The plot revolves around pride, humility, and the true nature of artistic mastery. Guththila, the court musician of King Brahmadatta of Benares, is challenged by his former student Musila, who believes he has surpassed his teacher. The king arranges a musical duel. At the climax, Guththila—using spiritual wisdom rather than mere technical skill—teaches Musila a lesson in humility. The story culminates in Musila acknowledging his teacher’s supreme talent and both achieving enlightenment.
Guththila Kavya is a celebrated classical Sinhala poem written by Vetteve Himiyan during the Kotte period (15th century). It is based on the Guththila Jathaka , the 292nd story of the previous lives of the Buddha. The Story of Guththila and Musila guththila kavya sinhala pdf 169
– The PDF is in the public domain in Sri Lanka because the work itself is over 500 years old, and the 2018 scholarly edition is released under a Creative Commons Attribution‑NonCommercial‑ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC‑BY‑NC‑SA) licence, permitting free distribution for non‑commercial purposes with proper attribution. The plot revolves around pride, humility, and the