Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c21.16

c21.16

*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.