Samahara Tharuna Tharuniyanta Lyrics by MS Fernando

Is it your mother, or is it your wife?
Of these two, which one do you love?
Women, you could go looking and find them by the hundred,
but a mother, if I say there is only one, that is no lie.

When your fist is full of coins and cash,
then women too will gather all around you,
and the day your hands are empty, they leave and walk away,
but would a mother ever do that to her own son?
Some young men and women, taken in and fooled,
have wronged their helpless mothers.
Women you can have as many as you like, the world is full of trouble,
but a mother, there is only one, and she is the one who loves us.

Long ago, when King Cula Paduma’s queen
grew thirsty as they crossed the desert,
the king cut open his own chest and gave her his blood to drink,
that is how deeply the king loved his queen.
She set her heart on a crippled man who had no arms or legs,
and she led the king to the top of a great mountain
and pushed him down off that peak.
Mother, oh mother, would a mother ever do that to her own son?

Long ago, as the king and queen were walking through the forest,
a forest prince leapt out into a fight.
That forest prince had a strong, well-built body,
and the king’s queen set her heart on him.
When the king asked her for his sword,
she gave the king the empty scabbard and gave the sword to the forest man.
And because of that, the king was destroyed.
Mother, oh mother, would a mother ever do that to her own son?

Some young men and women…

My mother and father are my whole life,
I am the eldest son of these two,
it is my duty to look after them both.
That, right there, is the good nature of a good son.
Bring your wife close to your side,
and if she does wrong, explain it to her kindly,
love your wife always,
because your mother too is a woman.

Some young men and women…

This is not a love song. It is a song with a lesson, the kind of moral story-song Sri Lankan listeners know well, where the singer uses old tales to teach how a person should live. The point it drives home is simple and a little blunt: do not let marriage make you forget your mother. The opening lays it out plainly. You can go out and find women by the hundred, the singer says, but you only ever get one mother, and she is the one whose love never asks anything back.

The heart of the warning is about loyalty. When you have money, people crowd around you, and when your pockets run dry they drift off. A mother is the opposite of that. She does not leave when the money leaves. So the song calls out young men and women who, once they are caught up in a new marriage, start treating their own mothers badly. The refrain “samahara tharuna tharuniyanta,” some young men and women, comes back again and again like a finger pointed at exactly those people.

To make the lesson hit harder, the song reaches for two old stories about King Cula Paduma and his unfaithful queen, tales every older Sri Lankan grew up hearing. In the first, the king loves his queen so much that when she is dying of thirst in the desert he cuts open his own chest and gives her his blood to drink. Her thanks is to fall for a crippled beggar with no arms or legs, lure the king up a mountain, and shove him off the top. In the second, she sets her eyes on a strong forest hunter, and when the king asks her to hand him his sword in a fight, she gives him the empty sheath and slips the real blade to the other man, getting her own husband killed. After each grim tale comes the same aching line, “amme, amma ehema karayida tama putaata,” mother, oh mother, would a mother ever do that to her own son? The contrast is the whole argument. A wife or a lover can turn on you, the stories say, but a mother never would.

Then the song softens and shows the other side, so it does not curdle into bitterness against women. The good son speaks: my parents are my whole life, I am their eldest, and looking after them is my duty. And the closing turn is the wisest part. Bring your wife close, it says, and if she does something wrong, do not throw her away, sit her down and explain it gently. Love your wife always. The reason it gives is quietly beautiful, “mokada obe ammath gaenu kenek handaa,” because your mother too is a woman. The song lands not on choosing your mother over your wife, but on honoring both, remembering that the wife you are tempted to mistreat is somebody’s daughter, the same way your mother is.