Midweek Review
Dhamma Jagoda’s Vesmuhunu:
Irangani Serasinghe & Rukmani Devi’s Double-Act
By Laleen Jayamanne
A precious historical document was recently ‘unearthed’ by Ranjit, son of Irangani and Winston Serasinghe. It was a theatre programme for Dhamma Jagoda’s 1960s productions of Vesmuhunu (Masks), an adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. I don’t think I am being unduly melodramatic in referring to an ephemeral theatre programme as a ‘precious historical document’. Nor have I made a typo in referring to Jagoda’s ‘productions’, in the plural.
I am grateful to Ranjit Serasinghe for having kindly sent me a copy of this programme. It was indeed a most unusual document because there were details of three different productions of the play, with three different casts, in three different years, all directed by Dhamma Jagoda. And it was bilingual. In 1966, Jagoda’s Vesmuhunu was the only play performed at the Lumbini Theatre Festival, as the winner of the Arts Council’s Drama Competition that year. In that production Roma de Zoysa (a Colombo socialite and daughter of a former Finance Minister), played the main female role of Blanche Dubois the declasse Southern aristocratic lady who had lost her fortunes. In the play, she was presented as a Kandyan lady visiting her sister, who is married to a working-class man played by Dhamma and his own wife Sunethra Jagoda as his wife within the play.
According to the programme, Dhamma restaged Vesmuhunu in 1967 and 1968, in a manner that is worth remembering now, for historical reasons, after all those years. In 1967 the role of the aristocratic lady was played by Rukmani Devi, while in the 1968 production Irangani Serasinghe was chosen for it. Dhamma and Sunethra did not act in this last production, which saw film actors such as Wickrama Bogoda and Sriyani Amerasena join the cast.
Just recently I was reminded of these productions on hearing on Television A. D. Ranjit Kumara (a former editor of the Sarasawiya the weekly film tabloid), speaking of Rukmani Devi’s career. He spoke of Rukmani Devi’s immense sense of gratitude to Dhamma, for having given her the opportunity to perform in a reputable western play for the first time in her long career as a singer, film star and stage actor. He added that she bent down and worshipped Dhamma (a gesture of guru bhakthi), just before going on stage.
While listening to Kumara, I recalled that I had observed both Rukmani Devi and Irangani Serasinghe rehearse Vesmuhunu, but at a later date, perhaps in 1970, during the very early days of the Art Centre Theatre Workshop, which Dhamma directed with the support of Harold Peiris, a trustee of the Lionel Wendt Theatre. In those early days, before the theatre was renovated to house the workshops, Peiris had provided his large open portico with chairs for our theatre studies to be conducted in.
I remember these two actresses rehearsing the play with Dhamma in this very space, and also recall registering the very different timbre and texture of their most unusual, trained voices, as I think others also did. Now, I think that Dhamma was reviving the play he had already directed thrice in the 60s, for the fourth time, in the context of the Theatre Workshop. I left the country not long after and have no memory of a performance outcome, but do remember the workshop being interrupted by the insurrection of April 71. It’s not possible to verify details of a fourth production as Dhamma is long gone and people’s memories have faded away. The only way is for someone to search through the newspaper archives for reviews of the productions. But I wonder if there is sufficient interest to do that kind of arduous archival work, so as to even simply chronicle, at the very least, the 60s theatre. Perhaps, Hague Karunarathne’s Ludowyk Memorial Lecture has already done this, though I haven’t had access to it. If so, then detailed theoretical analyses can be developed by young scholars.
Ranjit Serasinghe mentioned to me that his father’s archive of papers on his parents’ acting careers await digitisation by someone interested in the field. Yet again, I feel that in another country these papers (like those of Siva Sivanandan’s on Lankan cinema), would now be safely in a specialist library accessible for research. Ranjit Kumara’s book on Rukmani Devi might lead the way, but that book too must be a collector’s item now.
Theatre Criticism
The Vesmuhunu programme had many gems. One was a concise but (as always) insightful piece by Regi Siriwardena in English, about the differences between a translation and an adaptation as it applied to Dhamma’s Vesmuhunu and more generally too. He tells us that a good adaptation imaginatively transposes an original context, into a milieu with a local resonance. He added that, in doing this, Dhamma had also improved on the original by deleting its ‘lumbering and creaking obtrusive symbolism’ and its ‘tracks of sentimentality,’ focusing on the human and social conflicts of the original which are its strengths. Knowing the original and Western drama well, Regi was able to make this sharp critical evaluation of how creative Dhamma’s adaptation was, adding that it is one of the few outstanding ones of its time.
The programme also contains a substantial discussion of Dhamma’s theatrical experiment by Vidyodaya academic Tissa Kariyawasam in Sinhala, a brilliant gem in its own right. He says that Dhamma had substantially changed his own version of the written play submitted to the drama competition, in his production for the stage. This observation highlights Dhamma’s theatrical talent as a director in staging emotional states, through physical theatrical action in space.
He makes the important point that the intelligentsia (viyathun), who never thought that Rukmani Devi was a gifted actor, now have the chance to see just how good she is. This evaluation is a profound one, coming from an academic, and he implies that it happened because of Dhamma’s own rare intuitive ability to be able to see it on his own and also act on it so decisively, creating theatre history. Thereby, he enabled Rukmani Devi to excel in a play with considerable cultural capital. Because this programme was made before Irangani’s version of the play was performed, we have no account of her performance and interpretation. But in choosing to have both actors perform the same role for a second time (perhaps in 1970), in close proximity, it’s clear that Dhamma considered both Rukmani Devi and Irangani Serasinghe to be excellent, unique actors, with very different styles of acting. The revealing art photographs in the 1968 program allow us a glimpse of these differences, which I will discuss below.
