Prof Suraweera's Contribution in Classical Sinhala Text Editing (1)

8/10/2019 Prof Suraweera's Contribution in Classical Sinhala Text Editing (1)

1/6

Prof A. V. Suraweera's Contribution to Classical Sinhala Text Editing

Prof. A.V. Suraweera was a distinguished scholar who received numerous accolades and

appreciations from both the academia as well as the general masses for his work in SinhalaLiterature and creative writing. His knowledge in the fields of contemporary literature, history,

language studies and literary theory, cultural studies and art history made him a key figure

amongst a group of a few but eminent local scholars of the late !thcentury.

At a time when scholarly attention was paid less to preliminary sources in the study of historical

trends in literature and language, as well as in the study of historical studies, Prof. Suraweera

decided to research e"tensively into these areas. He pursued his research by following the most

current and up to date methodologies of te"tual editing while e"panding his research relating to

different areas in comparative studies. He is well known for his contributions to historical works

which included lengthy introductions covering the areas of history #mostly vignettes of the

common masses$, language cultural values and historical problems. %hese publications also

contained elaborate appendices, glossaries, and indices. &any consider this to be the greatest

academic contribution made by Prof. Suraweera.

His interest in the field of classical te"t editing began with his involvement in postgraduate

studies at the 'niversity of Peradeniya where he had the opportunity to work with eminent

scholars like Prof. Hettiarachchi under whose supervision he completed his &A and Ph(. )or

his &A, he edited the last two chapters of thePjvaliya# the historical chapters$ as well as the

Rjvaliya, Alakvara Yuddhaya, Tisara Sandaya #with Prof. Vimala Vi*ayasuriya$ and

Pjvaliya #complete book + with Herbert Pathirana, H.A.P. Abhayavardhana$ which were

published as classical editions of the te"t.

Subseuent to the publication of the Suraweera edition of the Pjvaliya #-h. +/$, ma*or

historians like Prof. Senarat Paranavitana and Prof. Amaradasa Liyanagamage began to use and

recommend it as an authoritative source thereby validating the academic credibility of this te"t.

)or thePjvaliya, he compared four olamanuscripts and four early printed works. %his edition

of thePjvaliyacontains an introduction which includes information about kingship in ancient


2/6

Sri Lanka as well as information into religion, economic and political matters with a special

focus on issues relating to irrigation affairs. %his is considered to be important because the early

0editors1 of these classical te"ts fell short in terms of their roles and e"pectations, where they

failed to provide detailed information relating to the classical history of Sri Lanka. Suraweera on

the other hand having referred to various sources, identified names of persons, places and

irrigation tanks in ancient Sri Lanka that had not being identified as yet.

%his has become a valuable source not only to the scholars who speciali2e in language, literature

and socio+historical studies, but for students who study classical te"ts. Particularly since it has

clarified personal and place names, names of ancient irrigation works, as well as present a

chronology of Sri Lankan kings by referring to various manuscripts in this regard.

Prof. Suraweera1s work on the last two chapters of the Pjvaliya is most valued for being

representative of the continuity of Sinhala historical writings. Hence, Suraweera is credited not

only for presenting a work that is done in accordance with the methods of classical te"t editing

but also for selecting such a rare and valuable piece of writing for his research, which clearly

demonstrates his maturity on the sub*ect.

After the publication of the critical edition of the Pjvaliya, Suraweera3s attention was focused

onto other writings that fell under the minor tradition, which had not been commonly identified

as a part of main stream Sinhala literature by contemporary scholars. 4hile historical evidence

into the origin of these writings seems rather unclear, it is assumed that it originated during in the

latter part of the (ambadeniya era. 5y analysing the related writings related , it is clear that the

writers of these works were not aware of Pali and Sanskrit6 the classical languages of the learned

community and the original works on religion and their commentaries as well as historical

writings in Pali.%hese writings did not follow the standard grammatical rules and styles

established and preserved in classical Sinhala literature.

%hese works fall into the class of historical writings as it contains information available in the

traditional historical works as well as facts that are not available or refuted by traditional writers,

in addition to details on folklore and legends.


3/6

)urthermore, it contains a detailed account of ancient Sri Lankan society which had not been

depicted in any of the works of the great tradition. %he information, data, records and accounts

related to culture, were ignored by the great tradition but were presented in these kinds of work

by the writers of the minor tradition. 4hile the works in the great tradition was trying to preserve

the conventional7conservative forms of language, these types of works had protected the

naturally evolving living tradition of the language. %wo works in this genre were e"tensively

edited and published with comprehensive introductions by Prof Suraweera. )irst one is

Rjvaliya, which was submitted to the 'niversity of -eylon in 89:/ as the (octoral

(issertation, published in 89;< and the other is Alakvara Yuddhayapublished in 89:vaka Period. ?t

begins with the account of the capture and deportation of a king of this island to -hina and the

founding of the city named @ayavardhanapura and the conuering of Arya -akravarti, the

provincial king of @affna by a -eylonese minister named Alakesvara. )urthermore it depicts the

historical legend of the kingdom of otte from the enthronement of Parakramabahu ?V, the

account of the arrival of the Portuguese and wars that were waged against them, as well as the

description of the beginning, rise and the decline of the S=t>vaka kingdom %he first print edition

of the Alakvara Yuddhaya, transcribed by A. (. A. 4i*esinghe from a single ola leaf

manuscript, appeared in the local *ournal entitled Jndaraya during 89!9+88. Prof

Suraweera3s critical edition of the Alakvara Yuddhaya was a comparison of three ola leaf

manuscripts and the Jndaraya version. Alakvara Yuddhaya is identified as one of the

sources on which the Rjvaliya, the ne"t scholarly edition done by Prof. Suraweera, was

compiled. ?t depended and based for its narration, the history of the island in the late mediaeval

period. Rjvaliya can be recogni2ed as the historical tradition of the common folk of Sri

