Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c19.24

c19.24

*Vihāra* walls are usually covered with *jātaka* subjects, in long panels of continuous narration, *Jātaka* set close together, one above the other (Pls. I. and VIIIA), the narrow space between *paintings* sufficing for a short explanatory note; or a label may be inset in the picture itself; both methods are illustrated in Pl. XVIII. The ‘continuous narration’ should be specially noted. In this primitive method, the same figures are repeated frequently in continuous pictures, in fresh situations revealing the progress of the story; so that the result is a panorama, where, however, the observer and not the picture itself must move. Thus in Pl. I. the one elephant appears twice, first ridden by King Vessantara, afterwards as being given by him to certain Brahmans who in the original are shown on the right; below again, Madrī Devī and the two children are twice depicted, once passing along the highway, and then arriving at the hermitage.