The quality of Regi and Tissa’s critical writing in the 60s and 70s is exemplary of that period of a bilingual, vibrant theatrical culture in the country, developed by director/writers such as Sarachchandra, Henry Jayasena, Sugathapala de Silva, Gunasena Galappatti, and others. I remember reading the reviews Regi wrote in English in those days and also listening, as a school girl, to the regular radio programme he presented called ‘Arts and Ideas’ which was packed with fascinating information. As a script writer for Lester James Peries and as a multi-lingual translator of poetry from several European languages, including Russian, he was especially interested in the problem of translation and transposition of foreign texts into a local context with its different histories and mores. As he wrote accessibly, and was interested in a philosophy of education, his reviews and talks unfailingly widened our knowledge. So, in this case, he offered T.S. Eliot’s ideas on translation and creative adaptation and also mentioned that Shakespeare and many others adapted pre-existing texts. Thereby making the point that creativity is to be found in the quality of the final product and the craft, no matter what the source.
Another important find in the programme was the existence of an institution called ‘The Young Artistes’ Cultural Organisation’, with Lester James Peries as its advisor, and the names of its members, including Aileen Sarachchandra, Sunethra Jagoda’s mother. We also learn that there was a ‘Drama Advisory Board’, of which Professor Sarachchandra was a member, with Cyril Wickramage as the secretary. This high level of support for Dhamma as a member of the Sarachchandra family would have been of great value to him in those early days. Tisse says that Dhamma’s Vesmuhunu was the only play chosen to be performed subsequently, implying a very high standard expected at the National Drama Festival as well. So, the programme provides a clear sense of a fertile theatrical culture, and also how theatrical institutions were created in the 60s to actively encourage daring theatrical experimentation, open to international trends and practices.
Photographic Documentation of Vesmuhunu
From the programme
There are a handful of black and white photographs of all three productions of Vesmuhunu included in the programme. As what I have is a copy of the original which itself is over fifty years old, the quality of the images is very poor but there are sufficient details there to be able to read the images for signs of the kind of interpretations Rukmani and Irangani brought to presenting their versions of the Kandyan lady, Kumari Uduwela. Of course, what one can do with a few unclear photographs is very limited and would remain as conjectures at best. But I feel I can do this because (though credit is not given), it is more than likely that the photos would have been taken by Ralex Ranasinghe who is credited for décor and costumes. The only exception is with the 1966 production, where while he did the Décor, the costumes were designed by the fashion designer Kirthi Sri Karunaratne who acted in the play and also ran a column on fashion in an English-language daily, in which Roma de Zoysa appeared quite often. So, this debut production of Dhamma’s had an unusual social mix as well.
Ralex Ranasinghe, Tony Ranasinghe’s brother, was a professional photographer, and it’s very likely that he took the photographs of all three productions. The wide shot of Roma de Zoysa shows a slender figure in a Kandyan sari with her hair piled on top in a bun.
The only photograph in the programme of Rukmani Devi is an extreme close-up of her face. It’s an art photograph, in which one half of her face is plunged into darkness, while the other half is lit. Furthermore, the face is angled in such a way that her head is slightly bent and she looks up with one eye; a veiled gaze. The expression of that eye is strong, and seductive. It’s the kind of gaze associated with what the French call a femme-fatale, the fatal woman who, according to her mythical attributes, will bring ruin to men through her mysterious sexuality. Rukmani’s dark eye make-up highlights this stylised framing of her face and the suggestion of mystery. She presents a familiar type in Western literature, film and image culture. Hollywood made a special genre of film, the Film Noir, with the femme-fatale as the main attraction and there were stars who were associated with playing that kind of role. Feminist film theorists have researched the long history of this seductive but destructive mythical female archetype, locating her within Western patriarchal narratives, including Eve who tempted Adam with an apple given to her by a devilish snake, leading to their expulsion from Paradise, according to the Bible.
In contrast to this seductive gaze of Rukmani’s, Irangani is shown in full size, smiling openly, dressed in white and dark Kandyan saris, with her hair unusually short falling to her shoulders. Her gestures are theatrically exuberant and outward looking. The feeling she projects is that of a light and airy creature. Though there is one of her looking very serious and troubled, seated at a table with her sister. But one can conjecture that Rukmani presented a dark and mysterious woman, while Irangani was mostly light and airy and fragile in her duplicity. That’s as far as one can go visually analysing and imagining with a few images. But the shot of Sunethra is altogether different, she is the realist figure, contained and constrained in her working-class environment by her husband, and in her role as pregnant wife.
So, the three women have very different characters and functions and acting styles, it would appear. I believe that Ralex Ranasinghe has captured these differences perceptively. Having also done the décor and costumes he would have had a very intimate, subtle knowledge of the texture of the image, materials, light and of the feelings they evoked.
Ralex Ranasinghe, as a professional photographer, had no doubt also seen some of Rukmani Devi’s star portraits of the 50s, at the height of her stardom. There are one or two black & white close-up studio photographs of her as a star, where she does not smile, and her eyes show a dark, languorous, mysterious quality, an eroticism, such as I have not seen in any other Lankan star photograph. In this, she is rather like Ava Gardner, a famous Hollywood femme fatale. I think, the artfully noirish close-up of Rukmani Devi in the program must have been done in a studio, where Ralex Ranasinghe would have been able to control light and shadow with precision, to plunge one half of Rukmani Devi’s face into a dark void. It’s a remarkable and rare film noir image, capturing a rarely seen emotional register, on the face of that incomparable star of the Sinhala cinema. A vesmuhuna like the dark side of the moon, one might say.
Imagine if some curious scholar did unearth the reviews of all the performances, what a treasure trove they would reveal to us about Dhamma Jagoda, Rukmani Devi and Irangani Serasinghe, in their unique visionary and, yes, daring collaboration in Vesmuhunu!
Tennessee Williams’ striking title, A Streetcar Named Desire, was based on an actual street car (bus), in New Orleans, leading to a suburb called Desire.
But ‘A Bus Named Desire’ would have been farcical. The Southern milieu was the racially mixed French quarter with Blues music in the background, heard between scene changes in the first production on Broadway, with Marlon Brando in the main role. Williams mixes the realist title with a poetic register, in the heady mix of sexual violence, class-based powerplay and fantasy.
