Sinhala National Anthem & Mahagama Sekara

By Kusal Perera -March 24, 2015

Kusal Perara

Mahagama Sekera was a unique and a versatile artiste, rarely met in post independent Ceylon and Sri Lanka. He was poet, lyricist, novelist, painter, script writer and film director, all in one. In January 1976, his death was untimely and left many unpublished works. Some were collected into a volume of unpublished poems and songs, edited by Ranjith Amarakeerthi Palihapitiya in 1984 and published by Pradeepa Publishers.

The preface to this collection was a lecture delivered by Sekara on “Patriotism in Verse”. This Sekara lecture had this long excerpt on the Sinhala version of the “National Anthem”, with Sekara making his thoughts abundantly clear.

Mahagama Sekara

I picked this part from a facebook post and thought it would give those who debate over the holy right of singing the national anthem only in Sinhala, a different pedestal to stand on.

Sekara’s reading of the Sri Lanka National Anthem

When discussing “national pride” in film songs, we are compelled to refer to the “National Anthem”. I personally feel our national anthem has few flaws. What is evident when reading the lyrics of the national anthem is, Ananda Samarakoon’s creative ability had gradually eroded at the time of writing the national anthem. That is why these shortcomings are so evident. This song is not strong enough to create a heroic feeling and that of pride in us. What we hear in this national anthem is a “pleading”. It could also be the melody that makes it so. Also the repetitive phonetics. When there are too many such repetitions, any song sounds more like a lullaby. When we look at the words, this certainly is a pleading.

ශ්‍රී ලංකා මාතා… අප ‍ශ්‍රී…… ලංකා
නමෝ නමෝ නමෝ නමෝ මාතා……
සුන්දර සිරි බරිනි සුරැදි අති සෝබමාන ලංකා…..
ධාන්‍ය ධනය නෙක මල් පලතුරු පිරි
ජය භූමිය රම්‍යා
අප හට සැප සිරි සෙත සදනා…..
ජීවනයේ මාතා…..
පිළිගනු මැන අප භකිතී පූජා
නමෝ නමෝ මාතා…..
අප ශ්‍රී…. ලංකා
නමෝ නමෝ නමෝ නමෝ මාතා……
ඔබවේ අප විද්‍යා…… ඔබවේ අප සත්‍යා
ඔබවේ අප ශක්තී…… අප හද තුල භක්තී……
ඔබ අප ආලෝකේ…… අපගේ අනුප්‍රානේ
අප ජීවන වේ…… අප මුක්තිය ඔබවේ
නව ජීවන දෙමිනේ
නිතින අප පුබුදු කරන් මාතා….
ඥාන වීර්ය වඩවමින රැගෙන යනු මැන
ජය භූමි කරා….
එක මවක‍ෙග දරු කැල බැවිනා
යමු යමු වී නොපමා…..
ප්‍රේම වඩා සැම භේද දුරැ ල ලා….
නමෝ නමෝ මාතා….. අප ශ්‍රී…. ලංකා
නමෝ නමෝ නමෝ නමෝ මාතා……
අප ශ්‍රී…. ලංකා……. නමෝ නමෝ නමෝ නමෝ මාතා…Read More