Punyakante Wijenaike, a talented Sri Lankan writer, has left an indelible mark on the world of English literature. She was born in Colombo in 1933 and passed away this year on 8 March. Wijenaike’s contribution to literature is immeasurable, and she is remembered as one of the most underrated fiction writers of our time.
Wijenaike’s writing career spanned over five decades, during which she wrote primarily in English. She published her first collection of short stories, The Third Woman, in 1963, and since then, published four more collections of short stories and six novels. Her stories have been published in numerous newspapers, journals, and anthologies in Sri Lanka and abroad, and have been broadcasted on Sri Lankan radio as well as on BBC radio.
Her novel Giraya was adapted into a teledrama, which speaks to the popularity of her writing and the broad appeal of her stories.
The Daily Morning Brunch gave a few personalities in her industry the opportunity to share a few words about Wijenaike’s life and career.
Extraordinary understanding of strong emotions
“Though Punyakante Wijenaike had been ailing for some time, it was sad to hear of her death. She had been a pioneer of Sri Lankan writing in English, in the post-independence period, and I still remember the pleasure I took in reading The Third Woman and other stories when they came out in the early sixties.
But things were not easy for her, nor for that other significant pioneer, James Goonewardene, for those were the days when Sri Lankan academia looked down on Sri Lankans who wrote in English. D.C.R.A. Goonetilleke was an exception, though he did not think it appropriate to put them on syllabuses in schools, which had been done by the more radical elements at Kelaniya University in the early seventies. But with the 1977 election the old guard was back with a vengeance, and even the usually generous Ashley Halpe claimed that those who wrote in English only did so because they could not write in Sinhala or Tamil. And younger academics in Colombo denigrated Punyakante’s brilliant Giraya and instead regretted that she had not remained in what I have termed the village well, celebrating the passive virtues of Sellohamy in The Waiting Earth who blindly follows her husband in his prejudices.
I can take some credit for giving Sri Lankan writing respect, for when I was at the British Council I started celebrating our writers, supported in this by the enlightened Englishmen who were in charge then. Though the poets were more prominent, Jean Arasanayagam and Anne Ranasinghe to the fore, Punyakante was equally distinguished, and paved the way for other prose writers who forcefully depicted the changing social scene, amongst them Vijita Fernando, Maureen Seneviratne and Nirmali Hettiarachchi.
After her death, Dinali Fernando, with whom I worked in the nineties to popularise Sri Lankan writing in university curricula, and for schools too, reminded me of a book we had brought out together in the early nineties, called A Selection of Sri Lankan Short Stories. We had twelve stories, two each by the other three writers I have mentioned above, and six by Punyakante. These exemplified her wonderful range, from the whimsical The Visitor which had appeared in The Third Woman to the touching study of a young monk learning discipline, The Monkeys. Students could relate to these, and awareness of the social context meant that they were able to reflect on the subject matter enthusiastically, and respond actively.
I was reminded too of the excitement when Punyakante won the Gratiaen prize in the second year it was awarded. She had strong competition, but I think the judges were right to choose her above the two poets who stood out in that year – just as she and her colleagues as judges the previous year, were right, I think, to have selected Carl Muller’s Jam Fruit Tree.
A quiet housewife, Punyakante had an extraordinary understanding of strong emotions, positive and negative, and also of male and female sexuality. Though in the last few years what she wrote was not as powerful as previously, she had been able over nearly half a century to produce work that both surprised and impressed.
I last saw her about five years ago, and was sad at how old she seemed, and forlorn, for when I dropped her home after a dinner she had had to enter her house in virtual darkness, for there had been no one up to receive her. But she was gracious as ever, determined not to trouble me to go in to see her settled.
