Sinhala novels list series#

Sinhala novels list series#

Maha Viyavula (1909 - The great confusion), Tharuniyakage Premaya (1910 вЂ“ The love of a young woman), Ashta Loka Dharma Chakraya (1916 вЂ“ The wheel of eightfold universal laws), Adbhutha Aganthukaya (1928 вЂ“ Weird stranger), Chintha Mankiya Rathnaya (1930 вЂ“ The gem), Yantham Gelavuna (1931 вЂ“ Barely survived) and series under the general title of Adventures of Kongoda Wickramapala.ДЄmong these novels, Ashta Loka Dharma Chakraya (1916) was written during the 58 days of his imprisonment as a result of Sinhalese вЂ“ Muslims riots in 1915. Amongst his 19 novels, more prominent are Apata Vechcha De (1909 вЂ“ What happened to us), ThatвЂ™s why he wrote 19 novels and hundreds of poetry which indicates his genuine literary talent. Piyadasa Sirisena was an enthusiastic writer. According to Martin Wickramasinghe, if Sirisena had tried to inspire exclusively from folk poetry, folklore and Buddhist texts, he would have been the best folklorist and folk poet in the 20th century like Venerable Vetteve. This was what happened to Piyadasa SirisenaвЂ™s first novel. Generally, a story is conceived in a writerвЂ™s imagination, and anybody who embarks on to write a novel as an answer to another novel naturally becomes unsuccessful. This novel was serialised in the journal вЂRuwan Mal DamaвЂ™ in 1866. Piyadasa Sirisena wrote his debut novel Vasanavantha Vivahaya Hewath Jayatissa Saha Roslin as an answer to the earlier novel Vasanavantha Pavula Saha Kalakanni Pavula (Lucky family and unlucky family) by Reverend Issac de Silva which promoted the Christian concept of family and Christian values. Is this the kind of sentiment that Anagarika Dharmapala preached? As long as this sense of inferiority prevails, the Sinhala people will not be wealthy and strong.вЂќ (Sinhala Novel and the Public Sphere, Wimal Dissanayake, pp 119) As long as they do not gain modern knowledge, they will be unable to eliminate groundless fears and a feeling of inferiority. вЂњAs long as the Sinhalese are feeble and splintered into diverse castes, they will not gain modern knowledge.

The following passage from one of his editorials at вЂSinhala JathiyaвЂ™ attests to this fact: In fact, he became the literary voice of Anagarika Dharmapala. As he was an ardent follower of Anagarika Dharmapala he made use of вЂSinhala JathiyaвЂ™ as a medium for spreading his nationalistic, anti-colonial thoughts. In 1905, вЂSinhala JathiyaвЂ™, a daily newspaper was inaugurated and he became its editor. Then, he joined in вЂSarasavi SandaresaвЂ™ as a journalist and started to write his first novel, Vasanavantha Vivahaya Hewath Jayatissa Saha Roslin which was published in installments in the вЂSarasavi SandaresaвЂ™ newspaper. Two years later, when he finished his school education, he came to Colombo in search of employment, there he published the book. At the age of 18 he wrote his first book, a volume of poetry, titled Ovadan Mutuvela. Meanwhile, he had a great admiration for the nationalistic movement of Anagarika Dharmapala which resulted in changing his name from Pedrick de Silva to Piyadasa Sirisena. There are three schools that he took his early education which were Warahena school, Induruwa, Bentara school of Bentota and BrohierвЂ™s school at Aluthgama, a missionary school where he learned English.ДЇrom childhood he developed an interest towards literature and started to write to newspapers. His name at birth was Pedrick de Silva, and he was the last child of five in his family. Starting from the beginning, Piyadasa Sirisena was born on Augin the village of Athuruwella, Induruwa in Galle district. Piyadasa SirisenaвЂ™s 146 birth anniversary fell on last August 31 and we think it is an ideal time to discuss his literary life. But he is a writer who deserves to be close study. One reason for it that ProfessorД®diriweera Sarachchandra demerited his fiction. However, until very recently the academia in Sri Lanka took him for granted as a writer. Piyadasa Sirisena was the first writer who developed vast readership around the Sinhala novel - his first novel Vasanavantha Vivahaya Hewath Jayatissa Saha Roslin (Lucky marriage or Jayatissa and Roslin) sold 25,000 copies within 10 years. If Martin Wickramasinghe is considered to be вЂfather of Sinhala fictionвЂ™, Piyadasa Sirisena should be considered the вЂgrandfather of Sinhala fictionвЂ™, because without him Wickramasinghe may not have been able to create the first realistic Sinhala novel, Gamperaliya, so early.