Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c15.11

c15.11

*ambalam* by a *bō*-tree at Vēkolaḍeniya, Four Kōrales. The bracket is made in two pieces, fitting together, and when these are crossed together, the four-faced bracket is completed; the top of the pillar itself is morticed into the bracket through the centre of the parts crossed. The massive beams resting upon these brackets and the framing beams along the top of *vihāra* walls are often chamfered but otherwise rarely carved. When the size of the building makes a joint (Fig. 75) necessary, it is placed by choice immediately over a pillar, but not always so. The characteristic type of scarf joint is shown in Fig. 75. The roof is spanned by the beams,* forming the basis of a boarded ceiling, generally painted. Upon these horizontal beams stand other shorter uprights (Fig. 76), sometimes carved in the fashion of pillars, carrying the ridge-beam of the roof as in an ordinary ‘king-post’ roof; from the ridge-piece to the wall plate run the rafters of which the under side is often elaborately carved (Pl. VIII., above); over these are nailed ‘reepers’ (laths) which carry the tiles. The carved rafters project to form overhanging eaves, as seen in Pl. VIII., above. In the same picture will be seen the curious wooden rod (*idda*) which passes through the rafters just beneath the eaves, connecting them together. In some cases this rod is elaborately carved and twisted, as at Ridi Vihāra. Its accuracy and satisfactory construction are severe tests of good craftsmanship.