SUPERHUMAN POWER OF “GURUNNANSE”
By Dr. Dharmadasa Tennakoon (Ph. D)
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| Dr. D. Tennakoon |
I have initiated a study programme on folklore in Vanni Areas, Sri Lanka. Even in an Buddhist and Hindu religious environment, existence of different systems of worship and belief, and worship to different Gods and devils, and belief of spirits, and faith in their supernatural power is a question worth to study.
Preamble:
In this text, it is attempted to give an account on the practices of supernatural
powers by ancient people and their descendants in the “Vnni Region” in Sri
Lanka. Vanni region covers areas of North Central Province, southern part of
Mannar District, Vauniya District, western part of Trincomallee District,
Nothern part of Kurunegala District, Puttalam District, and Matale
District. It is easy for one to capture
the relationship of Vanni Area/territory and Vanniculture.
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| Shanthikarma by "Gurunanse" [A Witch Practicener] |
Can human perform superhuman power?
Before answering to this question we have ask you “Do You Believe It?. My advice is “If you see it, you will believe
it.
You will ask many questions interrelated with these questions:
-Can man control and supple the evils of extraordinary/unseen spirits?
-Can devils or other spirits can surpass the superlative power of the God?
-What does it mean to have ‘superhuman power” by some people?
-Are they wizards and magicsome skills similar to the powers of that of “witch”?.
-is their existing a set of scientific facts in chanting verses to God,
and muttering manthra to devil?, and
can view them in realm of “supernaturalism”?
-Do these creatures/spirits have supersonic power in moving their
souls/metaphor on earth, in air and in cosmos?
-Are they supposititious notions?
-Do these devils or other supernatural spirits are actually existing in
this world or in this universe?.
Wehre do spirits live?.
“Gurunnanse” or “vedarala” was the one of the persons who
exercised their superhuman power over the Demons and the Ghosts and over other
spirits. One day my grandfather
explained to me and my other school mates, that Lokugunnanse had once defined the appearance of spirits with in
boundaries which are confined to them as:
Where do devils and other evil
spirits live? “They live in desolated
sites, desolated and ruined houses and palaces, in rocky caves, ruined and
abandoned ancient shrines, and in thicky shrubby areas”
Source of Information
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| Witch Practicerner Treating to Devil Evils |
Our elders knew about the most famous witchdoctors/Gurunnanse in our locality.
One of them was “Girangirala”(name of that person) lived in an adjacent
village to our village. They practice
indigeneous witchcrafts by descent. This
witch doctor was named as Gurunnanse or
Vedarala by villagers, but he had a sobriquet name as “Lokugurunnanse/Lokuvedarala, which was widely used by the people in
many villages. Hereafter, I name this
person as “Lokuvedarala”. This lokuvedarala
lived during 1870 -1960. In a village called “Ginipenda” in Vanni area. He is the main source of my information as he
had many occasions had passed his experience and knowledge to my
grandfather. I got opportunity to listen
to discussions of my grandfather with other elderly relatives in our
village. I had kept records of these
discussions as notes. Some information
are still in my memory bank.
My presentation proceeding below
is based on the experience of Lokuvedarala,
as he had passed his tales to my grandfather and other elders during
1910-1950. I heard all these information
by my elders and I had taken notes of some tales of incidences.
Can Human Perform Superhuman powers?
There are three types of human beings who have superhuman power in
certain actions: i. persons with inherited inner mental state and skills have
superhuman (super mental state) skill to forecast, past-tell, forebode and heal
illness, ii. Persons who have learned and developed skills in the arts and science
of “Charms” (to heal evils and ills of evil spirits, to tame the devils) and,
iii. Persons who developed their mental state with practice of contineous deep
meditation and reached to the state of communication with universal spirit (to
heal ills, tame devils, foretell and past-tell).
The legendary stories of devils
and other evil spirits in the folktales include fearsome and risqué actions of
such spirits. It is well seen in the
folk tales that these spirits are with shrewd and tactful mental states and in
many occasions they have hoodwinked misguided the witch doctors, vedaralas and Gods. The Lokuwedarala
had explained the tack ticks followed by such spirits to frighten the witch
doctors, vedaralas and Gods. These spirits attempt to show their power to
be disobeyed. And attempt to move out of
vision of the God and the other persons who have superhuman skills to manage
the devils. These spirits begin to
strongly shudder and shudder, and screams in devilish metaphor, shriek and
shriek in deepest shrill voice which brings very vicious mental state one to
listen to it. When the devilish state
is controlled, these spirits commence to cry, and beg for pardon, and shrift
about the evils-hoodoos they had done, before the God or witch doctors/vedaralas.
