Before the emergence of Martin Wickramasinghe's fiction, Koggala was just another land in the Galle District. At that time, Koggala was about 450 acres in size, and consisted of nine villages including Ginpathaliya, Malalagama, Batuwanthudawa, Weduwa, Hambuwa, Dombagahawatta, Opatha and Magalthota. Though Koggala is also known for its Export Processing Zone where 9,579 females and 3,581 males work in 227 acres in various industries, it is best known among Sri Lankans as the hometown of late writer Wickramasinghe and as the birthplace of modern Sinhala literature.

Nature of Koggala

Wickramasinghe was born in Malalagama, Koggala on 29 May, 1890, in his ancestral home. The unique nature of the village is that it is bounded on one side by a coral fringed sea, teeming with marine life, and on the other side by the Koggala Oya or lake, dotted with little mangrove islands. The flat hinterland is the only place in Sri Lanka where the rail track, the air runway, the naval route and the tar road meet. But, how was the nature of Koggala some 100 years ago? Wickramasinghe describes it in the first paragraph of the first chapter of his path-breaking novel, Gamperaliya (The Transformation of a Village), as follows: "The village of Koggala lies in a long stretch of land, bounded on one side by the Indian Ocean, and on the other, by the Koggala Oya, a beautiful wide river. The smooth black ribbon of a road linking the Southern Towns of Galle and Matara runs between the village and the sea. Verandahs are a feature of each village house, whilst the sea shore is the panoramic front verandah for the entire village. On an embankment a few feet above the ground level, the rail track extends as far as the eye can reach, like a long ladder with no beginning and no end. The scooping of earth to raise the embankment many years ago has left long ditches on either side. Water from little streams running under numerous culverts has collected in the ditches, to form little ponds that abound in water lilies and lotuses, and little fish."

According to Wickramasinghe, Koggala has possibly been an inhabited village 7,000-8,000 years ago. As the artifacts that show such antiquity are buried in the ground, it is hard to prove the above fact. However, there is one piece of evidence in Koggala which confirms that the village has been on the land for tens of millions of years: it is the towering mass of igneous rock near the edge of the rail track. As Wickramasinghe puts it in Gamperaliya: "It would have been there, unmoved by the violent upheavals of nature that took place long before even plants and trees evolved."

Wickramasinghe writes in the second paragraph: "The villagers who call this rock 'Hirigal Devale' or the 'Devale Gala', believe that it cannot be broken even by blasting with dynamite. Devoid of eyes, ears and mind, it was there when the first human inhabitants appeared, the impassive witness of their sorrows and joys, their tears and their lamentations."

Since Wickramasinghe's writing style was realistic, close to the naturalistic literary style, he describes in detail most of the things that he saw in Koggala in this novel. In fact, the first, second, third and fourth pages are filled with numerous accounts of the village which are not suitable for a good realistic novel. But, thanks to those extensive descriptions, readers can figure out how the village and its life were during those times. That finding is very important, because it helps us trace the real background for Wickramasinghe's literature.

Flatland with high biodiversity

One interesting fact of Koggala is that it is a flat land in the coastal area, rich with nature and so many birds and animals. One can hear so many bird sounds if one enters the precincts of the ancestral home. During some rainy days, crocodiles are also a common sight in the ditches of Koggala. Wickramasinghe mentions in his autobiography, Upan Da Sita (From Birth Onwards), that crocodiles came to the ponds in Malalagama from the Koggala lake, when it was raining. The other important feature of Koggala is that it was a fishing as well as farming village. Every day, Wickramasinghe saw, as a kid, fishermen and farmers of the village going to their daily work, carrying their tools. Though those people were poor, they were self-sufficient and never borrowed anything from anyone. It was in the latter part of the 19th Century that the villagers started to pursue money, and tried to seek social status. These facts around him helped him to write on the villagers' life and its flow from a different angle.

