The cursing practice in Sri Lanka as a religious channel for keeping physical violence in control: the case of Seenigama
J.P. Feddema
Journal of Asian and African Studies Vol.32 No.3-4 Dec 1997 pp.202-222
COPYRIGHT @ E.J. Brill (The Netherlands)
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This study deals with the cursing services in Sinhala Buddhism in
Sri Lanka which some gods offer to the people. The author, who is
using the mimesis and scapegoat mechanism theory of Girard as a
point of reference, concentrates on the god Devol in the hamlet of
Seenigama on the south-west coast. Why do people ask gods to harm or
even kill their adversaries? Why is cursing on the increase in the
country, and how does Buddhism, a religion preaching "ahimsa"
(non-violence), cope with the cursing practices? The author
dissociates himself from the idea of some writers, that cursing is
identical to black magic. Cursing is certainly a form of violence,
but because it stops at one incident, without triggering endless
cycles, it can traditionally be seen as a religious channel for
violence, that helps to keep it in control, according to the author.
Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1997 E.J. Brill (The Netherlands)
The theme of my research, carried out in the early nineties in the
South of Sri Lanka in the so-called Low Country, focuses on creed
and practice concerning violence in Sinhala Buddhism. In this study
I deal with one aspect of this, namely the activities connected with
certain gods, especially Devol Deviyo in the hamlet Seenigama. These
serve the people by meting out punishments and other forms of
violence involving putting curses on particular indiviuals. My
questions are: how to explain this cursing ("awalada," "sapa
karanawa" or "pali gahanawa"), why do people ask the gods to harm or
even kill their adversaries and what role does Devol Deviyo play in
that practice? I will also briefly deal with the increase in cursing
since the sixties. The mimesis and scapegoat mechanism theory of
Rene Girard will be used as a reference. As a side issue I finally
deal with the question of how Buddhism, a religion preaching
"ahimsa" (non-violence) tried (and tries) to cope with the practices
of cursing relating to some gods who, like the demons, are all
"placed under the supreme jurisdiction of the Buddha" (Sarachandra,
1958, p. 114); consequently all rituals and beliefs are "integrated
into a Buddhist cosmology" (Gombrich, 1971, p. 5). Cursing, widely
practised by Buddhists, is part of those Buddhist rituals and
beliefs and therefore can not be dismissed as "folk religion."
Obeyesekere, in his study of 1975, unfortunately identifies cursing
with sorcery and cites besides Seenigama, the Hindu and the Moslim
shrines in Muneswaram and Kahatapitiya. My study however deals only
with the ceremonies of cursing in the Buddhist shrine of Devol
Deviyo at Seenigama (meaning sugar village). I also did some
research at other shrines to Devol in Sri Lanka. I conducted my
research by the method of "participatory observation" and by
interviewing people in the concerned area, i.e. along the south-west
coast. The most important subjects of research were naturally the
supplicants and priests at the shrines. Some of these and other
informants could speak English. Otherwise I was helped by an
interpreter. The myths around Devol Deviyo I learned from my
informants. The Weeragoda story of Devol killing his child one can
also find in Weerakoon (1985, p. 107). In 1993, 1994 and 1995 I
visited the Seenigama shrine at different times.
I will first describe the activities of the gods involving cursing
and their background and then concentrate on Devol Deviyo. Generally
speaking the Sinhala Buddhist gods seek the well-being of the people
and abstain from assistance in "kodivina" (black magic) and other
forms of harming, hurting or even killing people. Gods however often
have also their "dark" or - in the words of the average Sinhala
Buddhist - their "bad" side. That does not make them less popular.
The Sinhala Buddhists actually like gods with a "bad" side, because
it makes them feel more at ease with the negative sides of
themselves. The great popularity of the god Kataragama
(Skanda/Murugan) is not least due to the fact that he is known as a
warrior and that he has a concubine or a second wife besides his
first wife (Gombrich and Obeyesekere, 1988, p. 191). A god who like
Buddha appears too holy (one can also say too light or too
"ahimsa"/non-violent), e.g., Vishnu, the protector of Buddhism in
Sri Lanka (Gombrich and Obeyesekere, 1988, p. 71), is not easy for
the people to approach about ordinary problems. The distance between
such a god and the people has become too great.
There is on the other hand also the moral influence of Buddhism in
society. In this respect preference should be given to the gods
without "dark" sides. This shows that there is something
contradictory in society. The same applies to the curses of gods
like Getabaru, Devol Deviyo, Kadavera, Suniyam and Kali.(1) Every
Buddhist subscribes to the five precepts, including the first one of
"refraining from killing living beings" (Dhammananda, 1987, p. 163).
People on the other hand can hardly abstain from taking revenge
("paliganima" or "paliyak"), if someone has done something wrong to
them, even if that means badly harming or killing the adversary
through cursing. Public opinion however condemns the practice of
cursing. Getabaru for example is one of the "dark" faces of the god
Kataragama, but due to the karmic effect of the good deeds of the
Buddhists the latter has risen so much in the hierarchy of the gods,
that it would be better not to remind the people any more of that
"dark" side. In view of this Getabaru therefore withdrew to an
isolated place on a mountain in the interior near Morawaka on the
road from Galle to Deniyaya. There in isolation and, as it were, far
from the official Buddhist world he exercises now his despised yet
well appreciated powers. People fear and therefore also respect his
power to curse.
The case of Kadavera is even more ambiguous. He too is one of the
"dark" faces of Kataragama, but his place still is in the town of
Kataragama. His power to curse cannot be exercised inside the (big)
shrine of the god Skanda, but is carried out in secret outside the
shrine at a place at the Menik river, where he also receives "billa
puja" (animal sacrifices) (Feddema, 1995, p. 143). This especially
is embarassing to many Sinhala Buddhists. Today they consider
Kataragama unlike Kali as a national Buddhist god, since the shrine
a few decades ago completely fell into the hands of the Sinhala
Buddhists (see also Gombrich and Obeyesekere, 1988, p. 99 and
Chapter 5). Knowing that Buddha has condemned "billa," they feel
somewhat ashamed that Kadavera is accepting "billa" from people,
especially businessmen, and exercising harmful powers near or at
least not far from the Kataragama shrine. They often try to deny it
or to cover it up, when I ask for information about it.
