KAGUL’s exploration on “BLACK PRINCE” also known as ” KALU KUMARAYA”.

To awaken [the Dreamers] is to reveal that they are an empire of humans and, like all
empires of humans, are built on the destruction of the body; plunder of racialized
bodies by telling itself a historical narrative that erases that history in the name of an
illusory ideal of Progress
(Ta Nehisi Coates; ‘Between the world and me)

Released in 2015 to acclaim, criticism, and controversy, ‘Between the World and Me’ is
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ memoir to his son about the complexities and difficulties of growing up
as a black man in the United States. Upon racialized labor relations and environmental
destruction, extensions of capitalocene framework and racialized cultural identity
emphasizes corporality and differential between bodily violence within context of
historicity, how the body as a symbolic content has been maneuvered

Act of reminiscence of the past raise further questions upon its narratives of history telling and
disparities in structures oral narratives. Cultural identity and its diversity; constantly oscillate
across time periods creating a polyamorous convoy of contradictions how it is been created.
Once we urge mankind to strip away from these mystified, anthropologically justified existence
of what is considered as structures of cultural identity and political identity , we are finally able
to create an ambience for coexistence.

Our first queries of research and performative activation based on the contemporary political
scenarios and addressing the past, interwoven with mythology and mystified rituals and
cultural practices of the Southern region of Sri Lanka. Dissemination of constructs of traditional identity , gender identity , colonial configuration have affected the intergenerational carriers of rituals and oral narratives.

The speculative tale of the Black Prince otherwise known as “Kalu Kumaraya ” becomes the main protagonist of this series. The entity connects with reproductive tales, the main cause of baron women, infant deaths, plagues, and women discarding men from sexual intercourse, it’s in the popular form of an incubus being. 

The origin tale and the rituals to ward off the entity connect with the segregated caste communities such as the “Rodiya” caste and also with the “Navandanne” caste communities.( Lower caste according to the feudal system prevailed in Sri Lanka, many of the Southern traditional performers are from the Navandanne community).

Unraveling the entity Black Prince’s formations and aligning the rituals performed throughout the country by the Sinhala and Tamil communities, there was a coexistence immediately created by the ancestral knowledge sources. Yet disparities emerge as the written ethnographic sources showcase otherwise or perhaps another direction to understand these practices. 

The Wesleyan juvenile publications, printed in London in the 1800s,  were sold at the Wesleyan mission house for a penny. These volumes of publications were considered as handbooks or information publications about divinity practices to lay the foundation for the spread of Christianity within colonies. This publication was exclusively printed for young readers, giving an oeuvre about their perspectives of colonies, ritualistic belief systems, and cultural traditions through the Eurocentric gaze.

In its 9th volume, published in 1852, we come across a depiction Under the title “ black female devil” with distinctive imagery of demons showcased devouring infants. This pop depiction circulated by the masses as the actual traditional portrayal of the black prince represented specifically under anthropological studies as an entity worshiped by the Cingalese community (Sinhalese community at present).

The image above which shows a representation of the entity from the manuscript provides to analyze the spectrum of the memory , gaze and historical narratives interplays within cognitive paradigms of intersections. Retracing only to the represented figure, we begin to dissect its attire formations, stylization which also advocates the social cultural constructivism but also symbolic formation but dynamics of influences. Allowing embracing of hybrid cultural affluences to colonial mitigations.

This region geographical have been mostly under the colonial ruling of Portuguese and Dutch , shows rather direct affiliations to its immediate effects .

The Upper jackets and high neck collars or Trippet known as “Mante” are considered part of symbolic attire incorporated to elitism. In this we observe the figure adorned by these to garments deflecting from its communal origins of wearing. Southern traditional practitioners, belong the lower caste ( Carava or Beruva caste for e.g.) based on the feudal system. Their upper bodies were naked, and lower halves were covered with a simple loin cloth.

During the Kotte period (what years),  the collar or mante was awarded to the elite commoners and officials as an honorarium for the service provided to the kings (De Silva, 1990, p49). In the ritual  costumes you observe the mante as a form of neck collar, at times heavily embroidered.

Image of the last king Sri Wickramarajasinghe, wearing attires similar to Dutch long sleeve jackets and long striped pants worn in 1500s.

During colonial rule there were rules implemented on wearing upper garments and later on certain wearables were introduced to create precision of gender binaries and class. The image further depicts the character , wearing a frilled tippet called ” Mante” , only worn by the upper Kandyan( Regional kingdom which located within the central hills of Sri Lanka) class communities , yet here we observe in the image that this symbolic attire affiliated to upper class worn by the being, whose is been considered as a promiscuous character in ” Jana pravada” ( oral narratives).

Tippet was introduced during the Kotte and Kandyan ( kingdoms ruling in the 1500’s ) rule, many of the local administrates including the royals continue to embrace Christianity by the royal courts( Dutch nonconformist church established in southern and Colombo regions) reinstates these newer cultural traces into the practices within the island. We observe the class dynamics further been mitigated from this establishing cultural hybridity for e.g.; each layer of the upper tippet layer or ” Mante” gradually communicates to the community , the influence and the position the wearer upholds within the societies infrastructure.

Long sleeved upper jacket called Juan Hettaya, commonly introduced during Dutch era, worn by a ritual performer.. It is sewn  with the geometric patterns of embroidery tradition prevailing in Matale region of Sri Lanka.

Documentation of traditional ritualistic costume designed and embroidered by Somapala Pothupitiya from the Matara branch of practitioners.

The headdress worn by the head healer in the rituals is known as “Kaagul”, shows parallel resemblances to the popular head gear worn by the Portuguese and Dutch (stark resemblance to the crowns or hats called ” Juan Toppiya”)

Head wear worn by the Dutch/Portuguese and Local administratives.

Somapala Pothupitiya,who is the last descendent of the Navandanne artisans (Navandanne artisans are practitioners who have mastery in nine disciplines including wood carving, performance, medicines etc.) wearing his ceremonial head wear called ” KAGUL”

Ceremonial head gear recreated for the performances according to the reference images removing certain symbolical elements of the original structure.

Tracing these hybrid connotations as well as cultural reformations, through the investigating’s the diversified variants of the “black prince” , allows to understand the formation as well reiterates its complex maneuvering.

Image of another illustration of Black Prince elephant hunting . Depicted in Exorcism and Art of Healing in Ceylon (1954) by Paul Wirz. Copyight E.J. Brill,  Leiden, Netherlands

How did gender gradually been classified within these ordeal of interchanging categorizations and recognizing these layered infusions by tapping in the archaic sources of written sub text and oral knowledge. Allowed to create a performative ensemble of procreating ritualistic gazes of the same representation within multitude of portrayals. Perhaps to understanding the gender dynamics beyond the post modern categorization of hetero tag lines , in the form of a speculative possibility activation.

Robert Redifield theory (The Little Community and Peasant Society and
Culture, The University of Chicago Press, London 1960 pp2340)
emphasized on the importance of culture of the peasant society
showcases half of the society and its culture. The two traditions of
peasant and the governor’s interdependent effectiveness to each other.
Which influenced the practical community of Sri Lanka. Especially within
the context of Buddhism, paranormal /curative believes, rituals as well as
folk lore or “Janap pravadaya” as oral and historical material.

Ceremonial out fit created by Somapala Pothupitiya for the ” Shanthikarma” or healing rituals.

Recreating another speculative form of the attire represented in the Weslyen Juvinile offering publication. Documented image from the performance at the 2024 Colombo scope festival’s edition

” Way of the Forest”