Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c11.s1.50

c11.s1.50

The most remarkable decorative use of the human figure, however, is in the peculiar Man combinations of women arranged in the form of various animals and objects. A typical example, and the only one often seen, is the *pañca-nāri-geṭa* (5-women-knot) of which an example is seen in Fig. 28 (A). There is a fine example carved in stone at the entrance to the Daḷada Māligāva, Kandy, and another at Hanguranketa, in which, however, there is evident Dravidian feeling; there is a very fine example in ivory (Pl. XXXVIII., 1) over the dēvāle store-room door at Riḍī Vihāra. The remaining combinations of this character known to Sinhalese painters (and used as drawing ‘copies’) are the *catur-nāri-palakkiya* (4-women-palanquin), *ṣaṭ-nāri-toraṇa* (6-women-arch), *sapta-nāri-turaṅge* (7-women-horse), *aṣṭa-nāri-ratha* (8-women chariot), and *nava-nāri-kuñjara* (9-women-elephant); in some of these the figure of Anaṅga, the Indian god of love, is also introduced, and it appears possible that the whole series was once symbolical, associated perhaps with some Krishna cult*. The original series may have been more complete; I have seen in a *kaḍuttam-pustakam* from Tanjore several of these combinations, and many other different ones. Such curious combinations are also met with in other parts of India, even far north; I have,