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Famous Martin Wickramasinghe Quotes

“Primitive veddhas moulded images of women with full-blown breasts and legs. This was not to evoke sensuous pleasure, but as symbolic images related to their faith in religious fertility rites with the aim of increasing their return from harvesting and hunting. The modern artist magnifies the breasts of the woman in a painting in order to derive and to evoke erotic pleasure. That is how vulgarity enters their art.”

Art Pleasure Village Sinhalese Srilanka Uprooted

Book:Yuganthaya

Source: Yuganthaya

“It was not to flaunt feelings of superiority that the elders of the Kaisaruwatte family clung to the traditions of their patrician lineage, but for self-preservation of themseleves and their way of life, now declining in the face of social change. It was their inability to adapt to change due to the rigidity of their adherence to tradition, that was also the cause of their decline.”

Culture Village Traditions Sri Lanka Sinhalese

Author:Martin Wickramasinghe

“A woman anticipates danger by instinct, rather than inductive reasoning. Due to this, when faced with danger due to passionate feelings related to their basic needs, women are impelled by reasoning, conditioned by instincts acquired from family traditions and the conventions of her social stratum, much more than men are.”

Culture Women Village Traditions Sinhalese Srilanka Uprooted

Book:Gamperaliya

Source: Gamperaliya

“A village woman from a poor family may violate the code of propriety, not because of poverty, but because she has been the victim of the menace of male predators. A woman from a family of the gentry, would never be the victim of such intimidation. Moreover the women of the gentry were bonded to follow their code of conduct and not to transgress, by generations of breeding.”

Culture Women Village Sinhalese Srilanka Uprooted

Book:Gamperaliya

Source: Gamperaliya

“There's curd, but is it alright to eat curd after eating meat?" asked Weligama Hamine, placing the dish of vegetables in her hands on the table. "Our parents never allowed us to eat curd after meat." "There's no harm in eating curd, Amma," Aravinda said. "It may be a little harmful to eat curd after too much meat. Meats contains essential elements that take time to digest. This is also true of milk. That's why this belief would have grown. If we eat a large quantity of meat without rice, and follow with curd, there is a possibility of indigestion." Weligama Hamine accepted the professional knowledge of her son who had qualified in England. She however, did not abandon her own view completely.”

Culture Village Sinhalese Uprooted

Book:Yuganthaya

Source: Yuganthaya

“Why was Malin deliberately trying to hurt the feelings of his parents? Aravinda could not find an answer. Hurting his own parents' feelings was something alien to Aravinda. He lived among rural folk who encouraged children not to flout the wishes of parents and elders.”

Culture Village Parents And Children Sinhalese Uprooted

Book:Yuganthaya

Source: Yuganthaya

“The two qualities essential to a good man were honesty and compassion, Malin felt. His father lived his life as if he had rejected these qualities. Saviman Kabalana reasoned that loving kindness and compassion were weaknesses. Therefore he hid behind a mask that concealed his innate human qualities of love and kindness, both in his office and at home.”

Family Village Parents And Children Sinhalese Srilanka Uprooted

Book:Yuganthaya

Source: Yuganthaya

“Chamari: "Aravinda, have you been to Kataragama?" Aravinda: "No, I've never been there." Chamari: "What? That's unbelievable for someone born in Deniyaya!" Aravinda: "Going to Kataragama is not a custom of the rural folk. It is the middle class and wealthy urban people, not the villagers, who venerate the Kataragama god. He is the god of the urbanities. The villagers have now started to imitate the urban people." Chamari:"I thought even villagers used to go to Kataragama long ago." Aravinda: "No, It came from the rich urban Sinhalese of the towns who followed the rich Hindus.”

Culture Village Urban Sinhalese Srilanka Uprooted Kataragama

Book:Yuganthaya

Source: Yuganthaya

“Malin had been born and bred in an upper-class family. Was that the cause of his dissillusionment and bitterness with that way of life? The way he could have peace of mind therefore, was by detaching himself from that way of life and battling against it. Would Prince Siddharta have renounced the world if he had been born into poverty?”

Buddhism Village Buddha Sinhalese Srilanka Uprooted Prince Siddharta

Book:Yuganthaya

Source: Yuganthaya

“Can society be blamed for thinking that one who did not share another's sorrows, was not stirred by injustice, did not shed a tear for the dead, was not provoked by taunts and insults, is a barren, anti-social human being?”

Village Urban Life Sinhalese Srilanka Uprooted

Book:Yuganthaya

Source: Yuganthaya

“Simple and natural things are free from obscenity and vulgarity. The woman who lifts her breasts with a tight fitting brassier only reduces her feminine attractiveness by her efforts. The mature villager today is educated on the folk tales created by his ancestors who had drunk at the fount of experience. He enjoys, perhaps unconsciously, the beauty of woodland, river,rill, brook, montane forest, birds, beasts and fish. His likes and dislikes conditioned by nature are not complex. Simple things are devoid of unpleasantness. So, what he likes is not tainted with unpleasant qualities.”

Village Urban Life Sinhalese Srilanka

Book:Yuganthaya

Source: Yuganthaya

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Quotes: 21

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YuganthayaRelated source material

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GamperaliyaRelated source material