By P.K.Balachandran/Daily Mirror

Colombo, April 1 – On March 25, the renowned Sri Lankan social anthropologist Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere of Princeton University, passed away leaving academia across the world immeasurably poorer. Till his last breath, at the ripe old of 95, the genial giant was steeped in inquiries about cultures and mode of thinking across continents, giving them a new meaning and relevance.

With his wide range of interests, inter-disciplinary approach and rich field data, the Late Dr.Obeyesekere raised the bar for Sri Lankan and global anthropologists.

His interests spread across countries and continents making social anthropology more than a science of little cultures in remote corners of the globe.  His University, Princeton, expressed its loss in a moving tribute, and in an unprecedented gesture, announced that the University flag over East Pyne would fly at half-staff in his memory from March 28 to April 1.

Princeton said in a statement that Obeyesekere made profound contributions to South Asian cross-cultural studies through his innovative and interdisciplinary approach to his basic discipline, anthropology. His work bridged anthropology, psychoanalysis, history, and religious studies, offering unique insights into the cultural dynamics of South Asia, particularly Sri Lanka, and its interactions with the world outside.  In a refreshing departure from the tendency to build walls between nations, cultures and religions, Obeyesekere’s research emphasized the syncretic nature of South Asian religious and cultural practices.

In works like The Cult of the Goddess Pattini (1984), he explored the worship of Pattini, a deity revered by both Sinhala Buddhists and Tamil Hindus in Sri Lanka and South India. He traced the historical diffusion of this cult, revealing how it blended Buddhist and Hindu elements over centuries. The Pattini cult highlighted the fluid boundaries between religious traditions in South Asia.

Obeyesekere pioneered the integration of psychoanalysis with anthropological analysis. In Medusa’s Hair: An Essay on Personal Symbols and Religious Experience (1981), he examined how personal symbols and psychological states, such as those expressed in ecstatic rituals, reflect broader cultural meanings. In Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth (2002) Obeyesekere analysed concepts of karma and rebirth across Buddhist traditions, Greek philosophy, and indigenous Amerindian beliefs. He debunked the notion that the concept of rebirth originated only in India.

Obeyesekere challenged Western narratives that portrayed indigenous people as being irrational or fundamentally different from Europeans and argued for a universal human mind.

Functions of Sorcery

In “Sorcery, Premeditated Murder and Canalization of Aggression” revised in 2014, Obeyesekere said that sorcery helped canalize a person’s murderous intention or wish to physically harm someone into a non-violent form of aggression which was thought to be as effective as the actual infliction of death or physical injury.

This explained the widespread use of sorcery by members of all communities in Sri Lanka – Sinhalese Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. According to Obeyesekere, sorcery had become more popular as compared to the past, because in modern Sri Lanka, sorcery was no longer a crime equivalent to homicide. In the times of the Sinhalese Kings, he recalled, sorcerers were put to death.

The most renowned places for sorcery in the island are Seenigama Devale on the Western coast, south of Colombo, which is a Buddhist shrine; the Kali kovil in Munneswaram in Chilaw, north of Colombo, which is a Hindu shrine; and the Kahatapitiya shrine in Gampola, in Central Sri Lanka, which is Muslim shrine housing the grave of a saint. Interestingly sorcery has been a communal unifier. These shrines did not discriminate on the basis of religion.

Obeyesekere posited that if one were to go by the number of people resorting to sorcery, the number wanting to murder or cause bodily harm in a premeditated way should be larger than the figure mentioned in official crime statistics! To anthropologist Obeysekere, the sorcerer was the equivalent of a “hired killer”. In fact, the sorcerers’ “poison verses ” were thought to be “deadlier than actual killers,” and were “popular among politicians as a technique for getting rid of their enemies.”

Sri Lanka-Kerala links

Though the Pattini cult and other social practices, Sri Lanka including the Sinhala South, was linked to Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In ancient times, the “Tamil country” comprised both present-day Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In his monograph entitled: The Matrilineal East Coast, Circa 1968: Nostalgia and Post-nostalgia in our troubled time (International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Colombo, 2004) Obeysekere looked at Sri Lanka-Kerala links through the “Pattini” cult and the matrilineal system. In the Pattini cult, the deity Kannagi was worshipped as the Mother Goddess. The Pattini cult is found throughout Sinhala society in South Sri Lanka and in the Tamil areas of Batticaloa and Amparai on the South-Eastern coast. As for the matrilineal system, it is the norm in Tamil and Muslim societies in the East. According to Obeyesekere, the matrilineal system existed in the Sinhala-speaking South also, but was supplanted by the patrilineal system later.

Obeyesekere says that it was the Tamil-speaking Kerala Buddhist traders and other immigrants from the Vanchi area in Tamil Nadu, who brought the Pattini cult to Sri Lanka. He noted that in Sri Lanka, the cult was given high status when two trader families of Kerala origin, namely, the Mehenavara and the Alagakonara (the Alagakones of today are probably their descendents), began to dominate the Western and Central parts of the island from the middle of the 14th century onward.

Because the two leading families from Kerala were Buddhists, they elevated Pattini to a Bodhisattva (a Buddha in the making). It is noteworthy that Pattini is the only female Bodhisattva in the Sri Lankan Buddhist pantheon. She was also made a guardian deity of Sri Lanka. Since the Goddess cults in South India are associated with curing of diseases and resistance to pestilence, the Pattini cult in Sri Lanka is also associated with these. Because of this, Muslims and Sinhalas also participate in the “cooling” rituals of the Pattini cult, Dr Obeyesekere says.

