{"id":107709,"date":"2020-10-17T16:21:17","date_gmt":"2020-10-17T23:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=107709"},"modified":"2020-10-17T16:21:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-17T23:21:17","slug":"valorising-mythology-to-invalidate-known-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/17\/valorising-mythology-to-invalidate-known-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Valorising mythology to invalidate known history"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Feisal\nMansoor (\u2018Muslims and ban on cattle slaughter\u2019\/The Island\/October 9, 2020)\nopens his piece with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, obviously taken from the web:\nThe greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its\nanimals are treated.\u201d However, there is some doubt about the authenticity of\nthat alleged Gandhi quote because it is not traceable to his writings or his\nspeeches according to quote-researchers; besides, he was usually better known\nfor his great concern for the weak members of the human society than for\nanimals. But even if someone just imagined it, there\u2019s no harm done, for the\nexpression of concern for animal welfare attributed to Gandhi can be easily\nsupported by what we know about him as a champion of  nonviolence. But the\nproblem here is this: Whether genuine or fake, the Gandhi quote has little or\nno relevance to the truth that FM\u2019s arbitrary opinions about Sri Lanka\u2019s\n\u2018ancient culture\u2019 misrepresent or conceal, in favour of something else. He\nseems to completely ignore the millennia long recorded history of the island which\nis almost entirely coterminous with its established Buddhist religious culture\nand is inseparable from it. (Incidentally, the spirit of secularism and\ndemocracy that it encourages in governance is a distinctive feature of the\ncountry\u2019s majority Buddhist culture; but this is something difficult for most\nbelievers of other religions and Sri Lanka-baiters abroad to understand or\nappreciate.) The greatness of our culture is that it is absolutely tolerant and\naccommodating towards minority cultures, subject to the legitimate tacit\ncondition that they don\u2019t try to make undue inroads into its space or to\nsubvert it in other ways. To me it looks like FM\u2019s statements are meant to\ndistort,  rubbish, and obviate if possible, Sri Lanka\u2019s ancient Sinhala\nBuddhist cultural heritage. Is the Gandhi quote meant to imply that our nation\nhas no claim to greatness and that our treatment of animals falls short of\nrequired moral standards observed in civilized countries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having\nsaid that, it must be stated with emphasis that it is perfectly alright for FM\nto try to share his personal convictions with others. That is his right as a\nfree citizen. I am enjoying here  the same right to articulate my reaction\nas a Sri Lankan to his views about the ancient history and culture of our\nbeloved Motherland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First\nof all, let\u2019s be clear about this: At the very inauguration (i.e., in official\nterms) of the Buddha Sasana in the island of Lanka Buddhist missionary Arhant\nMahinda Thera admonished the monarch of the land king Devanampiya Tissa \nin 236 BCE (2256 years ago) thus as recorded in the Mahavamsa:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\ngreat king, the beasts that roam the forest and the birds that fly the skies\nhave the same right to this land as you. The land belongs to the people and to\nall other living things, and you are not its owner but only its guardian.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t\nthis considerably before today\u2019s animal rights protectors, animal \u2018status\u2019\nguarantors, animal welfare standard maintainers, and various other \u2018a fair deal\nfor animals\u2019 worriers, represented in organizations that annually celebrate the\nWorld Wildlife Day (March 3), World Animal Day (October 4), etc at some cost,\nstarted talking about the subject?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compassionate\ntreatment of all sentient beings is an ideal that people brought up in our\nculture take for granted. Of course, there are instances where the ideal is\nobserved in the breach. That is human nature. A whole society should not be\njudged on the basis of the behaviour of a few individuals, who could themselves\nbe victims of circumstances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FM\u2019s\nfirst paragraph is an attempted fusion of the Ravana myth and his religious\nbeliefs to the exclusion of the historically factual Buddhist element. That\nRavana flew his \u2018dandu monara yanaya\u2019 (wooden peacock aircraft) and abducted\nSeetha from what is now called India, is a story. Not even children take that\nas proven history, but it is a wonderful story, wherever or whenever it\noriginated. Talking monkeys, animal fortune tellers, and other human\npersonality attributed birds and beasts are common in literature in all\ncultures. The stories that compose our Jataka Potha are shared property in\nvarious North Indian literary traditions. The Sanskrit \u2018Panchatantra\u2019 from\nIndia interweaves five skeins of moral traditions into a single text composed\nof stories in which so many animals feature, invested with human qualities. We\nhave a number of talking, philosophising, admonishing birds in Geoffrey\nChaucer\u2019s Canterbury Tales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FM\nwrites: As Creation is the supreme force in the universe, the beneficence of\nlife and its comprehension through love, is to facilitate as many expressions\nof life as possible.