Cumaratunga Munidasa: Unpralleld creator of children’s literature

By K. A. I. Kalyanaratne

Senior Manager, Publications
Postgraduate Institute of Management,
University of Sri Jayewardenepura.
Vice President, Hela Hawula.

The Crow’s Crowing

1. Crow Crow Crow Crow
There! See the sun is rising.
I will also rise and fly
While crowing, will find food.

2.The Sun will not remain constant.
It rises – rises, continues to rise.
It rises for half a day and sinks again.
And it hides making the world dark.

3. Hence, before that happens
Will do – jump – turn and see.
I do not see a moment to idle
In the rays of the Sun.

4. From where will a stone be pelted?
Where will there be any food to eat?
If I do not see them instantly,
I will not be at ease at all!

5. When the time comes for laying eggs
I must get a nest done, and
Protect the eggs and once born
They need to be fed well.

6. That Cuckoo, my biggest rogue
Lays eggs in my own nest.
Gets them hatched by me, and
Rejoices over the clever act!

7. If there dawns any wisdom
To spot crows’ and cuckoos’ eggs
When that day comes, his
Sweet singing will end forever.

–Cumaratunga Munidasa–

The brilliance of Cumaratunga Munidasa as a contributor to the survival and sustenance of the Sinhala language and its literature is unparalleled. Innumerable occasions on which the services he rendered to unravel the confusion that had crept into Sinhala grammar and its writing tradition were discoursed, stand tall and firm as memorials not only for his erudition but also for his indefatigable and unswerving mission. The fact remains that even if one researches on even a minute aspect of his exhaustive industry, that itself will run into a voluminous compendium. Hence, taking into consideration the space-limitations I have attempted to shed some light on this genius’ contribution to our kids’ literature, basing on one of his short poetic compositions captioned ‘The Crow’s Crowing’ (කාක් – කාකුව).

The Crow’s Crowing

The poet thus teaches the child through the poem that for any active engagement the time available is limited, and therefore, the limited time must be put into maximum use. Here, he also teaches the sun’s behaviour: it rises in the morning, gives light for half a day, and then sinks making the world dark. The poet tells the reader, hay! Make hay while the sun shines. It’s thus a maxim differently told, taking cognizance of what the sun does, and what we ought to do.

Herein the crow takes his lessons from the illustrious sun that dawns in the morning. The crow says that the sun rises incessantly, and leaves no room for slothfulness. The crow following suit, will also rise, jump, turn and search for food. The crow says he has to do all of these within the limited time, as the sun will only be there for half a day. During the next half the sun will sink and hide its face putting the world into darkness.

The crow also thinks of his responsibilities. In a society you cannot live aloof of others in the family and those within the circle. Living alone is a selfish act. The crow, therefore, considers getting a nest done when the tiny ones are born. They also need to be protected and fed well. Now the child also thinks. Aha! We too have a responsibility by the family and the society. Living alone is not enough. So he thinks, and slowly matures. The kid tends to think of his/her parents. He tends to thinks of the bigger world he has to live in. In short, it is responsible living.

Revelation of nature

When coming into grips with society one has to come to know friends, enemies, rogues and ill-behaved ones. The crow says that cuckoo is his biggest rogue. Why? Because the cuckoo lays eggs in the crow’s nest. His misbehavior doesn’t end there. He also gets the eggs hatched by the crow, and what is irritating is that having done all that he rejoices. How mischievous the cuckoo is. As the cuckoo depends on others for his needs he is a parasite. Although the crow realises the cuckoo’s mischief and misbehavior the crow bears them all. He doesn’t go to fight with him. Any fight will destroy the cuckoo-eggs. What can the poor cuckoo pets do for their big-ones’ roguish behaviour. So the crow is mindful of the consequences, and remains patient. What a good quality to control your anger. The child tends to learn all these good qualities, and comes to know of the happenings in nature, and how restraining oneself will ultimately get benefited. Being mindful of the consequences and restraining oneself is, indeed, a virtuous act.

The Crow – A bird with a lot to admire about

Having been patient the crow only says that on the day I get wisdom to spot the difference between the two eggs, the crow’s and the cuckoo’s, the crow implies that he will rejoice and not the cuckoo. It only says that when the crow gets that wisdom, the cuckoo will not try his pranks anymore. What a gentlemanly wish! The society thinks that crows are unpolished – ugly animals. But Cumaratunga teaches a lesson to the children through this poem that crows are a lot that deserve our respect, and concern; a bird with a lot to admirable qualities. How objectively the poet attempts to bring a nexus between our children and nature, out of all, especially with a lot whom we despise as being of no value.