Fate of Veddas

The Veddas, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka, were once numerous and lived throughout the island, said Obeyesekere. But they have almost disappeared now, being less than 0.13% of the population. Presently, they are confined to the Bintanna area in South Sri Lanka and Batticaloa district in the east. Where did they go eventually? Were they exterminated as native Americans were after the Whites arrived?  No, they were not, says Obeyesekere in his Colonial Histories and Vedda Primitivism: An Unorthodox Reading of Kandy Period Texts. The Veddas were absorbed by the dominant Sinhalese and Tamil communities through a symbiotic process based on a cultural give and take, inter-marriages and sexual unions, he explains.

In the past, Kandy district, which is the epicentre of Sinhalese Buddhist culture now, was populated by the Veddas. So was Vellassa in Monaragala district. The latter was known traditionally as Vedi Rata (Vedda land). While most residents of Vedi Rata now claim that they are Sinhalese, some in interior Vedi Rata, admit that they were Veddas originally.

The Veddas disappeared from Pali records. However, non-Pali texts written in Sinhala by laymen, have plenty of references to the Veddas, Obeyesekere notes. These are the Vamsa katha, Vadi Vamsaya and  Vanni Rajavaliya.

The leading families of Matale at the time of King Rajasinha II’s rule (1629-1687), were all Veddas with honorific Sinhalese names. Obeyesekere said that the Vedda chiefs and the Sinhalese upper class intermarried. The Veddas served in the armies of Sinhala kings, and rewarded with titles, honours and the guardianship of territories. In Sabaragamuwa province, there are place names like Veddi Pangu (“Vedda’s land share”), Veddi Kumbura (“Vedda rice fields”), Vedivatta (“Vadda gardens”) and Veddagala (“Vedda rock”). These are now Sinhalese villages.

On the Last King of Kandy

In his book The Doomed King,  Obeyesekere throws light on some interesting aspects of the last king of Kandy, Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe (1798-1815), who was, at once, colourful and tragic. He transformed Kandy into a beautiful “celestial city” but at same time  he was portrayed as a tyrant.

Kandy was extensively destroyed by British troops in the 1803-04 war. Even the Dalada Maligawa suffered damage. Wickrama Rajasinghe repaired the Dalada Maligawa, put up the Pattiruppuwa, “the eight sides of which represented the eight directions of the universe with the monarch at the centre.”

By the end of 1810 he had converted the Bogambara marsh into a lake and named it ‘Kiri Muhuda’ (Sea of milk). His Vimana was built to make it “fit for God Sakra.” Beside the large lake there were attractive red lotuses in full bloom. “Honey bees hummed and golden geese played in the water full of fish. The rice field and gardens bloomed as if they were the Nandana Gardens of the God Sakra. The city shimmered with silver and gold pinnacles with little openings (kavulu) in the shape of a lion’s mouth,” one contemporary account said.

There were 12 streets in Kandy that were replete with arches and other sights and were bustling with people. Kandy under Wickrama Rajasinghe was truly “Sirivardhana” (Overflowing with prosperity). Obeyesekere says that the king was a compulsive builder of dams, ponds and irrigation reservoirs, all for the common good.

As Kandy fell to British troops in February 1815, Wikrama Rajasinghe fled to the Medamahanuwara gap. But on February 18, 1815, a group headed by chief Ekneligoda arrested him. But John D’Oyly, the British spy who had meticulously masterminded the King’s downfall,  assured him that he and his family would be treated well. The promise was kept. For safety he was shifted him to Colombo.

Arriving in Colombo on March 6, 1815, Wickrama Rajasinghe was put up in a spacious and well-furnished former Dutch bungalow located in the Fort on land now occupied by Ceylinco House). British officers who were put in charge of the King treated him with the utmost courtesy. His only grievance was that Governor Brownrigg did not visit him even once!  Wickrema Rajasinghe wanted to tell Brownrigg how to find the traditional emblems of his sovereignty so that his rival, chief Ahelepola, would not lay his hands on them and claim the throne. But Brownrigg gave him the cold shoulder and exiled him to India.

After almost a year’s stay in relative comfort in Colombo, on January 24, 1816, Wikrama Rajasinha, his three wives and a large retinue of  60 were put on the British warship HMS Cornwallis for the 26-day journey to Madras and thence to the Vellore fort. During the sea voyage, the king behaved as if he was still King, according to hi ses escort William Granville.

On the day earmarked for sailing, the dethroned King reached Colombo harbour in his full regalia. When he noticed that his coach had to pass under an archway over which many common folk were perched to have a glimpse of the King, he insisted that the archway be cleared of people as the King “he could not pass the gateway with any individual above him!” The British officers dutifully cleared the archway.

The British officers and sailors on board HMS Cornwallis treated the “fallen monarch with every mark of proper decorum”. But the six-foot tall, and bulky Wickrema Rajasinghe saw his tiny cabin as a torture chamber. He would make strange noises expressing despair and displeasure, but refrained from complaining to the British officers.

Captain O’Brian would invite him to dine with him at the captain’s table. But more often than not, the King would decline the invitation. He preferred to eat with his family separately. Occasionally, the King would dine at the captain’s table with his Queens and would be in good spirits though according to Granville he imbibed no spirits which were a plenty on board.

The King was an epicurean with a huge appetite and would fly into a rage if the food was not up to his liking. Occasionally he would cook (mostly vegetarian) for all including the British crew. Though the King was polite to the sailors and British officers, he ruled his  wives and servants with an iron hand. Once he severely beat up his first wife for an unknown misdemeanor. On another occasion, he broke a wooden bed into pieces only because one of his low caste servants had used it.

On arrival in India he wore his royal robe and jewels before disembarking and gently nodded at the throng of locals who had turned up see the “Kandy Rajah” .

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Sri Lanka, India, Gananath Obeyesekere, Social anthropology, Cross cultural studies, Psychology, History, Social and religious movements,