Amiguity of Devol Deviyo
We see the same ambiguity concerning the god Devol in Seenigama on
the south-west coast. He has a shrine ("dewale") on the beach, where
he performs his blessing together with the goddess Pattini. However,
about 400 metres off shore on a tiny and hardly accessible island he
performs (via the "yakka"/"demon" Diwi) his cursing. This indeed is
ambiguous. On the one hand Devol Deviyo likes to preserve the image
of a respected Buddhist god. On the other hand, he wants to continue
to respond to appeals for cursing, which promote his fame in the
country.
A tacit compromise settles the problem. People who want to pray,
bring an offering ("puja") or make a vow ("bara"), come to the
shrine on the beach. People who come for "cursing," go to the
island. They have to take the trouble to go there or to wait for a
while, if the sea is rough. It is outside the official Buddhist
world as it were. From the land one cannot see what happens on the
island, because a stone wall has been erected there to ensure
privacy. For the hamlet this seems acceptable. I think of the case
of Weeragoda, a village nearby, where another shrine of Devol Deviyo
is located. In 1992 the "kapuwaraya" (the priest/servant of gods,
abbreviated to "kapua") of Seenigama looked after the shrine of
Weeragoda because of a temporary vacancy. In the beginning he
sometimes also did cursing on request, until this evoked protests
from the population. Cursing has a negative effect on the
environment and is therefore bad for the village, the people argued.
In Seenigama this negative influence has been neutralized by the
narrow stretch of the sea, people think.
Devol is a local god. He is in charge of a large part of the Low
Country along the south-west coast. He is reputed to especially look
after the owners of fishing boats and (recently also) the owners of
transport vehicles, such as buses and vans. In the fishing season
the boat owners ("aithikaru") together with their "kamkaru," the
often poor fishermen who cooperate with the "aithikaru" (Feddema,
1988a), go at least once a month to the shrine of Devol Deviyo to
offer some "puja."
The shrine is situated on the main road between Colombo and Galle.
The passing buses and vans stop briefly to put some coins in the
till, kept beside the road at the entrance to the shrine area, and
worship. Every month an amount of about fifty kilos of coins is
collected. It shows the magic power of Devol Deviyo, people believe.
"He can do big things," a young man in one of the surrounding
villages told me. People may sometimes qualify his cursing trade as
"paw" (bad), but they still respect it, because it is a sign of the
power he has and which they might need or have to avoid one day.
In the mythology around Devol one sees his magical power too. He is
a son of the king Rajasinghe of the town Kudupura, as the myth
tells. The king banishes him together with six of his brothers
because of their dissolute behaviour. The seven brothers in vain try
to land from their ship at different places in Sri Lanka. At last
they are shipwrecked near Seenigama. With the help of the god Sakra
and a raft they reach the coast safely. However the goddess Pattini,
who was in charge of that area then, puts seven 'mountains' of fire
in front of them.(2) The brothers throw their ornaments into the
fire, trying to change fire into water in order to help at least
Devol survive. Pattini allows him to stay. It is unclear what
happened to the six brothers. Devol receives the consent of Pattini
- the god Skanda helped him with that - to ask offerings from the
people in exchange for healing sick people at seven places:
Seenigama, Unawatuna, Udulgapitiya (Dodanduwa), Weeragoda, Gintota,
Ambalangoda and Panadura.
The Weeragoda myth is also an illustration of Devol's magical power.
Weeragoda is about 6 miles from Seenigama. Devol goes there to live
at the house of his concubine. Every morning he walks to Seenigama
and comes back with rice, fish and a few coconuts. The woman wonders
how he manages to do this. They have a son. When he is old enough,
she asks him to follow his father and find out what is going on. The
boy tells her after coming back, that his father is making rice from
beach sand and fish with his walking-stick and gets coconuts by
commanding a few coconut trees in Seenigama to bend down to him.
Devol sees this as a betrayal of his secret, flies into a rage,
kills his son and departs. He leaves his walking stick behind, which
grows into an imposing and very rare tree for that country. It is
remarkable that neither Weerakoon nor any of my informants questions
Devol's killing of the innocent boy, which is usually the case in
myths about scapegoats (Girard, 1986, pp. 34 and 143). People are so
impressed by Devol's magical power, that it seems everything he does
is taken for granted.
The Threatening Competition with God Kataragama
Devol Deviyo, though perhaps "viewed by the Buddhists of that area
as a major deity in their pantheon" (Obeyesekere, 1975, p. 7), is
still a local god, who has not (yet) a place in the official
Buddhist pantheon. Being a local and not a national god is a
drawback, more so today since distance hardly plays any role with
the modern means of transport. It is therefore not easy for him to
compete with the very popular pantheon god Kataragama (Skande),
although the town Kataragama is somewhat on the periphery of the
country. Today nearly everbody undertakes a pilgrimage to Kataragama
once a year for religious and/or recreational purposes. Orthodox
Buddhists, who do not bother so much about the gods, also go in
order to give alms ("dana") to the many beggars who flock there. The
most suitable periods are August and April, festival and new year
months. The pilgrimage is often a pleasure trip for relatives,
friends or people of the same village, as well as being religious.
Devol Deviyo cannot compete with all that, although his "dewale,"
like nearly all Devol shrines, has a festival for a week in August.
Most of them recently added innovations copied from Kataragama like
"fire walking" and the "kavadi"-dance, both under the guidance of a
"kapua." The dance is very popular among the young people, because
it is often for them the only chance to have contacts with
contemporaries of the opposite sex. Two Devol shrines (Unawatuna and
Panadura) also made Suniyam their patron god. This is an astute
decision, because recently the god Suniyam has become a rising star
among the Sinhalese (Obeyesekere, 1986 and Feddema, 1996). In
Unawatuna the "kapua," besides his general work in the Devol shrine,
even allows Suniyam to take possession ("avesa") of him in order to
be able to help people with their problems as an "avesa sami." That
is a good innovation in order to attract more clients, because the
"avesa sami" is becoming popular in the country and it is trendy to
consult him. The Devol shrine at Unawatuna is still flourishing,
while the ones in Udulgapithiya and Gintota have nearly come to a
standstill. Of the seven Devol shrines the position of the one in
Seenigama is by far the best. This is neither due to innovations
imitated from Kataragama, although the festivals such as "fire
walking" in August, attract thousands of people, nor to the
introduction of Suniyam as the patron god of the shrine. The main
cause is the practice of cursing.
