On Winning The Gratiaen

By Malinda Seneviratne - June 1, 2014 

Malinda Seneviratne

 

It is customary for the winner of the Gratiaen Prize for Creative Writing to deliver an acceptance speech.  Accordingly, on Saturday May 24, 2014, as the recipient of the prize I addressed the audience.  In previous years, The Nationhas featured those shortlisted for the award as well as the eventual winner.  Naturally, I excluded myself from these exercises.  This time, however, for reasons that do not require elaborate, when the Features Editor wanted ‘something’ I said I would write what I remember of my acceptance speech.  Later I realized that I might not remember everything and also that in the rush of the moment I left out certain things I ought to have mentioned.  So in this piece I will write what I said and in italics add that which I did not but ought to have.

It occurred to me that 29 years from now, I would be just one of fifty Gratiaen Prize winners.  Now had I not won, 29 years from now (who knows?) I might be the only one to have been shortlisted on five occasions.  I’ve submitted to the Gratiaen six times over the past seven years. Looking back, the high point has clearly been winning the H.A.I. Goonetilake Prize for the Best Translation, that of Simon Navagaththegama’s Sansaaraaranyaye Dadayakkaraya.  That was special because that text is an important literary landmark and because Simon Navagaththegama was one of the best writers in Sinhala in the second half of the last century.  It was special because of who Ian Goonetilake was.  He was an adornment to the Gratiaen.                            Read More

Concerning Us And The “Naga”

By Darshanie Ratnawalli -June 1, 2014

Darshanie Ratnawalli

Just last week my mother shouted me down when I told her that the god “Sakra” of the Buddhist canon was the same as the Aryan god Indra.

“Indra, the most vividly realized Vedic god, embodies the powerful Aryan warrior…the continuing popularity of Indra, which is reflected in a large number of tales told about the heroic deeds, and even more so about his ability to change his shape at will, his trickery and his sexual adventures…  His fame…is still well reflected by his prominent and active position in the Pali canon where he is called Sakka (Skt. < Śakra).” – (pages 55, 83, Witzel and Jamison:1992[i]- full text) 

I questioned her concern about Sakra: did she perchance think that he was an integral part of Buddhism proper? She answered, yes the Pali canon described the realities, events and beings actually experienced by the Buddha; the Sakra whom the Buddha actually met and conversed with was therefore integral and not some Vedic flotsam; kindly stop holding such‘mitya dristi’. Was she aware, I asked, of how many Vedic continuities there are in the canon? What about the Buddha’s attitude towards women or more glaringly his attitude towards the Asuras? According to the Pali canon, Rahu, the Asura, listened to a sermon of the Buddha which brought enlightenment to many in the assembly, but not to him, who, as an Asura, was unfit. Where did she think that came from if not from Buddhism’s anchorage in the Vedic myth pool?       Read More