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Watershed in Sinhala literature Source:Sundayobserver Seventy-six years have passed since Martin Wickramasinghe wrote his masterpiece Gamperaliya (Uprooted) and sixty-four years have passed since he wrote Viragaya (Dispassion). When asked about the highest service that Martin Wickramasinghe rendered to Sinhala literature, most critics say it is to write the first realistic novel in Sinhalese – Gamperaliya, or to write the best Sinhala novel in realism–Viragaya. But if you look into some other Sinhala writers, especially Ediriweera Sarachchandra, Siri Gunasinghe, Gunadasa Amarasekara, you can see that they also endowed us with some good novels, one can say better than Wickramasinghe’s Gamperaliya and Viragaya. Sophisticated readership The best service that Martin Wickramasinghe rendered to Sinhala literature was to build a sophisticated readership. His novels along with Kali Yugaya (Age of Kali), Yugantaya (Destiny) and short story collections, such as Gaheniyak (A Woman) and Wahallu (Serfs) helped a lot in this regard. ...