TRADITION BEARER

INTERVIEW WITH MRS. VAJIRA CHITRASENA:

BEARER OF THE TRADITION OF KANDYAN DANCING IN SRI LANKA

13 – 11 – 2007

(HELD AT ‘‘THE CHITRASENA KALATHANAYA’’)

RESEARCHER: Was this love for dance inherited from your parents or was it nurtured by Chitrasena?

TRADITION BEARER: It was my mother’s idea. I don’t know - my school teachers and all these people I was learning from and I met from school when I was a child, also sort of made my mother feel that I should take dancing as a career. And so as a child I was sort of forced into a class and that is how I first started. I had an idea of traditional dance. And all that was Chitrasena work. He brought traditional dance onto the stage from the rituals, so when I came onto the scene, all that was done by Chitrasena

RESEARCHER: It was not that you had the aspiration to pursue dancing as a career at a young age then?

TRADITION BEARER: It was not like that. I was just a child in a class and it was my parents and my teachers who saw that I had that kind of talent and that I should be going into this thing. But whatever it is, in those days I mean we didn’t choose our careers at the beginning when we were in school but dancing was there as a subject in the school when I started schooling so it was natural that when I participated in the class and so on, my elders would have thought that, that was the correct thing - to choose as a career.

Dancing ‘ before that was brought on to the stage by Chitrasena so Chitrasena started a long time before that I think his career started in 1936 so that was a long period I must have been four years then (“pausing to smile”)

RESEARCHER: So although you were pushed into it later on you developed an Aspiration for dancing?

TRADITION BEARER: Yea that’s after I got to know Chitrasena but even Chitrasena’s class, I tried to avoid! My mother pushed me into the classes when I was quite small when I started around 11 years and there also I was made to dance in front of the others and anyway every time when he came to take a class I hid somewhere and tried not to participate, very hard but it was actually the….. My mother who sort of pushed me into continuing to do it and then it was after I left school that I came under Chitrasena

RESEARCHER: How late in life can a person take to Traditional Kandyan dancing?

TRADITION BEARER: Even if people come as adults, we admit them.
Of course if one is persevering, as an adult even you can achieve something you don’t have to start at the age of 7.

Yes some people might grow to love it and then want to take dancing

RESEARCHER: In Traditional Kandyan Dancing how would you gauge a good act apart from it being the original authentic dance, what skills do you generally look for or look at to say “that was a good traditional dance performance?”

TRADITION BEARER: Hmm ... now that is difficult to say and that depends on each person. Actually every time we went to a performance, we saw how lots of people had changed into many other styles as they are really influenced by the Bollywood style of dancing. We don’t see any kind of our techniques - not even in India. In India also it’s like that! The traditional dances are never used to compose and create new dances. There are the easiest things now – Hip Wriggling dances which have come from Bollywood. Maybe it is an easier way. This kind of technique like ours - any of the techniques that one wants to learn properly, you have to make a real good study from the very beginning. In our style also we have like the western style, a bar where you have exercises on the bar. How to turn your legs out and to stay in the box position like you know? (showing the position) - That position. It takes a lot of learning and practice to get a style and it takes many years for one to get the dance into your system. You don’t find many people like that on stage. Now all our people who have just learnt a bit during school hours or for one or two hours in the evening will tend to turn out creations.

Very few people take to traditional dancing today. You can’t earn much from dancing, in the sense that if you become a dance teacher also, the teacher’s salary is quite low isn’t it? Compared to any other way of earning money? So that way we have much more to spend when it comes to a show so there is never any money collected.

The last performance “Kumbi kathawa” - we had almost 6 or 8 full houses, but we didn’t cover the cost as it came to 4 million. With a hall that has the capacity for just 760 people you can’t collect any money but you can’t also raise the rates because our rates were like 500 a ticket. There are people today, who have Rs. 1000/= and all that for the reserved like the front seat and so on! But we don’t do that so that more people will have the chance of seeing these things and its our duty to give it to the people who want to see know so we keep it low and try to get some sponsors now.

But in the past we had no sponsors. We just did it on our own (Chitrasena and I). At those early stages in the 1960’s and all, in “Karadhiya” Chitrasena even says that we borrowed the money from his servant because he was paid monthly and he had saved it you know, to get food and clothing and everything? He has mentioned that in “Karadhiy”a – how he had to borrow from the person who was working for us

RESEARCHER: You were a pupil of Chitrasena. After that, you fell in love and got married. How did both of you’ll get together and how did you’ll start to teach the others?