Cursing is a centuries old tradition in Seenigama, but generally it
was invoked by the people no more than a few times a month. At
present there are more than 20 occurences of cursing per day on the
tiny island, much more than the average number of people coming for
the ordinary "puja" or "bara." Traditionally Wednesday and Saturday
are the proper days for cursing, but the demand today is so great
that it is not possible anymore to limit it to those two days. The
increase came to a climax in the eighties. Obeyesekere mentions for
the early seventies an estimate of 1 per day, but I wonder whether
this is not rather too low, also because he gives a much higher
estimate for the Kali shrine at Muneswaram, 11 per day (1975, p. 9).
The "kapua" Lionel de Silva, who started his work in Seenagamma in
1968, has given me an estimate of 60 per month in 1970. That would
mean an average of about 2 per day for that year already. He
mentions a same average of 2 per day for sixties. For the year 1975
de Silva however mentions the number of 150 per month, meaning about
5 per day. In 1980 according de Silva 300 people per month (about an
average of 10 per day) came to the shrine to request cursing. Since
then he mentions an increase of 100 per month every five year. In
1985 there was an average of 400 per month (13 per day), in 1990 an
average of 500 per month (17 per day) and in 1994 an average of 600
per month (20 per day). I could only check these data partly for the
years 1994 and 1995. I visited the shrine on Wednesday 7 July 1994
and counted then 22 clients for cursing. Wednesday is like Saturday
a day people prefer for cursing, as I said before. I needed more
indications of the average number of clients. In November I came
again and then over 5 days from 12th till 16th of November counted
an average of 17.4 per day. (Saturday 12-11: 16; Sunday 13-11: 14;
Monday 14-11: 8; Tuesday 15-11: 9 and Wednesday 16-11: 26.) The
total number of clients for cursing on those five days was 73. Of
them 50 were males and 23 females. Thursday the 18th of November I
missed. Friday the 19th was a "Poya"-day, the monthly Buddhist
celebration day on full moon. None came that day. Cursing on a
"Poya"-day is not done. Also the priests will not serve the people
for cursing on that day. On the day after "Poya"-day there were 26
clients for cursing, 17 males and 9 females. That was Saturday
20-11. On Sunday 21-11 I counted 21, of whom 7 females. Especially
the number on Sunday 21-11-'94, as a Sunday not being a prefered day
for cursing, could be an indication, that de Silva was not very far
wrong with his estimate of 20 per day in 1994.
At the beginning of 1995 and in December of that year I visited the
shrine in Seenigama again. In the week of 25th of February till 3rd
of March I counted 195 clients, of whom 84 were females. (Saturday
25-2: 47; Sunday 26-2: 32; Monday 27-2: 22; Tuesday 28-2: 51;
Wednesday 1-3: 25; Thursday 2-3: 6; Friday 3-3: 12.) That would mean
an average of nearly 28 per day. Especially on Saturdays it is very
busy for the priests. On three Saturdays in March I counted more
than 30 clients each day, meaning 38, 36 and 33 on respectively 4-3,
11-3 and 18-3. On the 16th of March it was "Poya"-day again. That
affected also the number on Wednesday 15-3, there being only 12
clients, of whom 5 were females. The day before a "Poya"-day is also
not preferred for cursing. Friday 17-3, the day after a "Poya"-day
also had a low number of clients, there being 6, of whom 3 were
females. That could indicate, that the average of 28 per day on the
basis of the data I collected in the week of 25-2 to 3-3, could be
high. On the other hand in that week there was also a day, which was
not preferred - the 1st of March. Nobody likes to curse on the first
day of the month, as it is not an auspicious day for this. It was
however a Wednesday. Maybe because of that as many as 25 clients
came that day. It nevertheless was relatively low in comparison with
the previous day, i.e. Tuesday 28-2, when 51 clients came, of whom
22 were females. The figure of 51 for a Tuesday is abnormally high.
It would appear that many of them came, because they wanted to avoid
the first of the month. These data suggest an average of 25 per day.
The first months of the year however seem popular for cursing. In
the week of Sunday the 10th to Saturday the 16th of December 1995 I
counted a number of 136, of whom 52 were females (Sunday 10-12: 12;
Monday 11-12: 13; Tuesday 12-12: 11; Wednesday 13-12: 27; Thursday
14-12: 14; Friday 15-12: 18; Saturday 16-12: 41). That would mean an
average of 19.3 per day in that week. My data for 1995 suggest
anyhow an average of 20 to 25 per day for that year. That is
certainly much more than the 1 per day Obeyesekere mentioned for the
early seventies and also more or less in line with what the "kapua"
de Silva estimated for 1994. The number of priests also reflects the
increase in cursing. In the sixties there was one "kapua" at the
shrine of Seenigama, while in the seventies and the early eighties
two priests were employed. In 1986 a third one came. Since then
three full-time priests work at the shrine, joined in 1994 by a
fourth one on a part-time basis.
Methods of Cursing
At the Devol shrine in Unawatuna the clients for cursing activities
are just as numerous as the clients who ask for blessings to help
them find a job, win someone's love, or become pregnant, or to aid
them with visa problems or lack of energy. The cursing in Unawatuna
(about 3 or 4 cases per day) however is not done in the name of
Devol Deviyo, but of Suniyam, the patron god of the shrine. That is
also true in the Panadura shrine. In Unawatuna as well as in
Panadura a tiny island is not available and the "kapua" in both
cases does his best to prevent the leader of the shrine (Devol
Deviyo) from getting a bad name in the Buddhist environment. This
cover-up of the cursing practices, being carried out at a Devol
shrine however, doubtless with material profit, is rather underhand.
Cursing is on the increase. That the Hindu goddess Kali recently has
become popular among Sinhala Buddhists is not unrelated to her
cursing activities. A further indication is the "polgahanawa"-ritual
in the shrines. People take a coconut with a small flame on top of
it in their hands holding it at chest height, bring it above their
heads and then throw it with force to the ground onto a piece of
cement or a big stone, which is placed there for that purpose. If
they manage to smash the coconut, it is primarily meant to reinforce
the wishes they have laid before the gods. It can however also
indicate a wish to harm an adversary. Cursing is done in this way in
Unawatuna and Panadura. In most other shrines cursing cannot
officially be done, but today more and more people are using the
"polgahanawa"-ritual to express an informal cursing.
