Plus
|
|
|||
| Dr.
Tony Donaldson reveals the saga behind Kavikara Maduva- the assembly
of temple singers who entertained Kandyan kings Some temple families claim that their paramparas (lineages) have served in the Temple of the Tooth 'since the king's time', but the truth may be very different. A good case in point is the story of the temple singers, the Kavikara Maduva, who sing to the Sacred Tooth Relic. Contrary to popular belief, this story reveals that several lineages or clans have served in this temple tradition since the eighteenth century. It is not a complete story. It can never be so because most of the people who could tell it have died. However, by piecing together scattered fragments that do survive, it has been possible to reconstruct part of the story. The family that serve in the Kavikara Maduva today is the Kelekoralegedara (KG) paramparava, who live in Aruppola. From 1997 till 1999, the years the author undertook research in the temple, the five members of the group were Loku Banda, Keerala, Wijeratne, Appuhami, and Ukku Banda. The material presented here is based on a textual analysis of written sources, and the contemporary perspectives of temple singers. In the 1880s the British scholar Hugh Nevill discovered a panteruva that had once belonged to the temple of Skanda in Kataragama. Nevill, who was employed in the Ceylon Civil Service, showed this instrument to the Kavikara Maduva to see what light the temple singers could shed on it. The singers had little to say about it. But in a short essay titled 'An ancient tambourine', which was published in 1887, Nevill reveals that the singers came from the Sangarama or Hakura caste. According to the Janavamsa, a fifteenth century (or later) text on the caste system of Sri Lanka, the Sangarama caste were closely associated with Buddhist monasteries, while the Hakura caste made jaggery (palm sugar). Today, the temple singers have no recollection of their lineage being associated with either of these two castes, which suggests that a different lineage served as Kavikara Maduva in the Temple of the Tooth in the nineteenth century. Curiously, the 1872 Service Tenures Register, which is held at the National Archives (Kandy Branch), does not contain a listing for the temple singers. This is perhaps because, until some thirty or forty years ago, the singers only received 15 bushels of paddy each year for their service, while the Register records details of the families that were given land in return for services to a temple. Saga
of a lineage The Service Tenures Register records that the Kelekoralegedara lineage of Aruppola held the office of hakgedi panguva for the Gangarama Vihare (Queen's Temple). Their service was to 'blow the hakgediya [conch] for the three daily tevava during the whole year and for the four festivals at the Gangarama Vihare', and to 'present to the incumbent two pingos of vegetables and eighty leaves of betel on an auspicious day soon after the new year'. While the KG family today do recall an earlier association with the Gangarama Vihare, the family offer another explanation of their ancestry that dates back well into earlier Kandyan times. The name of a Kandyan family can itself reveal knowledge about the history of a family. In the Kandyan period a lineage was sometimes named according to a specific task allocated to them by the king, as temple singer K.G. Keerala describes: 'Before the king goes anywhere in his palanquin the anabera (a special group of drummers) would go ahead of the king to announce his arrival. The Kelekorale were required to go in front of the king and the procession in order to clear the road. This is why we were named Kelekorale. The name Kelekoralegedara is formed of three terms: kele means 'jungle', korale refers to an area, and gedara translates as 'house'. The name Kelekoralegedara may be rendered as 'the people who clear the jungle and trees to make a path for the king'. So how did this lineage come to serve as the Kavikara Maduva in the Temple of the Tooth? The answer to this question may be found in the oral histories of temple families, though such narratives are difficult to collect and verify because temple families are often reluctant to pass on knowledge of their traditions and histories, which are considered to be secrets that should remain within their families. Kavikara
Maduwa 'This rajakari was passed into our family about 100 years ago. My grandfather, K.G. Kirihami, was a very fine dancer and musician. A long time ago at the Gangarama Vihare Kirihami had danced in a big vadabeda nätum [a competition in dance and drumming between two or more artists], and he performed very well at this event. He also performed with Hami Gurunnanse, who was then in the Kavikara Maduva [c. 1890s], though we do not know his paramparava. Hami Gurunnanse said to my grandfather 'I will teach you dalada kavi, but you are not supposed to give these texts to anyone else. Only if you have a good son then you can give'. So Hami Gurunnanse taught our grandfather dalada kavi and he then passed these kavis to our grandfather. This is how our paramparava came to serve as the Kavikara Maduva in the Temple of the Tooth'. Little is known of Hami Gurunnanse or his family, but he is thought to have lived in Talvatta, near to the Temple of the Tooth. In the paramparava system, temple-families jealously guard their inherited traditions, and they do not pass their rajakaris on to strangers or outsiders, as is true of the KG lineage today. Keerala's story presents us with a typical situation in which the service of temple singing appears to have been transferred to the KG family on the basis of a friendship that arose from a chance encounter at the Gangarama Vihare. We may assume that Hami Gurunnanse had sons or relatives who were eligible to inherit his rajakari. If so, why would he pass this tradition on to an outsider? Though there is insufficient evidence to answer this question, one reason could be that his family had simply decided to stop singing in the temple. There is also a possibility that a conflict had developed within the group or with the temple authorities, which could only be resolved by a new family taking over. A
visit to Burma Menikrala lists the other three members of the Kavikara Maduva that travelled to Burma with him as K.G. Mudalihami, M.G. Appuhami, and R.M. Kalu Banda, and it is worth digressing for a moment to consider their visit to Burma. Most of Menikrala's diary contains descriptions of cities, towns and pagodas in Burma, but he does record one description of a music performance that took place on the high seas. On the night of February 4, the Kavikara Maduva performed to the naval personnel on board the 'Kenya' as part of Ceylon's independence-day celebrations, and Menikrala writes that their performance was well received by the crew of the ship. The musicians and dancers from the Temple of the Tooth were well received in Burma. In a letter dated June 1950, the Burmese Prime Minister Thakin Nu wrote that the performances of the temple singers and dancers were 'very popular among the Burmese', and that he himself had witnessed 'the performances on more than one occasion and very much appreciated the dancers as well as the accompaniments'. On returning to Kandy, the four singers who had travelled to Burma continued to enjoy many fine years singing in the Temple of the Tooth. In 1972, however, with the passing away of Kalu Banda, the RM family stopped serving in the Kavikara Maduva. By 1995, the MG familywere no longer involved in the group, though descendants of this lineage, who have taken on the KG name, are still in the Kavikara Maduva today. Scatterings
of knowledge 'My grandfather thought this tradition would disappear, so he taught it to my father. Then my father having the same fear taught it to my uncle Keerala. I don't like this tradition to disappear from our family as well, so I have to think about training someone. Each member should know that there is something coming from our paramparava that should be protected. If one becomes ill or suffers from some other kind of adversity, then one should consider training someone from the family. This is how to keep this tradition in our family'. Researching Kandyan history is difficult because, as this story illustrates, conclusions sometimes have to be drawn from fragments or the scatterings of knowledge kept alive in the oral histories of traditional Kandyan families. Few attempts have been made to document the lives of temple families or their own perspectives of temple traditions, and yet the stories that abound in these families can often reveal hidden views of temple life. In I sing for the Dalada, which will be published next Sunday, Tony Donaldson looks at the textual, musical, and contextual features of the Kavikara Maduva in the Temple of the Tooth. |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers
Ltd. All rights reserved. |
