Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c15.48

c15.48

The sumptuary laws forbade any elaborate domestic architecture. Major Forbes* states that “the king did not permit any person to have a house two storeys high, nor to build one with windows, nor even to roof with tiles nor whitewash mud walls, without obtaining the royal sanction.” Davy† remarks that “The dwellings of the people in general . . . are invariably thatched; only those of the highest rank being permitted to have tiled roofs.” Only the king’s palace and religious building were allowed to have doors with ornamental tops, or finials to the roofs, or to be plastered with lime.