Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c21.4

c21.4

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.