Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c17: Chapter VIII. Figure Sculpture

Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c17

Language: English

Chapter VIII. Figure Sculpture

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"The sound of the tools that are raising the image of Buddha, let it reverberate in Heaven!"
—EMPRESS KOMIO OF JAPAN.

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I N this chapter I speak of all sorts of images, whether in the round or in low relief, and whatever the materials of which they are made.

The most primitive images made are the impermanent images made for use in yak and bali ceremonies, and wax images of Riri yaka used in haniyan ceremonies. These are made by the professional astrologers and dancers of the weaver (beravāya) caste, not by the regular artists. The mud images of devils, and planetary or other gods are prepared in low relief on a wooden foundation, or in the round, on a wicker construction; Pl. IV., 2, shows an elaborate erection of the first kind, which required fully two days for its construction by several men. The devils, it will be seen, are intentionally hideous; the gods' faces, however, are refined and even beautiful. These gods' heads were made separately by the modellers, the rest of the work done on the spot. The smoothed clay is whitened and painted with earths, and the figures decorated with cut leaves of coconut and plantain. It is probable that in work of this kind, executed in impermanent materials we see a survival of the most primitive form of Indo-Aryan plastic art.

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More important from every other point of view are the images of Buddha, and of gods and men. Images of Buddha and of gods are made according to certain canons laid down in the work called Sāriputra, which will subsequently be summarised. Images, says the canon, may be made of gold, copper, clay, stone, wood, burnt clay (brick), and lime. Images of silver, bronze, brass, and ivory were also made. Small images were most often made of metal—brass, silver, and even gold. A majority of these belonging to the later times are ill-formed and even grotesque, but earlier examples of a very superior character are sometimes seen.

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A few references to metal images are given in various places. Thus when the last king's favourite astrologer built a Vihāra at Tibboṭumulla, the king presented him with a gold image, which he deposited in the vihāra, which the king also endowed with lands.* The golden image at Morāpaya Vihāra has been referred to above (p. 71). A golden image valued at £1,000 was stolen not long since from Niyangampaha Vihāra at Gampola. There is a bronze-gilt Buddha at Danagirigala.† But bronze images do not appear to have been often made in the later times. Very beautiful examples are occasionally met with which may well date from the fifth century or earlier. Brass images of poor quality are still commonly made.

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There are many references in the chronicles and elsewhere, to images made of stone, brick, mud and other materials. Thus, we learn from the Mahāvaṃsa, that at Gaṅgārāma, Kīrti Śrī "caused a fair statue of the Conqueror, nine cubits high, to be hewn out by cunning workmen, skilled in the art of cutting stone and the like crafts. And he covered that beautiful and graceful statue with leaf of gold, so that it looked like the living Buddha." At Riḍī Vihāra he had "a great sleeping image made with fine brick and mortar and clay, and many other images of Buddha also, seated and erect. . . . At the foot of the sleeping image he let make in order, fair images of Ānanda, the constant attendant of Buddha and the preserver of the Law, and of Meṭeiya Bodhisatta, of the pre-eminent Nātha Dēva and of the King Duṭṭha Gāmaṇi.” And he gilded with gold the five large images of Buddha. Figure Again we learn that a priest named Palkumbure Unnānse, of Palkumbure Vihāra, in the sculpture reign of Narēndra Siṃha, “effected repairs in this stone-built vihāra, made a stone image of one carpenter’s cubit high, whitewashed the vihāra buildings, celebrated the festival of netra-pinkama after giving over 25,000 fanams’ worth of things as remuneration to the artists.”*

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∗ Lawrie's Gazetteer, p. 823. † Figured in Bell's Kegalla Report, opposite p. 43.

