River of Ink - Paul M.M. Cooper

"‘Why,’ he asked, ‘would a man follow a god who won’t even fight on his behalf? Who won’t even make him brave?’
 ‘Because some want a god who doesn’t carry a sword,’ I said, without thinking."
[Cooper, Paul M.M.. River of Ink (Kindle Locations 3821-3823). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.]

Upon completing of reading, River of Ink, I had to read through the relevant pages of Amaradasa Liyanagamage's  මධ්‍යකාලීන ලංකා ඉතිහාසය (pages 183-205), which is a Sinhala re-write by the author himself of his doctoral thesis, "The Decline of Polonnaruwa and the Rise of Dambadeniya, circa 1180-1270", which was later printed as a book. One allegation which was made against Magha, which was never made against the numerous other invaders, was that he tried to instill "False Views" among the masses ("මිච්ඡාදිට්ඨිං ස භූපාලො ගණ්හාපෙත්වා මහාජනං" - The Culavamsa) What is this wrong view ? The Culavamsa doesn't elaborate and Liyanagamage concedes that no source elaborates on what this "False View" is, although he uses many other sources other than the Culavamsa ( It is safe to assume that Cooper has used the Culavamsa largely, if not solely for his historical referencing. ) It is this vagueness, this non-mentioning of the alternate view, alternate faith that Cooper has masterfully used to base his plot, his story and narration. And it works - largely. While one could claim ( with the risk of being alleged of nitpicking), some of the historical "stretches' that the author made - for example availability of Kottu and  Mangosteens during Polonnaruwa era (some might feel these glaring mistakes -  no matter ) are obvious wrong footings, the author excels largely on creating the historical atmosphere as the reader journey's through Asanka's narration. Referring to Liyanagamage's work was to glean a clue if the Shishupala vadha was even mentioned in passing. It is not. However that doesn't discount the fact that Magha wanted the work translated to Tamil ( which was quite probably the Regional, if not International language of the time), and have the State "push" public readings of the work, to rid the "ignorance of the general public", who were but a bunch of idiots worshiping a decaying tooth, as per Magha. Cooper has clearly considered that Tamil was extensively used as a language of Academia especially in the South Indian mainland and the surrounds, for there couldn't be so much of Tamil Literature in Polonnaruwa, and in the temples otherwise. It is at worst a moot point, and possibly an acceptable point,

when considered the South Indian influences even in Polonnaruwa era sculpture/architecure ( as I've read from the experts).

"You will translate the Shishupala Vadha into Tamil in my name, so that I can give it to the people of this land, this bud I’m here to bloom. Thus we may achieve the King’s pleasure and the greater good of the masses in a single move.’"
[ Cooper, Paul M.M.. River of Ink (Kindle Locations 671-673). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. ]

The mismatch that I couldn't let pass here was whether the majority of the General public knew enough Tamil to understand the translation. The author himself has conceded that to a level, by inferring it in some of the dialogues.

‘They cannot speak Tamil,’ the headman said, his voice shaking. ‘This dancing troupe offered to read it for us – you know what the dancing folk are like, I’m sure.
[ Cooper, Paul M.M.. River of Ink (Kindle Locations 2877-2879). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. ]

‘The King must have a bitter gourd for a brain,’ you said as we lay there, ‘to order the poem in Tamil. Why not Sinhala? Why not Pali?’
[ Cooper, Paul M.M.. River of Ink (Kindle Locations 2358-2359). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.]

The only way the use of the language was justifiable, is when it is considered with the overall strategy of Magha - that of harming the Bhikkus and the temples and his attempt to instill a new belief system among the  general public. The new faith system, possibly one that was strong and currant in Tamil Nadu at the time, and would've stood a better chance of spreading among the population in a language more suitable for the ideology.

It is stated  that Asanka's own Tamil was a halting one, given that it was not his "mother tongue".

‘You sound so funny when you speak Tamil,’ you said then. Our talk always seemed to go this way: I insulted you by accident, and you stung me back in revenge. You did an impression of my speech, puffing out your cheeks and putting on my accent. ‘It makes me laugh.’ ‘I’m still learning,’ I said. ‘You speak the way a dog walks when it has a front leg missing.’ ‘Ha! Your language is difficult, all lips and roof of the mouth. Pa-ha, la-ha, ba-ha – all breath.’
[ Cooper, Paul M.M.. River of Ink (Kindle Locations 526-531). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition. ]

Asanka later boasts that his written Tamil has become masterly with its continued use to write the Vadha.

As per Liyanagamage, the end of Magha doesn't happen till the time of Parakramabahu III, as he holds on to the North, with certain Tamil population joining him as his followers. This may possibly be the beginning of the mistrust between the two races that has lasted over 800 years.  This is contrary to the work of fiction of Cooper, where he meets his end during the period of Vijayabahu III.
 
While so far I've  attempted to decipher  the way that Cooper thought when writing his work, let me conclude by summarizing the work as a whole.

Albeit, being far from a "page-turner", the reader feels that his time wasn't wasted by book end. As previously noted, Cooper has managed to paint a fabric which captures the mood and the atmosphere of the then Polonnaruwa succesfully, and that's possibly winning more than 50% of the readers' nod for the book. Overall, a successful literary work - and it is easy to appreciate the tremendous amount of work that Cooper has put in, to make the novel work, convincing and plausible. At its roots its a love story too, that of a tragic ending, making it all the more believable given the circumstances. Although I had my moments of doubts at certain points while reading, upon completion I feel that Cooper has created a convincing historical work of fiction, inserting his plots as subtly as appropriately as possible.