{"id":89431,"date":"2019-05-27T23:47:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T05:47:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=89431"},"modified":"2021-09-22T16:39:06","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T23:39:06","slug":"the-jaffna-public-library-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/05\/27\/the-jaffna-public-library-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"THE JAFFNA PUBLIC LIBRARY Part 1 (Revised)"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

2nd<\/sup>\nversion 20.9.21<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one had\nheard of the Jaffna Public Library until it was burnt down in 1981. Then it\nsuddenly became the greatest library in South and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jaffna Public Library began as\nthe private collection of K.M Chellappah, of Atchuvely,  who worked in the district court in Jaffna. He started lending books from his home in\n1933. This collection of 844 books and 30 magazines was transferred to a small\nroom at Hospital Road, in 1934,  then in\n1936, to a rented house  owned by the\nPuthur Mallawarayar family  on Main Street near the Town Hall. Books could\nbe borrowed on a payment of a nominal sum of Rs. 3 as membership fee. It had a\nstarting capital of Rs. 1,184 and 22 cents largely from the efforts of\nChellappah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chellapah circulated an appeal in English and Tamil for A Central\nFree Tamil Library in Jaffna\u201d, and approached labourers, unions, teachers,\nauthors, business people and prominent retirees for support. He insisted that\nthe library would house not just a Tamil collection, but would also hold books\nin other languages. The idea caught on, and soon a seminal meeting of\ninterested individuals passed a resolution agreeing that a Central Free Tamil\nLibrary Association be formed with the original subscribers and others who are\npresent at this meeting as original members of the Association\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A committee\nwas formed on June 9, 1934 with the District Judge as Chairman Rev. Dr. Isaac\nThambiah as Vice-chairman, K.M. Chellappah & C. Ponnambalam as Joint\nSecretaries. The committee decided to collect or buy as many ancient ola leaf\nmanuscripts as possible from the villages of Jaffna and other areas where Tamil\nculture thrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1938 yet another committee was formed to set up a library in Jaffna.  Jaffna mayor A. Sabapathy was Chairman and\nRev.  Fr. \nTimothy Long, Rector of St Patrick\u2019s College Jaffna was Vice Chairman.  .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\n1949 it was decided to build a modern spacious building for the library. The foundation\nstone was laid on 29.3.1954, by Fr Long, British High Commissioner Sir Cecil\nSayers, US Ambassador Philip K. Crowe and First secretary of Indian High Commission,\nSiddhartha Chari. These foundation stones can be seen even today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first\nstage of the building was completed and the Jaffna Public Library declared open\non 11 October 1959 by the then Mayor, Alfred Thuraiappah.  A Children\u2019s section was opened on 3 November\n1967. Asia Foundation donated books to the childrens\nsection. The Reference section had 30,000 books by 1981. There was an American\nsection which contained the books and journals earlier housed in the American Information\nCentre in Jaffna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building was designed by V.M Narasimhan,\nGovernment architect of Madras. The\narchitecture was in Indo-Saracenic<\/a> style,  not\nDravidian. S.R Ranganathan came from Delhi to develop\nthe library to international standards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rev.\nFr. Timothy Long made a tremendous contribution to the library.   Fr. Long worked tirelessly to\nobtain funds for the library. He even asked the cartoonist Collette to\ndo a sketch of him with a begging bowl. The one million rupee Library fund was\nentirely Fr. Long\u2019s idea.I was just eight years of age and I remember well the\nfabulous Yarl Vinotha Carnival that was held in 1952 to raise funds. It was a\ngreat success and brought in Rs. 68,000 \u2013 a huge sum then \u2013 for the Library\nfund,\u201d recalled Charles Santiapillai, former Professor of Zoology,  University of Peradeniya. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr.\nLong contacted the American Ambassador, Mr. Philip K. Crowe and British High\nCommissioner, Sir Cecil Sayers, who provided funds generously. Fr. Long was\nalso able to successfully negotiate with Mr. W.G.F. Gunstone of W.H.Smith & Sons,\nand got books at special discount varying from 25% to 50%. The Asia Foundation also donated books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr\nLong\nwas able to secure for my late father, Mr. S.F. Santiapillai who taught Latin\nand English at St. Patrick\u2019s College, a Fulbright Scholarship in 1955 that\nenabled him to go to the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Cleveland, Ohio\n(USA) for advanced training in library science, said Santiapillai.  In recognition of the untiring efforts of Fr.\nLong, the grateful public honored him by erecting his statue in front of the\nlibrary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The library had the usual services\nof  lending and refrnece. Reference  had 30,000 books.,there was a  children\u2019s section..Asia foundation  donated books to the childrens section..\nThere was also an American section which contained the books and journals\nearlier housed in the American information centre in Jaffna..