'Yaksha Sutra'

We pretend to be ‘arahats’. In an instant we fail. There is hatred stored in corners of hearts. We always carry chips on shoulders. The difference is the degree to which anger heightens. There is a Yaka (in other words ‘devil’) within you. Even me.  A little less than a monstrous face, hairy bodies with long, sharp teeth. Ah, and big ears too! Wait, but their gleaming red eyes can resemble us at times. We are full of bloodlust like yaka.  In Hindu mythology, Yaksha is an unrighteous spirit. A mythology that made its way to other religions. Later, Yakshas was incorporated into Buddhism.

The balsa -like wood of Goda Kandura was shaped into Devils. They hang on lines and walls of shops with lolling tongues and popping eyes along the streets in Ambalangoda. They frightened me when I was a kid. As a habit I use to cover my eyes when passing these carnivorous creatures along the Galle Road. Over the centuries, yakkas and rakshas often lurked. As kids we’ve been threatened that devils will eat us if we do bad. Masks evolved in differing mask drama too.

Time and legend tells us about demon worshippers who conquered a part of this island. Rakshas were more mythical. They were shape changers. After the disappearance of yakkas and rakshas, early tales tell how inhabitants worshipped trees believing that yakshas and rakshas are living in trees.

I remember, a devil’s mask was hung just above the entrance to my uncle’s house in Rathnapura. On a rain threatening day, I got scared by the yakka spirit that hung on wall, which flared like fire just as a lightening strucked. The tusks that protrude from his upper lips terrified me. It was a wet April. Everybody who had arrived to Uncle’s place to celebrate Avurudu had fallen into beds. I was left alone in the living room playing.

Pic by Muditha Dilshan

Devil memories are written, to be reclaimed the next time the spirits manifest themselves. I’m still reminded of this whenever I visit Uncle in Rathnapura. I learned that devils were a living tradition, hung in houses to prevent danger and for protection.  Yakun natima or devil dance is not something designed to entertain. It’s a carefully crafted ritual that runs back to histories even before the existence of Buddhism in this country. There is disease causation and Ayurveda concepts combined with devils. Lasting up to twelve hours, it mixes inharmonious humor with deep rooted fears and anxieties to create a healing catharsis for both patient and community.

Twelve’o clock strikes. Crowd gathers. There is fire lighting the earthen arena. There is patient dazed with some psychological trauma or illness, mostly which cannot be cured. The drum beats , beats and beats again. Thick smoke rises. The devil enters the patient. The patient swirls and swings .Hands up. Screams and mourns. The drum beat intensifies. It is the mask or vesmuna that heightens the fear of both patient and audience. To the Sinhalese this disfigured, terrifying face represents both cause and cure. The traditional Ayurveda  studies state that illness and mental trauma is a result of demons that enter bodies and the devils can be summoned and expelled with the mask dance.

Cosmology of traditional SriLankan beliefs is a complex mixture of native vedic gods , spirits and demons , overlaid with imported Hindu and Buddhist deities , beliefs and practices .The foreground of all demons is a spiritual landscape where Buddha resides supreme . The day to day is a fight with danger from the yakku ( devils) and other malignant forces which seem to afflict man with  quarrels of every kind. In this world , life is nothing but a constant struggle against such demons.

Focusing this thinking , devil dances cure disease , help failing crops , prevent droughts , help troubled pregnancies . It moves through village and woods , where the threats of animals are resembled to the terror of devils and demons.

Science is growing taller. Devils and demons are now away from our popular consciousness.  Even villagers depend on English medicine and prescription. Masks in Ambalangoda  are only  a  showcase for tourists and outsiders who read the potency , vitality and the artistic aspect of kolam anddaha ata sanni yakku.

A photograph which I came across in Facebook took me back to my childhood rescues from  the vesmuna and yakku natima  which I have only pictured through books and TV.