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35-495: Kovilage Anton Vijaya Kumaranatunga ( Sinhala : කොවිලගේ ඇන්ටන් විජය කුමාරණතුංග ; Tamil : விஜய குமாரணதுங்க ; 9 October 1945 – 16 February 1988), popularly known as Vijaya Kumaratunga , was a Sri Lankan actor, playback singer and politician regarded as one of the most popular icons in Sri Lankan cinema of all time. He was married to former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaranatunga from 1978 until his assassination in 1988. He

70-518: A memorandum of understanding with the United People's Freedom Alliance in 2004. In the legislative elections on 2 April 2004, the United People's Freedom Alliance won 45.6% of the popular vote and 105 out of 225 seats. Dr Navarathne died on 1 May 2013, and his son, Asanka Nawaratne , the deputy general secretary of the party, succeeded him. This article about a Sri Lankan political party

105-795: A state funeral , even though he represented the opposition to the UNP government. The day of his assassination is widely known as "The Horrible Tuesday" or "The Darkest Tuesday in Sri Lankan History" (He was assassinated on a Tuesday). His death is still mourned by many people in Sri Lanka. Sinhala language Sinhala ( / ˈ s ɪ n h ə l ə , ˈ s ɪ ŋ ə l ə / SIN -hə-lə, SING -ə-lə ; Sinhala: සිංහල , siṁhala , [ˈsiŋɦələ] ), sometimes called Sinhalese ( / ˌ s ɪ n ( h ) ə ˈ l iː z , ˌ s ɪ ŋ ( ɡ ) ə ˈ l iː z / SIN -(h)ə- LEEZ , SING -(g)ə- LEEZ ),

140-731: A supposed former abundance of lions on the island. According to the chronicle Mahāvaṃsa , written in Pali, Prince Vijaya of the Vanga Kingdom and his entourage merged in Sri Lanka with later settlers from the Pandya kingdom . In the following centuries, there was substantial immigration from Eastern India, including additional migration from the Vanga Kingdom (Bengal), as well as Kalinga and Magadha . This influx led to an admixture of features of Eastern Prakrits. The development of Sinhala

175-653: A Dravidian origin for this word. ), dola for pig in Vedda and offering in Sinhala. Other common words are rera for wild duck, and gala for stones (in toponyms used throughout the island, although others have also suggested a Dravidian origin). There are also high frequency words denoting body parts in Sinhala, such as olluva for head, kakula for leg, bella for neck and kalava for thighs, that are derived from pre-Sinhalese languages of Sri Lanka. The oldest Sinhala grammar, Sidatsan̆garavā , written in

210-551: A large number of seats in the newly formed provincial councils in an election boycotted by the main opposition SLFP. However, in the 1988 presidential election , the USA candidate, Ossie Abeygunasekera , finished in last place. In the 1989 parliamentary elections, USA candidates won three seats, but none of the winners represented the SLMP. On 20 February 1978, Kumaratunga married Chandrika Bandaranaike , with whom he had two children. Bandaranaike

245-722: A period of prior bilingualism: "The earliest type of contact in Sri Lanka, not considering the aboriginal Vedda languages, was that which occurred between South Dravidian and Sinhala. It seems plausible to assume prolonged contact between these two populations as well as a high degree of bilingualism. This explains why Sinhala looks deeply South Dravidian for an Indo-Aryan language. There is corroboration in genetic findings." In addition to many Tamil loanwords , several phonetic and grammatical features also present in neighbouring Dravidian languages set modern spoken Sinhala apart from its Northern Indo-Aryan relatives. These features are evidence of close interactions with Dravidian speakers. Some of

280-473: Is a conspicuous example of the linguistic phenomenon known as diglossia . Sinhala ( Siṁhala ) is a Sanskrit term; the corresponding Middle Indo-Aryan ( Eḷu ) word is Sīhala . The name is a derivative of [[[:wikt:सिंह|siṁha]]] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) , the Sanskrit word for 'lion'. The name is sometimes glossed as 'abode of lions', and attributed to

315-584: Is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken by the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka , who make up the largest ethnic group on the island, numbering about 16 million. Sinhala is also spoken as the first language by other ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, totalling about 2 million speakers as of 2001. It is written using the Sinhala script , which is a Brahmic script closely related to the Grantha script of South India. Sinhala

350-479: Is divided into four epochs: The most important phonetic developments of Sinhala include: According to Wilhelm Geiger , an example of a possible Western feature in Sinhala is the retention of initial /v/ which developed into /b/ in the Eastern languages (e.g. Sanskrit viṁśati "twenty", Sinhala visi- , Hindi bīs ). This is disputed by Muhammad Shahidullah who says that Sinhala Prakrit branched off from

385-412: Is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, alongside Tamil . Along with Pali , it played a major role in the development of Theravada Buddhist literature. Early forms of the Sinhala language are attested as early as the 3rd century BCE. The language of these inscriptions, still retaining long vowels and aspirated consonants, is a Prakrit similar to Magadhi , a regional associate of

