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විරාගය

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ඇතුළු හදටම ඇරුණු සිත් ඇත්තකු වූ අරවින්ද ස්වයං විවේචනයෙන් තම සිතැඟි සියල්ල නොපැකිලව හෙළි කරන තරුණයකු වී ය. ආසාවන් තුනී කරගෙන ජීවත් වන්නට වෑයම් කළ ඔහුට මැඩගත නොහැකි වූයේ ස්ත්‍රීන් නිසා උපන් ආසාව පමණි. සරෝජනීට හා බතීට දුරින් සිට ඔහු ආලය කළේ පොදු ජීවන රටාවෙන් ඈත්ව ජීවත්වීමට තැත් කළ කෙනෙකු නිසා ය.

අරවින්ද තමාගේ චරිතයෙහි හොඳතැන් මෙන්ම නරක තැන් ද අහුමුළුවල සැඟවුණ අශෝභන ගති ද හෙළි කරන්නේ පාපෝච්චාරණයෙන් ආත්ම විශුද්ධිය පතන්නකු ලෙසිනි.

විරාගය ශෝකාන්ත අධ්‍යාත්ම නාටකයකි.

(1956 දී පළ වූ මෙම නවකතාව මෙතෙක් සිංහලෙන් බිහි වූ විශිෂ්ටතම නවකතාව බව විචාරකයින්ගේ මතයයි. විරාගය දෙමළ, ඉංග්‍රීසි, ප්‍රංශ හා ජපන් භාෂා වලින් ද පළ වී ඇත.)

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

82 people are currently reading
1457 people want to read

About the author

Martin Wickramasinghe

72 books381 followers
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.

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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
Profile Image for Muhammad Ahmed.
56 reviews15 followers
December 30, 2019
بیراگ سنہالی ادب کا ایک ناول ہے جسے مارٹن وکرما سنگھے نے تحریر کیا ہے ۔ اس ناول کا اردو ترجمہ مصطفیٰ نذیر احمد صاحب نے کیا ہے اور اس کے ناشر مشعل لاہور ہیں۔ بنیادی طور پر اس ناول کا پس منظر سری لنکا کا دیہی علاقہ ہے اور ناول میں سنہالی ثقافت رچی بسی ہے۔

اس ناول کی طرز ایک آپ بیتی کی سی ہے ۔ لیکن اس سے پیشتر راوی نے اختتامیہ پیش کیا ہے کہ جو ہمیں ناول کے کردار و واقعات سے آگہی دیتا ہے۔ گو کہ ناول کا پلاٹ سیدھا سادھا ہے لیکن پھر بھی یہ کسی عام ناول سے بہت مختلف ہے۔

سچی بات یہ ہے کہ کہانی دلچسپ ہے لیکن زیادہ دلچسپ انسانی نفسیات کی گہرائیوں میں الجھتے بل کھاتے وہ مظاہر ہیں جو اس ناول میں بین السطور پیش کیے گئے ہیں۔ اگر آپ کسی شاندار پلاٹ اور کہانی میں ٹوئسٹ کے متلاشی ہیں تو یہ ناول آپ کے لئے نہیں ہے۔ تاہم اگر آپ انسان کی گوناگوں درونی کیفیات اور نفسیات سے دلچسپی رکھتے ہیں تو آپ کو یہ ناول کو ضرور پڑھنا چاہیے۔
Profile Image for Nanda Wanninayaka.
91 reviews25 followers
August 22, 2014
“Viragaya” is one of the most discussed Sinhala novels by veteran writer Martin Wickramasinghe. But I never got a chance of reading the original Sinhala novel. Instead, I had access to an English translation of Viragaya named “The Way of the Lotus” translated by Professor Ashley Halpe.

The protagonist, Aravinda Jayasena is a self-effacing, unassuming, unambitious and a virtuous character. While he was studying to become a doctor, his father dies. Though Aravinda is a smart student, he gives up studying to become a doctor after seeing pictures of inside organs of the body. Cutting toads and corpses is not his cup of tea. He gives up medicine.

Aravinda is isolated from the society and the way he thinks and behaves is different from the other people of the same age. Aravinda is deeply in love with Sarojini but has no courage to take the risk in eloping with her and waits to see his best friend marrying her. Aravinda goes to a self-imposed exile especially after Sarojini marries someone else.

