Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c19.27

c19.27

The value of these paintings lies not merely in their beauty and charm as decoration, but in the fact that they are priceless historical documents that could not be reproduced under modern conditions. The gorgeous trappings of the elephants, the king’s and the attendants’ dresses and the royal insignia; the hermitage; the village scene at the well in the Vessantara Jātaka, are all most faithfully drawn, and these pictures, like the mediæval manuscripts of Europe, are invaluable records of past manners and customs. In the Sutasoma Jātaka, the most interesting pictures are perhaps those in which the king’s sons meet in an ambalam; the representations of the king’s kitchen, with the gahoniya hanging from a hook on a pillar, covering the provisions brought in from some royal manor; the king’s expulsion; and his offerings of human victims as a sacrifice to the tree dēva. In the Sīlava Jātaka, perhaps the most interesting scenes are those showing Senaka Paṇḍit expounding the dharma to men and women, and a school scene showing a seated paṇḍit and a row of respectful scholars, of whom the first is repeating his lesson to the master. Of the other paintings at Degaldoruva, the most noteworthy are the Buddha and Maitri Buddha on the rock ceiling within the piḷima-gē.