Dhamma (from the Southern town of Hikkaduwa) would have grown up with a familiarity with masks and ritual performances indigenous to that area. So, when he also chose a poetic title, Vesmuhunu (Masks) for his adaptation, he is playing with many reverberations, including the idea of social masks. In so doing he appears to be able to widen the formal possibilities of realist drama of the ‘lower depths,’ by also presenting ‘social types’, which in their abstraction, are mask-like. For this kind of experimentation, with different types of characterisation and ideas of character, and different registers of acting for each, Dhamma needed experienced actors with great reserves of talent, precise training, a depth of experience, and a desire to take risks, all of which he found in Rukmani Devi and Irangani Serasinghe at the height of their maturity.
It is around this time that Dhamma also produced Dharmasena Pathiraja’s brilliant one act absurdist play, Kora saha Andaya (The Lame man and the Blind) in a sparse, minimalist staging of remarkable intensity. It appears that Dhamma directed this play after he had returned from a research trip to both Britain and the Lee Strasberg Actors’ Studio in New York, to observe different theatrical traditions. Through their collaboration, Pathiraja and Dhamma created two mutually dependent human and social types, a blind man and a lame man. One carrying the other on his shoulder, the other leading the way, binding them into one composite figure, seeking a promised land in an existential void. The long wooden pole which supported them was the only prop, used in unimaginable ways, also to produce sounds on a bare wooden stage, sculpted with light, on which Wimal Kumar de Costa and Daya Pathirana gave unforgettable performances.
Marlon Brando had trained with Lee Strasberg and is credited with inventing a new, understated, internalised kind of masculine acting: Method Acting. It was Brando’s brutish role of Stanley Kowalski that Dhamma played in his own production of Vesmuhunu. One wonders if Dhamma left any research notes on his trip abroad and if he had seen the film of the play with Brando and Vivien Leigh, screened in Colombo in the early 50s. Despite his electrifying and award-winning performance, Dhamma did choose to focus on directing rather than on becoming Lanka’s answer to Marlon Brando.
This was indeed a lucky choice for the development of Lankan theatre. Dhamma’s foresight as an educator, in developing a Drama Curriculum for the schools, was also a major contribution to Lankan theatre.
Pilleyan, a key element in that drama now arrested for political expediency?
The LTTE killed two Karuna loyalists on July 15, 2004 in the Batticaloa Prison. The dead included Satchi Master. The killer was an LTTEer serving a short sentence for jewellery theft and assault. The killings in the Batticaloa Prison caused anxiety among senior government officials. On Aug. 24, 2004, an LTTEer shot dead another Karuna loyalist, P. Jayakumar, in the Akkaraipattu Magistrate’s Court. A jail guard and a court clerk sustained minor injuries. The police arrested Jayakumar, along with another LTTE dissident, Saravanamuthu Shanthakumar, at a road block, at Akkaraipattu, on May 19th, 2004. They were in possession of a pistol, one hand grenade and 15 rounds of ammunition. Shanthakumar was killed on July 15, 2004 at the Batticaloa Prison along with Satchi Master.
Against the backdrop of one-time LTTEer Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pilleyan’s arrest on April 08, 2025 and subsequent detention under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) over Eastern University Vice Chancellor Prof. S. Raveendranath’s disappearance on Dec. 15, 2006, whose life was actually under threat from the TIGERS several years after Karuna and Pilleyan broke away from it, various interested parties started commenting on the role played/atrocities perpetrated by Pilleyan and Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, aka Karuna Amman, during the conflict, and after.
Both Karuna and Pilleyan entered mainstream politics before the successful conclusion of the war in May 2009. Pilleyan is the current leader of TMVP (Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal).
In a way it is a pity that the police are now trying to pin Pilleyan for the disappearance of Prof Raveendranath, obviously to please the current political masters.
Comments included their role in LTTE terrorism and what they did after switching their allegiance to the government in March 2004. Let me stress that they daringly rebelled against the LTTE during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s tenure as the Prime Minister. The UNP has repeatedly claimed the credit for the unprecedented schism in what was considered a monolithic terror organisation and some asserted that the LTTE engineered Wickremesinghe’s defeat at the 2005 presidential election to avenge the catastrophic split.
Pilleyan’s arrest caused a political storm with his counsel Udaya Gammanpila alleging that an attempt was being made to compel his client to confess complicity in the 2019 Easter Sunday suicide attacks. Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader and former Minister Gammanpila is no stranger to controversy, but he has remained unscathed when it comes to his integrity.
In spite of vindictive attacks on him, Attorney-at-Law Gammanpila declared that nothing could be as ridiculous as accusing Pilleyan, who had been detained at the Batticaloa Prison for a period of five years (Oct. 11, 2015 to Nov. 24, 2020) of arranging National Thowheed Jaamaath (NTJ) to bomb churches and hotels on April 21, 2019. Having granted bail to Pilleyan and four others held in connection with the Christmas Day, 2005, assassination of TNA MP Joseph Pararajasingham on two personal sureties of Rs. 100,000/- each, the Batticaloa High Court acquitted and released them on January 13, 2021.
It would be pertinent to examine the devastating split caused by Karuna in March 2003 and its impact on the Eelam War IV (2006 August to May 2009).
Karuna’s move
Having received information that ‘Colonel’ Karuna decamped, the Kilinochchi-based leadership acted swiftly and decisively to neutralise the impending threat. The LTTE planned to take hold of both Karuna Amman, responsible for Ampara-Batticaloa sector, and his colleague, Sivasubramanium Varadanthan, aka ‘Colonel’ Paduman, in charge of the neighbouring Trincomalee District, to Kilinochchi. The Kilinochchi-based leadership, or Vanni leadership, wanted to ensure that those deployed under the command of Karuna and Paduman remaind loyal to the organisation. Both Karuna and Paduman had held the rank of ‘Colonel’ at that time, though Karuna was in the limelight due to his involvement in negotiations with the UNF government.
