Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c15.60

c15.60

Tables or altars for offerings of flowers before images, dāgabas or *bō*-trees have been in use from the earliest times and are represented on the early Indian sculptures. These have generally the form of a bench (Pls. VIIA., VIII.), the legs sometimes carved or turned; and sometimes flattened with a double bend like those of the *baṅkuva* (Pl. XI., 4), or almost rectangular in section with the same double bend, as in the legs of the beautiful and thoroughly characteristic altar table of Pl. IX., 4, now in the Kandy Art Museum; these legs are morticed into the very solid top, and supported by iron brackets; in an Tables