ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a single theme that unites these two dramas – the serious drama and the comic drama – and this is the theme of justice and righteousness. It deals mostly with the theme of justice exemplified in the pataha ritual drama which deals with two kings, the ‘evil’ three-eyed king of Pandi and the good king of Soli who is in turn identified with the great Tamil king, Karikala– a part historical and part mythical figure. The tradition of the goddess’s conception in a mango, the blinding of Pandi’s middle eye, the adoption of Pattini by the merchant are shared by both Sinhala-Buddhists and Hindus of the East Coast. When people of South Asia enacted the great dramas of the Pattini cult, they were talking in terms of parables. The chapter discusses the social changes in Sri Lanka including a brief account of sorcery shrines where people go to curse others.