The Kilinochchi command cleverly used the Defence Ministry and SCOPP (Secretariat for Coordinating Peace Process) officials to arrange for an SLAF chopper to fly Karuna Amman, along with Paduman, to Kilinochchi. SCOPP records prove that on the authorisation of the Defence Ministry, it directed the SLAF to pick Paduman from Trincomalee and then touch down at a pre-arranged location in the Batticaloa District, on March 2, 2004, to take on board Karuna.
Fearing that he would have to face a firing squad in Kilinochchi, Karuna declined to join Paduman. Instead, he set in motion a strategy, which finally debilitated the LTTE’s conventional fighting capability. The writer disclosed the LTTE’s counter-move in a Sunday Island report headlined ‘Prabhakaran plotted Karuna capture’ in its March 28, 2004, edition.
Both Karuna and Paduman, at that time, confirmed the LTTE using SCOPP/ SLAF to arrange their transfer from the East to Kilinochchi.
The UNP and the Norwegians never bothered to raise the issue with the LTTE at that time. The Defence Ministry continued to provide chopper rides to the LTTE and did everything possible to appease the outfit, even at the expense of national security.
Norwegian peace facilitator and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), too, had been aware of the LTTE request for an SLAF chopper ride for top Tigers in the East. Had Karuna got into that chopper and ended up in a secret LTTE detention camp or executed, Eelam War IV would have taken a different course.
The Vanni leadership used Paduman, on several occasions, to counter reports of a debilitating split in the LTTE. The LTTE never allowed Paduman to leave the Vanni throughout Eelam War IV. Paduman surrendered on May 15, 2009, four days before troops killed LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon.
Karuna caused the split just over a year after the LTTE quit the negotiating table. President CBK, PM Wickremesinghe, and the co-chairs of the peace process, agreed that the LTTE should be allowed to deal with the situation. They allowed the situation to develop into a bloody confrontation. They failed to realise that Karuna’s revolt caused irreparable damage to the organisation by dividing the LTTE’s fighting cadre on regional lines. The crisis denied the LTTE recruitment in the Batticaloa and Ampara sectors, while its operations in the Trincomalee District, too, experienced difficulties due to the detention of ‘Colonel’ Paduman, the senior man in charge of the area. ‘Colonel’ Paduman, too, was perceived as a threat due to his close association with Karuna.
Karuna acted swiftly to ensure his protection and that of the eastern cadres. The well-proven battlefield strategist felt that his security, as well as the safety of the Batticaloa fighting cadre, depended on an understanding with the Sri Lankan military. Karuna pushed for a separate agreement on the lines of the Norwegian arranged CFA between the GoSL and the LTTE in February 2002.
The Island dealt with Karuna’s move in an exclusive headlined ‘Rebel Karuna wants separate deal with government’ in the March 5, 2004 issue, which was based on information provided by Varathan, an aide to Karuna. The then Army Chief, Lieutenant General Lionel Balagalle and DIG Nimal Lewke confirmed what Varathan had to say on behalf of Karuna.
Karuna offered to negotiate a separate ceasefire in the Ampara-Batticaloa sector, though both the Norwegians and the government promptly rejected the move, while reiterating their commitment to the CFA. But, an influential section, within the establishment, supported Karuna’s move. Varathan alleged that a wave of killings in the Eastern Province, in the wake of the CFA, and a demand for 1,000 more cadres from the Batticaloa-Ampara sector for deployment in the Northern Province, too, had contributed to Karuna’s decision to break ranks.
Wobbling goverment
An unprecedented crisis caused by Karuna sent shock waves through the LTTE and its supporters. Among the affected parties were the TNA and the Tamil Diaspora. The LTTE struggled to contain the developing crisis. In spite of specific government orders issued to the Army not to intervene, at certain levels the military cooperated with Karuna.
Karuna wanted the Army to prevent a group of senior cadres, who had been under his overall command, from crossing the entry/exit point at Omanthai, north of Vavuniya, back to the Vanni. The LTTE dissident also urged the Army to facilitate an operation to help his men, deployed in the Northern Province, to return through Army lines on the night of March 3, 2004. The government prohibited the Army from supporting Karuna’s efforts, hence a group of senior cadres, including ‘Colonel” T. Ramesh and their families, crossed the entry/exit point. Immediately after their arrival in Kilinochchi, ‘Colonel’ Ramesh was declared as Karuna’s successor.
Undaunted by the government’s refusal to back his revolt against, what Karuna called, the treacherous Kilinochchi leadership, he ordered public protests in Batticaloa. The first of a series of protests was held at Kiran, Karuna’s home town, where a crowd of over 2,000 people gathered in support of Karuna. Some of them set fire to effigies of Prabhakaran and Ramesh, while Karuna reiterated his demand for a separate CFA with the government. Much to the glee of the LTTE and the Norwegians, the government rejected Karuna’s call for cooperation out of hand. But, the military continued to extend support to Karuna.
In spite of the LTTE’ pull-out from negotiations in April 2003, the government reiterated its commitment to a non-existent peace process thereby bending backwards to please the LTTE and the so-called peace facilitator with its own ultimate agenda coinciding with those of the LTTE.
The LTTE ordered the Tamil media not to provide space for the rebellious group. No one dared challenge the LTTE, though Karuna, too, exerted pressure on the media. Undergraduates from the Northern Province, studying at the Eastern University at Vantharamoolai ,returned to their villages amidst rising tension.
Regardless of the government directive that the military kept its distance from the rebel faction, an influential section of those in the military, who were earlier deployed in clandestine operations behind enemy lines, threw their weight behind the former LTTE field commander.
