Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c13: Chapter V. Architecture

Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c13

Language: English

Chapter V. Architecture

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“The Temples of their Gods are of rare and Exquisite Work” (KNOX).

IT is not meant here to give any exhaustive account of late Mediæval Sinhalese architecture, but only such a general account of it as shall enable the reader to understand its relation to the fine and lesser arts, and to comprehend the arrangement of such temples as he may have the opportunity to visit. It must not be supposed that Mediæval Sinhalese architecture can compare either in extent or magnificence with that of Southern India or with that of earlier times in Ceylon, to which the well-known remains at Anurādhapura and Polonnaruva testify. But it will be found that the typical Kandyan wooden architecture has a distinct character of its own, and that it responds directly to the needs of a small agricultural people, not luxurious, and rather prosperous than wealthy. In spite of the great remains at Anurādhapura it should be fully realised that the truly national and indigenous architecture has always been one of wooden building; the great stone buildings whose remains attract so many visitors to the ‘buried cities,’ were probably erected with Indian assistance and partly by Indian workmen; so were many later stone buildings (especially when for the worship of Hindu gods) such as the sixteenth century Beręṇḍi Kovil and the unmistakeable Hindu temple at Ridi Vihāra. Other buildings such as Lankātilaka, the Daḷadā Māligāva and Gaṇēgoḍa vihāra (Sab.) having more or less stone work in their construction were probably made by native or long naturalised *gal-vaḍuvo*; but a majority of vihāras are without stone construction, or have only a stone doorstep or ‘moonstone,’ as at Degaldoruva; stone steps and plain balustrade are also met with.

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It should be remembered that in India, stone building was not practised until a little before Aśoka’s time (third century B.C.), and no doubt a knowledge of it came to Ceylon from Northern India along with the Buddhist missionaries; but a wooden style was already well established, and while serving as the model for the work in stone, has never been itself displaced. Buddhist wooden architecture of the same general type is still to be found in Nepal; in most other parts of India it has been replaced by stone.

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At a later time, when a knowledge of stone building had spread to Southern India and the great Dravidian building tradition sprang up, it was easy for the Sinhalese kings to get such masons as they required thence; and it is probable that most of the *gal-vaḍuvo* actually living in Ceylon as subjects of the Sinhalese kings in later times, were of South Indian blood.

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*Domestic building* We have already seen that the dwelling house was a simple framed one-storied building of timber and wattle and daub, like an English half-timbered cottage, with thatched roof and small central courtyard. Each man built his own home, except a few noblemen whose manor-houses were better and more pretentious than the wood and daub cottages of the ordinary people. Nails were not used in ordinary building, but everything was fastened with rattans and other jungle ropes. The solid timbers of royal buildings were morticed and tenoned together in a very substantial manner. The use of stone was confined to royal and religious buildings.

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The house itself was built on a stone and mud foundation raised above the ground level; this foundation, smoothly plastered and cowdunged, formed the floor and inner verandah, and projected outside the walls as a narrow ledge or outer verandah (*pila*), used to sleep or sit on. The houses of great persons only differed from those of lesser men by having more rooms and courtyards, better timber, the beam ends and verandah pillars and their brackets sometimes carved, and in a very few cases only, a tiled roof. Fig. 70 shows the house of a small cultivator or yeoman, having two rooms besides the inner verandah, and granary (atuva) on stone pillars; such a house may have been built in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century; few if any houses older than the eighteenth century survive. One of the most notable of old valavvas is that of Maḍuvanvela, a chieftain of ancient family and still powerful; the house has been somewhat altered and added to, but retains many old features including the massive doors showing the marks of Dutch bullets. Almost the only old house in Kandy itself is the Girihāgama valavva, but even that is much altered and spoilt.*

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Fig. 70. Plan of small yeoman’s house. P.P. wood pillars : thatched roof over all, except open yard. Scale 1/8 inch = 1 foot.

