Gananath Obeysekere: In search of Buddhist conscience (Baudha Hurdasakshiya Soya)

by Laleen Jayamanne and Namika Raby

“People were nourished by stories.” (Kathandarawalinne minissu jeewathwune) Gananath

“Man does not live by bread alone” Matthew 4:4

Dimuthu Saman Wettasinghe’s film Gananath Obeyesekere: In Search of Buddhist Conscience opens with a bravura tracking shot moving past trees, water, a splash of saffron robes. These sunlit images are enfolded in a non-religious, rather melancholy male choral chant, but soon the singular voice of Professor Gananath Obeyesekere cuts through with a kind of Dionysian intensity. He tells us a story about Gauthama Buddha, as the camera encircles, at speed, what turns out to be the Kandy Lake. His tale is about a devastating war waged by the king of Kosla against the Sakya kingdom but of the Buddha’s unshakable belief that if folk get together and discuss matters in good faith (call it diplomacy), all wars could be averted. This carefully and deeply researched, imaginative, ‘Educational Film’ of 142 minutes, with its exhilaratingly dense overture and its subtle montage, is a loving tribute to an exemplary Lankan scholar/teacher and his life work (of some 70 years) as an internationally renowned Anthropologist.

In my understanding of Classical Greek Theatre and Indian Philosophy (both studied at the University Ceylon Peradeniya in the late 60’s), ‘Dionysian intensity’ and Buddhist thought don’t sit easily together, Dionysus being the god of Greek Drama and festivity and as such, of intoxication and ecstasy, while Buddhist ideas of Reason, logical debate and introspective awareness of mental processes (Vipassana, Insight), were original contributions to perennial Indian Philosophy. But the wonder is that Gananath as a thinker was able to yolk together vastly diverse fields of scholarship and practices from many traditions, languages, and impart them to students in a memorable manner. In this two-fold activity, his voice was a powerful pedagogical instrument (in a musical sense) and tool (as in crafting words and sentences by breathing life into them). Let me elaborate with an anecdote I heard recently from a friend who was one of Gananath’s students from the mid-1960s at Peradeniya. The Anthropologist Dr Namika Rabi, who now in her retirement lives in LA, was a freshman then. She told me the following when I asked her what it was like listening to him:

One afternoon my room-mate Romaine Rutnam said to me that there is this interesting talk on campus, under the Popular Science Series delivered by Dr. Gananath Obeyesekere, with an interesting title, “Pregnancy Cravings (Dola Duka) and Social Structure in a Sinhalese Village” that we should go and listen to. The talk appealed because it was grounded in real society. I wondered where this faculty member came from, and I found out that there was a Department of Sociology and Dr. Obeyesekere was its Chair. One had to apply to the programme and get accepted and it was a four-year programme. I applied and got in, forgetting my plan to leave the campus in three years.

Professor Obeyesekere taught me Social Theory; Anthropological Methods; Anthropology of Religion; and Social and Cultural Organisation. Professor Obeyesekere brought dynamism into the classroom with his style of teaching, integrating abstract theory with how it works in practice through kathandara and carried me away with it”.

Though I myself was not a student of Gananath’s I have been to some of his seminars and listened to his public lectures over the years, both in Lanka and elsewhere. In the early 90s we organised a seminar by Gananath, (on what he called his ‘Cook Book’!), in the Dept. of Anthropology at The University of Sydney. His, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook: European Myth Making in the Pacific, led to a major Anthropological debate with Marshall Sahllins, on Cannibalism and ‘Primitivism’ in Colonial-Anthropology in Hawaii where Cook was killed by the indigenous folk. I certainly agree with Namika on the unusual power of Gananath’s oral communication with students and fellow academics, and crucially, with the interested public. One always gets the feeling that he is thinking on his feet, with a strong awareness of the listener (as in theatre), and then he varies his colloquial tone with humour, a wise crack here, a touch of irony there. Listening to him becomes enjoyable. He manifestly enjoys communicating ideas, his self-enjoyment in explicating them in accessible ways is infectious. He had an intuitive grasp of the theatrical dimensions of lecturing, in a place within the academy after all called, a ‘Lecture Theatre’. These ‘dynamics’, as Namika puts it, are so rare in the genre of the university lecture where we drone on for an hour or two each week, reading from stale notes, tone deaf, burning brain cells of young minds instead of firing them. Tone deafness is an occupational hazard of lecturing.

