Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c17.8

c17.8

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).