Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c16: Chapter VII. Stonework
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c16
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Chapter VII. Stonework
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W E have already seen that the indigenous style of architecture was one of wooden building, and shall not, therefore, be surprised to find that the amount of mediæval and strictly Sinhalese stonework is very limited. There were, however, amongst the craftsmen a certain number of masons (gal-vaḍuvo), no doubt mainly of South Indian origin, or descendants or pupils of Indian masons. As we have seen (p. 65, above), the koṭṭal-badda contingent of craftsmen in the Four Kōrales, consisting of eighty-eight men, included only one mason. This may be taken to represent fairly the position of stonework amongst the other crafts. Such stonework as does exist bears strong evidence of Tamil design and workmanship. Mr. Bell remarks (Kēgalla Report, p. 19): “Few men were capable of artistic work; and the services of these experts were only called in on the rare occasions when some ruler, ambitious of erecting buildings of special strength and beauty, reared around him palaces and temples too often left unfinished. Yāpahu, in the Seven Kōrales, and Berenḍi Kōvil in the Three Kōrales, were such. Architecture and sculpture could never have thriven in the Kēgalla district. The paucity of artistic remains attests this, such carved stonework as does exist itself bearing witness to Dravidian design and workmanship. The ‘Kurunēgala Vistaraya’ records that artificers had to be summoned from Gampola to put up the buildings on Beligala. . . So, too, at Berenḍi Kōvil, where, though little more than the tasteful platform of the kōvil is left,—if the shrine ever advanced further,—history and style unite in proclaiming with certainty its Dravidian conception.”
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One of the most important mediæval cities, though somewhat earlier than the period dealt with in this volume, was Yāpahuva,[*] above referred to. Founded about A.D. 1225, it remained the capital until 1288, when the seat of Government was transferred to Polonnaruva. In spite of this early date, I have mentioned the city because of the beautiful stone window from the palace which can now be seen in the Colombo Museum, and in order to quote from the Yāpahuva Vistaraya, the interesting though doubtless exaggerated legendary account of its foundation.
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“Eight gav from Anurādhapura, attended by the chief ministers and other officers of State of the three kingdoms, the building of the city of Yāpahu Nuvara was begun on the rock called Sundaragiriparvata, after which the city was named. That same king (Parākrama Bāhu) commanded that it should be constructed of stone only, and that the following workmen should be engaged: 120 lacs of masons, 100 chief blacksmiths, 250 haṅgiḍi (foremen), 3000 painters, 400 carvers.
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The Adigārs thereupon commanded some to cut stone pillars, some to carve, some to smooth, some to carve figures, some to paint, some to carve figures of elephants, some figures of lions, some of wolves, some figures of men, some of geese, some of birds, some nāga figures, some figures of gods, some figures of women, some of creepers, some of parrots, some of peacocks, some figures of beaters of tom-toms, some figures of dancers engaged in the act of dancing, some of conch-blowers engaged in blowing, some of figures engaged in wrestling, some to carve representations of beds, some of stone doors, some of stone doorposts, and some of stone steps. These stones were then painted over by the painters.*
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∗ The references to Yāpahuva, Berenḍi Kōvil, etc., represent a digression from the main object of this book, the description of late mediæval, and purely Sinhalese art. For a more detailed account of the ancient, early and mediæval stonework, the student should consult the Reports of the Archæological Survey, relating to Anurādhapura, Polonnaruva, and Sigiriya, and the Kēgalla District, also the Guide to the Colombo Museum, 1905.
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In this style four māligāval of nine storeys each were built, with stairs leading up to them. Round these 500 smaller houses of inferior workmanship were also built. A store eighty cubits high, 500 houses outside the fort, 1,000 double shutters for the houses, a stone wall 7 ft. high, a metal rampart encircling it, 1,000 golden arches, 1,000 silver arches, were also constructed, and adorned with 1,000 flags and flaps and cloth dolls† appended thereto, there being also 1,000 elephants, 1,000 horses, 24,000 mercenaries, 2 lacs and 61,000 inhabitants in all. Like Śakraya, enjoying health and happiness, and so reigning, the king built and adorned the city, the only material used being stone.”‡
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The Berenḍi Kovil near Sītāvaka was, according to local tradition, built in the sixteenth century by Rāja Simha I. It is altogether Hindu in purpose and construction.
