Song Composition Systems of Sri Lankan Tamil Rural Poets

Abstract

There is a long tradition of folk song called Folk ballads (Kaddup padalkal) among the Sri Lankan Tamils. These songs, written by somewhat literate rural poets, are written on the paper or published as pamphlets, as small print copies. But, in their practical way, they are mostly handed over orally.When these Folk ballads (Kaddup padalkal) compose by the rural poets, they follow some rules and regulations. Linguistic regulations are the main one of them. These rules clearly distinguish oral literature from written literature. It has been generally followed that songs should be composed mainly on the basis of various verbal elements. Namely, different features follow the same repetitive methodology.Similarly, we can observe that there is more similarity in the rhythm of the songs. They have been singing their songs in certain rhythms. Thus, they have adopted the method of using oral song forms such as epic, ammānai, sinthu, kummi, thālāttu, oppāri, kavi according to the nature of the objects. Their form and music structures are mostly similar to folk songs.Moreover, a general structure has been followed to the theme of the songs.