TRADITION BEARER: Chitrasena had started his school in 1944 so the school was there before my time though I knew Chitrasena in a different way (I mean like friends my parents knew Chitrasena) but I didn’t come to learn dancing at that time as a profession I started in 1947, left Kalutara and came to a school in Colombo. Then the school was right in front of our house in colpetty so I went to Methodist college at that time and it was Chitra’s father who took me to the school also so I was very much under their influence from the time I was like 15 years old. I was also living in Chitrasena’s house so all those things, the way they worked “Pageant of Lanka” - etc.

Chitrasena’s father was also an actor. He played “shylock” in the Shakespeare plays and he also translated them into Sinhalese. There was a time that he ran the tower hall for many. Chitrasena’s father was having these plays in the tower hall and Chitrasena has been In the audience.

(Vajira proceeding to point at a book that featured snippets from the past of Traditional Dancing)

These are our teachers in the traditional costume and this is another ballet of Chitra’s “Kinkini Kolema” I don’t know whether you have heard of that?

RESEARCHER: Is it true that you were his star pupil?

TRADITION BEARER: (laughing) That I don’t know! That is what people now think because I turned out be what I am today. The first the idea of my taking to dancing was my parents - at least my mother who wanted me to do it so she would have found that I suited this kind of work. Also in school I learnt under several teachers but never as a career so it was Chitrasena influence that I became what I have become now.

RESEARCHER: What discipline is required to maintain the kind of physique needed for Traditional Dancing?

TRADITION BEARER: That kind of living for an artist to develop one’s body - and of course although we don’t have that kathakali massage and all here, Chitra has had all that when he was abroad, so that kind of discipline has been there. Meditating, too. Not only when he was in India but after he came here when he continued the school in the 1940’s, he didn’t have that kind of discipline because no one took it seriously so whoever stayed (there were a few people who stayed in his house and continued the dance) - they followed Chitrasena discipline of the day

RESEARCHER: While you were in school did Chitrasena have classes in your school?

TRADITION BEARER: Not in my school he came privately to our house where I lived in Kalutara at that time and I was attending Kalutara Balika Vidyalaya and there was a dance teacher but somehow my mother got to know about Chitrasena through reading about him and so on and then also there was some other ladies - adults who wanted to study from him (I think people who were his relations) and they wanted to have a class. They couldn’t do it in their houses so they persuaded my mother to have a class there and then my sister was also there (my elder sister) but they didn’t continue

Vipuli is my younger sister. My elder sister also danced at the beginning when we had the class then. Vipuli was quite small then she didn’t attend those classes but later on she also took to dancing and played a big role because she played “Damayanthi” in “Nala Damayanthi” and I played the swan

RESEARCHER: How many hours of practice did you put in when you first started?

TRADITION BEARER: As a school girl of course I had only periods of dancing like 45 minutes and 1 hour or so but when I started under Chitrasena it was a long process where we sort of started at 4 o clock and went on and on and on...

RESEARCHER: What techniques and styles does the form of Kandyan Dancing involve?

TRADITION BEARER: Kandyan Dance is a style by itself. So other styles are not mixed so if you say “Kathakali Manipuri” or “Kathak” that’s the area from which it comes also from different characteristics from that area where people and the technique is formed by that .. but “Kandyan” is a definite style by itself and the low country Ruhunu Dance which comes from the south has a different style but the posture is almost the same and the Sabaragamuwa style is somewhere between the two (the South and Kandyan Dance) and the southern dance has different things like mask dancing which is not there in the Kandyan Dancing.

The Kandyan Dance has much more technique in the “rith” style where you get not only technique but the telling of story in the folk style like “nonji akka” and all ..

In “Nonji Akka” the old man and the old woman have a dialogue and there are masks to portray it. The masks also helped. There are a lot of devil masks and gurulu masks so the elephant and all don’t have a mask or anything. Only the low country style people have masks and the nagaraksha that’s also a mask where you wear the mask and dance

Then “Guruluraksha Nagaraksha” and then there are some things called “Sangyas”. “Sangya”s are all sorts of sicknesses and the sicknesses also have masks which portray hair and lip, lips missing - those are sangy masks where you get different diseases and there are rituals to cure that disease.

