Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c21: Chapter X. Ivory, Bone, Horn, and Shell
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c21
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Chapter X. Ivory, Bone, Horn, and Shell
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IT is remarkable that nowhere in India has ivory in mediæval or modern times held a really prominent place amongst the arts and crafts, although its use must date back to a remote antiquity, and where practised, was so well understood. No collection of strictly Indian ivories can compare with that in the Colombo Museum, although individually finer pieces of work are to be found on the mainland. An explanation of this may be found in the Hindu reluctance to make use of animal products, and their view of bones, leather, and other remains of the dead body as unclean. The worship of the tooth-relic, for example, would be quite impossible to a Hindu. With the rarest exceptions, ivory has not been used in India for the fabrication of Hindu images; and even for domestic purposes ivory has not been used as extensively as might have been expected. The Buddhists had no such scruples; we know that they were willing to eat even the flesh of animals slain by others, and in the same way to use animal products. Ivory has always been a comparatively rare and costly material. That ivory was valued very long ago by Buddhists is suggested by Chadanta Jātaka, where a great elephant was robbed of its tusks, and died from the suffering; but this was regarded as a great sin, and held up to execration in the story. In the ordinary way no elephant would have been killed for the sake of its ivory; indeed, the elephant alive would be of greater value.
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It is, then, not altogether surprising that even in India, the traditions of ivory carving “centre round the early Chalukyan and Buddhistic traditions rather than the more recent Dravidian and Indo-Aryan schools of South Indian decoration.”* The same thing is, of course, much more obvious in Ceylon, and we are again reminded of the value of late Sinhalese art as preserving something of the Buddhist Indian art which preceded the more definitely Hindu art of the seventh century and onwards.
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Whilst in Africa and India elephants of both sexes have tusks, in Ceylon not more than one in a hundred possess them, and those exclusively males; and these are particularly valued, as the tusks are of so much use in enabling them to perform any work required of them. But nearly all Ceylon elephants have ‘tushes’ or tusks not more than a foot or so in length and an inch or two in thickness. The tusks of those elephants which possess them rarely exceed fifty or sixty pounds in weight. Large tusks are highly valued and generally form part of the treasure of the greater vihāras and dēvāles; it is usual to place a pair of tusks on either side of temple doorways, either permanently or on special occasions. They are to be found in the dēvāle storerooms still, and were kept in reserve, ready to be given to the temple craftsmen whenever work in ivory at or for the temple was required. In a vihāra at Badulla may be seen a large pair with an inlaid inscription in silver letters. Ceylon ivory is valued in the East above African on account of its density of texture and delicacy of tint; but the quantity obtainable must always have been small. It is indeed surprising that under the circumstances, so large an amount of work in ivory should exist and such great skill in its manipulation attained.
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But few references to Sinhalese ivory are to be found in works on Indian art. Mr. Maskell, in his ‘Ivories,’ devotes a chapter to ‘India, Arabia and Persia,’ in which, after a violent attack on Indian ivories in general, he does some justice to those of Ceylon. He perceives that for true Hindu art, that is, Early Hindu in feeling, we must go to Ceylon. He reproduces in his Pl. LXXII. two beautiful fragments from a door jamb, one representing a hamsa procession, the birds carrying each a spray in the mouth, as on the Anurādhapura moonstones; the other a liya vela or ‘vine.’ These, as he says, are of bold and broad workmanship. He speaks also, of course, of the fine kinissa or water dipper of Pl. XLI., 3. He refers to the ‘numerous Cingalese caskets made by native Christians which have Biblical subjects from European models’ (sic), but I know of none such except the large casket at South Kensington, and according to Mr. Andrews (‘Journal of Indian Art,’ Vol. X.) even this casket is Goanese, not Sinhalese. Such hybrid art is never of much value. In Sir George Watt’s ‘Indian Art at Delhi,’ there are scattered references to Sinhalese ivories, and a casket, supposed to be Sinhalese, is figured on Pl. 78, 4.
