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JOURNAL, R.A.S, (CEYLON). [YOL. XYllI. 
dramatic performances were gradually discarded by the 
people. At this period parties of players from South India 
found audiences among the Sinhalese. 
The Sinhalese themselves organized performances in 
imitation of the Tamil plays and composed their own books. 
These books were mostly translations of Tamil ones. There 
are also a few adaptations of current popular stories. The 
plays were known as nddagam^ from the Tamil ndtakam. 
They were performed in many a town and village. In the 
villages it became a common amusement. Each village in 
turn took upon itself to put on the stage a nddagama ; the 
players were selected from among the residents ; the 
stage was erected in some open space ; the performances 
were continued for weeks together. There are still in many 
a village old men who recount their performances personat- 
ing a king or prince or some hero in a nddagama with the 
greatest pride. There are others who, through a distinguished 
performance of parts allotted to them, have ever after borne 
the name of the character they represented in the village 
nddagama. The nddagama is no more the popular perform- 
ance it was some years since. A large proportion of ndda- 
gam plays were written by uneducated authors. It is only 
at a very late stage of these compositions that one or two 
have been added to the list by authors with some learning. 
At the time the nddagam were getting into disfavour,, 
another class of drama came to the front so late as the 
eighties. They are Indian ndtyas^ popularly known in 
Ceylon as nritya, A number of dramatic works of this class 
has been composed in imitation of Gujarati plays, and these 
came into popular favour through performances given in 
Colombo. In consequence of the advent of the two classes 
of dramatic performances mentioned above, viz., nddagam 
and ndtya^ a number of dramatic w^orks have recently come 
into the Sinhalese language. The works can in no way be 
classed as literature, though there are a few that have been 
composed with some skill. 