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Here’s Namika elaborating on how Gananath guided her in her scholarly and professional life. It is evident from her account that visionary Mentors do not produce clones but rather draw out and nurture the talents of a student well before she knows she has some.

Namika Raby: A Student’s Perspective

“As a cultural anthropologist Gananath’s ability to communicate abstract thinking into the classroom through dramatic performance is an integration of scientific Reason and Dionysian intensity. Beyond his voice, in my time, he was a performer. I remember him explaining the role of the sanni demon, a lowly creature in Sinhalese Buddhism, mimicking the demon, Gananath hopped with a banana on his toe to portray the demon.

Gananath had many illustrious students over time. However, I was a unique case because of my ethnicity and gender and a lifetime of what I call my Gananath “interventions” beginning during my days in the Department of Anthropology, Peradeniya. Nagging me to apply to graduate school and persuading my parent with a home visit to send me to graduate school abroad are a couple of examples of these interventions. Our ties are enduring, accompanying me throughout my career and life. So, I could say our ties evolved in multifaceted ways over half a century, as a teacher, a mentor, and my adoptive family with Ranjini in La Jolla into a holistic relationship. My husband and I had Sunday dinner with the Obeyesekere family, Gananath, an excellent cook, did Sunday dinners. One time we arrived and lo and behold a duck was hanging upside down from Gananath’s study window. He was preparing Peking Duck.

In my early training under Gananath, a memorable example was learning to do fieldwork. As undergraduates it was mandatory to do fieldwork during college breaks. As he said, “don’t come into my class if you don’t muddy your feet in the field.” He assigned us a location and ideas to study. He looked at me and said, “you’re a girl, you can go from home and study the Kachcheri, it is fascinating.”

I think of the irony of a researcher studying the meaning of exotic rituals advising me to find meaning in a bureaucracy. Kachcheri Bureaucracy in Sri Lanka: The Culture and Politics of Accessibility was the subject of my Ph.D. thesis, and my first publication. Once I learned to bring in the meanings of culture as they interfaced with rational structures, procedures, I was trained at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to apply my insights to irrigation bureaucracy and technology of irrigation for practical solutions. This became my life’s work. When I applied for a Post-Doctoral fellowship at IWMI, Gananath wrote a letter in support. With IWMI’s interdisciplinary team I researched and published on Mahaweli System H and Irrigation Management for Crop Diversification to be followed by work in the northern Philippines; This experience led to my recruitment and training by the World Bank. I worked on designing and evaluating National Irrigation Projects for The World Bank, in the Philippines; UN/FAO in India; and in Imperial Valley, California.

This eldest daughter of Muslim parents from Matara, Kotuwegoda, who boarded a plane for the first time to go to graduate school in California, was able to travel back to Sri Lanka to walk the rice fields of Galnewa; climb the hills of Northern Philippines to study the zanjeras (community managed farms); walk 22km of the Indira Gandhi Canal in Rajasthan, with my team, in darkness and pouring rain with a Jat elder leading us with his torch made of palm leaves and chanting jai hind; see the beauty of ancient Rome on my way to work at the Investment Center, FAO; work for the World Bank in the highly secured environment of Cali, Colombia; and study irrigation under drought in arid Imperial County, California by walking the extent of the All American Canal, and farms cultivating fruits and vegetables. Perhaps my most rewarding work came as an academic, (without time constraints, and fortunate to be funded by a grant by the American Institute for Lankan Studies) when I completed my case study of Ridi Bendi Ela (Alla) and Magallavava, Nikerawetiya, where the Government of Sri Lank did a pilot study of a Farmer Company established under the Companies Act. Farmer organizations based on purana, and newly settled villages. A total of 11 villages covered the command area of the tank.