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420-471: The Ceylon Police Force as a Sub Inspector , but left soon after. He first appears in a lead role as a university student named Bandu in the 1969 blockbuster Hanthane Kathawa directed by Sugathapala Senarath Yapa . But according to local film historians, the first time he acted in front of a camera was in the film Manamalayo three years ago. Although a Romeo and Juliet story was made in 1969, he

455-691: The Dolos Mahe Pahana . The only proof that he turned to singing as well as songwriting is the song 'Mulu Hadinma Oba Hata Adarei'. In 1974, Kumaratunga started his political career in the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP). He later joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and became its vice secretary. In 1977, he ran unsuccessfully for the Katana seat in Parliament . Five years later, he

490-700: The Middle Indian Prakrits that had been used during the time of the Buddha . The most closely related languages are the Vedda language (an endangered, indigenous creole still spoken by a minority of Sri Lankans, mixing Sinhala with an isolate of unknown origin and from which Old Sinhala borrowed various aspects into its main Indo-Aryan substrate), and the Maldivian language . It has two main varieties, written and spoken, and

525-667: The Nallur Murugan Temple and met with local Tamil civilians, as well as several LTTE youth leaders. In his final public address, to a large crowd in Colombo 's Campbell Park on 28 January 1988, Kumaratunga lashed out at the UNP, SLFP, and Janatha Vimuthki Peramuna (JVP) parties for failing to address the needs of the hour. He also voiced concerns about the SLFP's links with the JVP, a Marxist–Leninist party involved in two armed uprisings against

560-609: The Sri Lankan Civil War . Under his new party, he contested a Minneriya by-election and finished second, behind the UNP candidate—relegating his old party, SLFP, to third place. The SLMP went on to contest several other by-elections, including in Kundasale and Habaraduwa , but did not live up to expectations. in 1986, Kumaranatunga visited Jaffna , then controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He visited

595-576: The UNESCO National Commission of Ceylon According to Wilhelm Geiger , Sinhala has features that set it apart from other Indo-Aryan languages. Some of the differences can be explained by the substrate influence of the parent stock of the Vedda language . Sinhala has many words that are only found in Sinhala, or shared between Sinhala and Vedda and not etymologically derivable from Middle or Old Indo-Aryan. Possible examples include kola for leaf in Sinhala and Vedda (although others suggest

630-572: The United Socialist Alliance . In the general election of 1989, the alliance received 160,271 votes (2.86%) and three seats in Parliament. After Abeygunasekera left the party, Y. P. de Silva became its leader. Under him, in 1993, the SLMP joined the People's Alliance . The People's Alliance won the 1994 presidential election , and Chandrika Kumaranatunga became the president of Sri Lanka. In

665-464: The 13th century CE, recognised a category of words that exclusively belonged to early Sinhala. The grammar lists naram̆ba (to see) and koḷom̆ba (fort or harbour) as belonging to an indigenous source. Koḷom̆ba is the source of the name of the commercial capital Colombo . The consistent left branching syntax and the loss of aspirated stops in Sinhala is attributed to a probable South Dravidian substratum effect. This has been explained by

700-700: The Eastern Prakrits prior to this change. He cites the edicts of Ashoka , no copy of which shows this sound change. An example of an Eastern feature is the ending -e for masculine nominative singular (instead of Western -o ) in Sinhalese Prakrit. There are several cases of vocabulary doublets , one example being the words mæssā ("fly") and mækkā ("flea"), which both correspond to Sanskrit makṣikā but stem from two regionally different Prakrit words macchiā (Western Prakrits) and makkhikā (as in Eastern Prakrits like Pali ). In 1815,

735-556: The Sri Lankan government. In 1988, the SLMP reached an agreement with several other left-wing parties—including the LSSP, Nava Sama Samaja Party (NSSP), Sri Lanka Communist Party , and Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF)—to form the United Socialist Alliance (USA). A few days prior to the establishment of the new alliance, Kumaranatunga was assassinated. The agreement was signed by party leaders at his funeral. The USA won

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770-517: The Vijaya-Malini era also came to the fore when he became the dream boy in the 1980s Sinhala cinema. According to the critic Gamini Weragama, Vijaya's performance in the film Maruwa Samaga Wase is close to Toshiro Mifune's supernatural role in Rashomon . He also performed as a playback singer in several films; recorded more than 100 songs; and produced two films, Waradata Danduwam and Samawa which

805-602: The assassination, its report alleged that President Ranasinghe Premadasa of the UNP and two government ministers were behind the Kumaranatunga assassination without any direct evidence. Kumaratunga's funeral, on 21 February 1988, attracted huge crowds and was the first funeral to be broadcast live on Sri Lankan television (by the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation ). It was held at Independence Square in Colombo as

840-490: The features that may be traced to Dravidian influence are: ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නවා dannavā know ඒක අලුත් කියලා මම දන්නවා ēka aḷut kiyalā mama dannavā it new having-said I know "I know that it is new." ඒක ēka it අලුත් aḷut new ද da Q කියලා kiyalā having-said මම mama I දන්නේ Sri Lanka Mahajana Party Vijaya Kumaranatunga founded

