{"id":124706,"date":"2014-05-18T00:16:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-17T18:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=124706"},"modified":"2014-05-25T01:57:20","modified_gmt":"2014-05-24T20:27:20","slug":"attack-of-the-mutants-ices-colombo-and-other-accidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/attack-of-the-mutants-ices-colombo-and-other-accidents\/","title":{"rendered":"Attack Of The Mutants: ICES (Colombo) And Other Accidents"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Darshanie Ratnawalli<\/span><\/a> –<\/b><\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

Darshanie Ratnawalli<\/p><\/div>\n

Where the mainstream academics are not very alert, discerning or prolific, the lunatic fringe will soon grow like a cancer and outweigh them in respectability. This happened in Sri Lanka to an unbelievable degree across a wide swath of social sciences including history, linguistics and anthropology. The mainstream was not vigilant enough in watching out for the mutant. Maybe there were just too many mutants. Mutants backed by other mutants, who fronted for yet bigger mutants.<\/p>\n

In the 1990s, which was much more the day of the mutants than the 2010s can ever be, International Centre for Ethnic Studies<\/a><\/span> (Colombo) engaged on a project to promote the official languages provisions in the 13th<\/sup> and 16th<\/sup> amendments to the constitution. They organized workshops in collaboration with the Department of Official Languages, made some films and last but not least, commissioned a study[i]<\/a> by Mr. Theva Rajan<\/a><\/span>, who now enjoys the distinction of being one of the two elected members allocated to New Zealand in the Transnational Constituent Assembly of Tamil Elam<\/a><\/span>. ICES (Colombo) published Mr. Theva Rajan\u2019s study (text<\/a><\/span>) with a foreword by \u2018Editor, ICES (Colombo)\u2019, a ghost title[ii]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This study deals with the important subject of Tamil as official language. In its early pages, it manipulates ancient linguistic history to ruthlessly edit out the Sinhalese language from the equation. Clearly, ICES (Colombo), which was then going through its mutant phase,[iii]<\/a> felt that such an enterprise deserved support and placed their institutional resources and reputation behind it. Nothing is more gallant than the way Mr. Theva Rajan acts to defend the honour of Tamil whenever Sinhalese obtrudes historically to an unpleasant degree. To appreciate how gallant he is being, let me give some background.<\/p>\n

The earliest extant texts of this country, written on stone in the Brahmi script, dated from 3rd<\/sup> century BC onwards are in Sinhalese. Sometimes, a medievalist will feel compelled to explain; \u201cEr.. by Sinhalese, I don\u2019t mean \u201cSinhalese Sinhalese\u201d but the Middle Indo Aryan (MIA) phase of Sinhalese.\u201d A classic example is Charles Hallisey in \u2018<\/i>Works and Persons in Sinhala Literary Culture<\/span>\u2019<\/i><\/a>, 2003[iv]<\/a>;<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is evidence for the documentary use of the Sinhala language (or, perhaps more accurately, a Sinhala \u201cPrakrit\u201d) in inscriptions from as early as the third century B.C.E., but none are literature by any definition of the term, as a single example can make clear: upasaka devaha lene, \u201cthe cave of the lay devotee Deva\u201d\u2026\u201d.-( p721, fn. 117)<\/b><\/p>\n

Behind that bashful, skittish parenthetical clause; \u201cor, perhaps more accurately a Sinhala \u201cPrakrit\u201d\u201d<\/i> lurks the belief that the name Sinhala is only kosher for the New Indo Aryan (NIA) phase of the language and not so much for the MIA phase. It is ignorance, which causes that belief. We do know that the language was known as Sinhalese even during its MIA phase (3rd<\/sup> century BCE to 8\/9th<\/sup> century AD) because Buddhaghosa writing in the early 5th<\/sup> century AD calls it Sihala Bhasa[v]<\/a>. More importantly, the term \u201cSihala Bhasa\u201d is used by this monk not only for the language at his own point (5th<\/sup> century AD) in the time stream. When he says (K. R Norman: 1978, p32, full text<\/a><\/span>) that his commentaries are based on the commentaries which Maha Mahinda brought to Sihaladipa and put into Sihalabhasa for the benefit of the Dipavasin, Buddhaghosa is using the term Sihala Bhasa in such a way as to be applicable to a long stretch in the time stream extending from his own time (500 AD) to the time of Maha Mahinda (300 BC).<\/p>\n