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In the Kegalla District there are more or less important remains of stonework at Beligala, Gaṇegoḍa, Ambuḷugala, Meḍagoḍa and a few other temples, described by Mr. Bell. At Beligala there is a well-preserved ‘moonstone,’ its design a makara toraṇa adaptation of the more usual types. There are also stone pillars, and a pair of balustrades. These remains may be as old as the thirteenth century. At Gaṇegoḍa there are more extensive remains, with elaborate friezes of dancers, beautiful columns and balustrades. At Ambuḷugala there are carved pillars and a magnificent stone door-frame, probably of the fifteenth century. At Meḍagoḍa there was a stone pillar, now in the Colombo Museum, originally, perhaps, taken from the Berenḍi Kovil. It has a lion pedestal, elaborately ornamented octagonal shaft, and capital with four ‘kibihi’ (lion) faces above the mutu-dela.
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In the Kurunēgala District the most important stone remains are at Riḍi Vihāra, where there is a well-built and unmistakeable Hindu temple. In the Kandy District there are temples with important stonework at Gaḍalādeṇiya and Laṅkātilaka.§ Both of these temples are very beautiful. The stonework at Gaḍalādeṇiya is mainly of fourteenth century date. Patches only of the original plaster remain, with traces of painting. Perhaps the most striking part of the stonework is the entrance porch. It is roofed by huge monoliths, resting on very large stone pillars of the usual Kandyan type, with two smaller pillars beside them, forming thus a cluster of three pillars on each side of the porch. The smaller pillars are of more archaic pattern, recalling those characteristic of the Kegalla District and Anurādhapura; this temple and that of Laṅkātilaka, indeed, as Mr. Lewis remarks, form a link connecting Kandyan architecture with the older work at Anurādhapura and Polonnaruva. At Laṅkātilaka, the ‘Brow Spot of Ceylon,’ only the foundations are of stone, the main structure being of brick, originally plastered.
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Of Narēndra Simha’s palace at Kuṇḍasāle there remain in situ a few plain stone pillars and a stone with an elephant carved on it near the river. Two stones with elephants carved on them are now placed in Kandy at the entrance to the Daḷadā Māligāva, and there are also two stones in the Kandy Museum, with carvings of vases. Of these, one is figured in Cave’s ‘Book of Ceylon,’ Fig. 494.
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∗ This observation should be noted, and compared with the statements made on pp. 146 and 147 regarding the plastering and painting of stonework. † Banners woven in the form of a man; several of these were made by weavers at the Peradeniya Exhibition in 1906. ‡ Modder, Yāpahuva, J.C.B.R.A.S., XIII., 1893, p. 104. § For pictures and descriptions of these temples, Mr. Lewis’ account of Kandyan Architecture, in Cave’s ‘Book of Ceylon,’ should be consulted.
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Perhaps the most remarkable eighteenth century stonework building in the Kandyan District is the peculiar vihāra at Galmaḍuva. This, the ‘most Hindu-looking Buddhist temple in existence,’ or at least in Ceylon, was never finished. It is said to have been built by Kirti Śrī, but that while it was in progress he heard of the cave at Degaḷdoruva, he abandoned the scheme and set to work on the cave-temple at Degaḷdoruva. This, however, seems improbable, considering the great difference in style of the two temples, and the fact that the massive masonry and brickwork at Galmaḍuva were finished, nothing remaining to be done but to set up the image and decorate the temple. The plan of the building is a square stone chamber, covered by a pyramidal tower of stone and brick masonry, reminding one of the gopuram of a Hindu temple. Around this building and a little removed from it is a massive wall with an overhanging cornice, with five windows on each of three of its sides, and a doorway in place of the central window on the other side. The arches of the doorways and windows is remarkable. They are semi-circular cusped arches with a keystone; the door has six of these cusps, the windows two. In the image room there is an asana, or throne for the image. The whole building contrasts markedly with all other ‘Kandyan’ architecture.
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Speaking now generally of Kandyan stonework, it will be found that stone masonry plays a very small part in the construction of typical Kandyan buildings; in vihāras there is fairly often a carved stone doorstep (‘moonstone’) and no other work in stone. In the Kẹgalla District “elaborately carved monolithic pillars are rare. . . . Basement revetments in worked stone, where found, follow one recognized plan. First a low socle, next the plinth, then a narrow fillet slightly retired, Lesbian cyma moulding of shallow lotus leaves (pala peti) running back to the inner plane, a vertical block broken half by a bold torus, a second fillet slightly projecting, finished by ogee and rectangular cornice coping. . . Rises or balustrades (et-hoṇḍa-veḷ) to steps are common everywhere.”* The last are sometimes carved on the exterior face in the form of gaja simhayo, the trunks forming the upper edges of the stones, hence called et-hoṇḍa-veḷ, ‘elephants’ trunks’; or they may be very severe and plain.