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∗ Watt, *Indian Art at Delhi*, 1904, p. 186.
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The beautiful kinissa here reproduced on Pl. XLI., 3, has been illustrated in colours in the ‘Journal of Indian Art,’ Vol. X., Pl. 86, to accompany Mr. Andrew’s paper on ‘The Elephant in Industry and Art.’ It is there, and also in the South Kensington ‘Portfolio of Indian Art,’ incorrectly described as a ‘Sacrificial Ladle.’ Mr. Andrews describes the typical liya pata decoration of the handle as follows:—“There is a distinct method of conventional elaboration in the scrollwork, very striking and quite unmistakable. The general form of the scrolls may be likened to the upward flow of smoke and flame; and as thin threads of smoke rising beside heavy ones are curled over as they meet the downward roll of the greater, so we see in this ornament innumerable lines flowing along the general direction, but terminating in tiny volutes under the shadow of larger ones. Sometimes two masses will divide and join higher up, and in the hollows so formed, sparks like pearls may be seen to rise. And with all the scrolls and sparks and ripples the balance of the gently waving mass that issues from the jaws of the grinning fire-breathing yali in this example is perfect.”
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The crafts of ivory carving and ivory turning are distinct. The ivory carver is usually an all round craftsman of the highest rank, a galladdā, used to practise both painting and building also; the ivory turner does no other work, and belongs to the vaḍuvō. These distinctions have been explained on p. 54.
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The ivory carver’s chief tools are his saws and gravers and chisels. The work he does is varied in character, covering a wide range of objects required for religious, architectural and personal use. The statuettes and images are of special interest. Ivory statuettes of Buddha are not very rare; good examples are to be found in the Colombo Museum. They appear to have been usually painted; traces of paint can still be seen on some. I have seen only standing figures in ivory, none seated or reclining. Statuettes of kings, and ordinary men and women are also common, and are sometimes excellently done. Some figures of Raṭemahātmayās, drummers and other characters executed in the twentieth century are superior to any old ones I have seen. The figures (from the Colombo Museum) shown on Plate XXXVI. are of the eighteenth or early nineteenth century and more useful as records of the costume of the royalty and nobility, than remarkable as works of art; the costume is explained in the description of the Plate.
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The Mahāvamsa speaks of a park made at Polonnaruva by Parākrama Bāhu (A.D. 1164-1197), which was railed “with pillars decorated with rows of images made of ivory,” of which the ivory-railed palanquin of Pl. IX. reminds us in a smaller way. Parākrama Bāhu also built in the ‘Island Park,’ a pavilion named Sāmīmaṇḍapa ‘wrought with ivory.’
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Next to the statuettes may be mentioned plaques and panels such as those figures of dēvas representing the guardians of the threshold, which are seen at the base of the door jamb at the doors of vihāras and dēvāles. These are illustrated in Pl. XXXV., 5 and 6. The head-dress, robes and jewellery are those traditionally given to figures of dēvas or kings. It will be seen that the treatment is stiff and conventional, but not without dignity and beauty. The right hand of the dēva of Pl. XXXV., 6, is especially fine. The figures are enclosed within carved arimbuva border, carrying liya pata crockets on the inner side.