\u201d That belief is not shared by the predominant religious\nculture of our country, but is not targetedly criticised or attacked so as to\nhurt others\u2019 religious beliefs or sentiments. There is evidence that our\nancestors \u2018worshipped\u2019 the sun as the source of all life, especially plant\nlife, hence important for agriculture. If they deified the sun, it was very\nmeaningful. That ancient religious tradition survives to date in the secular\nSurya Manglyaya or the Sinhala Aluth Avurudda held in the month of Bak\n(Felix\/Lucky) in the Sinhala calendar. (Bak roughly corresponds with April in\nthe Gregorian calendar.) The ignorant insensitive British colonial authorities\narbitrarily renamed it Sinhala Hindu New Year for their own purposes. Tamils\nand Sinhalese can and do live peaceably together while observing their separate\nculturally distinctive festivals. Whether our ancestors called themselves\nAryans because they were sun worshippers is highly improbable. Aryans were a\nwhite skinned race.The Sinhalese are not. It is not impossible that the\nSwastika – a sign that symbolizes the Sun – was later appropriated by those\nwhite people including Adolf Hitler. The legendary Vijaya of the Mahavamsa\ncould have descended from such a tribe, but that origin story is not accepted\ntoday. Newly available archaeological evidence provides proof that our\nancestors were a civilised a people (with their pure dark skin) even during the\ntime of the Buddha, and that there were lay Buddhists and Buddhist monks before\nthe arrival of Arhant Mahinda, whose coming appears to have been the result of\nan official diplomatic mission; he and his retinue were, most probably, royal\nemissaries from Emperor Asoka\u2019s court as much as Buddhist missionaries. (Read\nbetween the lines, the Mahavamsa passages support this impression.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FM\u2019s\nreference to Aldous Huxley needs a comment. In the Maha Parinibbana Sutta, the\nBuddha tells the monks: \u2018Atta dipa viharatha\u2019 \u2018Be islands unto yourselves\u2019,\nmeaning you are your own saviour, that is, \u2018Realise Nibbanic Bliss, put an end\nto samsaric suffering, through your own effort\u2019 (which is not beyond you, if\nyou are diligent enough). Writer and brilliant intellectual Aldous Huxley might\nhave independently arrived at this island metaphor to describe his own,\nillusion of self, elusive self-identity. The contemplative W.B. Yeats, himself\nno mean intellectual, expressed it as \u2018How can we know the dancer from the\ndance?\u2019 Yeats\u2019s is a literary approximation of the Buddha\u2019s Anatta <\/em>doctrine,\n<\/em>according to which the paradoxical situation \u2018there is suffering, but no\nsufferer\u2019 is the reality. (It is equally possible that both Huxley and Yeats\ncame across this idea in Buddhist literature.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently,\nFM mistakes this profound idea for selfish self-absorption. In his confusion,\nhe imports the phrase \u2018enlightened self-interest\u2019 that Adam Smith (considered\nthe \u2018father of modern economics\u2019) coined to express his idea that by pursuing\none\u2019s own economic benefit one ultimately contributes to the good of others as\nwell without probably intending to do so. (But it can be thought that he tried\nto elaborate it as a morally acceptable concept, rather than as a coldly amoral\neconomic one.) However, that is something very different from the Buddhist idea\nof working for the benefit and wellbeing of others without expecting a reward,\ngenerosity or altruism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FM\u2019s\nunderstanding of the phrase \u2018enlightened self-interest\u2019 is entirely different\nfrom the above:   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nsuch, enlightened self-interest is the only personal inquiry we can make, with\nthe all- important caveat that in our self-discovery we may not interfere with\nanything else\u2019s self-discovery.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\nmay be seen as giving idiosyncratic twists to the terms \u2018enlightened\nself-interest\u2019 and \u2018self-discovery\u2019, which are actually technical terms in\ntheir respective characteristic contexts. FM also makes a confusing verbal\nmedley out of words like ahimsa, Dhamma, and Mahasammata. These are words\ncharged with meaning and emotion for Buddhists. \u2018Mahasammata\u2019 (the Great\nElect\/the Universally Chosen One\/The People\u2019s Choice) occurs in Chapter II of\nthe Mahavamsa as the earliest genealogical ancestor of the Buddha (and\nhumankind, probably) who lived countless aeons ago. For Sinhalese Buddhists\n\u2018Mahasammata\u2019 is not a historical figure; he is the legendary first king on\nearth. In the Agganna Sutta (On Knowledge of Beginnings) the Buddha mentions\nMahasammata as the first ruler who was appointed, based on his handsome\nappearance and strong personality, by common consent, to rule over the group of\nrice growers that was the loosely formed human society then. He was tasked to\nprevent stealing, to punish the miscreants by banishing, etc. Mahasammata was\ngiven a share of the rice crop as payment for his service. Actually, the\nAgganna Sutta can be interpreted as a scientific account of an alternately\nexpanding and contracting universe, and a gradually evolving earth; and much\nlater anatomically modern humans and  organized human societies emerging\non earth. There is no talk of a creator or creation, which FM takes for\ngranted. Dharma is what the Buddha preached. Ahimsa is the ideal of nonviolence\nthat is common to most Indian religions, including principally, Hinduism,\nJainism, and Buddhism.