Prof. Obeysekere with folk masks

In his very earliest work Land Tenure in Village Ceylon, Gananath challenged the western notion of the homogenous village of kinship and landownership and showed in great detail how land holding patterns defined what a village was.

In Ridi Bendi Ela, with a few exceptions, landholding cut across villages and during droughts farmers practiced thattumaru (rotated land holdings seasonally), as described in Gananath’s work. In my villages the relationships based on landholding patterns were complicated by landless outsiders settled as colonists by the Government. In these villages I also observed the doctrine/thought vs practice dimensions of Buddhism with relation to rice cultivation.

This pilot project trained farmers to undertake off-farm income generation activities, and progressively undertake self- management of the canal network. Magallavava, the tank, dates to 276-303 AD, constructed by King Mahasena (according to historical records), and according to some villagers, by king Pandukabaya. According to local legend, during the time of Lord Buddha, a prince and princess from India heard of the plight of the drought ridden villagers and brought silver coins to build the anicut to Magallavava, hence the name Ridi Bendi. Gananath often told us, “history matters.

These experiences became teaching tools in the classroom at California State University, Long Beach. Gananath’s film Kataragama: The God for All Seasons (story of Kareem included), remained a favourite with our students at every level.

Isn’t it interesting Dr. Obeyesekere, you asked me to muddy my feet in the field and I ended up spending my career doing just that?”

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In Search of Buddhist Conscience

(Baudha Hurdasakshiya Soya), skilfully interweaves the multiple strands of Gananath’s life and work. They are: his family background in a village (his multi-lingual father, an Ayurvedic physician trained in Calcutta and writer, and an anti-colonial thinker, as was his maternal grandfather); his married life with Ranjini Ellepola and their profound shared ethic of education, love of language, a feel for the aesthetic and generous hospitality to students and friends; his robust education locally which made him fluently bilingual and in the US; discussions with a large number of scholars, including Gananath and Ranjini, and also a Pattini Kapumahattaya, providing illuminating, lively commentaries on his work; explication of a series of his key texts and their concepts across his very long career; a rich array of images (stills and film clips) from Gananth’s extensive ethnographic archive where we see a young Gananath in the field with his multi-ethnic research teams. The filmmaker Dharmasiri Bandaranayke’s ‘teacherly documentary voice-over’, synthesises some of the facts, which helps, as there is so much rich material and new ideas to take in. Because of the careful interweaving of these many strands through the montage and the long duration of the film overall, it has a relaxed tempo, but one also feels a sense of urgency, the urgency of the ‘search’ (for Gananath and these dedicated young filmmakers too), in the Lankan historical political context of cycles of organised state violence against Tamil people including the long civil war, since political Independence in 1948.

Together, the very title ‘In Search of Buddhist Conscience’ and the melancholy chant (not a gatha but playing with its sonic memory, given the mise-en-scene of the iconic Temple of the Tooth, Dalada Maligawa glimpsed in the background), which opens the film, suggest a ‘loss’. A loss of conscience, the loss of a Buddhist conscience which was once robust in Lanka as manifested in the expansive, tolerant folk traditions, presented as incontrovertible ethnographic evidence. The film examines Gananath’s anthropological work as an intellectual (historical, ethnographic, theoretical, and yes, aesthetic) reclamation of the syncretic richness of the Buddhist and Hindu folk traditions as they intersected in all their hybrid multiplicity and presents the multi-ethnic folk of Lanka, both men and especially the women, who embodied their values so vibrantly, eloquently, intransigently and therefore unforgettably.