Batticaloa’s hostility towards the LTTE increased after an LTTE operative shot dead eight Karuna loyalists, including Kuheneshan, widely believed to be a high ranker among the renegade group, at Crystal Terrace housing scheme, Kottawa, on July 25, 2004. They were slain in their sleep
Batticaloa Tamils defied an LTTE directive prohibiting public participation at the funerals of the three Karuna loyalists killed at Kottawa. Several hundred people paid their last respects to Pakyam Amarasevan, alias Tehvan, of Main Street, Kommathurai, Chennkalady, Ponnathurai Thurainadan alias Ruban of the same address, and Kandiah Annandakumar of Kattankudy. The LTTE distributed leaflets warning the public of dire consequences if they attended, what they called, traitors’ funeral. The LTTE made an attempt to prevent public participation, having failed to dissuade families of the victims from bringing the bodies to Batticaloa. Families, living in military held areas, accepted the bodies, whereas those living in the LTTE-controlled region had no option but to accept the directive.
It would be important to examine the circumstances under which the LTTE hunted down those given refuge at the Crystal Terrace housing scheme. They had moved in on July 13, 2004, and were in the process of trying to obtain passports to leave the country. The police quoted a neighbour as having said he heard gunshots around 3.30 a.m. As people used to light crackers to scare monkeys away, he had not taken much notice, he said.
In fact, the first indication of the LTTE operation, the biggest directed against the Karuna faction in Colombo, since the March 2004 split, came to light after the military intercepted a conversation between two LTTE personnel. Although they discussed a successful hit in Colombo, there was no clue as regards the location. The conversation revealed that those involved in the operation had reached Karuna’s successor, ‘Colonel’ Thambirajah Ramesh based in the Batticaloa district. The Colombo police took about four hours to locate the scene of the massacre.
Impact on CFA
The crisis created by Karuna quickly engulfed the entire CFA process. Those trying to save the CFA soon realised that they were fighting a losing battle. They understood Karuna’s action had caused irreparable damage and nothing could resurrect the Norwegian initiative.
The SLMM (Norway led Sri Lanka monitoring mission) suspended the monitoring process in areas under Karuna’s control. Overnight, the Northern and Eastern Provinces were divided into three sectors, under the control of the GoSL, the LTTE and the breakaway LTTE faction. The Norwegians and the SLMM rejected Karuna’s overtures to have a separate CFA negotiated between the breakaway faction and the GoSL. Karuna also emphasised that the LTTE should recognise that the Batticaloa-Ampara sector was outside its purview. UNICEF and the UNHCR, too, pulled out of Karuna’s territory.
Today only a few remember the dicey situation the country experienced at thatime.
The SLMM also turned down an SLA request to arrange for a meeting between the Army and Karuna. In spite of the Army chief, Lt. Gen. Balagalle, who held the post of the Chief of Defence Staff, personally pushing for a meeting, which he felt could help ease tensions, the SLMM refused to comply. The LTTE insisted that there shouldn’t be any interaction whatsoever between the SLMM and the breakaway faction. Erik Solheim ruled out a Norwegian intervention, thereby effectively ending any sort of mediation effort.
In a desperate bid to settle the crisis, the UK stepped in. The UK sent its top diplomat in Colombo, Steven Evans, along with its Defence Attaché, Lt. Col. Mark Weldon, to find a way out.
Efforts to isolate Karuna failed. Premier Wickremesinghe compelled Ali Zarheer Moulana to resign his parliamentary seat after the disclosure of his role in facilitating Karuna to leave the Batticaloa district. Before that, the battlefield tactician quickly won over the confidence of the Tamil-speaking people in the region. He took advantage of the situation by offering to discuss long standing grievances of the public. Then General Officer Commanding (GoC) the Army’s 23 Division, headquartered at Welikanda, Brigadier Vajira Wijegunawardene, recalled how Karuna moved swiftly to consolidate his power in areas under his control. Karuna offered to discuss the forcible takeover of land by the LTTE in the east. Soon, the UNP and the TNA realised that the crisis was having a debilitating impact on their campaign for the April 2, 2004 parliamentary polls. In fact, Premier Wickremesinghe had to avoid Batticaloa during campaigning in the East as the Defence Ministry couldn’t guarantee his security.
Vanni move on East
Under the noses of the Norwegians, the LTTE moved cadres to beef up its strength in the Batticaloa District to take on Karuna. The SLMM and the government facilitated the transfer of LTTE cadres from the North to the East in the run-up to the parliamentary polls. The CFA permitted transfers, though there had been restrictions as regards the number of personnel. The LTTE overcame the problem by sending groups in small batches across Army controlled entry and exit points at Omanthai and Uliyankulam. Although the Army had managed to detect some of those entering the East illegally, it couldn’t thwart the LTTE plans. Then the LTTE humiliated the government by launching a series of sea landings on the night of April 9, 2004 to wipe out the breakaway group. The LTTE operation had got underway a few hours after the service commanders arrived at Trincomalee. In spite of the Defence portfolio being under her control, President Kumaratunga did nothing, while the Prime Minister and the Norwegians looked the other way. A confident LTTE leadership told the government that it intended to use sea routes to mount an operation targeting Karuna. The government was told to keep the Navy out of the LTTE’s way. The government gave in to LTTE demands. Following urgent consultations in Colombo between the military and the President, the top brass summoned a meeting at the Batticaloa Brigade Headquarters, where senior officers, in charge of the region, were told to keep out of the fight.
After Karuna’s decision to give up the fight on April 9, 2004, when the LTTE confronted his cadres on the banks of the Verugal River, many believed that Prabhakaran’s erstwhile friend wouldn’t survive.
Karuna’s decision has been influenced by the realisation that the sea borne assault was led by Batticaloa cadres, the majority of those who had fought under him. Had Karuna engaged them on the banks of the Verugal River, there would have been many casualties. Instead of fighting, Karuna ordered his men to leave the battlefield and return to their villages, while he fled Batticaloa with the help of UNP National List MP Ali Zaheer Moulana. Until Moulana acknowledged his role in Karuna’s escape, the UNP, a section of the medi, and even the Norwegians, blamed the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) for helping Karuna escape. Once the UNP had established Moulana’s involvement, PM Wickremesinghe demanded his resignation. He swiftly complied. Moulana sought protection abroad. After years in the US, he returned to the country to pledge his allegiance to President Rajapaksa.