Aravinda has an elder sister who is sharp-tongued and ambitious. After the death of Aravinda’s father she comes home with her husband and child. She does not mistreat Aravinda but his constant tests with alchemy puts the child in danger and with the resistant from the sister to his lab tests, Aravinda decides to live a lonely life in a small house close to a ricefield elsewhere in the village.

He adopts a girl named Bathie just out of sense of charity and he cares for her like a father. The girl is the daughter of Aravinda’s servant woman. The girl starts calling Aravinda, ‘father’ and he doesn’t resist. The villagers start spreading rumors that Aravinda uses the girl for his sexual exploitations but being a very virtuous man, he disregards the rumors. When Bathee comes of age, Aravinda arranges her marriage with a person whom Bathee is in love and creates a job for him as a driver by buying him a car.

Aravinda falls sick and Sarojini, his former lover coaxes his sister to take Aravinda home but he refuses. Instead, Bathee takes Aravinda to her home and treats him very well. Aravinda dies an untimely death at the end of the story
Profile Image for Rural Soul.
548 reviews89 followers
October 17, 2017
I just picked this novel after reading a Sri Lankan author's name on it. The word Sri Lanka brings two things in my mind 'Cricket' and 'Tamil Tigers'. But this time I decided to explore more.


I don't know why this novel kept giving me feeling that protagonist Arvinda Jayesena resembles a lot with Zhang (from the novel "Half of Man is Woman" by Zhang Xianliang) in his selfless and clueless nature.
Novel excellently depics the dellima of human nature that still being our ownselves doesn't have anything to do to with understanding ourselves.
Profile Image for Lanil Marasinghe.
28 reviews16 followers
August 18, 2021
I have never seen the story format of this book before. The protagonist of this book, Aravinda, is as complex as Viragaya's story format. What the author is trying to convey through Aravinda's character or what kind of character Aravinda is is a puzzle to me. Is Aravinda a defeated lover like Devendaro San in Malagiya Aththo? Do childhood experiences affect life's desires? Or did the author indirectly mention another problem? However, if you like to read different types of Sinhala novels, you should definitely read this.
1 review
September 28, 2017
One of the best books I have ever read. this is about a man who have mentally reached to another level in social life. where he tries to see the connections of life, love and everything in its purest form. while he is trying to see it without troubling any in the world unknowingly he has been a part of it, which he was trying to understand and analyse. this books takes you in a journey with a life of an fascinating character which seems bright beautiful and deep dark with the emotions that he has being through. this story leaves us to understand what life is in different forms and about the humanity in its own psychological way.
I have read many outstanding world literature books while this book was recommended for me by my father and yes this is a fascinating book. and to imagine about the authors delicacy of handling the charactors emotions in the book is unbelievable. this book has been really under-rated. this masterpiece is a diamond in the world literature books.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Tharindu doratiyawa.
7 reviews
December 8, 2012
just another epic wickramasinghe...
its an excellent book, which deeply analyses human behaviour in a very critical way... and even today reflects the minds of the Sri lankans... epic
Profile Image for Dinesha.
2 reviews15 followers
August 5, 2016
"කවර මනුෂ්‍යයෙකු වුවද චරිතයෙහි අංග එකිනෙක වෙන් කොට හදුනා ගත නොහැකි දේදුන්නක් වැනිය."
Profile Image for Nilu.
621 reviews51 followers
July 25, 2022

"මනුෂ්‍ය ගති විනිශ්චය කළ හැක්කේ බො‌හෝ‌ කල් ජීවත් වීමෙන් ලැබෙන අත්දැකීමෙනි යි මට හැඟේ.
මා පාසලෙහි උගන්නා කාලයෙහි මනුෂ්‍ය ජීවිතය පිළිබඳ මේ අත්දැකීමෙන් හතරෙන් පංගුවකුදු මා සතු වී නම් මගේ ජීවිතය කෙතරම් වෙනස් වන්නේ ද ?"
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අරවින්දට තමාවත් ,අනෙක් අයවත් තේරුම් ගැනීමට දිගු කලක් වැය වූ අයුරින්, මටත් විරාගය හරි හමන් ලෙස තේරුම් ගියේ පළමු වරට පො‌ත කියවා වසර තිහකටත් වඩා ගත වූ පසුය.

ඒ‌ ගැන පසුතැවිල්ලක් නැත.

පමා වී හෝ‌ මෙවන් අග්‍ර ගන්‍ය කෘතියක් රස විඳීමට හැකි වීම ගැන සතුටු වෙමි.

