Binding together an era fast fading
View(s):Looking for Kumar Sangakkara or Shyam Selvadurai in Chandrabhanu Samaraweera’s Who’s Who of Sri Lanka will be in vain, because all the people whose biographical sketches are in the book belonged to an older, sepia-tinted world- at least for a part of their lives.
The antiquity of the period covered by the book makes the book very valuable. Thanks to the author, a number of notable figures from an earlier era will not slip easily into oblivion.
The period to which a majority of the personages in the book belong to is the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century.
Like most other movers and shakers of this era, these personages are exclusively middle or upper class, though covering the full gamut of professions and fields: Tour commentators to interpreter mudliyars; poets to philanthropists.
Casting aside the unworthy thought that many entrees in the book are members of the Samaraweera family of Weligama, we see that the majority included in the book certainly deserve more fame than they have got.
Who today remembers Dandris de Silva Gunaratne, who wrote a treatise “On Demonology and Witchcraft in Ceylon? Or James Thurairajah Tambimuttu who made waves in London literary circles?
I was shocked particularly by how this last, a poet and a London editor much admired by none other than T.S. Eliot, has been consigned to almost complete oblivion in his own motherland.
Then there are the figures who are slowly slipping away, though not completely gone: Devar Surya Sena with Nelun Devi, H.A.J. Hulugalle, W.S. Senior; even George E. de Silva, Ray Wijewardene and Lionel Wendt, who are no longer exactly ‘celebrities’.
The last and smallest group comprises people who can truly be called ‘famous’: R.L. Spittel, Punyakante Wijenaike, Carl Muller and John Still among a few others.
All personages in the book- whether Burgher, Sinhalese, Tamil, or British – are products of the British colonial period.
Genteel, they are either gifted or dedicated, and many have rendered great services to the country. At times, Samaraweera also provides anecdotage from these assorted lives, which come like a welcome breeze amidst dry genealogy and facts.
Though comparatively small, this Who’s Who stitches together a world which is almost gone due to the passing away of some of its main actors.
The one shortcoming in the book is that there is neither an index nor any other list giving the names of the 48 entrees. You have to painstakingly peruse the pages to know exactly who’s who.
| Book facts Who’s Who of Sri Lanka by Chandrabhanu Samaraweera |