Karuna loyalists killed five LTTE cadres, including ‘Lt. Colonel’ Neelan, the deputy head of the Batticaloa District Intelligence outfit before fleeing the area. A furious Kilinochchi leadership vowed to hit back wherever Karuna and his top men took refuge.
A spate of killings undermined SLMM efforts to restore normalcy in the Batticaloa-Ampara sector, where unidentified gunmen killed 10 LTTE personnel, in three separate incidents on April 24, May 2 and May 6, 2004. The LTTE accused the DMI of carrying out the killings, a charge vehemently denied by the DMI. The LTTE hit back. An LTTE operative shot dead Lance Corporal Wasantha Liyanage. He was shot through the head inside a private bus approaching Batticaloa town on May 9, 2004. The bus was coming from Chenkaladi.
The LTTE struck again on May 19, 2004, outside the Batticaloa hospital. Reserve police constable, Dassanayake (32658) of police intelligence shot through his head in broad daylight. The gunman walked out of the nearby post office and shot the policeman before walking away.
In spite of a change of government in April, 2004, the UPFA’s response to the LTTE, too, remained the same.
But the military responded to the LTTE threat by stepping up clandestine action, particularly in the East. A growing relationship, mutually beneficial to the military and the breakaway LTTE faction, gradually undermined the LTTE in the Eastern Province. By the time Eelam War IV erupted in Aug 2006, the LTTE had suffered a debilitating setback in the East.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Use of colours in pre-historic era
Humans have been long fascinated by colour, which has played a significant role since the beginning of human civilization. Ancient people had painted caves even before they settled in houses. Cave paintings were created during the stone age from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. Primitive artists used natural materials available to them to mark their territory, beautify their surroundings, and tell their stories. For thousands of years, paints were handmade from ground mineral-based pigments. Ochre, a natural pigment which comes in shades of red, yellow, orange and brown, was the first pigment used by humans, in the Middle Stone Age of Africa. Ochre, also called hematite, is found all over the world and has been used by nearly every prehistoric culture, whether as paint on caves and building walls, for staining of pottery or other types of artifacts, or as part of a burial ritual or body painting.
Man’s irresistible desire to create pigments was not without untoward consequences. For instance, in 1,775, Carl Wilhelm Scheele, a Swedish chemist, invented a bright green pigment, but it was laced with the deadly poisonous chemical arsenic; it was cheap to produce, but dangerous for artists and patrons alike. However, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was so fascinated by and passionate about this colour, he wanted his bedroom wallpaper painted with Scheele’s Green. Historians believe that the green pigment used in the wallpaper caused his untimely death in 1821 at the age of 51 due to cancer. By the end of the 19th century, Paris Green—a mixture of copper and arsenic—replaced Scheele’s Green as a more durable alternative, enabling Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir to create vivid, emerald landscapes. It is also toxic, and thus has also been used as a rodenticide and insecticide. The blindness which Monet subsequently succumbed to may have been due to the toxicity of Paris Green, which was banned in the 1960s.
The Egyptians artists added binders such as eggs, resins and beeswax to pigments so that the paint would adhere to plaster and began painting on it. Hence, Egyptian tombs made of limestone were covered with plaster that was painted using six colours: charcoal black, red ochre, yellow orpiment, brown ochre, blue azurite, and green malachite. Natural mineral pigments were dug from the earth and shaped into sticks that were used as chalks by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Rembrandt. Dyes made from plants were also used in artwork in the Mediterranean region. By the mid-nineteenth-century, watercolors became available for sale to the public. Since the 1940s, technological advances have produced synthetic pigments and chemical processes for paint making which greatly contributed to expanding the once mineral-based limited colour palette to all the colours of the rainbow. Since then, colour-based industries have grown progressively in the world and the worth of the paint and coatings industry and of colour cosmetics industries in 2023 amounted to around $ 180 billion and $ 80 billion, respectively.
Physics of colour and vision
In the 1660s, English physicist and mathematician, Isaac Newton, demonstrated that clear white light was composed of seven visible colours. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1810 published his treatise on the nature, function, and psychology of colours titled “Theory of Colours”. One of his most radical points was a refutation of Newton’s ideas about the colour spectrum, suggesting that darkness is an active ingredient rather than the mere passive absence of light. Though his work was dismissed by a large segment of the scientific community, it remained of intense interest to a cohort of prominent philosophers and physicists, including Arthur Schopenhauer, Kurt Gödel, and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Colour springs from the alchemy of light and perception. Light, an ethereal wave of electromagnetic radiation, spans a spectrum visible to human eyes from approximately 380 to 750 nanometers. As light touches an object, it may be reflected, absorbed, or transmitted, with the reflected wavelengths crafting the hue perceived by the eye. This interaction is interpreted by the brain, transforming raw light into the rich palette of the world around us.
The human eye, a wondrous instrument, houses three types of photoreceptor cells known as cones, each attuned to different wavelengths of light:
S Cones: Sensitive to short wavelengths, peaking around 420 nm, endowing us with the perception of blue.
M Cones: Responsive to medium wavelengths, peaking around 534 nm, allowing us to see green.
L Cones: Tuned to long wavelengths, peaking around 564 nm, revealing the red hues.
Human beings can only see the colours that these receptors can receive. Together, these cones create a symphony of signals that the brain harmonises into the countless colours we perceive, enabling us to distinguish millions of shades.
Nature’s creatures possess a diversity of vision, often surpassing human capabilities. Birds and insects, for instance, enjoy a tetrachromatic[DC1] vision (having four types of cone cells in the eye to perceive colour), with an additional type of cone sensitive to ultraviolet (UV) light, unveiling a hidden spectrum invisible to human eyes. Many bird species use UV signals for mating, navigation, and foraging.