The worst faux pas anyone can commit is to mix up the terms modern linguists use to distinguish the different phases of a language with the names used for that language by its speech community. For example, no competent linguist would want to time travel into the 5th<\/sup> century AD, and tell Buddhaghosa: \u201cDon\u2019t you get it? You can\u2019t call it \u2018Sihala Bhasa\u2019 yet. Call it Proto Sinhala, because it\u2019s still a MIA form or a Sinhales Prakrit\u201d. Linguists (and most historians) can switch easily between the artificial names such as \u201cSinhalese Prakrit\u201d, \u201cProto-Sinhalese\u201d, \u201cSinhalese Proper\u201d, coined for periodization purposes and the real names of the Sinhalese language without falling into absurdities.<\/p>\n

For example take D.E Hettiaratchi. As R.A.L.H Gunawardana noted in \u2018Historiography in a time of Ethnic Conflict[vi]<\/a>\u2019<\/i>, p13-14, this linguist accepted the Geiger-Jayatilaka periodization, reserved the term \u201cSinhala Proper\u201d only for the third stage (between the 8th<\/sup> and 13th<\/sup> centuries AD) of the scheme, and carefully emphasized the distinction between Sinhala Proper and the preceding state by consistently using the term \u201cpraksimhala yugaya\u201d or \u201cthe Period of Proto-Sinhala\u201d for the latter. But (as R.A.L.H typically did not note) Hettiaratchi also had no trouble in stating in \u201c<\/i>Current Trends in Linguistics<\/i><\/a><\/span>[vii]<\/i><\/a>\u201d<\/i>, 1973, page736 (go to page<\/a><\/span> ):<\/p>\n

\u201cSinhala possesses besides literary works dating from about the 10th<\/sup> century A.D, a wealth of lithic records from about the 3rd<\/sup> or the 2nd<\/sup> century B.C., enabling us to trace the development of Sinhalese from century to century.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n

Another example of the striking limberness with which linguists switch between artificial and real names for Sinhalese is afforded by K. R Norman: 1978[viii]<\/a>, p33;<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026An examination of the Asokan inscriptions shows that the Sinhalese inscriptions are written in a Prakrit which does not agree with any of the extant Asokan dialects, but which seems to have deviated much more from the norm of Sanskrit than any of them\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

R.A.L.H was utterly unable to grasp this distinction. He was a man who would have seen no absurdity in taking a time machine to the 5th<\/sup> century AD Lanka, cornering Buddhaghosa and shouting in his face;<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cMonk, regarding your careless use of the term \u2018Sihala Bhasa\u2019, listen to this passage from my \u2018Historiography in a time of Ethnic Conflict\u2019- \u00a0\u201cGeiger and Jayatilaka (1935:xxiv \u2013 xxix) characterized the period from the third or fourth century to the eighth century AD as one of transition from the Prakritic genre to Sinhala. It is important to note that the two scholars carefully refrained from calling the language of this period Sinhala: instead they chose the term \u201cProto-Sinhalese.\u201d Got that? Geiger and Jayatilaka carefully refrained from calling the language of the period- from the 3\/4th <\/sup>to 8th <\/sup>centuries AD (that\u2019s your period monk) – Sinhala. Who are you to counter them and call it \u2018Sihala Bhasa\u2019. I suggest you start calling it Proto-Sinhala pronto monk, without becoming the laughing stock of the academic community of all time\u201d<\/p>\n