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The doors, single or double, were exceedingly massive adze-hewn planks, turning on two dowels forming part of the door itself and fitting into the frame above and below. Windows were provided with similar but smaller shutters, or fitted with bars of wood or iron; glass windows and hinged doors were not in use. Doors and windows were fastened by a variety of ingenious and elegant bolts, the doors sometimes also by a lock and key.

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Of the palace in Kandy, only a part now remains, consisting of several buildings, some of massive construction, adjoining the Māligāva. Of these buildings a part forms the Government Agent’s residence;† part the Kandyan Museum; while the Audience Hall built for the last king is now a law-court. The meḍa vahala or middle palace is “perhaps the only real Kandyan building left intact in Kandy, and not spoiled by adaptation to material requirements of the British Government at the time of the occupation of Kandy or subsequently.”‡ A good idea of a Sinhalese royal palace may be gathered from Knox’s description of that of Rāja Simha II. (seventeenth century). “The Palace is walled about with a Clay Wall, and Thatched, to prevent the Clay’s being melted by the Rains, which are great and violent: Within this wall it is all full of houses; most of which are low and thatched; but some are two Stories high, and tyled very handsomely, with open Galleries for Air, rayled about with turned banisters, one Ebony, and one painted, but not much prospect, standing between two Hills. And indeed the King lives there not so much for pleasure as security. The Palace itself hath many large and stately Gates two leaved; these Gates, with their posts, excellently carved; the Iron work thereunto belonging, as Bolts and Locks, all rarely engraven. The Windows inlaid with Silver plates and Ebony. On the top of the houses of his Palace and Treasury, stand Earthen Pots at each corner; which are for ornament; or which is a new fashion, something made of Earth resembling Flowers and Branches. And no House besides, except Temples, may have these placed upon them. The contrivance of his Palace is, as I may say, like Woodstock Bower, with many turnings and windings, and doors, he himself having ordered and contrived all these Buildings, and the manner of them.” The King also had several houses overlooking the tank, built according to his own appointment “very handsom, born up with carved Pillars and Painted, and round about Rails and Banisters turned, one Painted and one Ebony, like Balconie.”

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∗ Somewhat later (nineteenth century) there came in a slightly modified type with wide outer verandah and more windows (Pl. VI., 6), the result of Dutch influence and of more security; later still a more pretentious stucco and plaster, semi-Italian style, costly and uncomfortable, has been favoured by the well-to-do. The old houses had some disadvantages, but afforded a good deal of plain comfort which is lacking in the modern freaks that often replace them.

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† I understand that this part of the palace is also, very properly, to be set apart for Museum purposes in the near future.

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‡ Address to Sir Henry Blake, Governor, on the opening of the Kandyan Art Museum in the Meḍa Vahala, November, 1905.

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Two other kinds of buildings may be mentioned before speaking of religious ones. The granary (atuva), always raised on low stone pillars as a protection against white ants, was if small, built over some part of the inner verandah of the house; if large, as in the case of a royal store (maha gabaḍāva), a pansala, or the home of a well-to-do or powerful man, it formed a separate building. But in the Kēgalla district a special type of small granary is found, a cask-shaped wattle-and-daub erection on stone pillars, whitened with kaolin, and covered with a heavy thatch, standing near the house but not forming a part of it; this type (called bissa, pl. bihi) is noteworthy as being often ornamented with paintings of elephants, etc. (Pl. VII., 9). The outer walls of even quite small houses are sometimes similarly painted with conventional designs (Pl. VII., 6). The granaries were usually sealed in clay with a wooden seal, of which a specimen is figured on Pl. XIII., 5.