Colours are ‘illusions’
People are quite interested in and passionate about colours; thus, they generally make an initial judgment about a product, person, or environment within 90 seconds, and a significant proportion of this assessment, i.e. 60-90%, is based on colour. This shows how strong the influence of colour on perception and decision-making is. Despite this extraordinary experience of colour perception, all colours are ‘illusions’ in the sense that they do not belong to objects independently of how these are perceived. Neither objects nor lights are coloured ‘in themselves’, but are seen as coloured as a result of neural processes and perceptual mechanisms. In fact, the physical properties of colours are different from the way colours are perceived. For example, take a yellow sunflower; it absorbs the blue, red and other colour energy waves, and then reflects back wavelengths that appear yellow. The colour receptors in our eyes then translate the flower’s wavelength into its colour and send that to our brain.
Blue colours in animals are not caused by chemical pigments, but rather by physics and the way light bounces off a surface. Blue-winged butterflies have layered nanostructures on their wing scales that manipulate light layers, cancelling out certain colours and projecting the fluorescent blue colour that we see; thus, they are called structural colours. Another classic example of structural coloration is the peacock’s feather. The microscopic structures in the feathers manipulate light to produce brilliant blues and greens that shift and change as the viewing angle alters. Thus, blue butterflies, roses, and peacocks aren’t actually blue and our eyes have duped us (Fig. 1).
Effects of colour on human behaviour and wellbeing
People have long understood the power of colour over moods and well-being. Colour was used in ancient Egypt, China, and Greece to evoke emotions, aid in spiritual practices, and treat a variety of conditions. Many ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians and Chinese, embraced the belief that colours possessed healing properties and could be harnessed for therapeutic purposes. This practice, known as chromotherapy, involved the use of specific hues to treat various ailments and promote overall well-being.
Colour is a multidimensional concept which goes beyond visual appeal and aesthetic beauty. It encompasses physical, psychological, cultural, symbolic, artistic, aesthetic and scientific dimensions, including physiological. The aesthetic beauty of colour has added a mesmerizing and exciting tapestry to nature and it is inconceivable to imagine a world without colour. Leigh Hunt (1784–1859), prolific English poet and journalist, said “Colours are the smiles of nature”.
Colour can affect humans in manifold ways ranging from psychological, physiological, cognitive to emotional, behavioural, healing etc., thereby having a profound influence on their mood, creativity, productivity, health and happiness. In addition, it has a remarkable power not only to heal, rejuvenate and inspire, but also to instill a sense of peace and harmony in us. Colour is also a powerful means of communication and a defining aspect of human experience, influencing our perceptions and preferences, and interactions with the world. Therefore, extensive studies have been carried out on those aspects which have led to the emergence of disciplines such as Colour Psychology, Colour Chemistry, Colour Therapy and Visual Ergonomics. Colour can potentially be a powerful source of inspiration, delight, tranquility and solace when used in the right manner for the right place for the right purpose.
However, people generally apply colours purely based on the visual and aesthetic appeal, without a proper understanding of the profound impact that colour can have on people – their performance, experience and wellbeing. Therefore, the use of the right colour for a given place is crucially important in order to provide a more relaxed, congenial and harmonious living environment which goes beyond the aesthetic appeal. Here, it is important to explore the world of colour psychology without diving into technicalities
The colours you choose for your walls, furniture, and the decorations of your bedroom can influence your mood. A bedroom painted in calming tones, e.g. in light blue, might help you to unwind, and create a feeling of serenity. It is not recommended to paint the bedrooms in dark shades of blue as it could interfere with sleep. Similarly, the blue light emitted by electronic screens could produce a similar effect. Therefore, it is not advisable to work on the computer or watch film on electronic screens for long hours prior to retiring to bed. Because the blue light gives the impression to the brain that it is daytime, the body stops releasing the sleep hormone Melatonin. On the other hand, light shades of amber may promote the release of Melatonin helping us to wind down and prepare for sleep in nature’s way.
Feeling relaxed
As blue light causes people to feel relaxed, it has led countries to add blue street lights in order to decrease suicide rates. In 2000, the city of Glasgow installed blue street lighting in certain neighborhoods and subsequently reported the anecdotal finding of reduced crime in these areas. A railroad company in Japan installed blue lighting on its stations in October 2009 in an effort to reduce the number of rail suicide attempts (Fig. 2). Blue is often associated with calmness and serenity and is not naturally associated with food; hence, it can make food appear less appetizing and appealing and reduce the desire to eat. Therefore, blue is generally considered an appetite suppressant and eating off a blue plate could help to reduce overweight and obesity.
Walls of cafés are generally painted in warm, earthy tones like brown or terracotta which evoke a sense of comfort and homeliness. It helps the customers to settle in with a cup of coffee and a good book to spend some relaxing and rewarding time in a congenial ambience. On the other hand, some fast-food chains use red and yellow in their logos and external and internal walls in order to create a vibrant and exciting environment. It not only attracts attention, promotes quick decision making and creates a sense of excitement and urgency, but also stimulates appetite and encourages lively discussion. Though such colours attract both children and adults to fast-food restaurants, they may not wish to stay long in such an ambience after partaking of food, unlike in a coffee shop. Similarly, a kitchen with lively colours could energize you during meal preparation. (Figure 2)
Blue-winged butterfly (Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/butterfly-insect-animal-142506/) (left) and peacock (Source: https://www.photowall.co.uk/peacock-feathers-poster ) (right)
Even when designing websites, careful attention is paid not only to aesthetics, but to emotions that need to be evoked. When a company designs a new website, it carefully selects colours with this in mind. They might use blue for trust, green for growth, and orange for enthusiasm, creating a website that feels inviting and reliable while encouraging action. Architect William Ludlow advocated pale pastel blues and greens in hospitals for therapeutic purposes. The walls of hospitals are often painted in soft, calming colours like pale green or light blue which help to reduce stress and create a healing environment.
