The Poetess Who Wrote About the Burning Wings of the Jaffna Library

Sandarasi Sudasinghe is a multifaceted professional who serves as an archaeologist, journalist, poetess, and author. She completed her school education at Mahamaya Girls’ College, Matara, and earned special degree in Archaeology with honours from the University of Peradeniya. She also received the prestigious “Maulana Azad” postgraduate scholarship from the Indian government and completed a Master’s degree in Mass Communication and Media Studies at the University of Mysore, India.

Additionally, she obtained a postgraduate degree in Archaeology from the University of Kelaniya and a Diploma in Library and Information Science from the Sri Lanka Library Association. Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Colombo.

Sandarasi Sudasinghe is a poetess whose work stands out for a profound reason. She has explored the burning of the Jaffna Public Library with remarkable sensitivity, dedicating herself to understanding the tragedy deeply. This exploration culminated in a poetry collection titled Gini Wedunu Piyapath (The Wings Set on Fire). This monothematic collection contains 118 poems, all reflecting her spiritual anguish and poetic expression regarding the burning of the Jaffna Public Library. In a way, it serves as a record of the Sinhala society’s empathetic conscience about this tragedy.

“On an evening in March 2013, I visited the Jaffna Public Library for the first time,” she says. “Professor Cheran Rudhramoorthy, poets V.I.S. Jayapalan, Nadaraja Selvaraja, Professor Rajan Hoole, and others shared their experiences with me. They described the event of the library burning, the conduct of the arsonists, their distress, the loss of hope, and how Jaffna’s youth turned towards armed struggle in its aftermath. The younger generation, however, does not feel as strongly about it, although they have experiences of the war.”

Discussing the significance of the library, Sandarasi emphasizes that it was a collective achievement of a community.

“The Jaffna Public Library was, at that time, the second-largest library in Sri Lanka. It was initiated as a community project by court clerk K.M. Chellappah and later developed by the Jaffna Municipal Council. The groundwork for the building destroyed by the fire was laid during the tenure of Mayor Sam S. Sabapathy, who mobilized funds for its construction. Fundraising activities included circus shows performed by the Rūpasinha Company from the south. Father Blom, the principal of St. Patrick’s College, traveled internationally to raise additional funds. Architectural guidance for the library came from Professor S.K. Rangarajan, the librarian of Delhi University, considered the father of library science. The building was designed by B.M. Narasingham, a government architect from Madras. The library was eventually opened under the patronage of Mayor Alfred Duraiappah, who was later assassinated by the LTTE. At the time of the fire, the library housed 97,000 books, including rare collections such as manuscripts by Ananda Coomaraswamy and works related to Sangam literature. The people of Jaffna actively used these resources.”

During her research, Sandarasi discovered that there were 60 public libraries in the Jaffna district alone. “Jaffna was a hub of missionary education and home to many intellectuals. The historical significance of the 1981 burning of the Jaffna Public Library is therefore immense. Father H.S. David, a linguist, reportedly died of a heart attack after hearing the news of the library’s destruction. He was like a human library himself.”

Journalist Alam Palakidnar, who was then a trainee at the Eelanaadu newspaper, witnessed the incident. “On that day, the Eelanaadu office was also set on fire. He saw people in Jaffna crying and beating their chests upon witnessing the burning library. He now resides in Colombo.”

Dr. Cheran Rudhramoorthy, son of the great Tamil poet Rudhramoorthy, also recounted his experience. “At the time, Cheran was a student at the University of Jaffna. Along with friends from the Balasingham hostel, he rushed to the site of the fire. Later, he joined the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO). It is mentioned in The Elusive Mind that even LTTE leader Prabhakaran visited the library during the fire.”

The then Jaffna Municipal Commissioner, C.V.K. Sivagnanam, stated that he rushed to the library upon hearing the news but was turned away by the security forces.

“People who failed to learn from this incident set fire to another library—Hartley College’s century-old library in Point Pedro—three years later,” Sandarasi remarks. She has also written a poem about this incident.

Through her poetry collection, Sandarasi Sudasinghe channels her anguish over the burning of the Jaffna Public Library into literature. Reflecting on its reconstruction, she believes it should have been preserved in its original form.

In the foreword to Gini Wedunu Piyapath, Dr. Sasanka Perera of South Asian University in Delhi writes:
“An examination of this poetry collection reveals that her entire focus is directed towards this event, as well as the history of the library. Through her verses, she repeatedly brings to light the library’s founders, its early patrons, and the librarian in charge at the time of its burning. This focused knowledge forms the basis of her poetic engagement with the tragedy. It is this depth of focus that initially introduced me to her poetic work. Viewing this intensity offers opportunities to contextualize her poems more clearly, and I firmly believe that her work provides a space for such clarity.”