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The second building to be mentioned is the ambalama or wayside shelter. Of these there were many at no great distance apart on frequented paths, and better ones in each village, erected by all the villagers, or by some one man (or even a woman), anxious to perform so meritorious an act.* A beautiful ambalam of moderate size at Maṅgalagama (Four Kōrales) is shown on Pl. VII. The pillars are of stone, supporting on carved wooden brackets an open timbered roof (Fig. 76) covered with tiles, and with two earthen finials at the end of the roof ridge. The smallest ambalam consisted of a foundation of four beams to sit upon, with four posts at the corners and a thatched roof; the better ones had more pillars and were sometimes divided into compartments for the convenience of those desirous of spending the night there. But a single-roomed ambalama could be sub-divided for the sake of privacy by means of a pili-vela (‘clothes-line,’ made by Roḍiyas,) consisting of two cords of niyanda fibre passed through a central block; the four ends of the cords being fastened in the four corners of the room, and cloths hung over the cords themselves, the room was conveniently divided into four separate compartments.

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Ambalam were sometimes well carved, and even painted; but no provision was made for the entertainment of the strangers, who usually carried their own food and cooking utensils. But near to an ambalama, and elsewhere along the roads are to be seen ‘drinking fountains,’ that is, stone or earthen pots kept supplied by the neighbours with pure water, covered with a lid and provided with a dipper (kinissa).

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There were, also, a few more pretentious rest-houses, called maḍama or iḍama, where food and firewood, etc., were provided freely to strangers, being kept by a maḍama-rāla or iḍama-rāla, who held lands for the performance of this duty. Such would appear to have been the Governor’s house where Knox made a stay (on his escape) about six miles south of Anurādhapura; “having reached his house,” says Knox, “according to the Country manner we went and sat down in the open house; which kind of Houses are *Architec-ture* built for the reception of Strangers.”*

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∗ The practical Indian ideal of almsgiving, e.g., Mahānirvāṇa-tantra, VIII., 63: “The householder should dig tanks, plant trees, and erect rest-houses on the roads, and make bridges over rivers, by such great works he can conquer the three worlds.” Cf. also p. 48 above. The rest-house is a very ancient institution in the East. There is a rest-house episode (meeting of two kings’ sons on their travels) in the Sutasoma Jataka, illustrated at Degaldoruva. For reference to decorated ambalams see Chapter IX. For some account of rest-houses, and of storehouses, both public and private in ancient India, see Fleet, J.R.A.S., 1907, pp. 523—525.

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We have already seen (p. 37) that the *ambalama* served not only as a halting place for strangers, but was also generally resorted to for exchange of news and a quiet chew; *Rest Houses* it served also as a meeting place for the village tribunal or *gam-sabhāva*, and was thus intimately associated with the life of the village community.

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One of the principal routes was from Hambantoṭa to Kandy, passing through Vellavāya and up on to the Uva patanas; through Eṭṭalapiṭiya, Dambevinne (Veḷimaḍa), Paraṇagama (Fort MacDonald) to Maturaṭa and thence through Hanguṟanketa, Mīrūpe, Taḷatuoya and Ampiṭiya to Kandy. The longest stage between two *iḍam* was not more than fifteen miles. From Kandy, a main track proceeded to Anurādhapura. There was also a track which passed down through the Three and Four Kōrales to Sītavaka and Colombo.†

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The present-day Government Rest House, or Dāk bungalow as it would be called in India, may be regarded as the descendant of the old *iḍam*, but accommodates a very different type of traveller. Rest-houses of the old type, in a debased Kandyan style, have in recent times been built at Ratnapura, Ruvanvẹli, and Kẹgalla.

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Wayfarers were of the following sorts, viz.: persons going to Kandy to perform their services or take in their produce-rent; officials on tour, who travelled with a great retinue and were sometimes a grievous burden; king’s messengers; traders, not many; and parties of pilgrims, especially on the way to Adam’s Peak or other shrines. Neither men nor women thought much of walking long distances. Women of rank, and sometimes men, were borne in palanquins. Carts were known, but few roads were practicable for wheeled traffic.

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We may now proceed to an account of vihāras and dēvāles; and first of *Vihāras* vihāras and buildings belonging to them. Vihāras are of two chief (*Buddhist* sorts, (1) cave temples (*gal-vihāra*) and (2) temples entirely structural. *temples*)

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Fig. 71. Diagram of verandah of cave temple.

