Ananda Coomaraswamy thrown into Nelum Pokuna!

December 27, 2011, 5:50 pm , The Island.


by Usvatte-aratchi,

Board of Editors, Samskrti Journal, Telephone 251 9201

It is regrettable that government decided to erase the name of Ananda Coomaraswamy to commemorate the opening of the new theatre on Alexandra Place. Coomaraswamy was arguably the most eminent scholar from our country in the twentieth century. His name happily replaced Green Path as the thoroughfare where stood a collection of sites that had most to do with the arts in our country: John de Silva Rangahala, The National Art Gallery and the oldest surviving [and now lively] academic association in the country, The Royal Asiatic Society(Colombo Branch). There also has grown a small market place for arts and crafts on either side of the road. The name of Ananda Coomaraswamy was a fitting adornment to the city as is Munidasa Kumaratunge Mavata to the road where stands the Colombo University. [It is a different matter that the University continues to ignore that scholar.] One is reminded of the wisdom and the civility in New Delhi where there are roads named in honour of Max Muller [Max Muller Marg] and Kautilya. If the honour and distinction or lack thereof that a government bestows on its wise men is an index of the rulers own intellectual credentials, the current government should have treated Coomaraswamy differently.

In a bibliography published in Samskrti Volume III, Number 3 [ July-September 1955],{ Volume XXII , Number 3, was published earlier this month} , K.C.Perera one of the pioneer editors of the Journal, compiled a list of 360 papers and books written by Coomaraswamy in English and 13 written in French, German and Italian. He was an accomplished linguist. Coomaraswamy wrote authoritatively on a wide range of subjects: arts and crafts [mostly in Ceylon and India], music and musicology [I specially recall his paper The Burmese Harp in JRAS 1937(?), mythology, especially Indian and Ceylonese, religion, culture in general and many others. Many are quite familiar with his monumental work, Medieval Sinhalese Art. Commaraswamy’s special field of scientific investigation was geology and his is probably the seminal work on this subject in our country.

Samskrti Quarterly was launched in March 1953 by a small group of young university graduates freshly minted at the University of Ceylon, led by Amaradasa Virasinha, Gananath Obeysekere [yet undergraduate], K.C.Perera and S.G.Samarasinghe . But their maturity was precocious. The Special Number of Samskrti [the first Special Number to be followed by many others]to celebrate the work of Ananda Coomaraswamy on his ninth death anniversary, was brought out in September 1955. Let us recall the wisdom of those young men now to give the great man his due.

For those who look for a summary indication of the highest respect in which he was held, here are a few short extracts from eminent people which Samskrti published in that issue. C. Rajagopalachari, scholar, leader in the independence struggle and Governor-General of India wrote, ‘Sir Ananda Comaraswamy is one of the front rank Savants of the East. It gives me great pleasure to know that a Sinhalese Journal, the quarterly, Samskrti’ will honour the scholar and art critic with a special issue.’ Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, renowned philosopher and later Vice-president of the Republic of India wrote, ‘Dr. Coomarsaswamy was undoubtedly one of the greatest scholars of our time and his works are marked by philosophical penetration and religious feeling.’ The Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University and Editor of the Brahma Sutra, The Principal Upanishads and Bhagavad Gita knew a thing or two about what he wrote. O.H.De A Wijesekera, the distinguished Professor of Samskrit in Peradeniya wrote, ‘Coomaraswamy’s life constantly stands as a noble example of the new path he carved out for us.’ [Translation mine.] Martin Wickremasinghe wrote, ‘It was a time when so many of our educated people derided our language, literature, religion, cultural practices, painting and sculpture and worshipped everything Western. It was a time when our schools encouraged them and the government dominated everything. It is little wonder that Ananda Coomaraswamy who wrote such a book had to leave Ceylon.’ [Translation mine. It is not clear what publication Wickremasinghe referred to.] Is it meet now that we erase his memory among the public by removing his name from the name of a street in Colombo?

Nelum Pokuna is a monument to the munificence of the people of China to the public of this country and not to a particular person. Poet Ariyawansa Ranaweera, the other day, recalled for us the names of those who participated in bringing this task to fruition. The present government had the good fortune to see it completed. I suggest that we name a stretch of road on Alexandra Place immediately in front of the theatre as Nelum Pokuna Place or Parade [a la King’s Parade opposite King’s College in Cambridge] and bring back the name Ananda Coomaraswamy to where it belongs with such befitting luster.