Free at Last in Paradise: A Historical Novel on Sri Lanka [Paperback]

Ananda W. P. Guruge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 19, 1998

A peek into the social, political, religious, and cultural evolutions of modern Sri Lanka (Ceylon), this fictional autobiography spans a century of upheavals, culminating in the country's independence from the British in 1948. A British reviewer says, "The curtain is drawn on astounding intricacies of Ceylonese social life to which only Guruge with his extensive national and international experience could be privy." An American reader calls the novel "a magnum opus, a masterpiece from any angle. Elegant style, eloquent language, relentless tempo, exciting and almost galloping, never boring, most educational--A great intellectual and emotional experience."

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ananda Weihena Palliya Guruge, Ph.D., D. Lit., is a national and international civil servant, scholar, diplomat and educator. Since 1995, he is Senior Special Advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO, as well as Dean of Academic Affairs and Director of the International Academy of Buddhism at the Hsi Lai University in California. Prior to that he was an Ambassador of Sri Lanka to UNESCO, France, and America. Author of over 40 books (in both English and Sinhala) on Buddhism, Asian history, and Educational Management, he has traveled widely in 93 countries. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Prologue

Thrice have I begun in earnest to write the story of my life and times. On each occasion, a formidable obstacle was the thought that so much was happening around me and I needed to be in touch with new developments. After almost a year since the last aborted or rather abandoned start, I am obsessed with a persisting urge to make one more attempt. At the ripe old age of ninety, I have no alternative. It is now or never.

Today, the fourth of February 1948, is a day of dual significance - one personal and the other national.

It is my ninetieth birthday. For a long time, my birthday has become an occasion for reflection rather than celebration. I recall the vicissitudes of a life through eventful times less for the joy of having survived them all but more for the confirmation that all phenomena, the good, the bad and the indifferent, are evanescent and impermanent. Life is but a sequence of fleeting images, voices and impressions.

Of far greater importance, however, is that today the land of my birth regains independence after centuries of foreign domination. It is the culmination of a persistently peaceful two-track process: one of national self-conscientization to become a modern nation with a proper appreciation of its cultural heritage and history; and another of progressive constitutional evolution based on agitation, consultation and negotiation and guided by a deep commitment to democracy.

I have had a ring-side seat in the national arena. It is true that for the most part I have been an interested, if not concerned, observer. But I also had the rare privilege of making a few humble contributions. For well nigh seven decades, less three decades of voluntary isolation, have I been active in one way or another to usher in this day of joy.

Therefore do I begin to dictate my memoirs with a sense of fulfillment, tinged though not tainted, I must frankly admit, by a feeling of pride and jubilation.

The island whose recent history I propose to recount in these pages has been home to many peoples over several millennia. Fascinating discoveries of its pre-historic past speak of cultures long forgotten. A megalithic dolmen and cave paintings, urn burials and stone age implements predate a recorded history of at least twenty-five centuries.

Legends and literature confirm the nation's antiquity. The Ramayana, the popular epic poem of the neighboring subcontinent, calls this island Lanka and describes its location off the southern tip of India accurately. The mythical demon-king Ravana of Lanka is portrayed as a villain who abducts the consort of Rama, a prince of Northern India. The line of tiny islands and sandbanks which dot the eighteen miles of the sea separating it from the mainland is believed to be the vestiges of a bridge or rather a causeway which Rama constructed to invade Lanka with his army of monkeys. The vanquished demon-king, however, continues to be celebrated in legends and poems of India as a scholar, poet, expert in medicine and inventor of the violin! Both the Jains and the Buddhists claim him as a pious adherent!! Buddhists of China, Korea and Japan believe that an important philosophical text which they hold in high veneration contains a sermon preached by the Buddha to this demon-king in Lanka. In their scriptures both Ravana and his brother Vibhisana are mentioned as pious adherents to the Greater Vehicle of Buddhism.

The country still bears the name Lanka, which, some scholars posit, means simply an island. About a thousand years ago, the prefix Sri had been added as an honorific. Thus came the usage Sri Lanka, meaning "The Resplendent Island". This name may still be unfamiliar to my readers who know our island home only as Ceylon or its other European equivalents Ceylan, Ceylaan and Ceilao. Do we like any of these names? No one has really asked us. My preference, of course, is for Sri Lanka.

Like Australia or New Zealand, it has only a geographical connotation. For the same reason, I would have even liked the ancient name by which Greeks and Romans knew it. Taprobane which Ptolemy in his map magnified to many times its size was called by us Tamraparni or Tambapanni. Signifying "Copper-coloured Palms" - palms of the hand and not the trees - it refers to the fertile soil of the Island's coastal plain.

Ceylon, on the contrary, has an ethnic sense like England, the land of the Angles or France, the land of the Franks. Ceylon comes via Latin, Persian and Arabic corruptions, Singaldivi/Seren- Devi/Serendib, of Sanskrit and Pali appellations Sinhala-dipa /Sihalanam dipa - the Island of the Sinhalas.The Sinhalas of Northern Indian origin, speaking a language of the Indo-Aryan family of Indo-European languages, continue to be the majority. Yet, several other distinct ethnic groups claim as their home this charming island with its salubrious climate and breath-taking scenic beauty. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 716 pages
• Publisher: 1st Book Library (December 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585001368
• ISBN-13: 978-1585001361
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,415,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)