875-536: The general election the same year, two members were elected to Parliament : Bharatha Luxman Premachandra for the Colombo District , and Y. P. de Silva from the national list. De Silva was named deputy minister of foods. After de Silva's death, Dr Ranjith Navarathne became the party leader in 1997. In the 2000 general election, Dr Navarathne was elected to Parliament from the Kurunegala District . He signed

910-590: The island of Ceylon came under British rule . During the career of Christopher Reynolds as a Sinhalese lecturer at the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London , he extensively researched the Sinhalese language and its pre-1815 literature. The Sri Lankan government awarded him the Sri Lanka Ranjana medal for his work. He wrote the 377-page An anthology of Sinhalese literature up to 1815 , selected by

945-593: The murder under questioning by the Criminal Investigation Department . In a 141-page statement, he said he had been carrying out orders given to him by the Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya (Patriotic People's Movement), the military arm of the JVP, which was responsible for multiple assassinations in the late 1980s. After Chandrika Kumaratunga became President in 1994, she appointed a Presidential Commission of Inquiry which inquired into

980-530: The party in 1984 and led it until his assassination in 1988. His wife, Chandrika Kumaranatunga , led the party for a short time after his death. The SLMP supported the Provincial Council Act and ran against the United National Party (UNP) in 1988. The SLMP candidate, Ossie Abeygunasekera , placed third in that year's presidential election with 235,719 votes (4.63%). Abeygunasekara served as

1015-546: The party's leader until he crossed over to the UNP in 1993. The party lost 117 leading members during the revolution of 1988–89, including Vijaya Kumaranatunga, Pohoddaramulle Pemaloka Thero, T. B. Wijesuriya, and Deva Bandara Senarathne. Shortly after Kumaranatunga's assassination , the SLMP joined hands with the Communist Party of Sri Lanka , the Lanka Sama Samaja Party , and the Nava Sama Samaja Party to form

1050-465: Was active in the 1982 presidential campaign of Hector Kobbekaduwa . After the election, he was accused of being a Naxalite and jailed under the emergency regulations of President J. R. Jayewardene , but he was never charged. He ran as the SLFP candidate in a by-election in Mahara in 1983 and was threatened by United National Party (UNP) supporters. An attempt was made on his life, and one of his friends

1085-531: Was killed. Kumaratunga won the first vote count, and a recount was ordered. At that point, a blackout occurred at the counting centre. By the time electricity was restored, the UNP candidate had recorded a victory by a few votes. The opposition alleged that someone had "eaten some of Vijaya's votes to ensure UNP victory". On 22 January 1984 he founded the Sri Lanka Mahajana Party (SLMP) and became its first national organizer, which campaigned for peace in

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1120-535: Was not the lead actor. In a career that spanned nearly two decades, he contributed to more than 120 films, 114 of which starred the protagonist. Some of his most popular films include Ahas Gauwa (1974), Eya Den Loku Lamayek (1975), Ponmani (1977), Bambaru Avith (1977), Ganga Addara (1980), Baddegama (1980), Paradige (1980), Maha Gedara (1980), Kedapathaka Chaya (1989), and Kristhu Charithaya (1990). He acted in one English-language film, The God King , and one Tamil film, Nanguram . Meanwhile,

1155-808: Was released after his death. From 1983 to 1988 (once after the assassination) he was a consistently popular actor at six Sarasaviya Award Ceremonies. But he received the award for the Best Actor only for the role in Kedapathaka Chaya at the OCIC and the Swarna Sankha Festival in 1989, but he was not fortunate enough to see it. After two years of demise, he won the Sarasaviya Award for Best Playback singer for his song 'Walakulak Gena Muwa Karumu Hiru' for Saharawe Sihiniya and his song 'Sara Guwana Vida Neguna' for

1190-450: Was the daughter of two former prime ministers, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and Sirimavo Bandaranaike , and would later become president of Sri Lanka. He is adored as an honest politician, talented actor and singer and more importantly as a very good human. Kumaratunga was shot in the head with a Type 56 assault rifle outside his home on the outskirts of Colombo on 16 February 1988 by Lionel Ranasinghe, alias Gamini. Ranasinghe confessed to

1225-768: Was the founder of Sri Lanka Mahajana Party . Kovilage Anton Vijaya Kumaranatunga was born on 9 October 1945, at the government hospital in Ragama to Roman Catholic parents. His father was Kovilage Benjamin Kumaratunga, a village headmen and mother was Clara Beatrice Perera. The youngest of four siblings, Vijaya had two elder brothers: Sydney and Vivian and one elder sister: Rupa. He received his primary education at Seeduwa Davisamara Maha Vidyalaya, secondary education at St. Benedict's College, Kotahena and De Mazenod College, Kandana . During his school days, he excelled at singing, drama and oratory. Following his schooling, Kumaratunga joined

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