme for his very popular play Raththaran (Gold).
The mat took a prominent place in the household as it symbolized the intimacy between the husband and wife.
The radio programme ended with a famous folk poem with a message to young wives though its relevance seems to be obsolete in the modern context.
‘Don’t while away time unnecessarily swapping gossip when you go to fetch water from the public well; Avoid spreading the mat in the veranda when the husband is not at home; Avoid going to the wood alone to collect firewood; Don’t invite problems to defame the womankind.’
Anoja Makuloluwa, Nayana Kumari Dehipola and Rohana Dissanayake sang the folk poems beautifully in their own inimitable styles to illustrate the references that Dr. Chandrasekra made during the programme.
Toronto-based Sawana Web Radio was established by Vasantha Lankatilleke, the former SLBC producer. (www.newstrails.com)