මේ නම් වචනයේ පරිසමාප්ත අර්ථයෙන්ම විශිෂ්ඨ නවකතාවකි.
Profile Image for Muhammad Ali.
45 reviews
September 10, 2021
A complex drama on the intricacies of human psych. The plot is rich, being closed to nature. The triangle of love between Arvind, Bathi and Sara is at first reading seems like an ordinary tale but as story move on towards downfall, it really grasps your attention. Secondly, protagonist is miserably both saintly and evil hero. In some instances he really falls into reality of human nature, claiming and tries to fight for his love. While in some instances he again swings to saintly manners.
It also seems like Manika is the real protogonist of the story. She leads Arvinda in every aspects, she achieves what she wish for.
Last, Arvinda is born an ordinary child and lies sickly at death bed as an ordinary man. No wordly achievements. A beautiful sinhale novel.
Profile Image for Vi.
150 reviews5 followers
June 25, 2025
hmm..not sure what to think of this (which is what the author intended I think). I like how complex it is and nothing is just one thing. I also like how the author weaves in all of that to the story without making it overly complicated and difficult to read.
1 review
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July 13, 2021
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7 reviews10 followers
November 29, 2022
Devoid of passion.
Along the lines of right and wrong, good and bad.
Traditional norms against the simple reality we tend to overlook.
Inaction against action.
November 25, 2022
කතුවරයා පාඨකයාට අභියෝග කරමින් පවසන්නේ මෙම කෘතියෙහි එන අරවින්ද ජයසේන කවුරුන්දැයි හඳුනන්නා මනුෂ්‍ය ජීවිතයත්, මනුෂ්‍ය ස්වභාවයත් හඳුනන්නෙක් බවයි. එහෙත්, කෘතිය පුරා ම පවතින සංකීර්ණ සිතුවිලි දාමය පාඨකයාට ඉහත අභියෝගය ජයගැන්මට බාධා කරයි. එක් අතට මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහයන්ගේ අරමුණ මෙය වන්නට ඇත. මනුෂ්‍ය ජීවිතය හා ස්වභාවය වනාහි කිසිවකුට කිසිදින සම්පූර්ණයෙන් තේරුම්ගන්නට අපහසු දෙයකි. වෙන අයවලුන්ගේ දෘෂ්ටියට හසු නොවන මිනිස් ජීවිතයේ අහුමුලු තැන් හුවාදක්වන්නට විය යුතුයි කතුවරයා උත්තම පුරුෂ දෘෂ්ටි කෝණයක් භාවිතා කරන්නේ. තවත් අතකින් මෙවන් සංකීර්ණ චරිතයක් ගොඩනැංවීමට මාර්ටින් වික්‍රමසිංහයන් සතු මනුෂ්‍ය ජීවිතය හා ස්වභාවය පිළිබඳ අවබෝධය ඉතා පුදුම සහගත ය! මම අරවින්ද ගැන කිසිවක් නොපවසමි. ඔහු කවුරුන් වියහැකිදැයි අනුමානයන්ට පැමිණිය හැකි එකකුදු හෝ කරුණක් පැවසුවහොත් එය මෙය කියවන ඔබට ඔහුව තනිව ගවේෂණය කිරීමට දෙන ඉඩකඩ ඇහිරීමක් වනු ඇත. නමුත්, මෙය පවසමි. අද ඔබ මෙම කෘතිය කියවා තවත් වසර 20කින් ⁣නැවත කියවුවහොත්, අරවින්ද ගැන ඔබ සතුව තිබූ කියැවීම වෙනස්වනු ඇත! අත්දැකීම් හා බැඳී පවතින සිතුවිලි මෙයට හේතුවන බව මගේ විශවාසයයි. ඒ වනාහි මෙම කෘතිය සිංහලයේ බිහිවූ විශිෂ්ටතම නවකතාව වීමේ අරුමයක් නැත!
Profile Image for Damitha.
4 reviews
Read
February 7, 2017
It is a beautiful read about a gent in a village. It ellaborates the tipical villagers behaviour and beliefs. It also shows the deep desires and how it translate to behaviour.
Profile Image for #moluminary.
36 reviews
July 21, 2021
Possibly one of the books with the strangest plots that I've read but one will be hard-pressed not to admire the protagonist's selflessness and magnanimity. I wish I had read this when I was slightly older, instead of during a period when I was spending the weekends in Town Hall Public Library and devouring all books that I could get my hands on.
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