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Cave temples consist usually of a natural cave somewhat enlarged and smoothed, with a drip line (*kaṭaraya*) cut round the rock outside, beneath which is a lean-to roof supported on carved wooden pillars, or stone pillars with wooden brackets (*pẹkaḍa*) forming a verandah. A solid wall with one or more doors and windows separates this more or less open verandah from the actual cave in which the image or images are placed. This wall is of mud (wattle and daub), stone, burnt clay, or brick, and being carefully smoothed and plastered is then covered with paintings of jātakas and other edifying subjects. Some cave temples, such as that at Dambulla and Riḍī vihāras have been occupied continuously from a time not much later than the introduction of Buddhism into Ceylon, but at first rather as retreats for the priests than as temples; and many have early inscriptions in the Asōka character. Amongst the most notable cave temples in the eighteenth century were Riḍī Vihāra, Danagirigala, Degaldoruva, Dambulla and Aluvihāra.‡

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Of structural vihāras, those on an earthen foundation are raised, like granaries, on short

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* We are strongly reminded of the old Irish ‘brugaid,’ an official who “was a public hospitaller as well as a magistrate . . . and was held in high honour. He was bound to keep an open house for the reception of certain functionaries . . . and also for the reception of strangers. He had a tract of land and other large allowances to defray the expenses of his house” (Joyce, ‘Social History of Ancient Ireland’).

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† Described in detail in Bell’s Kẹgalla Report, pp. 59, 60.

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‡ Where according to tradition the Buddhist scriptures were first committed to writing in the first century B.C.; but see Wickramesinghe, ‘Sinhalese MSS. in the British Museum,’ pp. x., xi.

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*Architec-ture* *Vihāras*

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stone pillars as a protection against white ants. They typically consist of a single rectangular image house beneath a tiled roof having a double slope, the outer part of which shelters the open verandah surrounding the image house itself. Fig. 7, on Pl. VII., shows a small vihāra of this sort, attached to the dēvāle at Alutnuvera near Balaṅgoḍa; private vihāras of chiefs (‘chapels of ease’) are often of this type (e.g., at Maḍuvanvela). But vihāras are often built on bare rock, especially when such is found on the top of some low hill overlooking the surrounding hills and villages. The need for raising the buildings on stone pillars is then avoided. The situation of such vihāras is often most romantic, as at Laṅkātilaka, where the beautiful temple buildings are visible from many points across wide stretches of rice-field. But vihāras are also sometimes built on an artificial stone, or stone and mud, foundation, as the Daḷadā Māligāva itself.

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Vihāras are rarely of two stories, as at Doḍantale, where the ground floor serves as a preaching hall (*baṇa maḍuva*) and the upper floor for the image house (*pilima-gē*) and its verandah; or at the Daḷadā Māligāva, where the tooth-relic is enshrined in an upper room, Sometimes the roof over the image house is raised high above the verandah roof, the image room being proportionately high within (as at Gaṅgārāma, Pl. VII., 5) and if, as at Gaṇēgoḍa (Sab.) there is a small window in the wall high up, the effect of a clerestory is produced. The ceiling is usually boarded, and the boards painted passing finely (Pl. XV., Gaṇēgoḍa vihāra ceiling); the verandah roof may be similarly treated (Pl. XVI., Daḷadā Māligāva verandah ceiling,—now altered, and for the worse). Where the ceiling of the verandah or inner room is left open, the handsome timbering is ample compensation, as in the upper verandah, Pl. VIII., Daḷadā Māligāva. Observe here also the ‘rayled banister,’ as Knox would have called it.