Seenigama however uses a special stone ("gala") for the cursing
practice, or rather two stones, a large and a small. The person
concerned grinds red chilli, black pepper, white onion and mustard
with the small stone on the big stone, while he or she utters the
words of his or her curse. The "gala" itself is not important,
because it is, just like chilli and pepper, part of every household
kitchen. The "gala" in Seenigama however now has a special power in
the minds of the people, having been used for so many years for
cursing. The most important aspect of this institution is the
cursing itself. It is performed orally. The client has to pronounce
the words of his or her curse, instructed by the "kapua," who sits
near him or her. The "kapua" first asks the client to tell him what
he or she wants to happen to the adversary whether known or not:
death, a serious mental illness, an accident, broken legs or being
forced to leave the village of residence. The kapua then says: "In
the name of Devol I call punishment and evil over . . ." and asks
the client to repeat this or use other cursing words while grinding
the chilli etc. on the "gala." He (she) often also says: "May you
die young and be reduced to ashes" or "May you not prosper but
perish" or more in general or indirectly: "May those who are jealous
of me perish." He (she) must say it quite a few times. Repetition of
the curse on different occasions is important. The "kapua" therefore
asks the client not to limit his visit to the island to one time,
but to come three times. Only then can he guarantee the effect of
the curse. Most people comply and pay 265 Sri Lanka rupees
altogether (if one curses two times the fee is R 175,- and one time
R 100,-). The monthly income of the shrine from the cursing fees in
1994 was roughly R 52,000. In 1995 the average monthly income was
about R 61,000.
Revenge of Kuveni's Son, the Scapegoat Diwi?
Although cursing may formally be conducted in the name of Devol
Deviyo, the real work is done by Diwi-yakka. Diwi is an interesting
figure. He is according to the Seenigama myth a son of the Aryan
prince Vijaya, the founder of the Sinhala nation, and the Yakkha
queen Kuveni (Gunawardena, 1985, p. 60). The Yakkha were the main
origional inhabitants of Ceylon and had both kingdoms and cities
(Wijesekera, 1987, p. 67 and 1986, p. 7). They were subjugated and
later on demonized by the Aryan conquerers (Feddema, 1995, p.
133/134; Wijesekera, 1987, p. 360). Demons or evil spirits are today
called "yakku" (singular: "yakka"). They can be seen as scapegoats,
who are still resentful about what happened to them (Feddema, 1995,
pp. 134, 145). Diwi is a special scapegoat, because the founder of
the Sinhala nation killed him when he took the side of his mother
Kuveni. She was ill-treated and chased away by Vijaya after he had
made use of her and her love in order to destroy and subjugate the
Yakkha. When Devol came from Trivandrum (South India) to Ceylon,
Diwi helped him together with eleven other "yakku" to land at
Seenigama and cross safely over the "mountains" of fire that Pattini
had put in front of Devol. Was it a kind of revenge or resistance on
the part of Diwi to help a newcomer from South India against the new
rulers of Ceylon including the goddess Pattini? Devol in any case up
to now sees in Diwi his right hand or main servant. In every "Devol
Natuma," a religious dance feast in the honour of Devol, 12 oil
lamps burn constantly for Diwi and the other (eleven) "yakku" to
thank them for their assistance during the landing of Devol.
Also remarkable is the Telme-dance at the Devol Deviyo feast. The
story of that dance is as follows: Vijaya became in his
reincarnation a king in India. He had a small lake in front of his
palace on wich floated a large lotus flower. One day there was a
strong fragrance emanating from the lotus. The king could not resist
the scent and went to the lake placing his nose very near to the
flower. Kuveni was present in the flower, reborn as a baby frog.
When the nose of the king was near the lotus flower, she crept via
his nose into the head of the reborn Vijaya, causing him a constant
headache.
This story does not need much explanation. If Kuveni is still
vengeful, it is clear that her son the "yakka" Diwi does not mind
harming or even killing Sinhalese people, after they have been
cursed in the name of Devol Deviyo. The people know that a "yakka"
who has the sanction of a god can be very violent (Feddema, 1995, p.
136). They are also aware of the magical power of Devol Deviyo. No
wonder that the people fear the cursing power of the Devol-Diwi
team.
A "yakka" may not object to harming or killing people, but that is a
different matter for Buddhists. One becomes a Buddhist by taking
refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha and subscribing to the five
precepts. The first is: "I will abstain from killing living beings."
It also implies abstaining from torturing and tormenting. Cursing is
a deliberate deed, causing people harm, torment or death. An
important justification for cursing has always been that it was
directed at punishing "bad" people, especially thieves. Buddhists
certainly can understand that, as theft has now increased markedly.
Cursing then is seen as an alternative to the modern system of being
punished by the police or the state. Using this rationalisation,
even good Buddhists participate in the practice of cursing.
The Case of Mr. T.
The case of Mr. T from a village about 30 miles north of Galle and
nearby Seenagama can be seen as a typical example. He is a middle
class Buddhist 60 years of age. He believes in the existence of the
gods and the demons, but normally ignores them. In 1991 someone
broke into his house during his absence and stole R 2000,-, some
jewellery belonging to his wife and the official property deeds of
two pieces of land he owns. The loss of the deeds especially worried
him. He reported the theft to the police. Neighbours told him they
saw a person from the village near his house on the day of the
break-in. He was probably the burglar, but proof was lacking. Mr. T.
rejected the idea of going to the police again, but told some
friends and neighbours that he planned to go to Seenigama. If he
went to the police again, the suspect would soon find out that he
was accusing him of the theft. If he was really guilty, he could
take revenge e.g. by destroying the two deeds. For this reason Mr.
T. chose to go to Seenigama: "I wanted to avoid the suspect's
getting the feeling of being chased by me. By going to Seenigama I
acted "innocently." I only told the people that I was going to
Seenigama. The suspect had no proof that I went there with the
intention of cursing, let alone with the purpose of cursing him."