Lokugurunnanse once had explained my grandfather, any witchdoctor or
gurunnanse could happened to take
evil spirits affected patients to eminent shrines of Gods/Goddess, i.e, to Oyamaduwa
Shrine(very ruined ancient devalaya), or to Muthumari devalaya in Chillaw, or
to Kataragama devalaya in Kataragama to get promise of spirits before that
Gods/Goddess to detach and expel from the patient’s soul forever. The
Munneshvaram Kovil (Muthumari Devalaya) in Chillaw was the most accepted shrine
by Vanni Witchdoctors and Gurunnanse
or any other persons who practiced Gurucams.
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| "Gurunanse" Treating to a Devil Eviled Young Man."Gurunnanse" Command to Devil to Detach from the Human Body |
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| Since Devil Refused to Release Patient, "Gurunnanse is Charming Manthra to Control Devil |
Lokugurunnanse had told, that all the evil spirits are invisible
and formless, but they their own forms and appearance that cannot be cached by
humans, but they appear in different forms or metaphors in specific times of a
day, i.e, midday (at 12 noon, or at evening with sunset and shadow darkness, or
at midnight. These appearances of such
spirits is known as “avathara” , “dishti”
(vision), and “holman”, that confront
before man/woman, or followed by sides of man/woman and exactly could bring
evils and hoodoos to that man/woman. That is why the ancient “Irrshis”(priest type meditators) have had formulated and developed manthras/manthrams, and gurucams
to control and manipulate the actions of such evil spirits.
Lokuvedarala once had told to our elder relatives the stories of
his confrontation incidences before such spirits. One day evening (perhaps may be in 1947) he
was coming back to home from his chena (highland farm) at midday, he was
passing the jungle and he saw a old man, with a long grey beard wearing an ambudaya (a piece of cloth wear by
ancient farmers) coming towards his front; lokuvedarala
stopped walking, and the old man also stopped walking, and as that old man was
not a man known to him, lokuvedarala has
identified the old man as an avatharaya/
a dhishti of a evil spirit. Lokuvedarala
muttered several manthras to
divert the vision of spirit to opposite path
of his movement. Lokuvedarala had identified that spirit as descended soul of one of
ancient kith. Some unidentified devilsome
spirits exist and appear as guardian of a particular clan, and they believed to
be descending from ancient clan leaders’ souls.
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| "Gurunnanse Treating to Another patient Since Devil Refused to leave the Human Body ,"Gurunnanse" use Devine Power of 'Manthra" to Control Devil |
Further, Lokuvedarala had indicated the places, the purlieus and
limit of territorial boundaries of the spirits, i.e, ghost and devils can
appear. The devil called “mahasohona” is appeared at cemeteries and
deathspots, and “ririyakka” and “kelekiriamma” can appear anywhere in hunting
jungles to both hunters and be-honey collectors. The entering to jungle should have followed
all rituals before they enter to jungle to escape from such evils that they
could confront in the jungles.
The Ghosts and Ghouls (types
of Prethayas) tend to domesticate by
transition their spiritual souls to human (to man/woman), and live in lonely
corners/dark sites of residential buildings.
Their invisible influence can cause effects of inhumanities, involved
with both mental and physical illness, bring unfortunates and infortunes to the
households, and residents of the households.
The Lokuvedarala had given a brief account of such witchcrafts he used
to catch and imprison of such spirits (imprisoned spirits in small bottle and
sealed) from the residential sites and from the bodies of affected patients. Our elders have believed that experience of Lokuvedarala, as he had preached to his
client patients are unassassible and existing in real world form.
Lokuvedarala had defined those devils, daemons, ghosts, ghouls, and prethayas and any
other spirits “as invisible supernatural creatures existing in the universe or
in the limits of our atmosphere, side by side with the other spirits we call as
Gods/Devathavas, and they
exist for bringing goodwill or heinous evils (goodwill as well as evils) to
human. The extraordinary power of these
spirits can be exceeded by extraordinary power of inculcation of manthra by some eminent humans”.
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| "Gurunnanse in Meditation and Communicating with local Gods |
Why Daemonology?
