Review of Sinhala Literature

Review
James W. Gair and W.S. Karunatillake (Eds.), The Sidat Sangara: Text, Translation and
Glossary, American Oriental Society, New Haven: Connecticut, 2013. Pp. 244.
The publication of Professors James Gair and W.S. Karunatilake‘s long awaited English
translation of Sidat Sangarava (Sidat hereafter) is a valuable contribution not only to South
Asian linguistics but also to Sri Lanka Studies in general. It is also remarkable that Sidat‘s
new translation into English appears 160 years after the first translation by James de Alwis in
1862.
South Asian linguistics (like any other form of linguistics for that matter) is not a field of
study that attracts the attention of younger scholars. For many good reasons, language
studies today seems to be under an obligation to connect itself with other subjects having a
greater degree of immediacy and relevance. Thus, recent scholarly work on language, more
often than not, comes to be related to issues of gender, nationalism, power, colonialism and
so on. While there is no doubt that this new need to make connections to the larger picture of
social life in our times has resulted in excellent scholarship in language and literature, it has
undermined a long tradition of scholarly work in philology where extensive learning of
languages and meticulous attention to all aspects of human language constituted its
trademark and the success. Moreover, such a ‗social scientific‘ focus in South Asian Studies
has made language and literature just handmaidens of studies in politics, gender,
nationalism and the like. Very few scholars are left to study language as language or
literature as literature, making philological classics such as Eric Auerbach‘s Mimesis, for
example, an extremely rare genre today.
In recent times, the need for carrying on the orientations of philology, if not returning to
philology, has been convincingly emphasized.1 Sidat in English offers all the pleasures a
great piece of philology is capable of giving to the reader who enjoys the slow and careful
reading of classical texts. In the present day scholarly atmosphere where even some exalted
areas of the humanities are called on to attend to immediate issues and concerns of the day-
to-day world, to have this translation is to remind oneself of certain merits of textual studies
for which many generations of scholars dedicated their lives, spending long and lonely hours
meditating on a word, a phrase or a verse. Hence, one of the delights of this new translation
of Sidat Sangarava is the fact that it brings back the flavours philological studies offered us
long ago. Sidat is a grammar; and this book is a translation. Grammar and translation were
two central foci of philology, and both elements require one to pay attention to even the
minutest detail of language, stopping at every word and punctuation mark.
Sidat as a Text in South Asian Cultural History

Sidat is not just a medieval Sinhala grammar but a text crucial in understanding the
cultural history of Sri Lanka and South Asia. As a language, Sinhala appeared to have
aspired to have its own identity from a relatively early phase in its history. Sidat, the
thirteenth century Sinhala grammar, was pivotal in holding together a stream of ethnic or
linguistic consciousness that links the cultural history of the before and after of that century.2
Though the length and continuity of that stream of consciousness is debatable, the Sidat
certainly constitutes a key text in it. When the [Sinhala Buddhist] nationalist struggle against
British colonialism was gathering momentum in the late 19th century, the Sidat was brought
1 Pollock, Shelden. The Language of the God in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. Delhi:
Permanent Black, 2009. In this landmark work, the Columbia Sanskritist Pollock not only stresses the importance of the
tradition of philology but also exemplifies in many of its chapters how one could still make use of the methods of
philology in our times.
2 Though the Sidat was published in the 13th century it helps us understand a great deal of the literary cultures before
and after that century.
99
Review: The Sidath Sagar, Text, Translation and Glossary
back into the ideological revitalizing of vernacular/Sinhala consciousness, making it more a