On the island of Seenigama the "kapua" asked Mr. T. whether he
wanted the death of the suspect. His answer was: "I don't care if he
dies due to the cursing, but the most important thing for me is to
get back the deeds to the two pieces of land." The "kapua" promised
him that they will be returned to him before a certain date (9th of
September 1991). He hardly believed it, but he nevertheless made a
"bara" (vow) at the shrine on the beach, that he would give seven
oil lamps to Devol Deviyo, if the deeds were returned within the
promised time. One day before the fixed date Mr. T. visited
Seenigama again. The "kapua" answered him: "Wait, it is not yet the
9th of September." The next day just after his midday sleep, someone
reported to him that in a paddy field nearby documents had been
found. They proved to be the deeds. The money and jewellery were
still missing. He did not mind so much, because he was glad that he
had his deeds back. At about midnight someone knocked at the door. A
young man about 27 years of age apologized for the burglary and
offered biscuits. He was accompanied by a friend. Mr. T. accepted
the biscuits and gave the two persons tea. The next day he fulfilled
his vow and gave the biscuits to the "kapua." Since then the thief
never appeared in the village again. The moral condemnation by the
community of what he had done was such that he could not live there
any longer.
Mr. T. strongly believes that it was due to Devol Deviyo or his
servant Diwi that the young man apologized to him and left the
village. In this case exile and not death was the punishment. Mr. T.
comments: "I did not exclude death, because going to Seenigama
implies that risk, but retrospectively I do not regret that he has
not been killed, but was forced to live in exile." Death or exile, I
asked him whether that is a Buddhist way to take revenge. Mr. T.:
"No, Buddhists should leave revenge to the gods or to the effect of
karma during this life or for the next birth of the evil-doer. I am
aware of that, but we Buddhists mostly still wish to take revenge
ourselves and want retaliation in the short term."
The fact that a god is carrying out the revenge helps people of
course not to be troubled by the Buddhist conscience in this matter.
An middle-aged farmer from Koggala, whom I met at the shrine in
Seenigama, had big problems with some neighbours. When I asked him,
whether participating in cursing did not worry him, being a
Buddhist, he answered: "No, it is not contrary to Buddhism to wish
someone's death in the case of cursing, because it is the god, who
does the job and he will of course look to it, that nobody will be
harmed or killed unrightfully."
This "divine punishment of an evil-doer" seems effective, because
people believe in it and because of the social context of the
villages. Every villager soon gets to know all the village gossip,
if someone tells the neighbours that he or she is going to visit the
shrine in Seenigama for a special purpose. Thieves and other
evildoers often become very worried, which shows they are under
social control, have a religious conscience or believe in the divine
power of punishment. "Maintenance of anonymity is very important for
the clients," according to Obeyesekere, who adds: "Hence people who
live in the vicinity of a shrine rarely visit it" (1975, p. 5). My
research gives a different picture. Black magic is practised in
secret, but cursing is mostly not. People areoften very open about
it, not having any objection to publicity; indeed the contrary is
true, as the case of Mr. T. shows. People from nearby villages,
Seenigama included, certainly also come to the shrine. Only
high-class people from the cities often feel ashamed, that they
participate in the cursing practice. They sometimes keep their names
secret at Seenigama. In general however people are eager to tell
others what kind of injustice someone has done to them and that they
therefore went to the shrine of Seenigama to invoke a punishment on
him/her.
The negative sides of this "religious system of punishment" are the
lack of an independent judge or an adequate judicial system and the
fact that suspects are always seen to be guilty. One takes the law
into his or her own hands and can do so because a god or priest is
prepared to help him or her in exchange for some money. The suspect
in Girard's terms can sometimes become the scapegoat for various
frustrations. With the help of a god but without an open and fair
trial the scapegoat then is exorcized. This is a more serious
consequence, if the scapegoat is not a thief or another evil-doer,
but just an adversary.
Other cases might illustrate this. One day in March 1995 I was
allowed entrance to the small island, when the cursing took place.
It was crowded on the tiny island. About 15 people (mostly
accompanied by relatives and/or friends) requested the service of
the priest at the same time. In order to save time, the priest
invited all to come together in the small shrine to participate in
the religious ritual antecedent to the cursing. The music of a horn
was heard, presents were given, oil lamps were lit and the priest
asked Devol Deviyo, the resident of the Seenigama Dewale, as he
explicitly called him a few times, to help those troubled persons
against their adversaries. After that the priest went to the "gala"
(stone) just outside the shrine, where the real cursing started for
the persons concerned, one after the other. Patiently they waited
for each other and later on for the boat to bring them back to the
mainland. During that time I managed to ask all of them to tell me
the reason for their coming. Here is a brief summary.
1) A middle-aged businessman, a local politician from Colombo was
killed by 6 men with knifes. The suspected wrongdoers had all been
caught and were waiting in jail for their trial. The widow did the
cursing and the sister of the murdered man read the names of the
six, who were charged for murder. The husband of this sister was
also present. For them the trial was not enough. They wanted the six
persons, whom they call murderers, to become mad too.
2) A woman of about 45 years of age without children from a suburb
of Colombo came, because her husband was living with another woman,
who lived at her parents' home. She still loved her husband and
wanted him back. The cursing was not directed at him, but at the
lady and also her parents, because they allowed him there to spend
the nights with their daughter, she said. She wished them to die.
3) A man of about 35 years of age had a farm of 29 toddy-palm trees
in a village near Galle. From them he produces toddy on a commercial
basis. Someone destroyed the blossoms of his trees. He does not know
the wrongdoer, but it must have been a person, who is jealous of
him, he said.
4) A man from a village nearby was building a house. While the house
was half ready and couldnot be locked, someone took the opportunity
to steal a door and a window frame. The wrongdoer was not known.
5) A high-class lady from Kandy was here with two relatives, because
her only son, a student, was being bewitched by or at least in the
grip of the family of his girlfriend, who influenced him not to
study and not to come anymore to her as his mother, she said. Caste
or class differences would not have bothered her, if there had been
"true love," but this family according to the lady had no manners
and was just manipulating her son. To destroy that family seemed the
only way to get him back.
6) A woman of 33 years of age from a suburb of Colombo wanted her
husband to die, because he had left her and their baby of one year
for another woman after three years of marriage. Her husband did
this for the money, she said, because that woman is rich, having a
job with a salary.
7) A cinnamon farmer and his wife from Embalapitiya were robbed of
jewellary, R 3000,- in cash and a video cassette in their own house
by four mashed men, who tied the man's hands behind his back. They
were not so concerned about the stolen goods, they wanted revenge
and the unknown thieves to be killed.
8) A farmer of about 55 years of age from Koggala had three
complaints. One neighbour was a drunkard who constantly shouted
loudly at him. Another neighbour had destroyed a gate on his land.