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There is almost invariably a verandah (in the tiniest vihāras merely a portico), the roof of which is pitched at a lower angle than that of the roof of the main part of the building. The verandah and main roof are structurally distinct, as in the diagram (Fig. 72). To this fact is due the pagoda-like appearance of many vihāras (as in the Buddhist architecture of Nepal and Burma, where Chinese influence may have carried the tendency further); for the roof seems occasionally almost to turn up at the edge, as contrasted in the slope of the inner and outer parts of it. The constructive distinction between verandah and main roof is probably due to the influence of the cave temple, which forms the actual image house (*pilima-gē*) and corresponds to the interior of the constructional vihāra and against which a lean-to verandah is built, as at Riḍi Vihāra.

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Fig. 72. Diagram of vihāra types, showing transition from lean-to verandah, to tipped roof.

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Dāgabas in particular were covered with pure white lime plaster, and were almost too dazzling to look at in the bright sun. The effect of a white dāgaba shining far away amongst the green rice-fields is often most beautiful. But it is now usual to mix a large proportion of Ricketts’ blue with the white, which thus loses all its purity and beauty. There were various methods of preparing the fine plaster. The best method of preparing lime plaster, was to mix lime and sand with a solution of astringent barks. Mr. S. D. Mahavalaṭenna has given me the following details: Take equal quantities of husks of very tender cocoanuts, bark of *Araḷu* or *Haritaki* (*Terminalia chebula*), Nuag (Ficus bengalensis), Kahata, Bo-asvatta (Ficus religiosa), and Goḍapara fruit (Dillenia retusa). Architect- Cut these up and pound them well in a wooden mortar; pour in about four gallons of ture water to ten lbs. of this mixture and keep it all in a vessel for about a month to ferment. Add some Araḷu nuts, say a hundred to the gallon of water. Strain the liquor and use that Plaster instead of water in preparing the mortar—three of fine sand to two of shell-lime, or two of sand to two of rock lime, is the proportion said to have been in use in the ancient time. Mortar thus prepared should be kept moist for about twenty days before using; and when using, kitul-peṇi or treacle, kaippu kaduru or catechu, and gingelly oil are mixed up with the liquor and used to moisten the mortar. If a superior gloss is required as in ornamental work, the white of eggs is added. But the use of eggs is of quite modern origin. Cinnabar, orpiment, etc., can be used to give different colours to the mortar.

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The Buddhist temple is not complete without a bōdhi maḷuva or platform, with or without altars, surrounding a bō-tree; a pansala, or priests' residence; and a ḍagaba or dome-shaped monument enshrining sacred relics, in addition to the actual vihāra or image house. Pansal are not now the comfortless caves at one time exclusively inhabited by the Monasteries priesthood; though cave pansal are still found, having a general resemblance to a cave temple in plan. The typical mediæval pansala resembles a substantial dwelling-house of the same period—a rectangular building with the rooms opening into an inner verandah, and courtyard open to the sky. Kuṇḍasāle and Laṅkātilaka are typical examples; or the monks' cells may be arranged in a row under one roof, or forming a square surrounding the pohoya-gē; these arrangements may be observed at the great monasteries at Asgiriya and Malvatte in Kandy; in the latter there are also separate suites of rooms for the Saṅgha Rāja, besides a refectory, kitchens, and other offices. The Malvatte pansala is a storehouse of eighteenth century wood and metal work, mostly constructed by Kirti Śrī Rāja Siṃha. It was partly constructed from the remains of a palace built at Māpanāvatura; but two doors and frames of the royal bedchamber were used in building the relic room at the Daḷadā Māligāva (Lawrie's Gazetteer, p. 532).

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The pohoya-gē just referred to is a rectangular building, erected on a solid foundation within the consecrated limits of twelve boundary stones (sīma gal) embedded in the ground; it is the priests' meeting and confession hall; bare of furniture within, except for some big wood chests with iron locks and handles, it has a boarded and painted ceiling, massive doors with inlaid iron locks, and several windows; such buildings are of course only found where a considerable number of monks reside, not being required otherwise.

