Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c25: Appendix to Chapter XIII. Potter's Song

Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c25

Language: English

Appendix to Chapter XIII. Potter's Song

c25.1

The following is the translation of a very interesting craft song, the text of which was kindly forwarded to me by Mr. S. D. Mahavalaṭenna :

Waking before the dawn, carrying the basket, (the potter) fares to the place-of-clay ; After cleaning the basket and clearing the place-of-clay, he worships his guardian god ; Wearing (only) a loin cloth, and gladly taking (the basket) in hand he goes down into the pit; Not breaking down the two sides (of the pit) he digs the clay from the middle and fills the basket.

c25.4

Breaking up the clay, he takes a yoke-load and heaps it in the potter's yard ; Separating the pieces of clay he breaks them to an equal size and spreads them on a big mat in the sun ; After having dried the clay, and removed the stones, he pounds it in a mortar and in a kulla winnows it ; Then taking up the powder, he adds an equal quantity of water and makes it into balls.

c25.5

Taking up the balls of clay and putting one upon the other, he covers them with leaves ; Three days afterwards he divides them into three and kneads them again, Knowing the right proportion he adds the finest sand and sprinkling water kneads again ; After kneading, he makes them into rounded balls again, and makes a heap of them ; and takes them up again after three days.

c25.6

After thus preparing it, he treads and kneads the clay again and again ; When it is like sticky wax he knows that it is ready ; Then according to the size of the vessels to be made he divides it into separate lumps ; The lumps thus made he stores near the workshop and covers them carefully.

c25.7

Next day with a split cane he separates the lumps of clay one by one, And having duly divided them, again makes them up in balls and keeps them in a heap as on the previous day ; The next day, waking at dawn, he sweeps and tidies up the workshop, And having all the balls of clay close at hand, he sits before the wheel.

c25.8

He takes with the right hand the balls of clay one by one and sets them on the wheel, With the left hand he turns the wheel,* with the right hand he moulds (the vessel), Knowing the size and shape, as required he presses down his hand ; Then when the right shape appears, he stays the form, and moulds the rim.†

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∗ *Usually the wheel is turned by a young assistant.* † *‘Heḍagahasteyi’; i.e., he moulds the rim with a wet rag, turning it over.*

c25.10

Having (thus) stayed the form and turned the rim, he turns the wheel very fast, And looking now and then to see if it is smooth, he amends with the finger tip any unevenness, Sprinkling a little water he polishes (the pot), then takes it carefully with open hand, Duly keeps it standing by, and takes it up again after thirty hours from the time of making thus.

c25.11

8. (Then) taking the *galiheḍa*¹ in the left hand and the *meṭi aluva*² in the right, holding the vessel tightly with the feet, He beats it with the blade,³ making it bigger as much as need be, And after thus beating it to the required degree, and having polished it, he sets it in the sunshine, After it is partly dried, he draws leafy branches (*liyavel*), garlands and flower-petals round the vessel;

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¹ *Stone held inside the vessel while the sides are hammered over till they meet, as described above.*

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² *Meṭi aluva, evidently another name for the bat, valantalana lella.*

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³ *Alla, lit. palm of the hand, doubtless means the blade of the bat or valantalana lella; the description previously given should be carefully read to make the meaning of this verse clear.*

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9. Drawing round it lines, flower-petals, cocks, parrots, pigeons, *seḷahiṇi*, And, each in turn, *bo*-leaves, bunches of flowers and dates, *na*-flowers, *ōlu*- and lotus-flowers, Making the orbs of sun and moon, *makara toran* and the golden *haṃsa*, Elephants, horses, cattle, deer, lions, tigers, wolves, bears, cobras, and *poloṅgas*,

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10. Swimming *tisaru*, flying *lihiṇi*, fair *kiṃdurō*, and honey bees, Great boas, fierce serpents not a few, sharks, tortoises, and golden peacocks, Beautiful damsels whose ever-waxing breasts are full-grown golden swans, Forgetting not to draw dear delightful children.

c25.17

11. Drawing round it *nāri latā*, leafy branches, and eke the letters of the alphabet with vowel signs, And inserting in the midst a trident with the signs *ōṃ hriṃ* as a talisman, Drawing in the four corners *paṭṭuva*,⁴—peacock, cobra, swan, and serpent, The signs of the Zodiac, the nine planets, and the twenty-seven asterisms,⁵

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⁴ *Paṭṭuva, a symmetrical arrangement of two, three, or four animals with necks entwined.*

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⁵ *The poem mentions a long list of decorations, some of which could hardly be found room for on an earthen vessel. All the work referred to is of the kind done before firing, and does not include painting, which (except slip painting) is no part of the potters' art.*

c25.20

He takes good (red) *gurugala* and (white) *makulu* and mixes them with water to a thick consistency, Mingling them with the right amount of oil, that they may shine: Thereafter he sets them in the sun to dry them well, And after that having stacked them in the kiln, on the first day he dries them in the smoke.

c25.21

13. On the second day putting only a certain quantity of firewood he lights a moderate fire, On the third day he makes the fire fierce enough, and burns (the pots) till they are done; Afterwards he draws* the fire and puts it out and leaves three days for cooling, On the fourth day ascertaining that the kiln is quite cool, he takes out the vessels one by one.

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PROVERBS.

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The following are some Sinhalese proverbs connected with pottery: “The devil broke the *koraha* as he went away” (Eng. ‘The cat did it’). “Six months’ labour of the potter, is one stroke to the man with the cudgel.” “A pot filled to the brim does not shake.” “The water in a half-filled pot shakes.” “When an elephant gets thin, it cannot be bathed in a *koraha*.” “Like a pot placed with its mouth downwards.” “One cannot put the hand even into a *koraha* in a hurry.”

c25.24

∗ The firewood is in the form of long sticks which are pushed in as they burn away; hence the expression “to draw away the firewood” when the fire is to be put out.