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The library  held newspapers given free to it by the\npublishers of Veerakesari, such as Eelakesari, Hindu Organ, Catholic guardian,\nSunday Catholic Times, The following newspapers were bought, \u2018Madras Hindu,\u2019\n\u2018Thamil polil,\u2019  \u2018Thamil nadu\u2019, also magazines\nsuch as Navasakthi, added Thurairajah.  This is not\nsurprising, this was a public library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karthigesu Sivathamby, Professor of Tamil, University of Jaffna,\nrecalled, As one who used it, I know how meticulously it was planned and how\neffectively it worked. I remember the steel cupboards containing donations from\nvarious learned men of Jaffna.  There was\nthe collection of Cumaraswamy, the renowned father of the late TULF Leader C.\nVanniasingam. Two other cupboards contained all the known literary source\nmaterials of the Tamils of Sri Lanka. There were also cupboards with books\ngifted by Christian priests. If I remember right, there was also some material\non which Rev. Fr. Gnanapragasar worked. Rev. Fr. H.S. David was usually seen\nbrooding carefully over those volumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles\nSantiapillai (1944-2014) and V.S\nThurairajah (1927 \u20132011) have\ndescribed the research collections held in the Jaffna Public Library. They both\nlived in Jaffna and went to secondary school there. Within a square\nmile of where I lived in Jaffna, there were six churches, six colleges, six\ncinemas and just one Public Library,\u201d said Santiapillai, wryly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Santiapillai and Thurairajah went on to become highly respected professionals, one in\nZoology and the other in architecture. Thurairajah was associated with\nthe rebuilding of the library, from the time the first stage of the Library\nbegan in 1959. He was the Honorary Architect for the second stage of the\nbuilding and the final restoration of the building. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am accepting their description of the research collections held in the\nJaffna Public library.\nThere were about 97,000 books and over 10,000 manuscripts in the library, said\nCharles Santiapillai. The library had in its collections, several old\nmanuscripts, some of which were written on dried palm leaves and stored\nmeticulously in special sandalwood boxes. There were also hard to replace books\non herbal medicine, miniature editions of the Ramayana epic, copies of the now\nextinct Tamil language newspapers, microfilms of the Christian Missionary\njournal The Morning Star\u201d (Udhaya Tharakai) published in the early 20th\ncentury. Some of the books were priceless. There was a single copy of Yalpana\nVaipava Malai, concluded Santiapillai. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were thousands of rare\ncollections held in the library, said Thurairajah,\u2019 but he cannot enumerate\nthem as there is no comprehensive record available. The library contained valuable books such\nas\u2019 Periya puranavurai.\u2019 There were books on astronomy and astrology, a\n\u2018most important collection of ancient document in ola including Siddha\nprescriptions.\u2018There was also a book\npublished on Catholic leaders in Tamil with front page in Spanish. A collection\nof books on Tamil culture edited and published by Rev Fr Thaninayagam and\nAbithana Kosham by Muththu Thambipillai. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a copy of History of Ceylon written\nby Robert Knox when he was in the Kandy prison in 1660. As well as Ceylon during\nthe Dutch Rule by Philips Baldaeus written in 1672. Amongst some of the\ncollections housed in the library were 700 books on the famous art critic and\nSri Lankan Tamil Savant Dr. Ananda Commarasamy donated by Mr. Thurairajasinham\nof Malaysia  There were many donations such as\nthe Vanniasingham collection, Kathiravelupillai collection, Isaac Thambiah\ncollection, said Thurairajah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

S. Piyasena has give two instances to show that Jaffna Public\nlibrary had valuable research material. He said that in 1973 he had interviewed\nVen. Parakandeniye Dhammawansa, who was a Ph D student at the Benares\nUniversity for the Sinhala Service of All India Radio in New Delhi. . Ven.\nDhammawansa had said that he had found three volumes on Lalitha Vistharaya of\nPandit Ashwaghosha (sic) at the \u2018Jaffna Library\u2019. (Sunday Island 18.10.15 p 16)\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lalitavistara S\u016btra<\/em>\nis a Mahayana Buddhist sutra<\/a> that tells the story of Gautama Buddha<\/a> from the time of his descent from Tushita<\/a> until his\nfirst sermon in the Deer Park<\/a>.It\nwould have been in Sanskrit.  Asvagosa\nwas a Mahayana scholar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second incident was in 1979 when Piyasena, as a member of\nKelaniya University Board was on the interview panel to select lecturers. One\nyoung candidate, a Buddhist monk, produced copies of some important Sanskrit\ndocuments used for his research. Examining them, Prof Jayawickrema of Kelaniya\nUniversity, asked how he came across those documents. The monk said he obtained\none of the documents through a friend from Sorbonne University in France and\nthe others were copied from the original volumes available at the Jaffna\nLibrary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am satisfied that Jaffna Library\u2019 means\nJaffna Public Library and not Jaffna College library. I assume that Piyasena is\nspeaking of two separate bhikkus and two separate sets of documents. If not,\nPiyasena would have said so. However, it is surprising to hear that a rare\nMahayana manuscript was found in Jaffna Public library. It is not surprising to\nhear that no one knew about it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jaffna Public library was not an\noutstanding library, either as a research library or as a public library. Ishwari Corea had visited the Jaffna Public\nLibrary, when she was Chief Librarian, Colombo Public Library. She was very\ndismissive about the Jaffna library.  