Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c13.31

c13.31

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.