A critical study of Ruwan Bandujeewa's ability to recreate historical stories in a modernistic way (based on the poetry of Meelanga Meewitha)

Abstract

As a prominent feature of present Sinhala poetry, the theme of many of Ruwan Bandujeeva's poetic works takes a different form. The purpose of this study, which was conducted in connection with the poem 'Milanga Meevitha', was to engage in a critical study of Bandujiva's ability to recreate historical stories in a modernist manner. As a poet who correctly understood what is the ultimate responsibility of a poet, Ruwan Bandujeeva touches the deeper levels of social realities. In some cases, his poems, which are composed very briefly with three or four verses, are able to cover an area that has not been noticed so far in the society. It can be studied here how Bandujeewa attempts to recreate the social problem in a modernist manner by combining it with a historical story when he discusses a social problem. In this way, the poet is able to release his creation to the society more intensively. The remnants of historical incidents are taking place in society today and tomorrow. 'Kundalakesi' in Milanga Meewitha is one such story. In order to create the poem in a more fresh and surprising way, Bandujeeva sometimes mixes the core of the story, sometimes the characters, and sometimes the conceptual conditions arising from it with modern social events in this way. It is a very modernist imagination and although historical stories are used for poetry, it is a wonderful incident to intersect and present both the historical story and the modern social situation. How historical events coincide with certain events in the present day society can be well identified by several poems such as 'Salalihiniyo umbata kohoma sathutak athda?' , 'Menaka' , 'Bauddhaloka mawathe awukana anuruwa' , which are included in the Meelanga Meewitha. For this study, data is collected under qualitative method and Meelanga Meewitha poetry collection was used as a primary source. Accordingly, the main problem of this research was how those historical stories are recreated in Ruwan Bandujeewa's poems. In recreating an ancient story or phenomenon, how wonderfully Bandujeeva juxtaposes it with modernity can be studied in many poems in Meelanga Meewitha. It can be recognized that Ruwan Bandujeewa has a very high ability to present the burning issues of the society in a modernist way without looking at the traditional eyes using historical stories and it can be mentioned here as the results of this research.