The importance and value of ‘Sandesha Kavya’ in Sri Lanka

Abstract

In Sri Lanka ‘Sandesha Kavya’ were written to pass a message from one place to another place and the specialty is, the apostle in most ‘Sandesha Kavya’ is a bird. ‘Meghaduta’ is the world first ‘Sandesha Kavya’ written by ‘Kalidasa’. By reading Sri Lankan ‘Sandesha Kavya’ we can understand that our poets did not copy Indian poems, but got some structural things. In many ways, Sri Lankan ‘Sandesha Kavya’ are different from Indian ones. Most of the 'Sandesha Kavya' was written as an appeal to God. Because of this, we can identify some religious beliefs of Kurunegala, Gampola and Kotte Kingdoms. ‘Sandesha Kavya’ can be divided into two parts, such as Major Sandesha Kavya and Minor Sandesha Kavya. ‘Thisara’, ‘Mayura’, ‘Parevi’, ‘Kokila’, ‘Selalihini’, ‘Gira’, ‘Hansa’ and ‘Saul’ are majors and ‘Kaputu’, ‘Neelakobo’, ‘Kahakurulu’ and other ‘Sandesha Kavya’ are minor sandesha kavya. Most of these are based on Buddhism. From these ‘Sandesha Kavya’, we can get an idea about the prevailed situation of ancient kingdoms. Not only religious background, but we can also get to know about the political, economic, sociological and cultural background of these eras. All these things are represented as poems, and they are written according to the correct meter. From these great poems, we can thoroughly state that our education and literature were well developed in ancient times. Only a person who knows Sinhala can read and enjoy poetry. Most of our history books contain religious and political information. The significance is, these poems represent mostly about day today life. ‘Sandesha Kavya’ represents a golden era of literature in Sri Lanka.