No. 54.— 1903.] DRAMATIC POETRY, 97 
which is usually written in the form of verses with high 
sounding words, and invoking the blessings of gods and the 
support of the audience. Next come the clowns ; before they 
appear on the stage the manager describes them in a verse, 
viriduiva, and introduces them ; they dance and sing. 
Next is introduced a young and accomplished student, who 
is expected to be refined in his tastesin contrast, to the 
clowns, and who sings and dances to sustain that character. 
Then come the prophets or the learned men, who are 
introduced with due gravity, and who repeat in short verses 
the plot of the story and the moral to be derived from it. 
The story is next started ; the kings and the queens are 
always preceded by the criers and pages. Each time a new 
character appears or a new incident takes place, the manager 
explains it in a verse. The words in a nddagama consist of 
four-lined verses and songs of different metres and a few 
conversational sentences. 
The second class of plays, ndtya, are of more recent 
origin. The following are some of the best-known ndtya in 
Sinhalese : Indrasabha, Sahdawati, Kalidas, Ramayana, 
Romlin, Rom^o and Juliet, Rubina, Eugene and Milan, 
Brumford, Three Sisters, Nala, Sinhawalli, Orison, Daskon, 
Aladin, Ali Baba, Ehelapola, Harischandra, Sirisahgabo. 
The plots of these plays are mostly derived from popular 
stories. Sinhawalli, Ehelapola, and Harischandra appear 
also in the form of nddagam ; Kalidasa, Ramayana, and Nala 
are from Indian stories ; Aladin, Ali Baba, and Three Sisters 
are from the Arabian Nights Stories ; others, such as Romeo 
and Juliet, are from the English. There is an arrangement 
of acts and scenes in the ndtya plays which is entirely 
absent in the nddagam. These plays on account of the 
scenery and the ne w music introduced through them, became 
popular among the Sinhalese, and displaced the older ndda- 
gam to a great extent. Mr. C. Don Bastian of Colombo is the 
first to compose this class of drama, and, among others, Mr. 
John de Silva has added a number of popular historical 
plays to the list. 