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We sometimes find that the ivory plaques of door jambs represent not dēvas, but dancing-girls, animals or other subjects. Thus at Riḍi Vihāra, the figures at the dēvāle store-room door are those of dancing-girls (Pl. XXXVIII., 2), those at the side entrance to the lower vihāra verandah are gaja-siṁhayo. Probably such secular subjects are only represented in the case of decorated doors, which are not the actual doors of a sanctuary; for the guardian dēvas are for the protection of the spiritual atmosphere of the sanctuary, and this kind of guardianship is not needed for verandah or store-room doors, where a good lock and key suffice for more worldly guardianship. But it is mainly sanctuary doors on which decoration is lavished without stint; and so magnificent a secular door as that of the dēvāle store-room at Riḍi Vihāra is not to be seen elsewhere. It is shown on Pl. XXXVIII. in Figs. 1 and 2, and represents an extraordinarily high level of attainment in the application of ivory carving to architectural decoration. The contrast of the comparatively plain door, with its ivory and ebony-covered frame, with the once gaily painted wall could not be better conceived; it will be many a long day ere anything so fine is done in Ceylon again. Not all the efforts of the Department of Public Instruction, aided by all the technical schools and Public Works Department's draughtsmen can do what Kīrti Śrī and the royal craftsmen did so easily a hundred and fifty years ago. Indeed, they do not want to do the same thing, and hardly know that they could not. If we consider a capacity for producing and understanding literature and art to be any test of ‘civilisation,’ then, even though we know that Sinhalese art in the eighteenth century is no more than a great and beautiful scheme of peasant decoration, we are driven to feel that in the possession of such skilled craftsmen and in their organic relation to the life of the people, a higher and more beautiful life is indicated than that of which the railway goods-yard and the Governors’ Residences are visible evidence. The purchase of xylonite combs made in Birmingham does not indicate any real advance upon the days when the local craftsmen spent days and weeks on the elaboration of ever varied and beautiful design. It is difficult sometimes to see where the advantage of the modern conditions lies, either economically or ethically.
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But it is necessary to return to the immediate subject before us, and in so doing, we may speak next of combs. The number and variety of Sinhalese ivory combs is surprising. Their general characteristics are well shown in Pls. XXXIX. and XL. and need little further detailed description beyond what is given in the explanations of the Plates. The combs are most often elaborately carved, and often fretted, but occasionally more severe and plain. Figure and genre subjects, plant and geometrical ornament abound. In the case of figure subjects we find two ways of treating the back: either the back and front are identical, so that the figure faces both ways; or the back of the figure is treated as such, and figure faces one way only. Of the combs illustrated on Pl. XXXIX., No. 4 is of a very unusual form, No. 6 is almost unornamented, but none the less finely designed, and No. 2, perhaps the most beautiful, is of bone, as is also No. 11 on Pl. XL. The comb shown in Fig. 10 on Pl. XXXIX. shows traces of colouring.
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A piece of ivory sawn for a comb (panāva), but not finished, is called panā-kaṭuva; the same name is given to the central part of an old comb, when all the teeth are broken or removed; such pieces are often repaired by riveting into a groove a thin strip of ivory cut into new teeth.
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Book-covers (pot-kambi) of ivory are rare, but sometimes very finely worked. A very beautiful small pair is shown on Pl. XXXVII., 5, and a somewhat over-elaborate pair on Pl. XXXVIII., 7.
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Caskets Caskets are perhaps more characteristic of low-country than of Kandyan work, and often show European influence, but rather in the form and metal fittings than in design of ornament. Pl. XXXVI., 6, 7 and 9 shows good examples of caskets; the first of these is in bone, and it will be observed that the beautiful design is well adapted to the harder and rougher material. In Fig. 6 the European form is evident. Pl. XL., 7, represents a long narrow casket in which the golden *sannasa* is preserved, in the Mahā Dēvāle in Kandy. Pl. XXXVIII., 9, shows a modern casket, of the type made in Galle for the larger Colombo jewellers, to be sent to large exhibitions like those at Paris and Chicago. It will be at once seen that the over-elaborated and greatly undercut treatment is far inferior to the older and more restrained work with which it must be compared; the *pala peti* border is tortured and twisted out of all meaning, the *dēvas* are mere dolls, and there is no meaning in the *makara toraṇa* used thus a mere ornament.
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*Veli-pata* On Pls. XXXVIII. and XL., Figs. 6 and 2, are represented examples of the ivory styles (*veli-pata*) used by priests in the *pansala* schools for teaching writing in sand. These call up for us a picture of the old incumbent of some village *vihāra*, shrivelled, but still keen, standing, in his yellow robes, by the long narrow *veli-pila* or ‘sand-bench,’ with its brightly-lacquered legs, holding in his hand the ivory *veli-pata*, and watching the beginner’s efforts to trace the letters with his finger in the sand; then smoothing over the sand with the *veli-pata*, and again tracing the copy for the pupil to imitate. But this is a picture of the past, not of the present.
