Abstract
The culture of a community plays a major role in narrating the history and life of that particular community. This culture includes various aspects such as religion, ritual, faith, food, customs or practices as well as art and culture. Among these aspects, art is not only for entertainment; but it is also for exposing the social character and tradition of that particular community. The undeniable thing here is the factor that art forms in every country, and in every region are not only to create entertainment but also to preserve the antiquity of their existence up to now. In that respect, Vasanthan Kooththu, one of the Sri Lankan Tamil art forms, is a notable art form in that category. Even though this art form is found in Batticaloa and Jaffna areas, they have differences between each other. This study focuses on the songs of Vasanthan Kooththu performed in the Katuthavalai area of ​​Batticaloa. This type of Kooththu is an art form of tapping and dancing with two sticks in the hands; however, these sticks are also used to express the function of the meaning of the song with dance. Even though this type of Kooththu is a dance form, the greatness of the songs used in this Kooththu is significant. There are 62 types of Vasanthan poems have been in use in the Art Form performances. These have been compiled around the year 1940. These 62 genres of songs are divided into six genres and compiled, namely 'Kattiyam', 'Thoththiram', 'Sariththiram', 'Tholil', 'Vedikkai', 'Vilaiyaattu' and are still in the practice during Kooththu performance. As mentioned earlier, these Kooththu song systems emphasize the art expression of the culture of a community. The songs related to the professions or job involved in these Kooththu songs express the whole series of activities of the agricultural industry. The reason that these Kooththu songs to aim to explore only a specific industry is to be explored. It is vital to discover this factor; and this article explores about how these Kooththu songs are still in operation today as a popular form of folk music performance to describe a particular social professional life, beyond globalization trends, imposition and blends of colonization thinking. This article also explores the significance of these Kooththu songs hold, the importance they have gained in the life of people as well as the value that these Kooththu songs have even today.