Vahallu is a collection of short stories by Martin Wickramasinghe (1890-1976), the Sinhala novelist, critic and essayist often called the father of modern Sinhala literature. It was first published in 1951, and its title is rendered in English as Bondage. This is a Sinhala-language edition. The title is also spelt Wahallu.
According to the author's publishers, the book brings together fifteen stories written in Wickramasinghe's mature years. It was his last major short-story collection, coming after Handa Sakki Kima (1945) and the great novels of the 1940s, Gamperaliya, Madol Doova and Yuganthaya.
The title story follows Upalis, a carter, and his faithful bull Handaya, which comes to him when he falls ill. The story later appeared in English as Bondage in a selection of his short stories in translation. The collection also carries an appendix in which Wickramasinghe sets out his ideas in an essay on the short story, arguing that serious fiction should portray the lives of common people rather than those of kings and ministers.
The political scientist Jayadeva Uyangoda, writing on Wickramasinghe's short fiction, sees Vahallu as continuing the empathic, non-judgemental view of ordinary people that began with his first collection, Geheniyak, while showing greater narrative sophistication, with no room left for the author's own commentary.
The book suits Sinhala readers looking for Wickramasinghe at his most assured as a short-story writer, and students of the modern Sinhala short story.
- Author: Martin Wickramasinghe
- Published: 1951
- Language: Sinhala
