Perspectives of Characterizations of the Last King of Sri Lanka: Portray in Tamil Dramatic Texts of Jaffna

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 So far more than sixty historical plays published in Tamil, and unpublished scripts also available in Tamil.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 Two unpublished texts are also available.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.