Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c10.s2.11

c10.s2.11

All was now ready for the second and most essential part of the ceremony. The foreman dressed up as a prince, and had further a fine cloth (called vahantarāva) over his head. The costume (kumāra eṇḍuma) consisted of tuppoṭiya, heṭṭaya, toppiya, sword and jewellery. It would appear from the Mahāvaṃsa (Ch. LXXIII.) and other references that the eyes were at one time regularly painted by the King himself. The chronicle states that an ecclesiastical building (Dhammāgāra) was erected by Parākrama Bāhu I. “It was adorned with many images of the Conqueror made of gold and the other precious substances, and decorated with an array of pictures of the Omniscient wrought on cloth. And whenever the great king entered the house to paint with his own hands the eyes of the images of the Conqueror, or to make offerings to the Tathāgata, or to hear the preaching of his doctrines that have never been surpassed, the nautch girls danced and Netra sang songs sweet and melodious as the music of heaven; and it was also adorned with Maṅgalya (the image of) a peacock of great splendour that joined the women always in the dance, uttering wild screams that amazed and delighted the people greatly.” The use of the frequentative probably implies that the building referred to was regularly used by the king for performing the Netra Maṅgalya ceremony for images intended for various situations. Another instance is recorded in a sannasa held by one Kalu Nayide, of Vannipola (Lawrie, p. 910): “When the King of Kings, Śrī Saṅghabo Senasammata Vikrama Bāhu, was reigning in Senkaḍagala, he ordered on the full moon day of the twentieth year of his reign two sheets of cloth (twenty cubits by nine cubits) to be woven, and caused Ācharilla Dityaya and his son Sivanta Dityaya to paint thereon the likeness of Buddha seated on the Vajrāsana and surrounded by Śakra, Brahma, and other Dēvas. On the completion of painting the two sheets, he ordered the performance of the ceremony of placing pots full of water and of other rites; and on the completion of the Nētra Pinkama, his hands having been washed, he was graciously pleased to bestow on the two artists, with the object of satisfying them and to enable them to make offerings to Buddha, fields . . . to be held absolutely from generation to generation.” Here the King himself painted the eyes, as the reference to the washing of his hands shows; and this appears to have been the usual custom. It is stated likewise of Kirti Śrī, that on the completion of the Gaṅgārāma Vihāra, and all preparations had been duly made, that “he set the eyes of the image amidst great rejoicing, and the sound of musical instruments.” On the other hand, the eyes were sometimes painted by the craftsmen themselves, even in the days of kings. A deed of A.D. 1753 makes mention of a land which had been ‘granted to Hamadi Baḍala for painting the eyes of Buddha’ (Lawrie’s Gazetteer, p. 937). Evidently the ceremony was performed by the king if possible; just as in modern times, great men are availed of to lay foundation stones; but when the king was not available (and, of course, always after 1815, when the rule of the Kandyan kings came to an end) the chief painter, in royal garb, performed the ceremony himself; and it is thus that the ritual has been described to me by present-day craftsmen.