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In 1801 Pilima Talāva Adigār built the Alut Vihāra at Asgiriya; within it was an image of Buddha, in the reclining posture, sculptured out of a solid block of stone, more than forty feet long. Another stone image mentioned in a sannasa, is that of Urulevatte Vihāra. At Dambulla (Four Korales) there is a colossal clay image, a reclining figure of Buddha, of which Mr. Bell† remarks: “this gigantic figure has been modelled so skilfully as to give that impression of well balanced proportion, and calm repose, always aimed at, but rarely attained, by Sinhalese artists in the representation of the sleeping figure.” Mr. Bell gives the following measurements of this image, here re-arranged for more convenient comparison with the canon:—total length from top of head to feet, 48 ft. 3 in.; hair to chin, 5 ft. 4 in.; nose, length 20 in.; across nostrils, 15 in.; each nostril, 5 in.; each knop of hair, 1 ft. in circumference; mouth, 20 by 5 in.; eye, 14 in.; foot, 6 ft. 6 in. long. The total length, 48 ft. 3 in., is 18⅔ carpenters’ cubits. The figure is thus exactly twice the standard size of nine cubits. The correspondence with the canon is very evident. The face measure is two cubits: the whole figure up to the hair on the forehead is nine ‘faces’: the top of the head is two thirds of a ‘face’ more. The other measurements given correspond as nearly as could be expected, having regard to the vagueness of their exact application, and their not having been made with the immediate object of comparison with the canon. The foot is apparently too long. It is most desirable that measurements of older images should be made in Ceylon and India, as they may be expected, when compared with the canons, to throw light on the history of sculpture. At Embekke Dēvāle there is a painted clay image of Kataragama Deviyo seated on a peacock, and a painted wooden image of Devata Baṇḍarā, about five feet high, kept in the Palle Dēvāle. The Portuguese, as we have seen, destroyed in 1587 A.D., the Viṣṇu Dēvāle at Devundara; they destroyed ‘the idols, of which there were more than a thousand of divers shapes, some of clay, some of wood, some of copper, and several of them gilt’ (p. 10, above).

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It may be remarked the wood is but very rarely used for images of Buddha, but more often for images in dēvāles.

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Images of crystal are rare. They are naturally always fairly small. There is one such image at the Maligāva, where it is kept in an elaborate silver and ivory shrine, suggestive of Italian Renaissance work.

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Ivory images of Buddha are not abundant. They were always painted. Kandyan craftsmen are still skilful in making ivory figurines of drummers, Raṭemahatmayas, and other Kandyan characters, and the workmanship of these is superior to that of the ivory figures shown on Pl. XXXVI., where their chief value is in the illustration of eighteenth century costume. Such figures were not wholly coloured, but generally details of dress and features picked out in red, and the hair blackened.

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It should be understood that it is not possible to tell by inspection of what material the larger statues are made. Whether of stone, brick or clay, they are always plastered and painted or gilt. The same was, no doubt, true of the older statues at Anurādhapura and Polonnaruva.

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∗ Palkumbure Sannasa, Lawrie’s Gazetteer, p. 688. † Report on the Kēgalla District, pp. 38, 39.

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Figure sculpture

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Images in low relief are commonly found against temple walls, usually they represent deities such as Vishnu, kings or heroes, or benefactors of the temple. The plastered makara torana above a seated image (Pl. VIIA.) is similarly modelled in clay, plastered and painted. At the door of a vihara on each side of it, these are usually represented door guardians (doratu-pala-rupa), with swords or clubs, symbolising the spiritual guardianship of the shrine.

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One is at a disadvantage in describing only the eighteenth century work; for it represents the old age of a great art, rather than its beginning or its prime. The earlier stone sculptures of Ceylon, of various dates, and early bronzes are adequate examples of Indian art; but the eighteenth century images, though possessed of dignity and other qualities, are generally not beautiful, and are sometimes even grotesque.

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Image making in Ceylon in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was at a comparatively low level, though not so low as that now reached in the low-country by artists unfamiliar with the canon, or in the weak alabaster images that are imported from Burma. The matter is that the canon has been used, not as a guide merely, but quite slavishly by artists who, in spite of their strong decorative sense and capacity for ordinary drawing, had little or no feeling for the human figure as such, though they felt the symmetry, passivity, and grandeur of the symbol they made stand for it. "The image must exemplify a person with an unfettered, quiescent, and absolutely pure mind, pre-eminent from head to foot." The artist did actually work with such ideals before him, and they could not but be reflected in it. The traditional work, despite the decay of the tradition, is still in restraint, dignity and religious feeling vastly superior to the sensuous and effeminate work of ignorant craftsmen in the low country, influenced by European art, but with no taste or real knowledge of drawing.

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I proceed now to a description of the artistic canon, and method of making images.

Linked texts (1)

Mahāvaṃsa — Pāli