I am blown away by the suggestive power of this film for possible research on the Lankan folk archives of the Tamil Hindu traditions and what may be called an inclusive, vital, Buddhist folk imaginary, and material culture, through Gananath’s scholarship. One learns about Lanka’s deep cultural connections with South India from the ethnographic record as analysed and theorised by Gananath. For a lapsed Roman Catholic like me, the film is a profound revelation about my country of birth where I lived my first 23 years. Walter Benjamin wrote his essay ‘The Story Teller’ at a moment in Western modernity when the richly diverse European oral traditions were long gone and yet his essay, shot through with melancholy, catches light like a little gem every now and then, depending on how and why one might reread it under the pressure of the present moment baring down like a tonne of bricks, obliterating a future, inconceivable without a sense of a deep past, linked to legends, stories, ‘folk lore’ of the people. The film indicates that much of what the film dramatizes is now archival material, the living traditions mostly lost in processes of modernisation and westernisation of Buddhism itself. However, Gananath is no melancholy European Jewish intellectual like Walter Benjamin.

The ’dramatis persona’ ‘Gananath’ who comes across in Dimuthu’s film is an intellectual whose scholarly and indeed existential understanding of the tragedy of our post-independence etho-nationalist history, has not dampened his irrepressible sense of humour and a feel for the comic in public life and in the Lecture Theatre. After all, Dionysus presided over the genres of tragedy, comedy and the Satyr plays in the Civic Theatre Festival in Athens, the City Dionysia. And I have no doubt that Gananth has read his favourite thinker Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy in the Spirit of Music. But then Gananath has also imbibed the theatrical comic ribald humour and delight in high farce from our robust folk rituals. Two walls of his beautiful home in Kandy are shown decorated with a rare collection of comic-grotesque-scary folk masks (of the Sannyas and Demons) of Lanka, awaiting a museum that would house them. There is a precious group photo of Anthropologists at the famous Folk Art Museum in Bali, in Ubud, where a young Gananath is seen in the company of the legendary Margret Mead and others. I saw a Lankan Demon mask there when I visited the museum and now imagine that Gananath probably arranged for that demon to join his South Asian ‘na yakku’ (kith and kin demons) – this phrase in Sinhala makes me crack up! Gananath has brought both intensity and laughter into the intellectual arena of the academic lecture, making his pedagogic style unforgettable. This film is also a testament to that evanescent, spirited performance of a singular modern Lankan ‘guru’, in the sense of mentor who incites students to learn to think for themselves and strike a path of their own. By his own example he teaches us the irresistible art of critical thinking.

(To be continued)

The take home message is that whether it is coconut, coconut products, or any other superfood, there is no health benefit to be gained by consuming more than the regular amounts that we have been used to for centuries. Before the country was elevated to middle income category, and given access to sugary and fatty foods, our diet used to be a healthy one. Western nutritionists may have shed a tear or two for its low animal protein content, but we live in the tropics and can do without the extra insulation.

by Geewananda Gunawardana, Ph.D.

Can we keep a secret, just among us? It is an essential part of our traditional diet, but coconut has nothing superior relative to other foods. However, if we can earn much needed foreign exchange by calling it one, as the proverb says, we should make hay while the sun shines. But let us not forget that it is only a sales pitch.

The term superfood is a marketing tool created to describe a food item that supposedly provides exceptional health benefits due to its high nutrient content. It is not a scientifically proven concept. But this marketing tactic has been phenomenally successful in selling exotic fruits and related products in Western markets at higher prices than their regular counterparts. However, these fads do not last too long as there are no real health benefits to be gained, and many governments are beginning to regulate this practice. For example, mangosteen juice was sold in the US as a panacea and the sales jumped from $40 million in 2002 to $200 million in 2005, but it has dropped off since. The juice was made from the whole crushed fruit including the inedible outer shell that tastes horrible. But it was claimed to have antioxidants, immunostimulant, and various other health promoting properties, and the Westerners who have never heard of this fruit paid good money for something thrown away in the native countries. All these claims are vague and cannot be proven scientifically as all plant materials have these chemical components at various levels. But that does not prevent the introduction of hundreds of new products as superfoods each year.