It was a common scene during the latter part of the British colonial rule that some villagers started to move to Colombo with the hope of starting new businesses. Piyal, the central character in Gamperaliya, moved to Colombo to earn money as well as to ascend the social ladder. This was a common phenomenon for any village during that time. Every village had a Piyal, but only Wickramasinghe could see Piyal in his village. How did that happen? It was because the unique environment of Koggala helped him see that social transformation. In other words, while the rich biodiversity in Koggala, especially in its sea shore and mangrove swamps, directed Wickramasinghe's eye towards the evolution of nature, it also inspired him to see the social transformation around him. This had not happened with other writers.

Birthplace for everything

Koggala is where all the characters in Wickramasinghe’s literature were born. For instance, the real people behind the characters in Gamperaliya such as Kaisaruwatte Muhandiram, Matara Hamine, Anula, Nanda, Tissa, Piyal, Sada, Solonchiya, Baladasa, Katirina, Laisa, etc., all lived in Koggala. And, we should not ignore the fact that unique characters such as Aravinda and Sarojini in Viragaya (Devoid of Passions) were also villagers in it. In that aspect, Koggala is where a large variety of people gathered in one place, which is an extraordinary thing. If a good reader of Wickramasinghe’s books enters the village of Malalagama where the Wickramasinghe Folk Museum is built, he can feel the sorrows and joys, tears and lamentations of those villagers even now. It is a great spiritual journey for a reader to visit the ancestral home and walk around Ginpathaliya.

Wickramasinghe died in 1976, and his final wish was to establish a folk museum and a library there. Yet, although the folk museum was built and opened in 1981, the library was not established. Why? The reason was that the village became a part of the industrial zone in Koggala due to the economic reforms by former President J.R. Jayewardene. Thereafter, Koggala became a barren land for people who read books. Now, Wickramasinghe’s books are available in a special room in the National Library in Colombo.

It is also significant to mention that Wickramasinghe asked many times from the then Government to establish a university in Koggala for students who follow aesthetic and related studies. A few newspaper articles were also written by him on this matter. But, the Government did not listen to him and the proposed university was built in Matara as the University of Ruhuna later, which is not for aesthetic studies.  

Why the museum?

When talking about the Koggala folk museum, there is an emotional fact about it. Generally, museums are regarded as the opposite of the writing life, because fiction is dealing with the unreal or fantasy world while the museum is associated with reality or a solid thing. Then, why did he focus on a real thing like a museum? Wickramasinghe had a non-literary aspect in his literary life although he produced some of the best books in Sinhala literature. That is one answer for it. But, when investigating this thoroughly, you can also identify various roles in his life. One of them was to discuss the subject of anthropology in which museums were a part of. So, the suggestion of a folk museum was a temporary stop in his journey of anthropological research.

Then, what is the emotional thing about this? Actually, the first artifacts for the museum were collected by Wickramasinghe himself. The story goes like this: the folk museum and its precinct that we see in Malalagama, Koggala, was where the real persons behind Wickramasinghe’s characters lived. They were the people he grew up with and shared his life with. So, it was heartbreaking news for Wickramasinghe to hear that his village with the whole Koggala area was being taken over by the British Air Force in 1942. The Army took control of it with the intention of building a new airport there, and therefore, evicted all the people in Koggala within 24 hours, which amounted to 10,000 at least. They also cut down all the flora and fauna in the area and started to demolish the houses including the ancestral home. But, thanks to a British lady who was the high ranking officer in that Air Force team, the ancestral home which is 250 years old was saved. In fact, she was attracted to it by the beauty of the house. Anyway, after losing the house, Wickramasinghe returned to see the ancestral home many times, but could not find it since it was a prohibited area for 'outsiders'. However, in 1962, the house was given away to Wickramasinghe by the then Government which was Prime Minister Sirima Bandaranaike's. After that, he came to his hometown Koggala and was shocked to see that no one except for him was in the village. It is said that at the moment, tears fell from his eyes, and that he started to walk around Koggala alone. So, because of this emotional relationship with them, he started to collect artifacts of their folk culture which ended up as the beginning of the museum.

