;No. 54.— 1903.] dramatic poetry. 93 
We have now over twenty well-known nddagam works 
printed and published in Sinhalese. The arrangement of 
subject-matter in these works, the songs, verses, and cZram- 
atis personce^ bear a close resemblance to each other. There 
are two plays connected with the history of Ceylon : the 
Sinhawalli and Ehelapola. The Sinhawalli nddagama 
relates the origin of the Sinhalese race from the so-called 
descendants of the lion of the Wa^ga country ; the Ehela-* 
pola nddagama depicts the last act in the Sinhalese history 
and the incidents that took place in 1815 prior to the 
acquirement of the Kandyan territories by the English 
Government. Both these works have been compiled by 
one Philippu Sinno, a man who was known as a singer 
and composer, and who is said to be the first author of a 
Sinhalese nddagam. Philippu Sinno died in Colombo about 
the year 1850, and is said to have been about eighty years 
of age at the time of his death. He lived in the 
early English period, and was an uneducated blacksmith 
who worked in his smithy daily. The man had associated 
with South Indian players and had picked up their music 
and songs. He composed the nddagam in imitation of the 
Tamil works. The songs and words for his nddagam were, 
it is said, mostly composed while at work in his shop. They 
were daily traced on the walls of the smithy with a piece of 
charcoal ; after the day's work was over the notes thus made 
on the walls were committed to paper. The following day 
a fresh crop of songs and verses were again put on the 
wall. 
The following is a list of nddagam works attributed to bis 
authorship : Sinhawalli, Ehelapola, St. Josephat, Susew, 
Helena, St. Nicholas, Visvakarma, Wurtagam, Matalam, 
Senagappu, Three Kings, Sulambawati. 
Philippu Sinno was a Roman Catholic by religion, and his 
introductory invocations are composed to agree with his 
religious views, with a mixture of Buddhist and Hindu forms. 
Except perhaps Ehelapola, which is based on current events 
of the time, the rest of the works are adaptations from 