There is a video in circulation online in which a person in a white coat and a stethoscope around the neck authoritatively declares that Sri Lanka has the lowest incidence of heart disease. ‘The reason is that they consume a lot of coconuts,’ he declares. ‘Hundred and twenty coconuts per person a year,’ and he adds ‘that are a lot of coconuts.’ No need to say that none of that is true; Qatar has the lowest rate at 42 deaths compared to ours at 264 deaths per hundred thousand people due to cardiovascular diseases. In another similar commercial, the narrator refers to a clinical trial conducted in Sri Lanka proving these facts. There are no such clinical studies to be found. Thanks to such clever marketing tactics, there is a tremendous demand for coconut products in the Western markets: coconut water, milk, yoghurt, cream, sugar, oil, and endless variety of cosmetic products purported to have a variety of health benefits. A litre of coconut water sells for about US $ 4. There is no need to describe how the advertising world works but suffice to say that ‘massaging’ data is nothing new to them. They are good at twisting the facts to fit their needs, but as a major producer and a consumer of coconut, we must learn to differentiate facts from fiction.

The major contents of our food can be of two types: macronutrients and micronutrients. Carbohydrates, proteins, and fats that the body needs in quantities to produce energy and maintain body and function belong to the first type while vitamins and minerals to the second. In addition, most plant foods contain other components in lesser amounts that are beneficial to health. Examples are compounds that have antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, and stimulant properties. The best way to get them is to eat a varied and balanced diet. Instead, if one tries to get them by eating more of one food item, it could end up disturbing the natural balance.

Coconut is no exception. The proponents of superfoods highlight antioxidants, immunostimulants, and heart-healthy components in it. However, if one tries to get them in effective amounts, they will end up ingesting copious amounts of saturated fats that are believed to raise bad cholesterol (LDL) in blood. It should be known that coconut oil contains more saturated fat than beef fat. However, the way coconut is used in Sri Lankan cooking, it is a reliable source of energy, but if it is overused, it could go into the unhealthy territory. Other than being a regular food, the claimed health benefits of coconut has not been proven in scientific studies (Coconut oil: an overview of cardiometabolic effects and the public health burden of misinformation; https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10660992/).

All media, particularly the internet, are flooded with advertisements promoting endless health benefits of superfoods and ‘all natural’ products. Fortunately, the internet is also a good place to verify their claims. Instead of searching for benefits, if one searches for adverse or risk factors of the same item, it is possible to learn the other side of the story that the advertiser does not want us to know. A reliable place to find scientific data pertaining to health claims is ‘PubMed,’ a free, online database that is maintained by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). It provides references to original data published in peer revived scientific journals.

The take home message is that whether it is coconut, coconut products, or any other superfood, there is no health benefit to be gained by consuming more than the regular amounts that we have been used to for centuries. Before the country was elevated to middle income category, and given access to sugary and fatty foods, our diet used to be a healthy one. Western nutritionists may have shed a tear or two for its low animal protein content, but we live in the tropics and can do without the extra insulation. No one is going to get better or cure any diseases by over consuming ‘superfoods,’ in fact, it could have detrimental effects. Nothing good will result in giving into glossy but bogus advertising. We must decide what is good for us based on facts from reliable sources, but not from advertisements, bloggers, or celebrities. We must stop wasting our hard-earned money on gimmicks.

Pensioners are required to present themselves to the Grama Niladari (GN) of their areas each year to be paid their monthly pensions. Thus, in January, across the island, pensioners, limp, barely walk with helpers on both sides, trundle behind walkers or sometimes even arrive on crutches at GN offices. Cassandra supposes that if a pensioner is bed-bound and applies, the GN will visit him/her home and get his/her signature in the big register. There was a time when the offices of many GNs were hard to find, and the officer very brusque and even intimidating. This is not the case now. The site of the office is well known and some of the officers are extremely polite and ‘public servants’ in the true sense of the term.