She\ntold me, in a personal communication, that it had only a l<\/strong>ending section, reference section, childrens\u2019 section and an\nAmerican section, nothing more.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 H.A.I.\nGoonetilleke visited many libraries to obtain data for his Bibliography of\nCeylon\u201d (1970). He listed five libraries as the principal libraries he used in\nSri Lanka. They are the libraries of the University of Ceylon, National Museum,\nNational Archives, Department of Agriculture, Royal Asiatic Society, and\nColombo Public Library, and Jaffna College Library. Jaffna Public Library, though\nconsidered one of the best libraries in Asia, is not mentioned!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neville Jayaweera went as\nGovernment Agent to Jaffna in the 1960s. He had gone to the Jaffna Public\nLibrary to research on caste distinctions in Jaffna. If the library was a wonderful one, with a\nmagnificent collection, he would not have hesitated to say so. He did nothing\nof the sort. He merely said He had \u2018poured over Hindu\nreligious texts\u2019 in the Jaffna\nPublic library. He said the library was later burnt, that was all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Colombo Public Library, under the\neditorship of Ishwari Corea, issued three books to celebrate milestones of the\nColombo Public Library. They were \u2018Colombo Public Library,\u2019 \u2018Libraries and\npeople \u2018(1975) and Roads to wisdom “(1980). The contributions were wide\nranging but the emphasis was on libraries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Jaffna\nPublic library is only mentioned once in these three books.  Roads to Wisdom,\u201d said that the \u2018libraries\nof Jaffna, Kandy and Anuradhapura are worthy of mention,\u2019 (p 35).  T.G. Piyadasa in his essay on ‘Public\nlibraries in Sri Lanka\u2019 does not mention Jaffna Public Library at all. The\nthree Tamil essays in these books do not refer to Jaffna Public library either.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Jaffna Public library had\nbeen outstanding, Goonetilleke\nand Corea would have told me so. My primary interest as a librarian is in\npublic libraries. I trained in one and know what a great service a public\nlibrary   provides. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the Jaffna Public library has been any\ngood, Ishwari would have told me to go and see it. Goonetilleke, in his many\nconversations with me, in the 1970s,  \nabout the research collections in Sri Lanka libraries, would have at\nleast mentioned that the Jaffna Public Library had a wonderful research\ncollection. He never did. He   told me to\ngo to Library of the Agriculture Department at Gannoruwa, instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nJaffna Public Library could not have burst into bloom by 1981. It was a very\nlate starter. In   contrast, the Colombo\nLibrary was established in 1925 merging the Colombo Library and the Pettah\nLibrary.The Kandy Public Library started as Central Town Library in1841\nand was taken over by the Kandy Municipal\nCouncil<\/a> in 1920. Jaffna\nPublic Library only opened in 1959.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaffna did\nhowever have one good library, Jaffna College library (est. 1910), which became\nthe library of the University of Jaffna. The Jaffna College library was one of the 7 Sri Lanka libraries listed as\nprincipal sources by H.A. I Goonetilleke in his highly acclaimed \u2018Bibliography\nof Ceylon’.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This library seems to have functioned simultaneously as a public library, a\nschool library and a research library.  It had two dedicated librarians, Mr. K Selliah, followed by R.S. Thambiah.\nSelliah was sent for training in librarianship to Calcutta in 1933.  He also underwent training in Britain later\non.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two succeeded in developing over the years a very good library, way\nabove usual school library standards, said Kulendran. The Jaffna College\nlibrary contained rare books and archival material, and rapidly reached the\nlevel of a research library.  In 1969 it was subscribing to 111\nperiodicals, and was used by outsiders as a research library due to its wide scope and\nvaluable stock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It catered to the general\nreader too. Emily Ganeshan (b.1904) and her daughter Vimala had used the\nlibrary. The American Mission stocked it well, they said. In the 1950s, It had Life\u201d and Illustrated weekly of\nIndia\u201d, it was open till 10 p.m. and students could come in casual\nclothes.  The under graduate section\nprepared students   for University of\nLondon degrees.  It was the best school\nlibrary for years, they gratefully recalled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, after the burning, Jaffna College\nlibrary was forgotten, it was Jaffna Public Library that people were talking\nabout. All sorts of flattering comments were made about the Jaffna Public\nlibrary, soon after it got burned down. There was not one     squeak about it before. This indicates\nsome sort of prior media planning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exaggerated statements about its importance were bandied about and\nat least one howler emerged. Here is a selection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n