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Another building that has been referred to is the baṇa maḍuva or preaching hall; these are open pillared buildings, sometimes temporary booths, where large crowds assemble on pohoya days to hear the sacred books read, which is done by the priest who sits on an elevated stool or rather cage, concealed from view by white cloths. The baṇa maḍuva is usually separate from the vihāra itself; at Doḍantale, however, the ground floor of the vihāra building itself is the baṇa maḍuva.

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The ḍagaba or stūpa is a dome-shaped monument, surmounted by a tee or finial, built on a platform, usually square, but occasionally round or octagonal; the largest modern ḍagabas rarely exceed sixty or seventy feet in circumference at the base, and most are smaller; when placed under the overhanging ledge of cave temple they are often quite small (Pl. VIII., in the lower picture).

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The bōdhi maḷuva is the platform surrounding the bō-tree, usually held up by a retaining wall of stone, of which that in Kandy, beautifully described in the Mahāvaṃsa as ‘a wall of stone, thick, high, and shining with plaster work, like unto a beautiful string of pearls adorning the neck of the city that was like a fair woman,’ is the finest example.

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*Architec-ture* “Retaining walls of *dagabas* and *maḷuvas* and platforms are generally built of rubble, roughly adjusted, but revetments of ashlar quite plain, or in roundels and ogee mouldings at base and cornice, are not unfrequent.”—(Bell).

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*Devāles* Dēvāles are usually lacking in carved or painted ornament. The main building consists of an ante-room, having sometimes a *dig-gē* or pillared porch before it; and the *maligava* or sanctum containing an image or the insignia of the deity; entrance to which is generally forbidden to all but the *kapurāla* himself, and he only enters it if free from defilement; very often there is a room over the *maligava*, called *uḍu-mahal-gē* (at Saman dēvāle near Ratnapura, the building is of three stories); there may also be a *gabaḍa-gē* or store-room; and a small *vihāre* connected with the dēvāle, under one roof as at Embekke, or detached as at Alutnuvara (Balaṅgoḍa, Pl. VII.); but smaller dēvāles were subordinate to the vihāras, as at Gaḍalādeṇiya. Other dēvāle buildings are the kitchen (*muluṭen-gē*) generally detached, and the *riṭṭa-gē* always so, being the halting place for the sacred insignia (*abharaṇa*) during processions; for these, particularly the annual *perahera*, there is a wide procession path around the dēvāle. There is always an ornamental palanquin (*ran-doliya*) for the use of the god in the procession; also ceremonial spears (*paṭisthana*) and fans (*sēsat*), besides drums (*davul* and *tammeṭṭam*) and oboes (*horane*), a chank (*hakgeḍiya*), awning cloths (*viyan redi*), and of course the weapons or other insignia (*abharaṇa*) of the god, usually of gold or silver, or at least gilt.

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*Fortifica-tions* Forts and fortifications were few or none, the Kandyans trusting rather to the woods and hills as their natural protection. But watches were kept. The guard-house (*mura-gē*) at the top of Malabar Street, in Kandy, a small house covered with flat tiles, still remains. There were also certain *kaḍavat* or guarded entrances to the inner circle of the Kandyan kingdom, as at Ambuluva, where part of a wall still remains. In the Jud. Com. Diary for 6th October, 1819, there is a notice that a man in the last king’s reign was sent to Moragammana to teach the people there how to pound rice for the king, according to a new method, and on returning, found the gravets at Ambuluva shut (Lawrie’s Gazetteer, p. 43).

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A short sketch of eighteenth century Kandyan architecture is thus completed. Further details are to be found in the chapters on stone and woodwork. As an appendix to the present chapter, a summary account of the builders’ handbook, *Mayāmataya*, is given, based, not on the Sanskrit original, but on the corrupt Sinhalese version in use. Astrological and ritual works are also much used, particularly *Geval-shadvargaya*, *Uluvahu peṇima*, etc. A complete account of the ceremonies associated with building would be of greatest interest and value, it is to be hoped that someone will communicate to the Royal Asiatic Society a paper on this subject.

Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c13: Chapter V. Architecture

Chapter V. Architecture

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