Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c13.14

c13.14

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.