From the Speech for The Launch, on Jan 27th, 2005!

by Hema Ramakrishna

To the general reader in Sri Lanka it must be clear by now that the play Sanctuary! is based on the Ramayana, although it offers quite a different version. And there are several departures from tradition; not least the mystery of the island kingdom of Ravana.You may be relieved to know that you are no longer, atleast in my play, home to Ravana and his clan! That location, readily available for the narrative, could have come into this country with settlers from the subcontinent. Like our killer tsunami, we see that waves of the Rama/Ravana story have travelled all over the countries of the Indian Ocean from its original home in the Indian subcontinent. But now I give you a new location for Ravana and his island kingdom, calling it Ranka, not Lanka, well within the geographical limits of the subcontinent, one of the several islands that dot the waters of the Chilka Lakes in Orissa, to now lie submerged in all probability, as I indicate in my play! That is a location which fits in very neatly with the rest of the play; firstly, it is not far off from the forest of Dandakaranya where Rama, Lakshmana and Sita are to be found in the course of their exile; and secondly, it is close enough again to the mainland for Ravana to make his periodic visits to engage in his activities as indicated in Kishkindha, the Vanara reserve in the forest. Actually, I suggest in the play that the Vanaras were granted the space of Kishkindha to make their home in return for having built the city and erected the fortifications of Ranka, Ravana’s kingdom, in a remote past; there is already a well-established nexus in operation. And now I shall try answering three questions you have not asked me: Why a play? Why the Ramayana today? Why the title Sanctuary?  

Firstly, a play - and as plays go, my play is not long, it is not even 50 pages - a play is the easiest form to choose when one feels one has to communicate something of importance, which affects the entire community. Poems indicate a more personal mode, when the poet wishes to share with her readers some of the feelings going through her mind. A novel is mainly meant for the purpose of entertaining the reader and fiction is ever popular among audiences of all ages. But when there is a theme or story already present, ancient or  modern, easily recognized by the reader, the play becomes an irresistible choice, more so when the author feels she has something new to contribute. And as a form of communic- ation, the play scores especially when it is intended to convey a message. As my play is indeed meant to!

Secondly, why the Ramayana, when the world has so many more exciting themes to offer us today? Now any writer sensitive to the environment she lives in reacts to the issues agitating her community. As I have indicated in my preface, a curious thing happened when the Babri Masjid, a mosque in Ayodhya, Rama’s birthplace, was demolished on the 6th of December 1992. It was as if a bell rang to wake me up; I went to the nearest library to search for the complete Ramayana, and what fell into my hands was the verse translation by R.T.H. Griffith Esq, in 1913, at The Medical Hall Press, Benares Cantonment, of Valmiki’s epic, composed around the fourth century B.C. And then began the exacting process of writing and re-writing the play, nothing satisfied me, even now I ask myself, Have I got it right atlast? Does it deliver the message? When one goes against a weighty tradition that is not only hallowed but also firmly entrenched, one is always anxious and wary. As to how successful I have been in my retelling, I leave it to you to judge!

Thirdly, the title.  From the beginning, the source of inspiration for my play was the forest. And the forest right now is a source of major concern for the environmentalist, as forests everywhere are fast shrinking and drying up, leaving the earth with no available resources to turn to for relief and replenishment. And in my play, the forest and Sita are inter-linked, for both are under threat. So from the beginning the title Sanctuary chose to stick with the play! It stayed all through the several versions. However comforting the word sounds, it is meant to indicate the exact opposite: the near impossibility of any kind of sanctuary on earth for a battered and bruised Sita who is the symbol of the Forest (which in turn is the heart and lung of our planet). For the play is a stark tragedy and the title purely ironic and is meant to resound in your ears as a cry for protection from case studies such as Sita’s and Surpanakha’s! For such things still take place as we observe only too well from a reading of the daily newspapers. Recently there was an outrage in Kashmir very similar to the events in the play, which only goes to show us that fact is not only stranger but also more brutal than fiction. Fiction is dressed up; fact never is!

The word sanctuary is a word that resonates and reverberates; there are ramifications to the word that reach into every sphere of human activity. If one looks at the dictionary meaning of the English word (the oldest forms are to be found in Latin and Old French) there are three main ones: a holy place, consecrated territory such as church, temple or mosque; (2) game park or area of land where wild animals or plants are protected; (3) a place of refuge or asylum where a person may take shelter. The Sinhala words are the same: abhaya bhoomiya, poojaniya sthanaya, suddha bhoomiya, saranagatha rakavarana, pilisarana. But right down the course of history innumerable are the holy places ravaged and pillaged by marauding armies. And if you look at the world today, every wild life sanctuary or game park is already at the mercy of the hunter, the poacher and the various commercial combines flaunting concessions, that exist lawfully and unlawfully to exploit all available resources. And as for the third category, where are the places of refuge or asylum where the oppressed may take shelter? The genocides that take place everywhere tell the same story (and Darfur, in the Sudan, and the Congo are near permanent examples), causing people to flee but hordes of refugees are always turned back at border-crossings we learn, leaving them stranded and dangerously exposed to their attackers! And now, there is a new danger: there could well be as many as 150 million refugees - environmental refugees - in the coming years (this was the figure arrived at well before the tsunami hit us), as a result of worldwide weather problems due to run away global warming! The recent example of hurricane-hit Philippines, where reckless logging of timber was held to be responsible for the widespread destruction and damage caused by floods and landslides, is already forgotten now that we are in the aftermath of the tsunami!

