Independent meditations

Time will say nothing but I told you so...” WH Auden (If I Could Tell You)

- By TISARANEE GUNASEKARA

MARTIN Wickramasinghe was 83, and revered as the doyen of Lankan belles lettres when he wrote Bava Taranaya. He had long wanted to write a biography of the Buddha shorn of myths and might have regarded the acme of an illustrious career an opportune moment for it. Unfortunately, neither his age nor his eminence would be proof against the uninformed fury of the pious and the opportunistic. Monks and laymen (led, fittingly, by Yakkaduwe Pragnarama thero who, via Vidyalankara Declaration on Bhikku Politics, made a seminal contribution to the birth of the political monk) demanded Bava Taranaya be banned; a few wanted its octogenarian author to be imprisoned. Some opposition politicians joined the fray, talking of a communist conspiracy to insult Buddhism; one alleged that the book was the product of amind addled with Russian vodka.

When the chief incumbent of the Asgiriya chapter wrote to PM Sirima Bandaranaike, the Government felt compelled to act. A committee was appointed to look into the matter. As pressure mounted, there was talk in Government circles of the book being banned under Emergency Regulations. Eric J de Silva, senior assistant secretary to the Ministry of Defence and External Affairs, volunteered to read the book and offer an informed opinion. Having read the book, he wrote an official note characterising it as “a very thoughtful attempt to demystify the Buddha” and strongly advising against a ban (https://island.lk/working-under-prime-minister-sirimavo/). PM Bandaranaike agreed, to her eternal credit. Having failed to bludgeon the Government into compliance, the firestorm waned. The thoughtful intervention of a senior bureaucrat saved Sri Lanka from the ignominy of persecuting one of its greatest authors.