90 
JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XVIII. 
DRAMATIC POETRY AND THE LITERATURE OF THE 
SINHALESE. 
By W. Arthur de Silva, J. P. 
A REMARKABLE fact that strikes a student of Sinhalese 
is the absence of dramatic poetry in its old literature. There 
is not even a mention made of a dramatic work in any of 
the books that are now in existence. A class of dramatic 
works in the Siiihalese language, which hardly lays pretence 
to literary merit, has sprung up at a very recent date. These 
are written in imitation of Tamil and Gujarati Indian 
dramas. With the exception of drama, the old literature 
of the Sinhalese now in existence contains works of merit 
o 
in all other branches of literary activity. The scholars of 
Ceylon in olden times were in communication with the chief 
centres of scholarship in India. Interchange of visits and 
of ideas and books are clearly seen. The more important 
Sinhalese books bear a close relation to Sanskrit works in 
o . 
their style and method of arrangement. Such well-known 
Sanskrit dramatic works of merit as Sakuntala, Urvasi, 
Nagananda, Mudrarakshasa, Marichikatha, some of them 
depicting Buddhist ideas, must have been familiar to the 
scholars of the Island. Can it be possible that dramatic 
literature that existed in the Island was lost when the Tamil 
invaders destroyed the libraries of the Sinhalese, or when 
King Rajasinha collected and set fire to Sinhalese works ? 
But the books that have been rescued or preserved from this 
general destruction are of a varied character ; or, were the 
dramatic works written by Sinhalease authors of such an 
inferior order that they were soon forgotten or thrown away 
as worthless ? Here, also, it is improbable that scholars who 
were able to produce poetical and other works of merit were 
not able to produce anything of equal merit in drama. 
Under these circumstances it has to be presumed that for 
some reason or other no dramatic literature was produced 