Now to give you the ‘mythical’ perspective! Events like the tsunami were unknown to Valmiki in his rendition. To Valmiki, the Ocean is the embodiment of Dharma, the righteous monarch who never transgresses his bounds;over whose great tides fidelity presides, almost as if he were Almighty God, and the Ocean was indeed personified and worshipped as Great God Varuna. But that is not to say that we do not have our myths of deluge and floods and devastation – pralaya or a periodic dissolution of earth is a recurring theme or nightmare of collective memory – we have the story of the Sage Markandeya, swallowed up by a whale, like Jonah, to contemplate the waters of the abyss from within the sea creature’s stomach! Or the story of Vishnu who took the form of the fish, Matsya, to save the species of man! Then again, Vishnu who becomes the boar to lift the earth from the rising oceans - the Purana says,  “And the earth stayed like a great ship on top of the flood of water and did not sink ..” (From the Visnu Purana) Note the pacific tone of the myths; no Creator is shown terrorising and punishing man for his misdeeds. On the other hand, a deity is shown through changing species to become the friend of besieged man and beleagured Earth! …. These myths, incorporating time frames that are anybody’s guess, show humanity going through large-scale crises, when it becomes the function of certain deities to come to humanity’s aid in the guise of animals or birds or reptiles.  Note, too, the language of the myth, suggestive of a tsunami: “By the blast of the impacts that caused such masses of water to be hurled up, all the oceans became emptied of their water in a moment, and when all those waters were cast upon the surface of the earth, all creatures were flooded in a moment and destroyed!” From the Kalika Purana. Hindu Myths (Penguin Classics)

Now, today, the seas and forests are all sources to be plundered and ravaged for their resources. They want to drill a pipeline through Alaska and a highway cutting through the pristine heart of Antarctica! No wonder the environment reacts to our presence. Trying to comprehend the power and savagery of that great wave from the sea, I cannot help but frame and formulate this question, even at the risk of articulating what might seem to you an outrageous thought: Did the sea open up to reclaim for itself restitution for its lost and plundered species? For the sea is the womb of our universe and to return to the womb is not just to die, but also to undergo a sea change, a transformation! And washed away were so many of our species, our children, our women and men! Will they now repeople the sea as its denizens – for Nature recycles endlessly – to become whales, fishes, dolphin and turtle? For this is a living planet that well might possess its own intelligence, and two streams of thought, the scientific and the traditional corroborate this. According to the Gaia Hypothesis - (so named for the Greek Goddess of Earth) formulated by scientists James Lovecock and Lynn Margoulis - according to their hypothesis, the earth is a systemic whole and funtions like a self-regulating living organism. The insight pointing to the close interrelation between life and its environment is not without its philosophical significance. Is this the rta or the cosmic rhythm of the Vedas that the ancients sang of? For, according to philosophers, there are possibilities in the powers of the environment that point to “a unity in natural energic agencies … due to accident or design…” (Encyclopaedia Britannica) To a planet such as ours, sensing and reacting to man’s thoughtless, overwhelming and destructive presence, to such a planet then, can we foolishly presume to be the only species of importance? … Especially when, inspite of our technological superiority, we do not possess the sixth sense all animals have, warning them of danger! But the paleolithic tribes living in the Andaman Islands still do, studying the secret of signals from the wind and the sea, and they were reported to have survived the tsunami by retreating into the interior of the island, into the forest!

No one who is sensitive to such issues can hope to remain optimistic or sanguine now that the elements themselves have joined the fray, along with the hostile human forces affecting the entire planet, though it is the smaller island nations, once again, that remain especially at risk in view of their geographical location in the midst of rising sea levels. Which makes it imperative for us to take a good, hard look at our situation in the world. Man has overrun the globe and, in the process, long lost the capacity to live with other species and even his own; not even the common stray dog is spared! The question that we must ultimately ask ourselves is this: are we going to leave to future generations, our own children, an inhospitable planet, leached of its once plentiful life giving resources, to become the veritable grave of human civilization? For ultimately, what place on earth remains free and protected from the threat of man’s toxic presence and his idealogies, not to speak of the pernicious effects of his technology? If one has to search for a place free  from violation, it is there only in the heart and mind, in our conscience and conscious- sness. Ultimately, the play is an appeal made to just those areas in hearts and minds, where compassion not cruelty, serenity not sadism, benevolence not butchery can benefit the human race, sadly the single species in overall charge and control of our one common, endangered habitat.

It will not be out of place to declare my immense satisfaction at being able to contribute to The World Conservation Union, IUCN, with proceeds from the play. As you know, a portion of the sale from every copy will go towards conservation efforts in Sri Lanka, a crying need globally today. For global warming which has doubled from the time of the Industrial Revolution is now showing a sudden sharp rise of late, leading to the unmistak- able conclusion that man’s presence is indeed a contributory factor in the emission of greenhouse gases. And today, from the earlier 14%, only a meagre 6% of the original forest cover is left to us, which we will exhaust in less than 40 years, it is estimated! Figures for the ongoing extinction taking place, of the once plentiful flora and fauna that the planet was endowed with, are estimated at a100 to1000 times the background rate or the natural rate of extinction, when species die out naturally. It is the presence of us, the humans, we cannot help but conclude, that has led to this imbalance. And now, we live in critical times when our own survival in turn is visibly threatened.  Which naturally led me to incorporate the theme of conservation into the story line, though the words that came to me cannot be taken for anything else but a dire warning! In the last resort, once the story is told the message does emerge - spelled out, as it is, even in the Prologue to the play delivered by the guiding spirit of the play, the Trees of the Forest!

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