www.kalaya.org © Prof. Nalin De Silva NEW YEAR AND ...

www.kalaya.orgNEW YEAR AND THERAVADA BUDDHISMIt is unfortunate that the Europeans, especially the British pioneered modern Historicalstudies or Historiography of our region. Any History cannot be objective as there is noobjectivity as such, except in the minds of the objectivists, realists,etc. It is not theprerogative of History to be subjective and relative as even Mathematics and Physics, theso called queen and king of science are not objective. What we teach in the schools andthe universities are western Mathematics and western Physics and not Mathematics andPhysics as such. The History pioneered by the British and then followed by the Historianstrained by them in the Liberal, Marxist or any other western tradition is essentially BritishHistory of the region. It is Historiography and one should not refer only to the Historieswritten by others those do not agree with the European History as Historiography. Itshould be clear that by European History I do not refer to the History of Europe but to theHistory written by those belonging to the European traditions including the Marxisttradition.What is written here is mainly based on some studies a former student of mine and I havecarried out during the last few months. We see History in an essentially Sinhala Buddhistframework and we do not have to pretend to be objective unlike the westerners who wantto deceive the others. The trouble with the British is that they see the world and thehistory of the world through their experience and attempt to interpret events as they suitthem, while giving the impression that are objective.I have no objection to the use of the term Sinhala and Hindu new year if the usage isconsistent with the experience in other fields and areas as well. To me it appears what Icall local consistency with experience is the only yardstick that can be used in decidingbetween competing theories. It has to be emphasised that there is no experience devoid oftheories contrary to what the phenomenolgists seem to believe, and experience is theoryand concept laden. Thus experience has no independence that the theories and theconcepts lack, and the theories, concepts, experience make a holistic system. There is noperception without conception. For example there is no way of knowing the greenness ofa leaf without the concept of greenness. However, it does not imply that there should be aword to experience the greenness as any normal child who does not know any languagewould know the "greenness" from the "redness".The term Sinhala and Hindu new year was coined by the British in the nineteenth centuryand since then it has been developed to the point where Sinhala and Tamil or Sinhala andDravida new year is used to describe this event. In the nineteenth century before theBritish coined the term Sinhala and Hindu new year there was not even a Sinhala newyear.. There was a new year or "avurudda" celebrated by the Sinhala Buddhists as acommunity. The problem started when the British realised that the "avurudda" of theSinhala Buddhists was not the same as their new year which fell on the first of January.The Sinhalas did not refer to the January first as the new year and some of them called itthe "Janeruwa". For them the "avurudda" without an adjective dawned in April and not in© Prof. Nalin De Silva

www.kalaya.orgTheravada Buddhist countries that celebrate the new year in some form or other alsoencourages us to think along these lines.(To be continued)© Prof. Nalin De Silva