Thirdly 5 young boys had set fire to the leaves of some plants from
the forest, which he had spread out in the sun for drying. They were
all jealous of him, he said, because he was progressing economically
and they were not.
9) A retired Navy officer and his wife from Ambelangoda had come,
because someone had damaged their beautiful house by throwing big
stones onto the roof at night at about 4 o'clock. He called himself
an innocent person. He therefore had no idea who could have done
this. He asked for a punishment and that it would not happen again.
10) A woman of about 28 from a suburb of Colombo had been deserted
by her husband, who now lived with another woman, who was still
living with her parents. He took their four year-old child with him.
An elderly sister accompanied her. She wanted husband and child back
and cursed the other woman and her parents.
11) A farmer of about 40 years of age, who called himself a
relatively poor man, from a village near Galle, had a small piece of
land of about 6 acres next to the land of a wealthy powerful farmer
"with vehicles etc." Recently the latter with a number of men had
just occupied the land. The police did not help him. For him there
was no other option than to curse the evil-doer.
12) A man and wife of about 45 years of age from Ratnapura, who
owned and ran a flourishing cafe-restaurant at their house, had been
robbed of more than R 300,000, a watch and a camera. Burglars came
at night, breaking a window. The owners discovered the robbery only
the next morning.
13) A man of about 50 years of age from a village of south-east Sri
Lanka had a severe quarrel with his wife. She ran away and was not
prepared to return. He had come there, because he wanted her to be
punished for that and at the same time he wished her to return soon.
14) A middle-class man from Colombo and his wife had come there,
because they had a land dispute with the sister who lived in the
next-door house. They had lost a court case about that, but they had
started an appeal, because the judge in their opinion had overlooked
an important detail of the case. They were not able to wait till the
Appeal court had given its judgement. The sister was acting injustly
towards them, they said. They asked Devol Deviyo to use his power to
get her change her mind.
15) A woman from Colombo, who had a secretarial job at the
university, was living with her brother. His purse with R 3500,- had
been stolen, after he had left it near an open window in his house.
The thief, a neighbour, had shared the monney with 2 friends and
together they had spent most of it on drinking and eating. One of
them was not satisfied with his part. He had therefore revealed to
the brother and sister under condition of secrecy the name of the
thief. The woman, a Christian, now on behalf of the brother was
cursing the thief. She was combining her trip to the shrine with a
few days vacation in Radgama, a village 30 miles south of Seenigama.
It was not because of the lost money, she was there. She wanted him
to break his legs and to openly acknowledge to them, that he had
stolen the purse, she says.
These cases speak for themselves. Cheating, e.g. borrowing money,
but not returning it, and evidence, that someone is practising black
magic against you, can be a reason for cursing too. People also go
to Seenigama, if a girl has fallen in love with a man who is not
acceptable to her family. Cursing such a man is then justified by
picturing him as a villain. Businessmen and politicians are known to
visit Seenigama in order to try to eliminate rivals. That at least
is the rumour. It is however highly doubtful, whether they then
would succeed in those intentions, unless the rival was at fault
towards them. Competition sometimes indeed was and is a motive to
try to curse a rival, no matter whether the chance of any effect is
small. Traditionally fishermen sometimes cursed other fishermen,
because their boat attracted more fish than their own boat. There
however must be a well-founded reason for cursing. Someone must have
done something wrong towards you. If not, one might be tempted to
give false evidence. The cursing then will not help or even have a
boomerang effect on the curser, my informants stress. A kind of
injustice must be at stake. It makes no sense to curse innocent
people.
Cursing is not Identical with Sorcery
To think otherwise is to confuse cursing with black magic
("kodivina"). Obeyesekere seems to do that. In the article cited in
Ethnology the word sorcery is used many times in this respect and he
speaks of "public sorcery shrines" (1975, p. 5). Seenigama is indeed
a public shrine, but certainly not a sorcery shrine. Cursing cannot
be identified with sorcery. Buddhists tell me that in their view
cursing is a minor thing in comparison with sorcery. Anyhow, there
are quite some differences between the two.
1) Cursing is a matter of words and done by mouth, while sorcery is
more a matter of action and is performed by hand, e.g., by putting
some charmed material into a pot or on the ground near the house of
the person one wants to harm.
2) In the practice of cursing one supplicates a god or gods and with
sorcery one tries to enlist the help of demons.
3) The specialists concerned with cursing and sorcery are not the
same. Cursing is led by a "kapua" (priest) and sorcery is performed
by a "kattadiya" (demon specialist). Moreover the "kapua" is only
intervening between the god and the curser. The latter indeed does
the actual cursing himself, while in practising sorcery the client
is only paying the money; all the work is done by the "kattadiya."
Cursing is financially also much cheaper than practising sorcery.
4) In the cursing process the name of the wrongdoer, whether known
or not, is often not mentioned. The priest might know the person or
even be related to him or her. There is also no need to do so,
because the god will know. In the practice of sorcery the names of
the person to be harmed are always mentioned, and often written down
too. The attack is direct, while in the cursing process the
accusation is often more indirect.
5) Cursing is a reaction and has to do with retaliation, while
sorcery is an action towards a person, based on hatred and jealousy.
Moreover sorcery mostly starts a cycle of violence, while cursing
does the opposite: the cycle of violence stops after the cursing.
This last is probably the most important difference between cursing
and sorcery. It shows that cursing is not only to be seen as
violence, but also as a religious channel for violence that helps to
keep it in control. Girard sees judical punishment as embodying
revenge in principle, but as infinitely superior in practice to the
extent that it represents the "last word" of violence. The
punishment is not carried out by the injured party, but by a
"transcendent" entity, the State, against which no further revenge
will be taken. The same seems to apply for the practice of cursing.
There is no counter-cursing. The wrongdoer cannot take revenge and
will not take revenge, because he or she feels guilty, the more so
by being punished by a god. Sorcery may be "a canalisation of
aggressive impulses of individuals" (Obeyesekere, 1975, 11), cursing
however is in nature a religious channel for keeping physical
violence in check.
Cursing remains itself no doubt a form of violence, just like
sorcery. It therefore is understandable, that Devol Deviyo does not
carry out the retaliatory violence directly; he lets the "yakka"
Diwi do the dirty work for him. Thus, just as the god helps the
believer escape blame, so the "yakka" helps the god escape blame.
