Emba Ganga

O river (stop, stop)..
river, gan gan gan
O river, of the river… gan gan gan..
of the river… gan gan gan.. of the river…

Cut the mountains, roll away the stones, raise the dams, break its running course
river… gan gan gan…. of the river…
turn the water aside, fill up the tanks, work the fields, fill the bellies
river… gan gan gan…. of the river…

O river (stop, stop)..
river, gan gan gan
O river, of the river… gan gan gan..
of the river… gan gan gan.. of the river…

Stand still, O river, swell up, hold your waters back like Parakumba
river… gan gan gan….
without giving its water for our work, it does wrong to run off to the sea
river… gan gan gan…

This is a classic of early Sinhala music, sung by the pioneering Sunil Santha to words by Arisen Ahubudu, and it speaks directly to a river. Stop, O river, it calls, gan gan gan, turning the very sound of the word ganga (river) into a chant. The whole song is a plea to harness the water rather than let it run to waste.

Its imagery is the imagery of nation-building. Cut the mountains, roll away the stones, raise the dams, it urges, turn the water aside, fill the ancient tanks, work the fields and fill the people’s bellies. This is the vision of Sri Lanka’s old hydraulic civilization set to melody, water caught and spread across the land so the country can feed itself.

The heart of it is the line invoking Parakumba, King Parakramabahu the Great, remembered for the principle that not one drop of rain should reach the sea without first serving the people. Hold your waters back like Parakumba, the song tells the river, for without giving its water to our work it does wrong to run off to the sea. It is a proud, rousing hymn to self-reliance and to the land, one of the songs that helped shape a Sinhala musical identity.