text of cultural politics than a mere grammatical text. That was when James de Alwis first
translated the Sidat into English in 1862. Prof. K. N.O. Dharmadasa‘s well-known study
Language, Religion, and Ethnic Assertiveness is invaluable in providing insights into the Sidat‘s
significance in this period of anti-colonial nationalism.3
It is difficult to turn the Sidat into a parochial text that speaks for linguistic or cultural
isolationism and the purity that nationalist movements often aspire to. The identity
formation of the Sinhala language had intricate relationships with other South Asian
languages such as Pali, Sanskrit and Tamil. The Sidat‘s new translation, as well as previous
ones, makes it abundantly clear that Sinhala linguistic identity cannot be understood
properly if one were to ignore Sinhala‘s intricate relations with Aryan and Dravidian
languages. Sinhala is unique, certainly, in having closer affinities with North Indian
languages rather than with South Indian ones; however, Sinhala is even more unique in
having enriched itself with resources drawn from languages like Tamil. This new translation
makes it clear once again that the Sidat as a classic Sinhala text that reminds us of the shared
cultural history of the Sinhala and Tamil languages--a fact often ignored in contemporary
popular imagination.
Drawing on some rare scholarship on the Sidat, the translators make this inter-language
relation a central point in their introduction. For example, Professor Herbert Gunther‘s 1942
German translation (World War II bombings destroyed its ‗official copy‘), which was
incidentally the only other modern translation of the Sidat, and Professor Gunther‘s other
writings on the Sidat are brought into the discussion in a way that highlights the many
sources of influence on the Sinhala grammatical work. Thus, the introduction demonstrates
what it meant to be a scholar in medieval Sri Lanka: a scholar writing in Sinhala had to
develop a keen understanding of what was taking place in other languages in addition to
having a considerable understanding of the religious traditions of South Asia.
Professors Gair and Karunatilake, in their introduction and elaborate notes, labour to
preserve the integrity of the Sidat by presenting the classic book the way it is rather than
holding it under the microscope of the modern linguist. Thus, their translation achieves the
quality of being a lucid, accessible text in English; and it is accessible even to general readers
who have no background in linguistics. Interestingly, with the entire original text being
presented both in Sinhala and Roman scripts (IPA to be precise), the Sidat of Gair and
Karunatilake in English is likely to be much more accessible to bilingual Sinhala scholars
than any other modern Sinhala commentaries on the Sidat. In this translation, the theoretical
thought of the author or the tradition that the author represents comes to the fore of the text
without being obstructed by the modern linguistic paraphernalia of the translators who are
known to have applied the conceptual categories of modern linguistics in analyzing and
describing the Sinhala language. For example, the translators as linguists might debate the
Sidat‘s notion of cases,4 but in their notes they do not engage in such theoretical debates.
Since, in this translation, they do not bring modern linguistic notions to bear on the
‗traditional linguistic concepts‘ explained by Sidat, the voice of the Sidat is heard in English
uninterrupted by dense theoretical notes and cross references.
The fact that the Sidat is not a comprehensive grammar but a guidebook for writing
poetry is now more or less accepted by a majority of scholars. The translators identify
themselves with that majority when they write a follow-up note to their translation of the
opening verse of the Sidat:
3Dharmadasa, KNO. Language, Religion, and Ethnic Assertiveness. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993.
4For Example, both Gair and Karunatilake have used only four cases in describing the workings of Sinhala nouns in
colloquial Sinhala in their textbooks for Sinhala language teaching. See Gorden Fairbanks, James Gair and M.W. S. de
Silva Colloquial Sinahalese, South Asia Program, Cornell University, 1968 and Karuanatilake, W.S. Introduction to Spoken
Sinhala, Colombo: Gunasena, 1994.
100
The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities, Volume 39
Translation: ―Homage to the feet of the Buddha!

Having made my heart a perfumed chamber for him who has
comprehended fully (literally ‗exhausted‘) all things knowable, I write the
Sidat Saňgarã for the knowledge of the beginners.
Note: This sutra clearly sets forth the didactic purpose of the work as a
guide for those who are beginners in the study of Sinhala language and
poetry.‖
One of the delights and puzzles that the reader encounters in studying the Sidat is the last
two chapters. They are ―on the Auspicious and Inauspicious Use of Letters and Forms in
Poetry‖ (Chapter 11) and ―The Chapter on Poetic Embellishments‖ (Chapter 12). The first of
these opens by saying that those who have mastered the grammar explained so far need to
take into consideration ―characteristics such as auspicious and inauspicious‖ when writing
poetry. The Chapter explains certain combinations of letters and syllables that are deemed
auspicious and inauspicious. Interestingly, the author also seems to consider certain
grammatical infelicities to be inauspicious as well: ―One who composes poetry having duly
considered (and having properly understood) the grave defects like these such as gender
disagreement (bun liňgu), number disagreement (bun basa), and superior vs. inferior similes
(ukatanisuvam), will gain fame in the assembly (of the learned).‖
The last Chapter explains what was taken as the essential formal elements in poetry, and
it provides invaluable insights into the pre-modern literary cultures of Sinhala. In fact, since
the author cites examples from classical poems, some of which are no longer in existence, in
order to explain grammatical points, the Sidat can be considered a veritable archive of
classical poetry. In addition, there are glimpses scattered throughout the book, which
provides insights into how poetry might have been read in and around the 13 th century in
Sinhala literary culture. The translators have taken especial care to preserve that aspect of
the book in its English version. Arguably, for a bilingual Sri Lankan reader, this translation
would be more accessible than the original Sinhala book; and even some modern Sinhala
commentaries on the Sidat have been written in such an archaic and pretentious language
that they do very little to help the reader to comprehend the 13 th century classic.
The long glossarial index, which makes up nearly a half of the book, is extremely useful
in consulting this translation as well as other editions of the Sidat. One may even use it as a
dictionary that covers a large vocabulary of elu Sinhala – a variety of Sinhala that was
deemed more suitable for writing poetry almost throughout the history of Sinhala poetry.
Since the translators often provide Pali and Sanskrit loan words for elu Sinahala words, the
glossary stands out as a meticulously finished work, which reminds one of the virtues of
classical philology.
This new translation of the Sidat is sure to help us better understand both the uniqueness
of Sinhala as a language and literature and their intricate relationships with other South
Asian languages.
References
Dharmadasa, KNO. Language, Religion, and Ethnic Assertiveness. Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1993.
Gorden Fairbanks, James Gair and M.W. S. de Silva Colloquial Sinahalese, South Asia
Program, Cornell University, 1968.
Karuanatilake, W.S. Introduction to Spoken Sinhala, Colombo: Gunasena, 1994.
Pollock, Shelden. The Language of the God in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in
Premodern India. Delhi: Permanent Black, 2009.
Amarakeerthi Liyanage, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka
101

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Review

Sidat as a Text in South Asian Cultural History

and after that century.

back into the ideological revitalizing of vernacular/Sinhala consciousness, making it more a

Translation: ―Homage to the feet of the Buddha!

Amarakeerthi Liyanage, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka

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