COLOMBO: As the world celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore this week, Sri Lanka’s majority community, the Sinhalese, gratefully acknowledge his seminal contribution to the re-establishment of their cultural identity, which was severely eroded during European rule spanning 450 years.
“If we are to mention one foreign figure who has had the widest influence over the cultural life of Sri Lanka it has to be Tagore,” said K N O Dharmadasa, Editor in Chief of the Sinhala Encyclopedia.“It was Tagore who inspired Lankans to go in search of their roots in dance, music, art and education, and rediscover their cultural identity,” he told Express on Friday, on the eve of Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary.
However, what is not explicitly stated by any one in Sri Lanka is that the influence of Tagore was only on the Sinhalese. The Lankan Tamils had looked at Tamil Nadu, and not Bengal, for cultural inspiration.
This dichotomy can be explained in terms of the prevailing belief among the Sinhalese about their origins.
“Historically, the Sinhalese have traced their origin to Prince Vijaya of Bengal, who had landed in the island with his entourage and stayed put. In modern times, this theory was legitimised by the leading Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala and the famous educationist C W W Kannangara,” Dharmadasa said.
Justifying the theory, Kannangara had said that Tagore himself had treated Lanka as “a daughter of Bengal.” Thus ethnically linked to Bengal, the Sinhalese faced no psychological barrier to seeking cultural inspiration from that part of India.
Through the 1930s and 40s, Sinhalese musicians made a beeline to Tagore’s Shantiniketan and evolved a Sinhalese version of Rabindra Sangeet.
Among them were Edwin Samaradiwakara, Surya Shankar Mollidgoda, Ananda Samarakoon (who composed Lanka’s national anthem), Sunil Shantha, and Lionel Edirisinghe.