With the dance, the low country dance has all those things. The low country ritual is called the “Gammaduwa” and the up country traditional ritual is called the “Kohombe Kankariya”. It is done especially when you have a good harvest and appeasing the gods for having a good harvest. Mainly the dancers were farmers so everything to do with farmers all the occasions that came for dancing - the dancers were mostly farmers in the traditional Kandyan Dancing because in this, Kandy, Kurunagala, Pahatha Ratta - all comes from the south where you get the “Yaka” mask

RESEARCHER: Something like the village stories like aliya diwiya loketa giya hati - can you show it in a dance form?

TRADITION BEARER: Of course you can... you can show the elephant in a cut out or something but going to the “Diviya Loke” and all can be done in movement. This story has quite a lot of dance

RESEARCHER: What do you enjoy and love most about this form of dancing and what really inspired you?

TRADITION BEARER: In the Kandyan Dance its not sort of what do I say you don’t have things that say you cant break away from in this style. There are no hand gestures with meaning so only we have a dance style, a dance style we can use not in a commercialized way or in a vulgar way but in an artistic way. There is a chance to sort of create anything from the Kandyan Dance and also what Chitrasena started was to give a meaning to the dance so in that way also we have been successful in the sense when you take ‘Karadiyal” as an example - it has been shown all over the world and they accepted that as our National Ballet so we told a story about the fisher people with the dance and our technique. Chitrasena and I both learnt Kandyan Dancing more than all the other low country styles so in “Karadiyal” there is only the Kandyan Dance as the base so from there if you can do a successful story that means anyone can use it like the way we have done it.

There are some scenes of “Karadiyal” I think in the book (pointing to the book). Even when you see “Kumbi Kathawa” see all this was turned out and all the dance steps and whatever we are portraying - this is the evil character these are the “Kumbiyas” so that way you can use any story to give meaning to the dance so the Kandyan Dance is our face

So that means any folktale… not any folktale can be taken as a dance

Sometimes in the story where there is drama and of course its your artistry, that will help you create a drama out of whatever story that you do. So “Nala Damayanthi” is also a story. “Kumbi Kathawa” is also a story but it is the person who is doing it. The choreographer that will turn it out in such a way that will give meaning to the dance

RESEARCHER: Can you explain the concept of “Wes bandeema”?

TRADITION BEARER: I have sort of opened out a school for students of the university to come and follow our learning process and technique for two and a half years and when they came to a standard where they can tie the wes costume then we had a wes performance - they all danced in the “Kohombe Kankariya” (the male dancers) The female dancers never danced in the “Kohombe Kankariya” I hope nobody from later dancers will take this because its not right I mean we have created costumes and everything for the woman to dance on stage and not the “Kankariya” which has lot of budhdhistic ideas and sayings and datha’s.

The Wes dancer is a Kandyan Dancer. We call him a “wes dancer” after they tie the wes - the headdress that I showed. In some book there...in this book (picking up a book) and I think there is something about the Wes bandima. So one has to learnt the process of the “Kohombe Kankariya” so all the dance is in the ritual

You can learn all the techniques but we don’t perform in the correct ritual. When it is done for the male we are not using the male costume also so we can’t go into the “Kohombe Kankariya”. For all those things that are necessary for the dance - the wes dance means you have to wear the wes costume and that is the costume that you see in the book. It’s a very elaborate one. You’re not allowed to do it if it’s not the proper way.

There are people who think if you wear the costume and dance it’s okay but I think it’s wrong to get into those rituals because they are sacred...

(Pointing to the picture)
RESEARCHER: This is “Kohombe Kankariya”?

TRADITION BEARER: Yes we had one in our premises there and here also when we first started coming into this place (the place at which the interview is held) we had a “Kankariya” here too to give it the blessing. People do the “Kankariya” for blessing in the premises you do... we are permanently in this place this is our permanent residence.

RESEARCHER: The dress that you wore in 1948 for the “Pageant of Lanka” is now the traditional costume that’s being used from the time you first wore it who actually designed it. It was designed by somebody wasn’t it?