Lanka. Rjvaliya mainly illustrates the history of Sri Lanka from Vi*aya to the enthronement

of Vimaladharmasurya ??. As an introduction to the accounts of the kings of Sri Lanka, it presents

the 3depiction of 5uddhist cosmology3, 3the tale of ?ndia of the 5uddhist folk tradition

#Jambudvipa$ and surrounded legendary countries3 and 3the account of the legendary epoch and

the genealogy of legendary kings3 ?t is clear that the author ofRjvaliya has not utili2ed the

ahvam!sa, the original source of the history of Sri Lanka. ?t seems to be that he mainly


4/6

depends on works and which do not appear in Sinhala works are taken from local folk lore. )or

the introductory sections of the Rjvaliya , the author is indebted to classical Sinhala prose

works asPjvaliya, Thpavam!saya and Saddharmlakraya. %he historical descriptions from

Vi*aya, the first ing of ancient Sri Lanka to ing Vi*aybahu of (ambadeniya are taken from

the Pjvaliyaand the rest from the time of Vi*ayabahu of (ambadeniya to the end of the reign

of &ayadunne of S=t>vaka is taken from theAlakvara Yuddhaya " )or the rest of his work and

for some e"planatory parts in the former sections, he has referred to other kinds of work.

According to Suraweera, and -. B. Codakumbure too, these might be folk lore, legends,

contemporary records prevailing among common people, and some minor literary works that

have emerged from common people who have not learned Pali and other classical languages but

have the ability to be creative.

?t can be proved that the author of theRjvaliyahas borrowed and copied the relevant sections

mainly fromPjvaliyaandAlakvara Yuddhaya and from other sources he referred to and it

seems be another version of the original work. Prof Suraweera describes this condition in his

introduction to the -ritical Bdition of the Rjvaliya as followsD E%he task of the author of

Rjvaliya seems to be choosing some historical records on several incidents and periods and

compiling them to form as a single work. %he thing what he has to combine is some folk

legendaries and a few contemporary records only.E %his work represents a novel tradition ofhistorical writing. After the compilation of 3originalERjvaliya up to the enthronement of the

Vimaladharmasurya ??, compiling various versions and adaptations of it in the same title lengthen

out by appending other details on folk lore is an e"ceptional feature of this popular tradition of

historical writing.

Rjvaliya is the only Sinhala work written before the colonial period. %he main remarkable

aspect of it is the inclusion of some information related to the history of Sri Lanka which is not

found in works such as ahvam!sa and Pjvaliya. 5y confirming the information which

prevailed in folk lore it obviously informs us that theRjvaliya is the historical work of folk or

popular tradition. ?t verifies as some of these information in the literary works related to folk

rituals are found in books on boundary #kadayim po#$ and books on legendary lore #vi##i po#$.


5/6

Prof Suraweera argues on this bestowing with e"amples in his lengthy introduction to the $i#i%al

&di#ion o' Rjvaliya "

3%he writing style and grammatical condition of the Rjvaliya verify that the author has

rewritten the passages which had been taken from Pjvaliya and Alakvara Yuddhaya

according to his own style and grammatical rules.Rjvaliya is of value for its linguistic and

grammatical aspects and not as a historical record of the country since it contains 8;thcentury

linguistic features of Sinhala. According to the current usage some of these patterns and usages

are regarded as incorrect. %he scholars who publishedRjvaliya prior to Prof Suraweera had

corrected these 3errors3 and had tried to give a most consistent copy of it according to the current

and correct usage. 5ut Prof Suraweera3s attempt is to furnish a most reliable te"t close to the

original work done by the author. He has identified te"tual errors done by late copyists and

documented all variant readings in various manuscripts as foot notes. As he has pursued the

academic discipline related to classical te"t editing to the e"tent to which, we have a reliable

edition of this work and it will be a fine opportunity to study the linguistic condition of late 8; th

century as a transitional period in the evolution of the Sinhala language. ?t clearly shows how

the Sinhala language developed with its collouial traditions and the difference between the

traditional classical language which was controlled according to conservative grammatical

traditions and rules as well as the collouial language which progressed without such constraints.

%he language used in Rjvaliya is enriched with %amil and Portuguese le"icons and folkusage. ?n the $ri#i%al &di#ion o' #h( Rjvaliya by Prof Suraweera the words derived from

%amil and Portuguese languages as well as folk usage are compiled as an appendi". %his -ritical

Bdition is brought together comparing 8 ola leaf manuscripts and two previous 3printed

editions3.

4e can clearly introduce bothAlakvara Yuddhaya andRjvaliya as historical works in the

minor tradition and they are valuable sources in Sri Lankan history, Sinhala )olk lore and

collouial speech. Prof Suraweera3s contribution in critically editing them according to the

standard techniues and scientific methodology is a great endeavour in enriching the Sinhala

academic arena. He accomplished this attempt almost a half century ago and later proceeded to

translate them into a universal languageD Bnglish. Suraweera3s Bnglish translation of the

Rjvaliya was published in 899F and the translation of the Alakvara Yuddhaya comes to


6/6

light as a posthumous publication. %hese two works, indeed, are landmarks in -lassical Sinhala

te"t editing and they will facilitate to position the contribution made by Prof Suraweera in the

foremost chapters in the history of Sinhala literature.

Ratnasiri Arangala

Documents

Prof Suraweera's Contribution in Classical Sinhala Text Editing (1)