Poetry for kids demands developing visualisation skills and imagination

Cumaratunga teaches our poets, and more so those who compose poems for children that we should captures the essence of childhood, namely, the fun, the amusement, the laughter, the hope, and the inquisitive nature of exploring their world. After all, all these are distinguishing features of human beings. Hence, to put things that are not similar next to each other, and exposing children to poetry in their early age is a great way to inculcate reading habits and a love for poetry, and not to forget their rhyming ability. Children will learn new words, practise reading aloud with expression, and be exposed to rhymes. Children’s poetry makes reading fun. Further, children, within their limited mental capacity imagine things. They being good imaginers they create mental images, which is the initial step to visualisation.

Moreover, although prose passages we learn and at times memorise mainly for academic purposes, any lovable poems getting stuck in our minds is almost automatic and involuntary. We need not strenuously by-heart them. What follows all these is igniting a passion for the spoken and written word.

1. Cumaraunga’s ‘Virith Vekiya”: A Guide to compose poems

When talking of children’s poems the treatise that invariably comes to our mind is Cumaratunga Muidasa’s ‘Virith Vekiya’ (a book on composing of verses), the only systematic guide to writing poetry. There’s hardly any similar treatise on the composition of verses found in English literature, and have not heard of any such treatise being available / produced in any other literature either.

In a special chapter on Poetic Compositions in the Virith Vekiya, Cumaratunga says:

i. A cluster of faultless sentences eminently put together or constructed is a composition.

In the composition there are two parts, namely, the meaning and the word

ii. The meaning is formed first in the mind of the composer.

Thereafter, he sets forth the meaning with appropriate words, for the benefit of the rest.

Accordingly he says there are two kinds of ompositions, one the mind-composition (හද පබඳ ), and the other the word-composition ( පද පබඳ ).

If these two compositions are compatible in every manner it becomes a good composition.

iii.The mind-composition ( හද පබඳ ) needs to be constructed first.

Thereafter, it can be transformed to a word-composition:

iv. If attempted to do both at the same time it will not be possible to do any one of them befittingly.

v. If he who provides a mind-composition knows his word-usage he will create a pleasant word-composition.

vi. One with an empty mind, will make a mockery, if he kills time thinking that he would produce a composition.

If prominence is given to the mind-composition making the word-composition subservient, the composition will shine.

Cumaratunga, the master composer

In this long-stretched process, he commenced realising his objectives by making a rich contribution to children’s literature by way of a series of readers comprising of essays, stories and poems. All these were directed to place them on a high moral-footing, and kindle their heroic sentiments. Books like Kumara Gee, Kumara Padya Sangrahaya, Kiyavana Nuwana, Shiksha Margaya and Prabandha Sangrahaya stand prominent in this initiative.

Being a teacher at the initial phase of his career Cumaratunga was able to read the behaviour-patterns and minds of our children. Having realised that the foundation for inculcating good habits and useful traits in a person’s character should be laid in the initial stages of one’s life, there are a series of poems written to children to germinate in them the seeds of honesty, integrity, good habits, and uprightness as well as love for the environment. The poem titled ‘Sirimath’ ( (සිරිමත්) appearing in the Shiksha Margaya-1 is a case in point. Its penultimate verse extols the virtues of (i) thinking of pleasant things, (ii) telling precisely what you think, and (iii) doing exactly what you tell, and (iv) it concludes by saying that child Sirimath will not depart from these virtues.

A near-similar poem found in English literature

In a search I came across a short poem of four verses which has similarities in content to Cumaratunga’s ‘Sirimath’; it is by an unknown poet.

“Once there was a little boy,
⁠With curly hair and pleasant eyes—
A boy who always told the truth,
⁠And never, never told a lie.

And when he trotted off to school,
⁠The children all about would cry,
“There goes the curly-headed boy—
⁠The boy that never tells a lie.”

And everybody loved him so,
⁠Because he always told the truth,
That every day, as he grew up,
⁠’Twas said, “There goes the honest youth.

And when the people that stood near
⁠Would turn to ask the reason why,
The answer would be always this:
⁠”Because he never tells a lie.”