Dr. D.V.J. Harischandra needs no introduction to the Sri Lankans. He is a well-acclaimed psychiatrist by profession for well-nigh five decades who has rendered yeoman services to the nation.His first book entitled Psychology Aspects of the Buddhist Jathaka Stories published in 2000 was an analytical study that penetrates into the inner aspects of the Buddhist Jathatha Stories – almost synonymous with the Sri Lankan Buddhists – hitherto no one has delved into. His book was well accepted by a wide array of readership. This book won the then State Literary Award.
“No one has delved with such a consummate insight on the workings of the human mind,” wrote the translator of the Russian novel Fyodor Dostoyeveky’s Crime and Punishement (Raduga edition) Julius Ketzer on the said novelist. Harischandra with his rare uncanny whirlwind romance in psychiatry and in classical Hindi music has left an indelible imprint by releasing an audio CD which contains twenty songs “with such a consummate insight on the workings of the human mind”.
For
all these songs, he has written the lyrics culled from the Jathaka
Stories for 20 enchanting Hindi tunes of well-known Hindi musicians.
Eleven of them belong to celebrated Noushad Ali’s immortal hits. The
book with the audio CD spans 122 pages in which each Jathaka story is
provided with a captivating color painting portraying the Jathaka story
drawn by the art teacher of Mahanama College, Nimal Dharmasiri. The
cover of the audio CD and the book adorned with a magnificent scene from
the Ummagga Jathakaya is an excellent work executed by an artist who
deserves more recognition and hails even from Ambalangoda Nishan
Jayalath Wijerathna more known for his pandal drawings for Buddhist
celebrations.The audio CD accompanied by a book is the first to a series of such audio CD’s in the future. Releasing of the audio CD with a book of lyrics on the Jathaka stories is a novel concept to the Sri Lankan Buddhists. Songs based on Jathaka stories were known to Sri Lankan Buddhists mostly through Vesak and Poson pandals. This audio CD and the book of lyrics entitled Jathaka Geetha Sangrahaya will undoubtedly be a solace to the people of all walks of life in our country.
The most remarkable feature of the audio CD is the presentation of host of amateur unprofessional singers to the limelight. The only shortcoming that I see which should be corrected in a future edition is some of the psychiatric Sinhalese terms used in the preface without giving the Sinhalese meaning or the English term at least in brackets. Clueless laymen cannot understand such medical jargon or terminology. It was Alexander Pope who wrote: “One science shall one genius fit, so vast is art and so narrow is human wit”. Harischandra is an exception to the Pope’s said words.
Dr. Harischandra introduces a splendid audio CD with a book entitled the Jathaka Geetha Sangrahaya – a compendium of songs on Buddhist Jathaka stories and it is indeed a panacea for all illnesses, physical and mental alike. It is a prescription sine qua non for mens sana in corpore sano – healthy mind in healthy body. All Sri Lankan Buddhists would treasure it and listen to Harischandra’s mellifluous words on the Jathaka stories that have regaled them from their childhood with irresistible sense of nostalgic memories.