By KAMALIKA PIERIS
Sri Lanka
has one of greatest drum cultures in the world said Ravi Bandu, the respected
drum artiste. ‘The most important area of Sinhala music is found in its drum
play. Our drum rhythms are unique and we have our own style of drumming’, said
musicologist C de S Kulatilleke. The drums address each other and take up each
other’s rhythms, said M. H. Goonetilleke. There are hundreds of complex
rhythmic patterns. The magul bera performed on all three drums at an inaugural
occasion is a beautiful example of the expressiveness of Sinhala drum music.
Drums are
used in all rituals, for gods (madu) demons (tovil) and planets (bali).
Lawrie’s Gazetteer of 1896 noted that only a handful of the devales he looked
at had dancers but they all had drummers. Drums are an integral part of ritual
dance too. The vigor of the dancing is matched as well as balanced and
controlled by the drumming. Nearly all drum patterns are named after the dance
sequence they are used for.
The drum
tradition remained firmly entrenched in the island during British rule. The
British administration initially recognized drumming and allowed it. The
Colonial Secretary ordered that the announcement of the first National Census
scheduled for 26.3.1871 be made by drum in the provinces. Pani Bharatha
(1920-2005) recalled that when he was growing up, there were open drumming
displays and contests in the villages at temples and Walauwas. "These
contests helped to develop our skills". In 1928, Radio Ceylon opened its
broadcast with a magul bera recording. In 1934, the documentary film Song of
Ceylon featured Kandyan drumming. A 1948 German documentary on Ceylon starts
with drumming. Up to the 1960s, auction houses advertised their auction sales
using drummers beating the daula.
However, the
Christian missionaries wanted the British administration to ban drumming at
temples, in processions and at ‘demon rituals.’ The British administration
banned drumming in processions. There was strong resistance to this ban. The
1915 Sinhala –Muslims riots were due to a refusal to stop drumming when a
Buddhist procession went past a Mosque. Bhikkhus were taken to courts as late
as 1930s with regard to this ban.
Temple
drumming was not affected by this ban. Drums continued to announce the various
activities of the temple. There were different drum beats for different things,
including one for the priests to hurry up for a pirit ceremony as it was
getting late. When two sets of drum teams are playing and the second drum team
is not to be seen, the first team plays a tune to summon them, ‘Come’ and the
second team replies, ‘Yes we are ready’. In the Dalada Maligawa tevava, there
are different drum beats for the different offerings made during the tevava.
There is a special drum beat when the casket is placed on the elephant at the
Esala perahera.
There were
about 35 drums in the olden days, now there are only ten, said Piyasara
Silpadhipathy. The patawa bera is no longer available but Pani Bharatha had one
in his drum collection. According to P. Dolpahilla the following drums were in
use in the 1950s. Two types of daula, geta bera, yak bere, three tammattam,
bummadiya, and a small two faced drum much like the ana bere used for
government notifications. Dalada Maligawa had a four feet long drum which resembled
an udekki. It was used on perahera days to call the elephants to the temples
from Getambe, Katugastota and Lewelle where they awaited the signal.
The four
main drums, geta beraya, Ruhunu bera, davula and tammattama, have different
playing techniques and highly codified teaching methods. Instructions on
drumming are given in verse form. One verse said ‘tis ekaka talam, susata paman
savudam, visiek suralin, gasu solosak vandamanam,’ quoted M.H.Goonetilleke. The
manuscript ‘Davul upata’ gives the 216 rhythms of the davula in verse. The
traditional techniques, visible at present in a few fragmentary documents of
the 18th century, have disappeared due to lack of usage. Contemporary drummers
have instead, developed rich, new styles of their own, said C de S.
Kulatillake.
Ravibandu
says the drum orchestra, which is so popular today, was created in the 1940s by
Pani Bharatha. Each drum was given a beat that suited it for its solo. The
performance started with the hewisi beat for aluyam duraya. The next generation
of drummers, notably Piyasara and Ravibandu carried the venture further and
created magnificent mixed drum presentations, with new drum beats and the two
new drums, created by them. These presentations were rich in technique,
inventiveness and impact. Drums which were till then limited to rituals,
perahera, and pinkam were now presented on stage in cleverly arranged drum
ensembles.
There are
solo performers on drums as well. Jananath Warakagoda, whose ‘marvelous drum
beats’ are much admired, said ‘from the very first lesson I fell in love with
the four amazing drums, geta, yak, daula and tammattama. Nowhere in the world
can you find anything similar to these four drums.’ His favourite is the
tammatama. Susantha and Prasantha Rupathilaka, good looking with chiseled
feature, are exceptionally talented in drums as well as dance. They have
performed all over the world. They gave a superb performance in Colombo in
2009. Mahanamage Jayantha Melegama of Wadduwa, a drummer, who performs at
tourist hotels in the south, has been invited with his troupe to tour England
by the director of a Sri Lanka cultural foundation.