There is however also another side. Because cursing violence tends
to stop at one incident without triggering endless cycles, there is
a strong analogy with the judicial system, with the god playing the
role of the transcendent entity, the State.
If a judicial system is completely lacking, the religious system is
according to Girard "essentially functional in preventing the
vicious circle of mimetic violence" (1990, p. 56), e.g. by the
"lesser" violence of sacrificial substitution (Girard, 1984, pp. 17
and 103). Today in Sri Lanka however the judicical system is not
lacking. Effective or not, it punishes wrongdoers and forbids blood
revenge. The idea of revenge by taking the law into one's own hands
and even killing adversaries did, however, not disappear from the
minds of the people. In the case of cursing today, religion is
therefore also used in order to avoid punishment by the judicial
system which does not allow people to harm others severely or to
kill them because of feelings of revenge or enmity. Moreover the
'religious system of punishment' in the eyes of the people seems
often more effective than the modern judicial one.
Frustration After a Rise in Expectations
How can we explain the increase in activities of cursing? In the
first decades after gaining independence in 1948 there was a strong
rise in expectations among the people. These high expectations could
not be met. The ensuing frustration caused an increase in jealousy
and scapegoat mechanisms among the people. Not only was the system
or the ruling political party blamed, but also neighbours and
minority groups,(3) who seemed to be more fortunate than themselves.
The context of what Girard calls mimesis and scapegoat mechanisms is
a process of urbanisation in the demographic and especially in the
cultural sense.
The capital Colombo in the first two decades after independence
became an irresistible pull-factor for people of the country-side.
It was at the same time a period of enormous population growth.
Since 1948 the population of about 7 million doubled in less than 25
years. Employment possibilities were far outstripped by this
population growth, especially in the rural areas. Thousands tried
their luck in the capital. Colombo not only became densely populated
in and around the centre, but also expanded tremendously, absorbing
the villages within a distance of twenty to twenty five miles. On
the coast, even in the far south, many shanty squatter settlements
came into existence. Here the traditional Sri Lankan pattern of
village community is often disturbed.
In the villages around Colombo middle-class urban dwellers more and
more "displaced the original inhabitants of the older village"
(Gombrich and Obeyesekere, 1988, p. 69). The social cohesion of the
traditional village (with, e.g., communal harvest rituals and
communal funerals where nearly all were present) slowly disappeared,
not only from the suburbs of Colombo, but also from many other
villages around the country. This process of urbanisation in the
cultural sense - one can also call it (a kind of) modernization - is
not limited to the city itself. The process has been strengthened by
the modern and relatively cheap means of transport in the country
and the increased mobility as a result. The high rate of modern
education in Sri Lanka, since the thirties, has contributed to the
spreading of a semi-urban way of life to the rural areas too.
Kinship ties however still play an important role in Sri Lanka. In
most cases the extended family does not live together any more, but
is divided over village(s) and town. That lessens the importance of
the kinship system. Yet migrants from the rural areas mostly still
rely on their close and more distant relatives in the city or town
and often even on other non-related village people there, if they
need a job or temporary lodgings. Certainly the extended family,
which even in its contracted form resembles the nuclear family,
including the married sons and daughters with young children,
remains a strong unit of mutual support and social control.
More Mimesis in a Less Hierarchical Society
What seems important is the disappearance of the social cohesion of
the traditional village, based on hierarchical caste and class
distinctions between families banded together through the hierarchy
of patron-client relationships. Everybody knew his or her place.
That limited the envy due to mimesis. Girard understands mimesis to
mean that one does not have desires autonomously or independently,
but chooses instead to model himself on another person and to use
his or her desires as a model. In a less hierarchical society this
model becomes at the same time an obstacle whose position one wants
to take. The paradox therefore is that in an egalitarian society
there is a great increase in mimetic desire and rivalry. Equality is
good in itself, because it ends the injustice of (feudal) hierarchy,
but on the other hand it is also a source of new suffering, because
it leads to a never ending desire for more material things and a
rise in competition and rivalry (Girard, 1986, p. 123; Feddema,
1988b, p. 213).
This seems to be the case in Sri Lanka today. "The people of the
country are completely in the grip of the desire to get rich," as
one of my informants puts it. This applies to the whole period since
1948 because of this rise in expectations after independence, but
especially to the years since 1977, when the United National Party
(UNP) came into power. Before 1977, the left-wing nationalist Sri
Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), who also cooperated for a few years with
Trotzkyites and Communists in a People's Front, tried to moderate
that trend among the people. It was the time of a more or less
autarchic protectionist policy, closing the borders to the import of
modern (attractive) goods from abroad. The government even strongly
advised the people to avoid a life of luxury and to bring their
savings to the bank regularly.
In 1977 a new era started. Since then competition has even been
enhanced from above, because the UNP strongly favours free
enterprise. A new class of entrepreneurs, owners of private
transport vehicles and small industries, came into existence. This
new class directly or indirectly provided the impetus for a huge
rise of mimetic rivalry. People see this social group as their
reference group, with which they compare themselves and which they
want to copy. It seems to be a new answer to the frustration of the
high expectations after independence which could not be met and of
the educated and well-qualified young people who in large numbers
remained unemployed.
Rebellion or Accommodation?
The American sociologist Robert Merton distinguishes five different
responses to such a situation of frustration (1957, pp. 193-211).
One is rebellion. It was the reaction of the People's Liberation
Front (Janatha Vimukhti Peramuna), JVP, via a violent youth uprising
in the beginning of the seventies and later again at the end of the
eighties. It was an example of what Girard calls the scapegoat
mechanism. In the seventies the JVP considered the SLFP or the
ruling People's Front and in the eighties the ruling UNP as the
scapegoats, which had to be 'exorcised.' Action provokes reaction.
After its defeat in the seventies, but especially at the beginning
of the nineties, the JVP itself became the subject of revenge. The
leader was killed in 1989 and many of his followers just disappeared
when the JVP collapsed (Chandraprema, 1991).