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Knife handles Knife and sword handles are sometimes of ivory, more often, perhaps, of horn, and almost always so in the case of swords. Silver rivets and mountings are usually added to the ivory or horn handle. On Pl. XXXVII. is shown a very small selection of the forms of ivory handles, which are very varied and well made; Pl. XLVII., 11, shows the common form of sword handle, with its silver fittings. A peculiar fibrous material sometimes used, and called ‘unicorn horn,’ valuable also medicinally, is probably identical with the so-called ‘fish-tooth,’ which Sir George Watt refers to as being a common substitute for ivory in India, and actually preferred for sword and dagger hafts. In some cases we find a handle of this material inlaid with pegs of ivory. The same method of inlaying with ivory pegs is applied to articles of horn, as in the comb illustrated on Pl. XL., 12. Ivory dice, for *pacisi*, are shown on Pl. XL., 3. The numbers on them are represented by lac-filled incised circles.
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Ivory turning The ivory carving already described is done by craftsmen of the upper group, the same man being often a painter and an ivory carver. Ivory turning is done by men of the lower division. The ivory carver is called from his work, *et-dat-keṭayan-karaya*; the turner, like the turner of wood, *liyana-vaḍuva*. The chief articles fashioned on the lathe are fan handles, handles of knives, and various implements and tools, boxes, book-buttons, (*pot-saki*), scent-sprays, *pacisi* pieces. Fan handles and boxes of horn are also made. Most of these are decorated with dots and circles incised and filled with coloured lac applied on the lathe. This decoration is an excellent instance of the good effect produced by simple means directly adapted to the material, and arising out of the method of manufacture and the nature of the materials available. The dots are made with a pointed tool; the circles with one having two points, used like a pair of compasses, one point being stationary, the other describing a circle about it. Fan handles so decorated are illustrated on Pl. XXXVII., 6-9, a knife handle in Fig. 1 on the same Plate, and an oboe (*horanǣva*) in Fig. 11; Fig. 10 represents an *uḍakkiya*, or double hand drum (usually made of lacquered wood). I have also an inlaid sickle with an ivory handle, and an ivory flageolet. *Pacisi* pieces are made in ivory or horn, and distinguished by ornament of red or yellow lac. A typical turned ivory box is shown on Pl. XXXVI., 8, and horn pill-boxes on Plate XL., 15 and 16. The ivory boxes are used for jewellery, sometimes for medicine.
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One of the most remarkable feats of the turner is the manufacture of scent-sprays. The *simidiya*, or ivory scent-spray consists of a hollow cylindrical base, and a long neck. The base, holding the scent, is so thin that it is easily compressed by slight pressure of the hand. The method of turning ivory to this extreme thinness, almost that of paper, is kept a secret, but would seem to depend only on great patience and delicacy of handling.
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The ivory turner's lathe is shown on Pl. VI., 4. It is extremely simple, and in principle identical with the carpenter's lathe. The essential parts of it are the wooden spindle (*liyana kaṇḍa*); the two supports embedded in the ground, the one in the figure furthest from the observer being the *piṭa-kaṇuva*, the nearer, the *vema-kaṇuva*; the *aṅdina-laṇuva* or string for turning the lathe; and the hand-rest, the *paṭṭala-lella*. The other tools used, an adze, saws, rasps and graver are seen in the foreground. It will be seen that the ivory to be turned is attached to the end of the lathe, outside the *vema-kaṇuva*, instead of between it and the *piṭa-kaṇuva*; this is very convenient for hollowing out boxes and the like.
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Horn work may now be referred to in greater detail.