Colour can enhance or impair learning, morale, performance and the behaviour of students. It can affect students’ attention span, and perception of time. Visual stimulation rewires the brain, making stronger connections while fostering visual thinking, problem solving and creativity. It has been shown that the cold-coloured walls, such as blue and green, produced the highest levels of relaxation and pleasure, while the warm-colored walls such as yellow and red had the better attention and learning performance. And the white-walled classroom had the lowest subjective evaluation and the worst learning performance. Classrooms when painted with bright yellow — the colour of happiness and optimism – spark creativity and enthusiasm and makes learning more joyful. That’s why some educational spaces use yellow in order to foster a lively and energetic environment. School buses are generally painted yellow the world over for safety and visibility. Yellow colour is in the middle of the visible spectrum so that it strikes the cones (photoreceptors) of the eyes from both sides equally. That makes it almost impossible for anyone to miss a school bus even when it’s in one’s peripheral vision or under poor day light conditions or in bad weather.
Fitness spaces
Exercise rooms and fitness spaces are generally painted in bright orange which exudes energy, motivation and vitality, encouraging movement and activity. It helps to keep the energy high and spirits lifted. Studies have shown that red causes a significantly greater response in heart rate, respiration, brain wave activity, and other nervous system functions than green or blue. In addition, red decreases the perceived size of rooms and space and prompts a sense of warmth. Lush greenery in a park or a natural habitat has a refreshing and rejuvenating effect, creating a sense of harmony and tranquility. Besides, the choice of colour of clothing reflects and affects your mood and if you are feeling upbeat and confident, you might pick a vibrant red shirt or dress. On the other hand, if you seek comfort and tranquility, you may settle for soothing shades of blue, green, etc.
Choice of colour for prisons is of prime importance as it affects the mood of inmates. When colour is used properly in prisons and jails, it can lessen overall tension and conflicts and make the places more comfortable for the inmates to live and work in. Based on the research carried out, bright colours are recommended in the prison, with green and blue colours being the best rated because people perceive them as soothing, stimulating, pleasant and safe. Yellow is also acceptable because the prisoners perceive it as a bright and cheerful colour. Painting the walls of the room with soft shades of yellow and green (kiwi color) was seen by the prisoners as “refreshing”. In all these cases, colour psychology is at play.
Therefore, colours play a significant role in shaping how we feel and behave; thus, they are not just pretty hues, but are the emotions painted onto the canvas of our lives. Hence, colour psychology is like a storyteller that sets the mood and tone of a space, a product, or even a piece of clothing. It’s the silent language that whispers to our emotions, shaping our experiences without us even realizing it. However, these associations between colours and emotions are not universal, but are influenced by cultural, historical, and personal factors. Understanding colour psychology can help individuals and businesses harness the power of colour to evoke specific emotions and convey messages effectively. Whether in branding, interior design, fashion, or art, colour plays a central role in shaping our perceptions and experiences. It’s a fascinating aspect of our world that continues to intrigue and inspire creativity in various fields.
Further information in this regard is found in the book titled “The Power of Colour: Enhancing Human Wellbeing and Unleashing Human Potential” edited by Ranjith Senaratne and Raj Somadeva. It emanated from a conference conducted by the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science and includes contributions from a multidisciplinary team comprising artists, architects, engineers, biologists, environmentalists, psychiatrists, musicians and scientists.
Concluding remarks
Though the manifold effects of colour on humans have been recognized from time immemorial, there is very little appreciation and understanding of those effects on humankind and how these effects could be harnessed to enhance and enrich human wellbeing, including life experience, productivity, performance, satisfaction, memory and creativity. Because of the significance of colour on humans, disciplines such as Colour Psychology, Colour Chemistry, Colour Therapy and Visual Ergonomics have emerged which have assumed considerable importance in day-to-day life.
A good grasp of Colour Psychology helps to create a psychologically satisfying, aesthetically pleasing, vibrant and energetic space, or a calm and tranquil environment by selecting the appropriate shades of colours depending on the need and occasion. This is crucially important in a fiercely competitive globalized environment characterized by anxiety, tension, disquiet and chaos where people are leading a stressful, restless and agitated life in a fast-paced world. In the circumstances, creating a relaxed, congenial and harmonious environment at home as well as at the workplace by painting the living and working environment with appropriate hues is of prime importance.
This need is paramount and should be addressed as a matter of great importance. Then only could we embark upon a colorful journey and paint our world with appropriate vibrant hues in order to unearth the boundless potential and transformative power that lies within us. However, there is a dearth of competent professionals, particularly in Sri Lanka who can proffer the right advice and guidance to clients in selecting appropriate colours for specific places such as the living room, bedroom, dining room, reading room, exercise room etc. in homes and public places such as hospitals, restaurants, coffee shops, gymnasiums theatres, prisons etc. for the human wellbeing. This issue has been further exacerbated due to hardly any academic interaction and collaboration, particularly between the Faculties of Arts, Science and Medicine.
The course unit system (CUS) developed in the USA enables students to pick and choose course modules from diverse fields so as to create complementarity and synergy; this in turn, leads to producing well-rounded and well-grounded creative graduates equipped with multiple competencies to address real-world issues more effectively. Though the CUS was introduced in our universities over 20 years ago, because of the heavy compartmentalization and fragmentation, course modules for degree programmed of a given faculty have been selected mainly from among the modules offered by the faculty concerned, thereby not deriving the key expected benefits from the CUS. Consequently, Sri Lankan universities have been hardly able to develop any cross-faculty academic programmed such as Colour Psychology, Colour Therapy, Music Therapy and such like. Therefore, it is imperative to make necessary interventions so as to facilitate and promote interfaculty degree programmed in Sri Lanka universities, paving the way for the development of such academic offerings jointly by the Faculties of Arts, Science, Medicine, Architecture etc. Moreover, cooperation and collaboration between faculties are needed to effectively address complex real-world issues such as SDGs which demand a holistic trans-disciplinary systems approach. Hence, the earlier such interventions are made, the better.
by Emeritus Professor
Ranjith Senaratne
University of Ruhuna, (ransen.ru@gmail.com)
With his limbs ripped off in a blast,
Mounting challenges await the Gaza boy,
And though he will be winning good hearts,
When he cries that Mum can’t be held now,
The stony silence of the civilized world,
In the face of his stepped-up mute suffering,
Should be seen as another frontier of agony,
And herein we have the conclusive evidence,
That hearts are made numb by unending savagery.
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