Another type of reaction according to Merton is conformity. Taking
the new class of small entrepreneurs as the group of reference seems
to be just such a reaction. Conformity in this case means adjustment
to the status quo by longing for and trying to achieve the same
position as the new entrepreneurs. This does not look impossible to
the average people, since many of the new bus owners and garment
industrialists are ordinary people like themselves, sometimes even
previous classmates at school. It is an illustration of the paradox
I mentioned earlier, namely that mimesis is increasing in a more
egalitarian society. Wanting to reach a position like that of the
new entrepreneurs means, however, that one has to compete with
"equals," who are striving for the same thing. If it takes a long
time before even the beginning of success comes, the misfortune is
often attributed to a scapegoat, to someone, who is more prosperous
than oneself. A scapegoat can be found among neighbours or among
colleagues at the job or even among the reference group of new
entrepreneurs themselves, who appear to have many enemies. One not
only feels better, because someone else can be blamed for what seems
at first sight one's own failure, but even more importantly, one can
"project onto others one's own jealousy and indeed more generalized
feelings of hostility" in this way (Gombrich and Obeyesekere, 1988,
p. 130). The answer often is to harm the scapegoat by harassing him,
destroying or stealing his goods. In the cases mentioned above we
came across the word jealousy used explicitly a few times, as an
answer to the question, of why they had been troubled by the
adversaries, whom they wanted to curse at the shrine in Seenigamma.
Just destroying a gate or the blossoms of toddy trees would appear
to be clear forms of enmity, probably wholy or partly based on
jealousy. Theft is a more complicated matter. I have no intention of
analysing why people start stealing or even burgling. There must
certainly be an economic reason. There is however often also the
more hidden motif of envy. Are thieves not frequently using as a
justification for their deeds the fact that the harmed person, from
whom they steal, is more prosperous than they?
Frustration after the rising of expectations due to independence,
migration (rural-urban and rural-rural), urbanisation in the
cultural sense, the disappearance of social cohesion of the
traditional village based on hierarchical caste, sex and class
distinctions, and the increasing gap between poor and rich due to
economical competition, all created a climate, in which mimetic
envy, violence and crime could flourish. The increase of cursing in
the recent decades seems to be a reflection of that. Urban dwellers
and countrymen, rich and relatively poor people, men and women, are
all going to the cursing shrine at Seenigamma.
And the women go too. That also looks like a reflection of the
above-mentioned socio-cultural changes in the country. In November
1994 I counted over a period of 7 days, the poya-day not included,
39 women (32.5%) out a total of 120 persons, who had come to the
Seenigama shrine to curse. In February and March 1995 over a period
of 12 days I even counted 138 women (43%) out of a total number of
320 cursers and from the 10th till the 16th of December 52 women
(38%) out of a total of 136. That is certainly a higher percentage
than in the past, when the father or the brother mostly did the
cursing for the deserted, unmarried or widowed women. Women however
are, at least today, often the driving force behind the decision of
the man to go to the cursing shrine in Seenigama. The retired Navy
officer from Ambelangoda, whom I mentioned among the 15 cases, felt
a bit ashamed, that I had met him at the cursing shrine. He stressed
his innocence, but also added that his wife, who according to him
"very much believes in the power of the gods,' had induced him to
go.
Lastly a few concluding remarks about the attitude of Sinhala
Buddhism towards the cursing institution. Buddhism did not succeed
in preventing or stopping the disguised violence of cursing through
Devol, Getabaru and Suniyam, in the past or at the present. Hardly
anybody foresaw the sudden breakthrough of mimesis and rivalry after
the independence and after the introduction of economic
liberalisation, nor the violence, jealousy and "scapegoating" this
provoked. Buddhism had and still has, however, some success in that
cursing in official public opinion cannot boast a good name. It has
to be concealed. Devol and his priests therefore have to carry out
the cursing activities on a tiny uninhabited island, a few hundred
metres from the coast, behind the wall built around the island. This
means that the practices there are kept hidden from the eye and ear
of the formal Buddhist society. Cursing is in other words tolerated,
but not approved. One knows and is aware that cursing is intensively
practised by Sinhala Buddhists, but it does not have an official
Buddhist sanction.
Recently, i.e. in the last few years, passengers in buses and vans
make a gesture of worship with their hands folded in front of their
chest towards the shrine of Devol Deviyo in Seenigama when they
pass. Furthermore since 1992 the priests of Devol and Getabaru have
been allowed to carry out cursing activities in a tiny building on
the official premises of the main shrine of Vishnu in Dondra. Vishnu
is said to have been nominated by Buddha himself on his deathbed to
protect Buddhism in Sri Lanka. He is not only respected as a high
Buddhist god, but is also considered to be a "Bodhisattva" (a future
Buddha). Therefore, it is not insignificant that recently in Dondra
under his aegis Devol and Getabaru were allowed to practise cursing
activities. It is not only an additional illustration of the recent
increase in cursing activities, but it also shows that the need to
conceal or to disguise the cursing violence in the formal Buddhist
Sinhala society of Sri Lanka is somewhat less pressing today.(4)
NOTES
* Dr. J.P. Feddema is an antropological researcher at the Free
University of Amsterdam.
1 The goddess Kali is mentioned last. Not because she is the least
involved in cursing activities - probably on the contrary the most
of all - but because she is still considered to be a Hindu Tamil
goddess. Because Sinhala Buddhists today, due to the cursing
practices at her shrine, are becoming more and more worshippers of
Kali, I could not therefore leave her out.
2 This confrontation of Devol with Pattini, the mother-goddess of
the living, causes Weerakoon to write that Devol is not the expelled
son of an Indian king, but "the returning ancestor from the land of
the dead" (1985, p. 105).
3 Not only is the minority group of the indigenous Tamils used as a
scapegoat in Sri Lanka, but Christians (because of their privileged
position during the colonial time), Muslims, Mayalali workers and
Indian Tamil plantation workers in recent decades also have been a
target of an anti-movement among the Sinhala Buddhist majority
(Jayawardens, 1990).
4 My thanks go to all those without whose help I would not have been
able to carry out this study. I cannot mention them all, but I make
an exception for W.N. Dharmasuriya especially, M.R. Tilakaratna,
D.M. Somasiri, S. Serasingha and Sarath Weerarathna. I am also
grateful to Mervyn Ananda M.A., Dr. M. Anspach, Rev. Fr. Harry Haas,
Dr. Paul Hubers, Dr. A. Lascaris, Dr. Nancy McCagney, Helen
Richardson M.A., Prof Dr. J. Termekes and Prof Dr. J.M. Schoffeleers
for their comment on the first draft.
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