Abstract:
The true events during the histories have been documented as
memories in the Sri Lankan Tamil Dramatic Texts. The evidence of the
production subjected on histories available from 1833 onwards. True
historical events like, life of Kings, story of a country or region, a particular
incident etc., are seems to be the main subject of these texts. The histories
written and documented in all types of theater forms like Koothu, Vilasam,
Isainadakam, prose dramas, dialogue play etc. and also retell the stories as
consistently perform on stage in each of these forms of theatre practicing in
the Tamil tradition. So far more than sixty historical plays published in
Tamil, and unpublished scripts also available in Tamil. Within that, there are
four Tamil dramas published on the last King of Kandy with different
perspctives. One is prose drama and other two are koothu form and dialogue
play. Two unpublished texts are also available. And these dramas provide not
only a documentation of the past events, but also arguments through re creation that history becomes accessible not so much as static ‘fact’ as it does
as a process of remembering. This study concentrates on the characterization
and how the historical events have been modified to suit the genres of the
drama and based on dramatic content and the text analysis. Finally the
research will compare the characterization of the main figures with the
Sinhala plays that were performed in Colombo written by Don Philippu
Sinhgo (1870) and John de Silva (1906). How the nationalist sentiments
changed from Colombo to Jaffna will then be viewed. The research also for
the first time compares two genres: Koothu from the Tamil tradition and the
Nadagam of Phillippu Sinho and the Nadagam inspired theater of John de
Silva. This research shows how a historical event can be interpreted in many
ways in different genres of dramatic texts. It manifests an interest and
awareness building of the cultural aspects by documenting cultural heritage
through dramatic texts.