I expected to hear of her death, and I am sorry that I did not try to see her in the several years she survived. But I am sure she was well looked after, and for me perhaps it is best to remember her as the quiet but forceful personality that was a pillar of our performances at the Council in the eighties, and then a stalwart of the English Writers Cooperative that we set up in those distant days. I can see now that Madhubhashini Ratnayake, who wrote a beautiful tribute to her, was right in urging me to produce again something on the lines of The New Lankan Review, with which Richard de Zoysa and I had so much fun, printing when there were no other easy outlets the work which those wonderful writers produced year after year with both ease and brilliance. It will be a fitting tribute to them to ensure the tradition continues”
- Author Rajiva Wijesinha
“I fell in love with Punyakante’s work instantly”
“I had watched the teledrama Giraya as a child with my parents but didn’t know whose story it was based on. I only discovered Punyakante Wijenaike when I found a well-used copy of The Waiting Earth in our school library. I was maybe 15 at the time and what I thought was a picturesque and interesting book about Sri Lankan village life soon became so layered and dramatic and heartrending. I fell in love with it instantly. I’ve always veered towards wanting to highlight the rich lives of seemingly ordinary and otherwise overlooked Sri Lankans, who we may think are only made up of their struggles and pain...and it was Punyakante’s writing that first showed me that this was possible”
- Author Thushanthi Ponweera
Invaluable contributions
“She was a remarkable and a pioneering figure, alongside James Goonewardene and Raja Proctor, who practised Sri Lankan writing in English. Despite inimical attacks by certain academics at the time, they established this category of writing as a significant branch of Sri Lankan fiction. Her contributions were significant in paving the way for others to follow and build upon her legacy.
As a child growing up in the 90s, I recall being both fascinated and disturbed by her teledrama, Giraya. However, it wasn’t until I delved deeper into her body of work as an adult and student of Sri Lankan literature in English that I fully appreciated her immense talent and unique voice.
One of her masterpieces, Giraya, not only captivated English-speaking audiences, but also resonated with Sinhala readers and viewers - a rare accomplishment for a writer who primarily wrote in English. Her hauntingly beautiful novel, The Amulet, remains one of my favourite works of hers.
Through her writing, she demonstrated a clear critique of the aristocracy and the feudal order, while exploring gender roles and the place of women in a patriarchal and classist society. Her contribution to Sri Lankan literature was invaluable, and she has rightfully earned her place as a literary giant in the country’s literary history”
- Journalist and editor Marlon Ariyasinghe
Indelible figure in Sri Lankan English literature
“Punyakante Wijenaike stands tall as an indelible figure in Sri Lankan English literature being a pioneer of the “Sri Lankan novel”. Through her works such as Giraya, she delves into bold topics and themes, which together with her narrative style, evinced that Sri Lankan fiction has a flavour of its own.
As a Sri Lankan female novelist her spirit of boldness shown through her fiction was surely inspiring to many young aspiring Sri Lankan writers back in the 1990s.
Today, as Sri Lanka sees a commendable growth in the genre of Sri Lankan fiction in English, the contributions made by pioneers such as Wijenaike must be applauded and honoured in full measure.”
- Author and attorney at law Dilshan Boange
Fearless exploration of social realities
“Punyakante Wijenaike was among the legends of English writing here. I was always writing in school, so naturally I was looking at the senior writers here with great admiration. Punyakante was among the giants here - with others such as Anne Ranasinghe, Vijitha Fernando and Rajiva Wijesinha. My contact with them came when they invited me to partake in the English Writers Cooperative (EWC) that they had established to bring out an anthology carrying the work of the English writers here. Meeting them in person was surreal. What struck me about Wijenaike was how simple, unassuming and humble she was. That is very much a characteristic of her work as well. It’s understated, not flashy, but very real in a quiet way.
Wijenaike’s writing explored the social realities of Sri Lanka fearlessly and thoroughly - again in a very soft way. She is most famous now for Giraya, I think, especially because it was turned into a Sinhala teledrama with a great cast. It was the theme of homosexuality that was explored there - its suppression and the way people have to pay the price for that. To do so when she did was to be absolutely aware of a social reality - and she did not hesitate to bring it forth - tackling the hypocrisy inherent in the feudal mansions while she was doing it. A writer much ahead of her times.
Wijenaike’s work broke new ground in Sri Lankan literature at the time she started writing. Back then not many were writing in English. So just by trying to write local stuff - she was doing pioneering work with the rest of them anyway. Of course they got pulled up for trying to write about contexts they didn’t quite know about - as the English writers were believed to be set apart from the villages and the characters there that they write about. Any post-colonial country and their writers of English have to handle those things, I suppose. But they kept writing and helping others to write and come up. Why did they call a very young girl like me to join them in bringing out the EWC magazine Channels otherwise?
Wijenaike worked in the Wadiya group of writers as well - set up to help those writing creatively in English. She was a generous spirit. Very quiet. It is easy to miss her impact on Sri Lankan English writing now - but it shouldn’t be. These were pioneers - her Giyara being made into a teledrama crossed a very firmly established (at that time) language barrier too. I hope she will always be remembered for the significant impact she made to her field here”
- Author Dr. Madhubhashini Disanayaka Ratnayake