TRADITION BEARER: Yes. There was no women’s costume or headdress or anything that was created for me and it was designed by Somabandhu. We were living in Colpetty and the jeweler who was on the street in front of our house almost on Galle Road, he sort of made this costume that I am wearing and so many other people also have sort of copied the same design so it is Somabandu’s idea and his designs that were done by the jeweler.

RESEARCHER: Do you still have any rituals regarding wearing the costume like in ancient times, any particular rituals?

TRADITION BEARER: Err not really only in wearing but the traditional “Kankari”s called the “Kohomba Kankari”. It is a ritual of the Kandyan technique

RESEARCHER: Did you contribute to designing this first dress?

TRADITION BEARER: Later on when ever I wanted free movement and all I sort of gave them ideas that this is the way I want because when you go up... in a jump or so, your legs are hidden if you wear the Thoti and all that so all my costumes came up to the here only (pointing to the knees) Of course I wore tights and all that. And broke ground for that women’s costume’s but at the beginning it was not like that the first women’s costume. I’m sorry that I can’t sort of show you the designs of these things I don’t know whether its here... (Ruffles the book and Quotes from pointing at pictures in the book) this is my last ballet that I did performing

RESEARCHER: That means now you don’t perform you only teach?

TRADITION BEARER: Yes

(Going on to show pictures from the past in which she performed)

TRADITION BEARER: This is “Karadiyal” my character in “Karadiya”. Now this one is a scene from the ballet “Chandali” from 1951 and this is Chitrasena and myself. This is from 1997 it was my 50 years on stage so I created this. This is Upeka here and myself as the mother. The same ballet I played the girls role and there was another mother and this is Ravibandu in Chitra’s role. That is Ananda giving water to the Chandala girl that was the story. This is when I was a student and this kind of costume (what was here before) but later on the costume changed. And this is also another ballet of mine where my daughter is playing the lead role and this is the “Gajagawannama” and whenever I wanted changes I used to sort of - even the cloth and jacket I used to slit the sides and so that there would be free movement so there were lots of changes which I contributed to.

(Pointing to the book)

This is myself as the swan and there is the “Gajagawannama” on this. This is my practice time. This is Chitrasena and myself in a foreign country. We always demonstrated in various schools and when out of the performing time

RESEARCHER: How was the response different from Sri Lanka and overseas?

TRADITION BEARER: Much more! They would stand and applaud and in those countries people are used to going to the theatre, so they know exactly if you portray some character and do it well. They know that the creation has been something great.

RESEARCHER: Explain the forms of traditional dancing that you and your husband have brought into our culture that weren’t there before?

TRADITION BEARER: Of course the three styles were in the country but it was Chitrasena who sort of brought dance with meaning to the stage. Before that it was just rituals and there are three types you call “Natya”, “Ritha” and “Nirthaya”. “Ritha is without meaning, “Natya” is with speech and “Nirthaya” is all three together

RESEARCHER: It’s like dance Drama?

TRADITION BEARER: Yes “Nirthaya” is where you have meaning to a dance

RESEARCHER: Like telling a story ?

TRADITION BEARER: Yes. Like telling a story. At the beginning. We have also in the traditional forms “Gajagawannama” and “Thuragawannama” - all those things are depicting an animal but of course in their movements it was not visible. When you see a traditional dancer dancing the “Gajagawannama” which has become now very popular it never had the movements of an elephant those things we introduced to the dance that is Chitrasena and myself so because I always did the “Gajagawannama” all the performances when we had this show “Nirthanjali” where we depicted all three styles on stage so all those things were sort of choreographed for the stage and that was Chitrasena idea also and of course I helped him all the time as I grew up and took up more responsibilities to sort of help him to have the shows and the choreography and so on

RESEARCHER: Explain how the tradition is continued to be borne by the generations after you?

TRADITION BEARER: Now there is a sort of incentive for the children because they see and they have seen us also on stage and lots of children like to become dancers but they are very few who continue after their studies to become dancers unless of course they get a chance to come out in a good character or something where they can show of their talent but none of them had been making it their profession where you earn and live by it so there are very few professional dancers in Sri Lanka.

RESEARCHER: Is it that they do it for leisure while doing another profession?

TRADITION BEARER: Now even the teachers who have passed out from the university - they are just teachers they are not performers, so that means that this is not being continued by the people who come out of the university of aesthetic studies. So it’s not a professional thing anymore. They are only teachers so very few people who continue even in their homes and then have a “Kalathanaya” and continued to dance because its very difficult to carry on

RESEARCHER: Did you also have to like force your children for dancing like your mom?

