Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c23: Chapter XII. Lac-Work
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c23
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Chapter XII. Lac-Work
c23.1
THE lac-workers, or *ī-vaḍuvō*, literally arrow-makers, belonged to the lower division of the *ācariyō*, being essentially turners. They generally did both the wood-turning and the ornamentation necessary for the work expected of them, such as bows, arrows, spears, staves, bed-legs, handles of cressets, banner poles, etc. Some idea of their relative numbers may be gathered from the fact above mentioned (p. 55) that amongst ninety-eight craftsmen forming the *Koṭṭal-badda* contingent of the Four Kōrales there were fourteen *ī-vaḍuvō*, of whom two worked in the armoury, presumably as assistants to the regular craftsmen of the *paṭṭal hatara*.
c23.2
Ceylon lac* is the product of two species of the lac insects, both different from the Indian. One called *keppiṭiya* or *kōn-lakaḍa* (*Tachardia albizziæ*, Green) occurs on several trees, amongst which are the *keppiṭiya* (*Croton aromaticus*), *kōn* (*Schleicheria trijuga*), and *hīnguru* (*Acacia cœsia*). The other species (*Tachardia conchiferata*, Green) is called *telakiriya lakaḍa*, and is found on an euphorbaceous plant called *telakiriya* (*Excœcaria agallocha*); this is a rarer species, but produces lac of a brighter and clearer quality. Beside these, small quantities of imported Indian lac are sometimes used.
c23.3
Lac-work is now carried on in Kandyan districts at Hapuvida (South Mātale), Pallēkanḍa, near Balaṅgoḍa, and Hūrikaḍuva in Pāṭa Dumbara, and in the low-country at Aṅgalmaḍuva, near Taṅgalla.
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The Mātale work is by far the most distinctive, and may be described in detail, after which* the Hūrikaḍuva and Aṅgalmaḍuva methods will be referred to.
c23.5
Both types of lac-work differ fundamentally from painting in that brushes are never used; in this respect the work differs entirely from the lacquer varnish work of Japan, with which it is sometimes compared and confused. Plain lac is, however, occasionally used as varnish, especially for painted wood (see p. 167, above). The technique differs also from that of the Maldive Islands, where the lac applied by turning is afterwards incised, a process also characteristic of the well-known Sindh boxes.
c23.6
The Mātale work is called *niyapoten veḍa* or finger-nail work; this name is given because the work is done chiefly with the finger or thumb nail, and no lathe is employed. The lac pigments are prepared as follows: the freshly collected twigs bearing the lac insects are dried in the sun; the resin is then removed, pounded, and winnowed or sifted. The crushed lac is enclosed in narrow bolster-shaped bags of thin cloth; the bags are heated over charcoal fires and twisted till the melted lac oozes through the cloth. The lac is scraped off; a part of it is next softened over a fire and attached to the point of a small stick, and then again warmed and a second stick attached. The softened lac is then drawn out between the two sticks, worked about, doubled up, and redrawn many times until it assumes the form of a long stout ribbon of glistening fibrous lac of a bright golden brown colour. The pigments are now mixed into the lac by softening it and pounding the coloured powders into it. The four colours used are red, yellow, green and black; of these the red is vermilion (*sādiliṅgam*); the yellow, orpiment (*hiriyal*); the green is yellow with the addition of “dhobies’ blue,” formerly *‘panil’* (indigo); and the black is prepared in the same way as the black used in painting.
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The lac thus prepared is used for the decoration of a large variety of articles, especially wooden sticks of various kinds, such as staffs (*herimiṭi*), handles of ceremonial spears, banners, fans, &c., ceremonial pingos, &c., and also to many other things such as powder horns *Lac-work* (vedibehet kāraka), oboes (horaṇǣ), book covers (pot kambi), &c., and it is also used as an inlay in ivory, horn, and chank work. For the last purpose the ivory is incised with lines and circles which are filled up with the coloured lac. In the case of turned ivory or horn, this is effected by holding a piece of lac against it, while revolving on the lathe; the lac, heated by friction, is softened and fills up the incised grooves. Such ornament in Kandyan districts is almost invariably confined to incised lines and circles similar to work from Jodhpur in India*; but flat plates of ivory inlaid with scroll and floral ornament are used in the fittings of calamander boxes made in the low-country, particularly at Matara, and this style reminds one of the similar methods of decorating ivory used on the musical instruments still made at Tanjore. Examples of lac-work are illustrated in Pl. XXIV., and of lac inlay in Pl. XXXVI, 8; XXXVII., 1, 6-9, 11; XL., 3; XLI., 1.
