Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c21.15

c21.15

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.