TRADITION BEARER: They were in the school yes... And born and bred to the dance

RESEARCHER: But you’re entire family like all the females in the family professional dancer’s even “Taji” (granddaughter of Vajira)

TRADITION BEARER: Taji is aspiring to be a professional dancer (laughing) Today she is ill that’s why she’s quiet.

All the costumes and headdresses worn are traditional. They came down the ages for us so we have some thing to fall back on and sort of framework to start learning and the Kandyan Dance has improved after so many years of our study.

Because of Chitrasena’s work on stage, things have improved greatly after so many years so we are in the field now. I think about 75 years we have been in the field! So Chitra was there before me, that’s why I said 75.

I’m now 75 and still dancing - at least teaching and Upeka is meant to dance even though she is much older and she says till another one comes up and people start admiring a dancer in our school, she is going to go on somehow inspiring the others so till Taji (grand daughter of Tradition Bearer) comes up we have to keep doing it somehow

I did it for the others so now the others have to do it!

RESEARCHER: The present generation - has this dance form declined among them?

TRADITION BEARER: No I don’t say that It declined, only thing people don’t spend enough time doing it in the practice living in the dance and the drama. Whatever you do, people now don’t have the time... it was a great effort to get there. There were not only adults in the “Koombi” ballet, there were also children. There were about 45 people in the ballet. To make them all come the parents had to make sacrifices - not to go out during the weekends, leave the children with us so that we can do the rehearsals - so lots of people had to help to do it the parents and the children have to love it so much that they don’t miss anything so that way, only if one is willing to participate with us is it carried on.. Their contribution is also necessary

RESEARCHER: What do you feel about the future of this tradition in Sri Lanka?

TRADITION BEARER: People will continue to dance but of course professional dancers are going to be very few.

Only a person who is really dedicated to it and wants to do something for the country (such people are very few) know. In any field so when such people only take to dancing they will dedicate their whole lives and they would not even think of earning money by the dance. Of course they have to earn money to live but that is about all. I mean now everyone - all the people who are continuing in the field have to get a sponsor for the show it’s so expensive to have a show (the costumes and all)

When we have exhibitions where we exhibit all our past paper cuttings pictures,. We hope people will know how we have gone through this you know and

RESEARCHER: What are the ways in which people could help to preserve the tradition and keep it going?

TRADITION BEARER: Of course if you find people who are talented and have a feeling for the art. Then you must give them talks and sort of inspire them to come and continue with it. Most people come and learn and go off you know, for if they are going abroad they will come here to learn a dance and go and perform somewhere and like that… yes in a much commercialized way.

But people who are really dedicated are such a few and so of course in your schools and fellow friends you can also talk about it and if you have friends who like to dance send them to us and we can give them a way of coming up in the field so of course they have to be dedicated - if they get a job somewhere else if they go that’s what happens they have two things (dance is only for evening and other things during morning) ‘Other things” meaning going to work, so that’s why you cant dedicate your whole life into it.

There are one or two chaps with me now who are doing it seriously and “Kumbi Kathawa” also came out of that... because this person was very talented and all the graphic work and designs and costumes were done by this boy and then “Kumbi Kathawa” was done by my daughter Anjalika. The boy “Mahesh” who helps me is also studying still, without going and getting into a university where your whole life is also for years, he is attending evening classes where he can improve himself in the graphic art because he did everything on the computer and now the computer helps a lot now.

During the time of Somabandu there were no computers, one had to turn out the costumes but drawing you can do through the computer now.

RESEARCHER: How have the leaders of our country acknowledged you (and Chitrasena) as Tradition Bearers and assisted you?

TRADITION BEARER: I think from the very beginning we had very little help from the government that came into power but of course I must say that this land was given to us during the time of President Chandrika Bandaranaike. That’s the reason we have a place even. She is a younger person who also admired our dance and our culture and all those things she came from because of her family.

Mr. Bandaranaike also tried to improve our way of life, to appreciate our own things. The costume changed into the national costume and so on so all those things helped. Chandrika also thinking that way helped. She admired our work and during her time we got this land... We don’t have the money to do the full building which has been designed for quarters for us to live and for about 8 or 10 students to live and all the things are drawn up. We don’t have the money to continue to do it so every time we have something we give ads – sustainers so that we can continue to do this better

RESEARCHER: The new students of this Kala Ayathanaya - Do you give them these rules and regulations?