Inspirational place

So, if one walks around Koggala, he/she has to hear that long story. Moreover, there is no way to forget that this is the place where a high literary taste and enthusiasm to read the world's best classical books such as Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, were kindled, and also where top realistic fiction was written in Sinhala, which cannot be surpassed yet. This is also the land that inspired Wickramasinghe to write 110 books including great critical analyses such as Sinhala Sahithyaye Negeema (translated to English as Landmarks of Sinhalese Literature by Prof. Ediriweera Sarachchandra), Sahithya Kalava (Art of Literature) and Bana Katha Sahithya (Literature of Buddhist Stories). In one of his literary analysis, he compares the physical appearances of Vidyachakravarthi who wrote the great Sinhala traditional lyrical prose work Buth Sarana with Ven. Dharmasena Thera's Saddharmarathnavaliya, which is very interesting, and therefore, it is hard to imagine what type of high literary taste Wickramasinghe had.

Koggala was also the background for Wickramasinghe's expedition into the natural world. As we all know, he loved the beach and constantly visited the coral reef in Koggala. Not only did he enjoy it, but he also explored the marine life during those visits. Because of this inspiration, he wrote many science books, and was the first writer in Sri Lanka who introduced science to Sinhala readers. Some of his science books include Kurumini Saththu (Insects), Kuru Kuhumbu Saththu (Ants), Ves Maru Karana Saththu (Chameleons), Sathva Lokaya (Animal World), Sathva Santhathiya (Animal Life), Vidya Vinoda Katha (Fun Stories of Science, which was a book series), Grameeya Vidya Praveshaya (Entrance to Local Science) and Sadacharaya ha Nirogee Sampatha (Moral Life and the Value of a Healthy Life). Apart from these, he also translated (adapted) many books from English to Sinhala including Galivarayanaya, Raja Venta Giya Mahanna and Rankendi Kumariya.

The centre of all art

The time that Wickramasinghe engaged in writing was totally opposite to nowadays. There was no refined literary language for Sinhala writers to express themselves in literature and in journalism. Therefore, he created new words to achieve this task and it helped to produce a sophisticated literary language in Sinhala. When making up new Sinhala words, he was reluctant to adopt Sanskrit words for English words. Once, he acted as a member of a certain language board whose job was to make suitable Sinhala words for technical jargon in English. But, just three months thereafter, he resigned from the board, because, some members of it began to adopt Sanskrit words for English words. All these radical and pioneering things happened thanks to his upbringing in Koggala.

As Wickramasinghe writes in his books, peasant life in Koggala was his university. While it became the imaginary world for his fiction which is similar to that of the imaginary Yoknapatawpha County in William Faulkner's fiction and the fictitious Town of Malgudi in R.K. Narayan's novels, it also became the background for his philosophy. Wickramasinghe's cousin, the son of his uncle, was Ven. Dheerananda Thera, and it was he who taught him the Sanskrit language, Buddhism and poetry.

It is undoubtedly an extraordinary thing that this rural village which is separated from the commercial capital of Colombo became the heart of Sinhala literature and all the art forms. The reason behind it is that all the writers and artists after his generation were inspired by Wickramasinghe’s literature and his literary concepts. Even Prof. Sarachchandra was able to form the Peradeniya school of literature thanks to the books by Wickramasinghe. Sarachchandra clearly mentions that he learned anthropology with help of the books that he borrowed from Wickramasinghe. And the first books used in the literary discussions at the University of Peradeniya were also Wickramasinghe’s books. That eventually paved the way for creating a new literature in Sri Lanka. The three novels, Yali Upannemi (Born Again), Depa Noladdo (Legless) and Karumakkarayo (Ill-Fated) by Gunadasa Amarasekara, Hevanella (Shadow) by Siri Gunasinghe, Hevaneli Ada Minissu (People Whose Shadows Are Crooked) by Sunanda Mahendra, and even Sagara Jalaya Madi Henduva Oba Sanda (Ocean Waters Cried Less For You) by Simon Navagattegama are the results of the discussions at the Peradeniya school of literature. In this aspect, Koggala is the cradle of Sinhala literature and other art forms.

(The writer is a journalist.)

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.