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Carved ‘moonstones’ (haṇḍa-kaḍa-pahana), semi-circular stone doorsteps like those so well known at Anurādhapura, are met with in some vihāras, as at Degaḷdoruva, Beligala, Aluṭnuvara, etc. In these there is considerable beauty and variety of design, but rarely such as to compete with the older examples at Anurādhapura. A mediæval specimen from the palace at Hanguṛanketa, is to be seen in the Colombo Museum. Carved friezes are sometimes found, as at Gaḍalādeṇiya, Gaṇēgoḍa and other important vihāras. On these are represented dwarfs, dancers and lions.
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Genre carving is rare. At Kappāgoḍa, on the sides of steps leading to the vihāra premises are slabs with carvings of a calf taking the udder whilst licked by the mother, and of an ox licking its raised left foot.
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Practically all stonework was intended to be covered with plaster of milky whiteness, just as the brickwork at Laṅkātilaka is only the foundation for work in modelled plaster [see Pl. VII., 1, and description]. The Kandy bō maḷuva wall, so beautifully described by the chronicler as resembling the necklet of a fair woman that was the city of Kandy, must have been lovely indeed when the delicate mouldings were perfected in form, and snowy white. The common whitewashing of the carved stone doors of temples, to which objection is often taken, is not a modern fashion, but a somewhat careless continuation of an old one. There can be no doubt that all architectural stonework was intended to be plastered or painted, or both. This old Buddhist method does not survive so markedly in Southern India, where the use of stone for building and for images is far more general *Stonework* than in Ceylon. In Ceylon the earlier methods of building in wood and of making images of impermanent materials have lived on side by side with the work in stone. But even in Southern India, stonework is very generally painted.
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∗ Bell, Kẹgalla Report.
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Before finally leaving the subject of stonework it is necessary to refer to the smaller *Domestic* domestic and religious purposes for which stone articles are employed. The commonest *stonework* of these perhaps is the curry stone (*kuḍu-miris-gala*), a plain slab and roller for compounding the ingredients of ‘sambol,’ a preparation of condiments eaten with curry. Somewhat more elaborate are medicine stones (*bet-gal*) used in the preparation of herb and mineral medicines, and for the grinding of colours by painters. In form and use these *bet-gal* resemble the pestle and mortar of Europe, but the mortar is flatter. The pestle is often grotesquely carved. Two *bet-gal* are shown in Pl. LII., 6, the pestles carved into heads and the four angles of the mortar with cobra hoods. Somewhat similar in purpose are the sandal wood grinding stones (*handun-gal*), on which sandal wood is rubbed down with water to prepare the fragrant paste so often referred to in Indian poetry. The stones are circular in outline, something like a bread platter, but having the upper side, on which the wood is rubbed, quite smooth but carved below with three low legs, an elaborate central pattern, and *pala peti* chamfer (see Pl. LII., 7). The *kurukkan-gala* is a quern or hand mill for grinding *kurakkan*, the grain chiefly grown in hillside cultivation.
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In connection with *vihāras* and *bō-malu*, stone lamps, altars (for flower offerings), bowls (*patra*) and stone troughs for dyeing robes are sometimes to be found; there is one of the latter at Hanguranketa said to have been carved by the late incumbent himself. The stone pestle used by the potters will be described in the chapter on Pottery.
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We have seen that the stock drill (Fig. 91), or *gal torapanaya*, has a stone weight.
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A few words may be said about gems, and crystal. All gems found were strictly royal *Gems* property, and, no doubt, found their way to the treasury in considerable numbers. They were almost always cut ‘en cabochon.’ Occasionally stones are met with slightly facetted, with original facets polished. The gem-cutting apparatus consisted of a lathe, similar to the ivory turner’s lathe of Pl. VI., 4, but worked by a bow, and having a copper plate set with corundum powder.
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The art of cutting quartz (crystal) which occurs abundantly in fine transparent masses has been understood from remote times. There is a crystal Buddha at the Daḷadā Māligāva. At Asgiriya there is a crystal *karaṇḍuva* about a foot in height. Spectacles are still made by hereditary workers in Uḍa Dumbara.