Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c10.s1.22

c10.s1.22

The first thing to do in this investigation, would be to compare the South Indian methods with those of Ceylon, and with one another, and from these observations to reconstruct as it were a perfect text, exhibiting the instruction as a connected scheme. In this direction I have made some enquiries at Tanjore, from an old master-craftsman named Annasāmi Stapati Rayar. Drawing was taught as in Ceylon, upon a wooden board, prepared by covering with a lime and rice, or charcoal, lime and rice paste, and drawn upon with a leaden pencil. The forms first drawn were the simplified but comparatively naturalistic outlines of certain fruits and vegetables (can this really be a part of the tradition, or is it of modern origin?); and certain double curves or conventional leaf forms, called *kaḍaikadḍu*, *kurippa* and *akatti karukku* (Fig. 10), which apparently correspond to the Sinhalese *vaka deka* (an example of the latter (Fig. 5) was recognized by the Stapati as *kaḍaikadḍu*). Copy or sketch books, called *kaḍuttam pustakam*, were used as in Ceylon. One such in my possession, about a century old, consists mainly of sketches or memory notes of images of the principal deities and their attributes as detailed in the *śāstra*.