Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c11.11

c11.11

The type of kindura known to Kandyan artists is, then, the true one. It is often called liya- or ‘woman-kindura,’ just as a mermaid is oftener spoken of than a merman. The form is found not only in purely decorative work, but of necessity also in pictures of the Canda Kinnara Jātaka, as at Keḷaniya (Pl. VIIA.). The story of the jātaka is briefly thus: The Bōdhisat was incarnated as a Kinnara and lived with his wife Candā in the Himālayas. The king of Benāres committed his Government to his ministers and went alone to the Himālayas on a hunting expedition. The two Kinnaras, whose home was on the Mountains of the Moon, had come down from them and were playing and singing by a stream, Candā dancing to the sound of her fellow’s flute. The king heard the sound, and creeping near, was smitten with love for Candā. ‘I will shoot the husband,’ thought he, ‘and kill him, and I will live here with his wife.’ He shot and slew the Kinnara; his mate fled in fear and sorrow to the top of the mountain, and a dialogue ensued between herself and the king, and she refused to live with him; his passion died away and he departed indifferent. Canda embraced her fellow and brought him to the hill-top and cried aloud over him, taunting the gods to bring him to life again. Śakra’s throne grew hot.* ‘Pondering, he perceived the cause; in the form of a Brahman he approached, and from a water pot took water and sprinkled the great being with it.’ The dead Kinnara was restored to life, and Śakra departed, warning the Kinnaras never again to seek the haunts of men. The master thus identified the Birth ‘At that time Anuruddha was the king, Rahula’s mother was Candā, and I myself was the Kinnara.’†