TRADITION BEARER: Most of them are school students and they have to go to school and all that. These disciplines can be followed when they are adults like 18, 19 and so on but of course there are no live-in students here. They come daily and do there practices we have lot of exercise classes and then traditional both types of dances so different teaches come in but living in students and that kind of discipline from morning evening cannot be carried out here. So we are doing the best we can

RESEARCHER: Do you give a brief history about the dance before you teach the performance?

TRADITION BEARER: During, performances, we always have the history in the program.

We don’t spend time talking about dance or announcing in between. All those things were given up in the 1970’s maybe and all we wanted to say was in the program synopsis... and our shows were so quick that we didn’t have time to announce. We didn’t - Chitrasena didn’t want it like that (To sit and listen to something in the dark while performances were going) So from one half to another the performance went from beginning to the end, upto the interval, then interval and from there onwards to the end so there were no in-between speeches and all.

RESEARCHER: So to the students, you give an introduction to the dancing before the students learn to do the performance?

TRADITION BEARER: While they study, they are with us and we are talking to them. We have a system of theory also, which is separate... so in the theory you get the history of the dance and different techniques and for how long it has been going on and so on.

RESEARCHER: How old is the youngest child?

TRADITION BEARER: 7 years (any male or female) 7 you should be old enough to understand, because it’s a difficult thing to understand the form in such a way and the box-like position is also very difficult. It hurts anybody who doesn’t know when they come to dance. The positions are quite - very difficult unless you go from the very beginning and then go down and up and so on. Those new exercises have been introduced by us - by me for students to sort of giving them an incentive to make it easier for them.

Not the way we learnt right away on the bar and in such positions till you finish it. That way it was much more difficult but now we are trying to give exercises to get all these things (jumps and turns) also we give exercises so that they can keep there legs up so that they can be in position. So all those new things have been introduced by us.

RESEARCHER: Today, how do you manage to dress these small children - 7 year old children who love to dance, without their mothers pushing them to come for practice?

TRADITION BEARER: Once they have learnt for a few months, all those children who have participated must have learnt for one year or two (and some of them were 8 9 or 10) Through association with us during this training period, they have got a love for the teachers and also for trying to portray what they have tried to portray. We have so many cards from the students who performed saying how beautiful it was to work with us and wishing us well and you know that sort of thing from the children is great.

RESEARCHER: Have you approached the cultural ministry regarding the development of this institution?

TRADITION BEARER: They say that if they do it for one “Kalathanaya” then they would have to do it for every Kalathanaya. We don’t expect it too because once they tell you that there are thousands of Kalathanayas in Sri Lanka, even though they have not done much, it still is a Kalathanaya with some traditional dancer or his child or because it is so many years after this came into our way of living ..

Dance is also a part of our life now. So from then onwards if you see, it has developed in either good ways or bad ways. There are many Kalathanaya but if the cultural department tries to help us then they would have to answer as to why they are not doing it for the others (we understand)

Traditional Kandyan Dancers would not have attracted people because in those days too, they were always sidetracked when they went to a performance. They will be on a side they will be given food in another table - so in that way our society was very bad - the treatment that the artist got...

That’s why it went off. The social way they were treated was like “untouchables”

(With a faraway look)
Initially it took a while for them to accept me.

END

CONCLUSION : As researchers into the life and history of Tradition Bearer Mrs. Vajira Chitrasena, we gained many an insight, individually and personally. We were all enriched with a better understanding and appreciation for the tradition she bore, along with an appreciation of Vajira and her late husband Chitrasena, along with Vipuli, Anjali and Taji (a family of 3 generations) who uphold and bear the Tradition of Kandyan Dancing in Sri Lanka.

As a group, the interview left us with a realization of our individual responsibility as members of community, in helping preserve this Tradition as a keen interest in helping support and continue the valuable efforts of its bearers, ignited within us, a desire to go for performances, events, exhibitions and to value the art of Kandyan Traditional Dancing as a Tradition preserved and passed down to the generations in Sri Lanka, by Tradition Bearers in the likes of Mrs. Vajira Chitrasena.

© Slow Chills