වහල්ලු

by Martin Wickramasinghe

ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ ගත කතුවරයෙක් වූ මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහයන්ගේ කෙටි කථා සංග්‍රහයකි.

Genres: Short Stories

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

The search for roots is the central theme in Martin Wickramasinghe’s writings on the culture and life of the people of Sri Lanka. He imaginatively explored and applied modern knowledge in natural and social sciences, literature, linguistics, the arts, philosophy, education, and Buddhism and comparative religion to reach beyond the superficial emotionalism of vulgar nationalism, and guide us to the enduring roots of our common national identity that exists in the folklife and folk culture of Sri Lanka...

Martin Wickramasinghe’s vision was primarily nurtured in the tolerant, humane, realistic attitude to life traditional to Buddhist folk culture. He valued the intellectual freedom and independence inspired by the Buddha’s ‘Kalama Sutta’ which he saw as a tradition to question tradition, not unlike the Western scientific attitude. Through his writings, he consistently opposed dogmatism, casuistry, elitism, and oppression in any form, be it cultural, religious, political or social.

His works have been translated and published in English, Hindi, Tamil, Russian, Chinese, Romanian, Dutch, German, French and Japanese languages.

Reviews

[Ashan]

Supper

[Shehan Madhushanka]

G

[Punsara Bandara]

I always love short stories ;)

[Chamodi Waidyathilaka]

This is a short story collection written by Martin Wickramasinghe. There are 11 short stories which reveal day today incidents of village people. Love, attraction, criticism, expectations etc.
I think it's a good book to use as a reference for someone who’s studying Sinhala short stories. There also an essay about Sinhala short story culture written by Martin Wickramasinghe as the final chapter.