The Transition from Myth to Art from a Losevian Perspective: An Analysis of the Culladhanuggaha Jataka as Myth and Its Transition into Sri Lankan Folk and Classical Theatre

Based on an analysis of the Culladhanuggaha jataka and its Sri Lankan theatrical adaptations (the Maname Kolama and Ediriweera Sarachchandra's play Maname Niitakaya), the paper explores the relationship between myth and art. It uses Aleksei Fyodorovich Losev's theory of myth as the framework for the analysis of the Culladhanuggaha Jataka as myth and the changes that the story undergoes when it enters the realm of art. The paper argues that while the transference of the story from myth to art strips the story of much of its mythical character, the story even in its new context remains tied to the notion of myth in an important manner. The paper concludes with the argument that the theatrical pieces in question embody a broader consciousness defined by both the mythical consciousness and the poetic consciousness in the Losevian sense of the terms.