I have often fantasized about this hypothetical time-travel scene. What a delightful learning experience it would have been for R.A.L.H. \u201cWho\u201d Buddhaghosa would have demanded drawing himself up haughtily \u201care Geiger and Jayatilake to call my Sihala Bhasa \u2018Proto-Sinhalese\u2019? You can tell them (if such beings as Geiger and Jayatilaka actually exist outside your imagination) that for me \u2018Sinhalese Proper\u2019 is the Sihala Bhasa of my time. I will probably use a term like \u2018Post-Sinhalese\u2019 or \u2018Future Sinhalese\u2019 for their Sihala Bhasa. Not that I actually blame them for calling their Sihala Bhasa \u2018Sinhalese Proper\u2019 while relegating my Sihala Bhasa as \u2018Proto-Sinhalese\u2019. And I am sure they will not blame me for calling my Sihala Bhasa \u2018Sinhalese Proper\u2019 while, relegating their Sihala Bhasa as \u2018Post\/Future Sinhalese\u2019. Not if they have any sense of subjectivities of perceptions, which you, my man seem to lack completely. What did you say your occupation was in the land of \u2018Post\/Future Sinhalese\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

That a credentialed historian ever came to that state is dismal. Still, R.A.L.H is a far cry from the dismality of the lunatic fringe represented by Theva Rajan and endorsed by the mutant ICES (Colombo). To summarize the Theva Rajan credo given in p1-2 of his study<\/a><\/span>; \u2018The Brahmi inscriptions of Lanka are in Prakrit. The term rather than denoting a particular language just means \u2018Old Language\u2019. The \u2018Old Language\u2019 of Lanka is a mixture in the very least of Tamil, Dravidian or Proto-Dravidian languages and testifies to the popular use of Tamil in 3rd<\/sup> Century BC, if not earlier. Velupillai has skillfully demonstrated the influence of Tamil even on the linguistic aspects of this Old language\u2019. Doesn\u2019t this deserve a unique place among ICES commissioned papers\u2019 hall of fame?<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0@ http:\/\/ratnawalli.blogspot.com\/<\/a>\u00a0 and rathnawalli@gmail.com<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n

[i]<\/a> Foreword of Mr. Theva Rajan\u2019s paper; \u201cTamil as Official Language, Retrospect and Prospect<\/i>\u201d<\/a>, First Edition 1995, Second Edition 1998, ISBN- 955-580-006-5<\/p>\n

[ii] See last week\u2019s <\/span>\u201cWhen ICES Colombo made excursions into the lunatic fringe\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[iii] During this phase ICES (Colombo) was under the stewardship of Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[iv] Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia<\/i>. Edited by Sheldon Pollock. University of California Press, 2003<\/a><\/p>\n

[v]<\/a> \u201cS\u012bhalad\u012bpam pana \u0101bhat\u0101\u2019 tha vasin\u0101 Mah\u0101-Mahindena thapit\u0101 S\u012bhalabh\u0101s\u0101ya d\u012bpav\u0101s\u012bnam atth\u0101ya\u201d- See K. R Norman:1978, p32- full text here<\/a> and Dharmadasa: 1992, p40- full text here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[vi] \u201c<\/i>Historiography in a Time of Ethnic Conflict, Construction of the Past in Contemporary Sri Lanka\u201d<\/i>, R.A.L.H. Gunawardana, Social Scientists\u2019 Association, Colombo, 1995.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[vii] Current Trends in Linguistics:\u00a0Diachronic, areal and typological linguistics \/ Associate editors: Henry M. Hoenigswald, Robert E. Longacre<\/i>, 1973<\/a>: \u201cLinguistics in Ceylon 1, Sinhalese<\/i>\u201d, D.E. Hettiaratchi (pp736- )<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[viii] Norman, K. R<\/b> \u201cThe Role of P\u0101li in Early Sinhalese Buddhism<\/i>\u201d in Heinz Bechert (ed.): Buddhism in Ceylon and Studies on religious syncretism in Buddhist Countries, G\u00f6ttingen, 1978, p28-47- (Full text<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":110183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nAttack Of The Mutants: ICES (Colombo) And Other Accidents - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/attack-of-the-mutants-ices-colombo-and-other-accidents\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Attack Of The Mutants: ICES (Colombo) And Other Accidents - 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