Identity and Hybridity in The War of Constantino

The Kustantīnu Haṭana (War of Constantino) is the final work analyzed in the book. The chapter begins with a consideration of Alagiyavanna’s relationship with the Portuguese colonialists, wherein he is known to have converted to Catholicism and worked under the Portuguese revenue superintendent in the island. It considers modern scholarly opinions about the author and this work, deciding that its attribution to Alagiyavanna is justified. It explores how the Portuguese captain-general, Constantino de Sá de Noronha, is eulogized in the poem much like a traditional Buddhist king and how the Christian concept of divinity becomes expressed in distinctly Buddhist terms. The work is then used to argue for Alagiyavanna’s embrace of a hybrid form of religious identity, wherein Catholicism and Buddhism are blended to create a new identity that neither tradition can exclusively claim.

Aesthetics · Art · Hybridity · Identity (music) · Literature · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies