Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c15.18

c15.18

Roofed walls and gates must be referred to. Where a vihāra or dēvāle was of some importance, the garth about it was walled in with a mud and rubble wall, tiled as a protection against rain, or even covered with a timbered and tiled roof, as at the Saman Dēvāle, Ratnapura. Even where the wall was not roofed, the entrances often were, as shown in Fig. 79, so that the whole effect was similar to that of the wall and lych gate of an English church and churchyard.