Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c11.s1.17

c11.s1.17

SIMHA. The lion is the mythical ancestor, and totem animal of the Sinhalese, standing for majesty and power, as in the case of Buddha’s name of Śākya-simha, or the royal name Rāja-simha. A typical representation of the Sinhalese lion is given in Fig. 22, from a modern drawing; see also Pls. XXVI., 1; XXIX., 7; XXXVIII., 1 and 5; and XLV., 3. The full face detached, called *kibihi-mūna*, shown in Fig. 23, is most often seen in *makara-toran*, where it forms the central feature in the position of keystone of the arch; and it is used in design as the starting point of sprays and branches of foliaceous ornament. Some sixteen, or thirty-two kinds of *simha* are recognized by Sinhalese artists; there are three kinds beside the *kesara simha*, or lion proper; and the others are not really lions at all, but other beasts, the word ‘lion’ being used generically for ‘animal,’ as the word ‘deer’ is used in speaking of ‘mice, and such small deer,’ and regularly in the same way in older English. But the *nara simha* and *gaja simha*, described below, are not reckoned as ‘lions’ by the Rūpāvaliya which gives the following account of lions: “Kēsarī, Hariṇī, Kyāghu, Varātu, Śisū, Mariṇī, Matangi, Śikhī, Kinnarī, Gandharvajī, Bhallukā, Mañjarī, Tuṅga, Sakhā, Mṛiga, Viratīkā—these are the sixteen kinds of lions.”