In the office serving the Bambalapitiya/Kollupitiya area is a lady GN, who is a genuine lady. She smiles at each of the persons who come seeking her signature and if it’s a pensioner, a chair is offered, the searching in her book done speedily and the old person served fast.

This actual showing of oneself by a government pensioner is an annual ritual that could be a difficult chore to fulfill. But why is it necessary? Because Sri Lankans cannot be trusted. That is a severe blanket criticism but justified blaming. When a pensioner dies, the death should be reported to the pensions’ office so payments could be stopped. But Cassandra surmises that the living cannot be trusted; persons may deliberately not fulfill this duty so that the pension of the one dead could be collected. Most pensions are sent to bank accounts from which the money could be withdrawn, in these cases through trickery. Hence the necessity for the weak, infirm, handicapped pensioners to actually show themselves as alive to continue receiving their monthly pensions. It is hoped that those unable to present themselves are seen by officers calling on them in their homes. This is a must-do duty.

Trump trumpets several stunning orders

Trump signed several executive orders the first day of his presidency, before a large crowd that cheered lustily each time, he showed his signature on a document. Some will become laws while others can be contested; the Supreme Court deciding.

One was to withdraw from WHO. This will affect the entire world not only because US funding will be stopped but because of the importance of all countries of the world being involved in disease prevention and exchange of results of scientific and medical research. Trump has also ordered that the environmental protection agreements will not be signed by the US.

Another was announcing the release of 1,500 prisoners including those who were involved in forcing their way to the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to prevent the announcement that Biden had won the presidency.

Trump signed an executive order to end birthright citizenship. So far, all babies born in the US of America were given citizenship. Not so any longer because Trump and his Republican government have rescinded that privilege. No automatic citizenship for all babies. Those born to undocumented immigrants will not be documented as US citizens. Just hours later a coalition of civil rights and immigrant groups filed a lawsuit challenging the order.

“All illegal entry will immediately be halted. And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came” proclaimed Trump. A retiree from the US commented that it won’t be easy as much of the menial work of clearing and cleaning is undertaken by immigrants. That sort of labour is hardly done by the Americans themselves.

Another controversial exec. order is that only two genders will be recognised in the US of America: male and female/men and women. That is very contentious. LGBTQ+ lobby which was fast becoming a forceful group that was accepted by society and discrimination removed in recruitment for jobs, even in the armed services, will rise up against Trump. Personally, Cass has no negative judgment about them; they are born that way so let them live as they wish. Many countries including a state in India, allows by law same sex marriages. Thus, the level of tolerance and consideration of all being equal thus far, extended to gays, lesbians, bisexuals, asexuals et al will be severely curtailed in the USA.

We have a fallout here in SL. Friday’s The Island carries this headline: “Now Dolawatte denies he backed US-led LGBTQ project.” Former SLPP MP Premnath C Dolawatte, Attorney-at-Law, says he only wanted to change a law that criminalised same sex acts. Cassandra heartily approves changing laws that were set down by the British which are archaic now. No criminalisation occurred but the law was/is within the penal code. People with different sexual character traits should be allowed freedom of sublimation of desires as long as they do not infringe on others or are anti-social.

Cassandra spoke to an American woman on this issue. She seemed to approve of Trump’s move in the realm of sex and his distaste for the LBGTQs. Maybe because she is Roman Catholic and Christianity does not make allowance for sexual deviation.

Hemin hemin

has to be

The government is being criticided for not fulfilling its promises as set down in its manifesto. Harshana Nanayakkara, Minister of Justice, spoke lucidly and convincingly in Parliament that within just two months what could people expect a government to do to change existing systems and more particularly catch those who siphoned off government money to enrich themselves. That is correct. Then he read out done things to benefit mostly the poorer. We the people should not expect coconuts and rice sent free to us or even made less scarce and available at reasonable prices no sooner these negatives happen in the market place.

I applaud the NPP government for curtailing expense by advising the past Presidents to give up living in huge houses provided by the state and to move to their own houses, or elsewhere, or pay rents.