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∗ This account of lac and lac-work in Ceylon is partly based on Mr. E. E. Green’s article on Lac, *Annals R. B. G., Pērādeniya, Vol. I., Part V., Supplement, 1903*.
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Returning to a consideration of the ordinary niyapoten veḍa, it will be best to describe the process in its simplest and commonest form, namely, in the decoration of a staff. The stick having been shaped and smoothed, the workman squats on the ground, having before him a chatty (giṇi kabala) containing a charcoal fire. The lac-worker’s tools consist of short sticks with a lump of coloured lac at one end of each and a short strip of puskola (talipot leaf, Corypha umbraculifera). The stick is first coated with the ground colour, usually red. To effect this, the stick is warmed over the fire and lac applied, which lac is pressed and smoothed out with the piece of talipot leaf, while still kept warm over the fire; in this way the whole stick is gradually covered with a coating of red lac. It now remains to add the pattern, which may be very elaborate. For this it is needful to draw out the lac into strips of the desired thinness. To do this, the lump of lac is well warmed, and then, a small piece being held between finger and thumb, the rest is pulled away, leaving a long thin connecting thread which is wound round the bent knee, into a skein. After passing four or five times round the knee the lac becomes cold and must be warmed afresh.
c23.10
Now to apply a narrow band of coloured lac to the stick, the stick is warmed gently, while kept continually turning by a small boy who squats behind the operator, and one end of the string of lac is attached to the stick by pressure, and the rest likewise as the stick turns; the thread of lac is nipped off by the thumb nail when a revolution is complete. The stick is then warmed again and smoothed with the leaf. For more complex patterns (and some are very elaborate) string lac is applied in just the same way, and nipped off with the nail; dots are thus formed by applying the end of the thread of lac and cutting off a tiny piece with the nail; such dots are consequently square or diamond-shaped.
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Fig. 132. ‘Kalas-dangaya’ pattern, from lacquered spear stave, Colombo Museum.
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The lac-work is usually limited to a small number of conventional patterns admirably adapted to the nature of the material; when, as occasionally happens, these are departed from, and an endeavour is made to represent some more ambitious subject, such as an elephant or lion (as occasionally on book covers), the result is necessarily not quite so satisfactory. Most of the work, however, is from a decorative point of view thoroughly sound, and the colours pleasing.
c23.13
Sinhalese lac-work is characteristic by great brilliancy and gaiety of colouring. The objects decorated are usually small; and even when somewhat larger, as in the case of bed-legs, the small amount of furniture used at all, and the simplicity of the interior, made such bright spots of colour perfectly appropriate. The following are many of the names applied to patterns formed in finger-nail work :—*velpota* (Fig. 133), *adara-koṇḍu* (plain lines), *bindu* and *galbindu* (diamond-shaped spots), *kola vela* (an interlacing ‘branch’ or ‘vine’ pattern), *pala peti* (petal pattern), *lanu geṭa* (plait patterns), *patura* (elongated isosceles triangles), *bō-kola* (*bō*-leaf), *dẹla* (net pattern), *suli vẹla* (another vine pattern). For illustrations of these see Pl. XXIV., and Figs. 132 and 133.
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∗ Watt, ‘Indian Art at Delhi,’ p. 179.
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Fig. 133. Velpota pattern, from lacquered staff.
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The *Aṅgalmaḍuva* and *Hūrikaḍuva* process differs from that above described in that the lac is applied to the wood while revolving on a turning lathe, the heat of friction softening the lac and causing it to adhere. This process is more limited, being only applicable to objects which can be turned on a lathe, and it does not admit of the delicate pattern work of the finger-nail process. In fact, the ornamentation can only consist of concentric bands of colour applied to the different parts of small, usually ricketty, tables, chairs, tom-tom frames, and walking sticks. The old Kandyan lac-striped round boxes (*abharaṇa heppu*), bed legs (*ẹnda kakul*), betel stands, &c., were handsome and substantial.
c23.17
Hones (*kana lẹlla*) were also made by lac-workers, and consist of lac mixed with powdered *kuruṇḍugala*, properly corundun, sometimes garnet.