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next,\nFM quotes two passages from the book \u2018Portuguese Encounters with Sri Lanka and\nthe Maldives\u2019 edited by C.R. de Silva, Ashgate, 2009, to assert that there was\nno slaughter of cattle in Lanka prior to colonisation\u201d. It is ridiculous in\nthat trivial context to quote from an eminent historian like the professor\nmentioned. These encounters took place in the 16th to 17th centuries. The book\nis a scholarly collection of writings taken from Portuguese histories and archives\nin translation combined with those from local sources. Publishers say: These documents contribute\nto the growing understanding that different groups of European colonizers –\nmissionaries, traders and soldiers – had conflicting motivations and objectives.\nScholars have also begun to emphasize that the colonized were not mere victims\nbut had their own agendas and that they occasionally successfully manipulated\ncolonial powers.\u201d (I took this extract  from Google.com- RRW)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So,\nthe book shows that the natives of these countries matched those invading\nEuropean interlopers bent on \u2018temporal and spiritual conquest\u2019 in their cunning\nand countervailing skills. They were not half-civilized savages. By the way, I\ndon\u2019t think FM  found himself nodding in agreement when reading sentences\nlike the following written by an ignorant Portuguese scribe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2026 In this country there are\nmany false beliefs sown by the devil, and to eradicate them there is a need for\nmuch time and trouble\u2026..\u201d (This must be a reference to local Buddhist and Hindu\nreligious beliefs of the time; but the colonizers were too uneducated and\nuncultured to understand that Buddhism and Hinduism are not \u2018religions\u2019 in\ntheir sense of the term, and that religion in the colonizers\u2019 sense was, as it\nstill is, a facile superstition to Buddhists. – RRW)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\n(some native people who didn\u2019t kill even the meanest of creatures) do not eat\nbread, however hungry or needy they might be. Their food is made up of the\nleaves of a certain creeper (betel leaves) that climbs other trees like ivy.\nThese leaves are smeared with the same kind of lime that they use for\nwhitewashing their houses\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis another class of people that eats fowl and wild boar and deer, but does not\neat the flesh of cows, since they believe their souls enter into cows after\ndeath; they will never kill a cow and eat its flesh\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nlooks like FM has missed this book: \u2018A 16th Century Clash of Civilizations: The\nPortuguese Presence in Sri Lanka\u2019 by Susantha Goonatilake, 2010. It gives a\nclear assessment of the effects of the Portuguese colonial presence in our\ncountry which was actually ahead of those European invaders in terms of human\ncivilization. The Portuguese went to Sri Lanka in compliance with  a papal\nbull:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1452 Pope Nicholas V issued a papal bull called Dum Diversas<\/em> that\ngranted Portugal and Spain \u2018full and free permission to invade, search out,\ncapture and subjugate unbelievers and enemies of Christ wherever they may be\n… And to reduce their persons into perpetual slavery\u201d.  (From the\nWikipedia – RRW)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\nmay draw our own conclusions from this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FM\nmakes extremely fallacious claims like the following about his fictitious\n\u2018Lanka of Mahasammata\u2019: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nvocational caste system handed down secrets to successive generations, in a\nsystem where one\u2019s knowledge was one\u2019s wealth, with the Divine as the Supreme\nMaster of one\u2019s craft, one performs one\u2019s duty with an aim to perfection in\nunion of mind and spirit so each attempt brought one closer to the Ultimate\nPrize.\u201d (Divine as the Supreme Master of one\u2019s craft, Ultimate Prize, What are\nthese?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\na land ruled by the Unseen King, in both metaphor and practise, the King\nembodies Mahasammata and sets the standard for the people\u201d. (There was no\nMahasammata in our country\u2019s history. I explained the \u2018Mahasammata\u2019 concept\nabove. Who is this Unseen King, FM? Surely a figment of your imagination?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npeople know that if they live in dhamma, Dhamma would protect them, and the\nland would be safe\u201d. (This is a misinterpretation of the piece of wisdom which\nruns in Pali: \u2018dhammo have rakkati dhammacarim\u2019 \u2018The Dhamma protects the one\nwho lives by the Dhamma\u2019. There\u2019s no protective magic or divine intervention\nhere. But don\u2019t take it literally. You may be sure you live according to the\nDhamma. But be mindful enough not to stand in front of an oncoming\ntrain.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nrest of FM\u2019s article makes even less sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From this point\nonwards, I fail to find anything in FM\u2019s article worth talking about. The next\nto nothing he has to say about the subject proposed in his title is: …. I\nbelieve that as a Sri Lankan Muslim, it is incumbent on me to respect the mores\nof my compatriots and to live in a way that will lead to greater social\ncohesion, amity and unity of purpose\u2026\u201d That is a harmless thought, but I for\none do not believe that pre-colonial Sri Lanka was paradise on earth. Besides,\nthat sentiment runs in the face of what FM has been trying to prove to the very\nend. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala Feisal Mansoor (\u2018Muslims and ban on cattle slaughter\u2019\/The Island\/October 9, 2020) opens his piece with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi, obviously taken from the web: The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.\u201d However, there is some doubt about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}