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The carved horn handles of weapons, and the turned horn pill-boxes of the *vedarāla* have been mentioned. An elaborate horn comb such as that illustrated on Pl. XL., 12, is perhaps the work of a superior craftsman; but the common horn combs in general use, sold everywhere for ten cents, are made in some districts by *roḍiyo*, and elsewhere by smiths, *beravayo* or *duraya* caste men. A more than usually elaborate example is illustrated in Fig. 96.* I shall now describe in detail the manufacture of these combs by *roḍiyo*, as seen at Ella, Uva.
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The usual tools of the horn-comb-maker include a small adze (1½ inch cutting edge), a coarse rasp, one or two knives, a marking awl, a vice, two or three saws, a file, and one or two tools for incising patterns; the iron tools are made by local blacksmiths.
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The combs are made of buffalo horn cut transversely, the tops of the horns being used for tool- and knife-handles and the like. A flat piece of horn is sawn off and cut roughly into the shape of the comb, and then made thinner with adze and rasp, and the shaping then finished with a knife. Next the guide lines for the inner ends of the teeth and for the patterns are scored with the marking awl, which is a small bone tool with a sharp point inserted near one end. The comb is now set in the vice, which is held conveniently against a stone by pressure of the worker's leg (Pl. V., 9).
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The vice (Fig. 97) consists of two pieces of wood tied together near one end, and having a wedge inserted at the other, which, when it is driven in, causes the short ends to grip very tightly whatever is placed between them.
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∗ For another, with *nāri latā* design, see Pl. XL., 13.
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Fig. 96. Carved and pierced horn comb, × ⅔.
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Fig. 97. Horn-comb-maker's tools. A, Vice, length 11⅓ inches (Bandaravela District). B and C, Pattern-marking tools.
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The vice is usually ornamented with a little primitive carving. The teeth are now cut, first on one side, small teeth with a fine saw, then on the other, coarse teeth with a thicker saw; these teeth are cut very regularly and with astonishing quickness. Each tooth is next filed back and front to make its edges smooth. Finally the comb is taken out of the vice and a simple pattern incised with a chisel-shaped or with a two- or three-pointed iron tool. Last of all the comb is polished by rubbing with wood ashes and horn shavings.*
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The use of conch shell (*saṅkha*) is very limited. There is still a large trade in chanks or conch shells obtained in Jaffna, and exported to India, but this has no connection with the Sinhalese districts. The only objects of Sinhalese manufacture made of conch shell that I have seen are bracelets, and the entire shells used as trumpets. In the case of bracelets, what is generally found are pieces of shell, ornamented with lac-filled incised dots and circles, and mounted in brass.
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The beautiful shell trumpet (*hak-geḍiya*) of Pl. XLI., 1, is said to have been given by Narēndra Siṃha to a temple in Uḍa Nuvara; it is certainly as old as the earlier part of the eighteenth century, and is one of the finest pieces of Sinhalese craftsmanship illustrated. The shell is engraved and the incisions filled with red lac, and is mounted in brass, damascened with silver. The metal mounting terminates in a complete *śerapēndiya*, with clasped legs and an extension of the tail passing round the mouth of the shell and ending in a large scroll.
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Dēvāles had tenants whose service it was to blow these chanks during the *perahera*. Thus at Alavatugoḍa, the tenant of the *hakgeḍi paṅguva* had to blow the chank for fifteen days of the *perahera* and the four festivals, to weed a part of the compound, and to decorate the dēvāle for the *perahera*, and to give the *vidāne* a basket of sweetmeats once a year. These services were commutable for Rs. 5·85 (Lawrie's Gazetteer, p. 14).
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Another conch shell trumpet is shown on Pl. XLIIIA, 4. This is one known as the Jaya Śaka, or Chank of Victory, and it is said to have been dedicated by Rājadhi Rāja Siṃha to the Mahā Dēvāle, Kandy (where it still is) after a victory over the Dutch at Guruḅebile. It is mounted in gold, the mounting covering the mouthpiece, in order, it is said, that none other than the royal lips should ever be applied to it.
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∗ This account is taken from the description by the author and Mrs. Coomaraswamy, Spolia Zeylanica, Vol. III., part X., 1905.