Rural and
urban schools are now interested to drumming, observed Ravi Bandu. Most leading
schools have drum troupes. Bishop’s College, Colombo hewisi band started in the
1960s. Trinity College, Kandy drum and dance troupe, which started in 1972,
participated in international festivals in UK and Sweden in 1992 and 1998
respectively and won awards. The Hewisi bands of S. Thomas, Trinity, Bishops and
Methodist College, Colombo gave a combined concert in January 2015 in Colombo.
The Maligawa
has a permanent Hewisi performance group, consisting of drummers from Molagoda,
Malagammana, Ihalawela and Uduwela. Drawings of the senior, now aging drummers
of these families were published, as a gesture of appreciation, by the
Maligawa, in Daily News 26.7.12 p 23. The Malagammana drummers came from Ihala
dolos pattuwa in Kurunegala, Molagoda drummers from Pahala dolos pattuwa in
Kurunegala, Ihalawela from Dumbara and Uduwela from Matale. They held nindagam
lands. The pannikiya duraya was handed down from father to son or brother to
brother and never went out of the designated families. Each day four people
drawn from the Pannikki clans played for the tevava, on the daula, tammattama,
geta bera and horanava.
Three Sunday
newspapers ran interviews with several Maligawa drummers including the late
Berakara gedera Molagoda, his brother Silva and P. Malagammana. Molagoda had
performed the hewisi puja for more than forty years. He had learnt to drum from
father and grandfather. The family was also closely associated with the village
temple, Molagoda Raja Maha Vihara. Molagoda and his younger brother Silva had
followed the father into the Maligawa. They were part of the temple hewisi team
and had participated in the perahera. They also performed at other peraheras
such as Hanguranketa, Gadaladeniya, Embekke and Alawatugoda.
The drummers
complained that they were finding it difficult financially. Their nindagam had
been divided and subdivided over the generations and did not yield sufficient
income. The travelling cost more than what they were given by the Maligawa.
Malagammana said his two sons were not going to take over from him. They have
taken other jobs. Soon there will be no body to take over from them at the
Maligawa .
The drummers
deeply resented society’s attitude towards them. They were looked down as low
caste in their village. ‘We are treated badly. They use us, and then discard
us’ they said. ‘We get insulting looks when we carry the bere. When we are
summoned for functions nobody would tolerate us in their houses. Even if they
had the space they would construct a small hut for us so that we did not have to
stay with them.’ Molagoda had once been offered tea in kolapotha, a cup made of
leaves. Several dancers and drummers, who were invited to a function at a ‘posh
house’ in Kandy, were given a corner to stay in, worn pieces of mats to sleep
on and nothing to eat.
Silva also
recalled that they were not permitted to study beyond a certain grade in
school. The principal told us that members of my family must study in the
temple, that we belong to the temple. Silva said he felt very hurt over this.
Molagoda said his son also had resented the way they were treated. ‘Since
society did not accept or respect us, I turned to carpentry’, he said.
Today
however things have changed, Silva said. Caste consciousness may exist at
village level, but it is now fashionable to be involved in the arts. Talented
persons like the late Molagoda and his son Rohana are beginning to be treated
as national treasures. Molagoda was awarded the Kala Vibhushana title.
Pathmasiri, one of Silva's four sons, is sorry that he stopped dancing but his
son Dushmantha, studying at Rahula Vidyalaya, Katugastota, is a talented and
fully qualified dancer. He is the only one of Silva’s grandchildren to take to
dancing. ‘I realize that there is now great potential for artistes like us.
There are also the earnings from tourist performances. In addition to this, the
Diyawadane Nilame has ensured that the drummers receive better payment and
allowances.’ Malagammana’s grandson Sagara has also taken to drumming.
There are
only a handful of dedicated manufacturers still making drums. Drum making is
dying out. Of the hardwoods needed for drums, Ehela and
kohomba are now prohibited and only coconut, jak and palmyrah can be used.
Monkey and iguana skins are prohibited, the skins of cattle and goat are used.
Rohana Wijesinghe of Alawala village, Attanagalla, a long standing drum
manufacturer, learned the art from his father who learnt it from his father,
Napin Singho, a leading drum manufacturer in the 1940s.
Families in
Heiyanthudawe have been making drums for generations. There was a demand for
drums during festivals at Munneswaram, Kataragama and Ratnapura and they would
work round the clock and take lorry loads to the festivals. Prasanna, a drum
manufacturer recalled, ‘while I was schooling I would help my grandfather and
father to make bera and raban, it was all self taught.’ He studied up to grade
10 and then decided to go in for drum making after his father passed away. The
other siblings left the industry, preferring government jobs. Prasanna runs a small
home based drum making venture. Sales peak during avurudu season. He attends
polas at Anamaduwa, Galgamuva, Nikaweratiya and also sells to shops in Colombo,
Bellanwila, Weweldeniya and Nawagamuwa. He is unable to make a decent profit.
(Sunday Times Plus. 272. 11 p 5)
Source: www.island.lk (31/08/2016)