Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c11.s1.13

c11.s1.13

as beautiful and auspicious; in poetry, especially erotic, it stands for the breasts of women, or for women themselves; the resemblance between a swan and a beautiful girl is a common motif in Indo-Aryan folk-lore. In Sinhalese as in Hindu decorative art the *hamsa* is everywhere to be seen; figure 20, from a modern *padimakada pota*, shows the typical Sinhalese form, the use of which is illustrated on Plates XXIII., 2; XXVI., 2; XXXIX., 2, 8; etc. Very usual, too, is the arrangement, called *hamsa paṭṭuva*, of two, three, or more *hamsayō* with entwined necks, as in Fig. 20 and Pls. XXXII., 8; XL., 4, 12.