Sometimes, you may know or you are studying about cultures embedded in “daemonolatry”. The science daemonology is attempting to
collect facts of demonolatry. The people
those who have deeply sunk in the beliefs of demonolatry, suffer from
demonomania and certain occasions they reluctant to walk alone in night time or
to sleep alone in a room. If I believe daemonizm, it will make me to have enthusiastic courage
to deal with it. You may have seen
daemoniac or demonized people, (as you have seen in the folktales) men/women, but
you will face with doubt to imagine of demonic vision, action and existence of
such patients. Our forebears had put
much inputs deal with demonology, with related systems of cultural functions
and performances. The output of such endeavors
encourage us and provide opportunity to deal and forge in the science of devilism/spiritism. No one can consider this effort is futile,
fabulous and intrinsic to our modern knowledge systems.
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| In Most Cases, Devil Refuses to Detach From the Human Soul |
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| "Anamithrala" Can Practice Charming Mantra in "Shanthikarma" |
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| First 'Anamithirala' Shoud Worship to God and Sactrifies Food Before Going to "Shrine Shed" |
CONNOTATION; ENGLISH MEANING OF SINHALA WORDS/TERMS USED IN THIS TEXT:
-Vanni= a name of territory that covers areas where ancient inhabitants
lived in Sri Lanka.
-Vanniculture= cultural systems of vanni people.
-Irrshi= ancient persons who had power to communicate with universal
spirits and found systems of indigenous medicine and mranthras to charm in
witch therapeutics.
-Gurunnanse/Vedarala/Kattandiya= the similar local terms used by people
to name persons who practicing indigenous medicine and indigenous witchcrafts.
-Lokugurunnanse/Lokuvedarala= a similar two names used by people to name
an eminent witchdoctor lived in the Ginipenda village and practiced therapeutics
during 1890-1940.
-Dishti/Avathara/Holman= a similar names used by people to identify the vision
and appearance of spirits and the manner their confrontation before humans.
-Mahasohona= a vicious devil in vanni area.
-Ririyakka= a vicious devil dominate in hunting/over hunters.
-Kelekriamma= a goddess or yakshani(female devil) dominate in forestry
culture.
-Prethaya= a kind of ghouls domesticated and suffer from want of food and
drinks/believed to be death souls of relatives.
-Devathava= a communal God
-Manthra/Manthrams= type of verses to mutter before devils. Some writers
use words; Mranthram to Mrautter, or to chant or chrant before devils to manage
evil actions.
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DR. DHARMADASA TENNAKOON
[B.A; PG DIPLOMA; M.A; Ph.D]
SOCIAL SCIENTIST
[EX. SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW AT HARTI, COLOMBO, SRI LANKA]
ADDRESS: 27/6 MENIK WATTA, KALALGODA, PANNIPITIYA, SRI LANKA
EMAIL: dingiri50@gmail.com Teleohone: +94 72 865 8467
________________________________________________________________
I HAVE COVERED MY HIGHER EDUCATION IN SEVERAL FIELDS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
*B.A. in Geography, [second class honours], University of Ceylon, 1972;
*Post Graduate Diploma in "Land Settlement and Development", University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1977;
*Field Certificate on "Jordan River Valley Development Project", University of Jordan, Jordan, 1986;
* M.A. in Rural Social Development, University of Reading, U.K ,1987;
*Certificate of "Social Science Research Methodology", University of Peradeniya, Sri lanka, 1980;
*Ph.D. in Development Studies, Deakin University, Australia, 1996;
[B.A; PG DIPLOMA; M.A; Ph.D]
SOCIAL SCIENTIST
[EX. SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW AT HARTI, COLOMBO, SRI LANKA]
ADDRESS: 27/6 MENIK WATTA, KALALGODA, PANNIPITIYA, SRI LANKA
EMAIL: dingiri50@gmail.com Teleohone: +94 72 865 8467
________________________________________________________________
I HAVE COVERED MY HIGHER EDUCATION IN SEVERAL FIELDS OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
*B.A. in Geography, [second class honours], University of Ceylon, 1972;
*Post Graduate Diploma in "Land Settlement and Development", University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1977;
*Field Certificate on "Jordan River Valley Development Project", University of Jordan, Jordan, 1986;
* M.A. in Rural Social Development, University of Reading, U.K ,1987;
*Certificate of "Social Science Research Methodology", University of Peradeniya, Sri lanka, 1980;
*Ph.D. in Development Studies, Deakin University, Australia, 1996;
I have published a book on " Dimensions of Rural Poverty In Sri Lanka", HARTI, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2000.
At present, I am reading on several fields i.e., Freedom/Liberty, Profiles of Poverty among working class people, Folklore in Sri Lanka, Peace and Order, and Interlinks of Economic Development and Social Change in Developing Countries.
I expect comments of readers of my articles, your kind cooperation may improve the quality of my writing.
Thanks
Dr. Dharmadasa Tennakoon
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