Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c29.s1: 1. Mat Weaving by Kinnarayō
Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c29.s1
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1. Mat Weaving by Kinnarayō
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THE well-known Dumbara mats, called *kalālaya* (Pl. XXXIV.), are made by men and women of the Kinnaraya caste, practically the lowest of Kandyan castes, excepting the Roḍiyo. The fibre of which the mats are made is *niyanda*, the bowstring hemp, *Sansevieria zeylanica*. The rounded green leaves of this common xerophytic plant are gathered, and scraped against a log (*niyanda pōruva*) with a wooden tool (*ge-valla*) shaped like a spokeshave. This scraping removes the fleshy part of the leaf, leaving the white fibre, which is oiled and brushed, and then ready for use almost immediately. Part of the material is left white, the rest dyed red, yellow, or black in the manner explained below.
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The warp thread (*kalal heḍa*) is spun like cotton on a spindle (*iḍḍa*) (as shown on the right of Plate IV). The weft elements are not spun at all, but consist of parallel fibres, of the width of the mat.
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The loom (Pl. IV.) is a low horizontal contrivance, something like the loom used in cotton weaving, but much more primitive. There is no *alvala*, or pit for the weaver's feet; the operator squats on the mat itself, supported by a few flat logs between it and the ground. The pattern is picked up with a weaver's lath (*vema*); this lath, having an eye at one end, seryes as a bodkin* with which to draw the weft threads through the warp. A sleay (*alu karala*) similar to the cotton weavers', but not suspended, is used to drive the weft home. The raising and separation of alternate warp threads to form a 'shed' is effected by a very primitive type of heddles (*veḷa-kaḍḍuva*). The loops of the heddles, through which the warp threads pass, do not move. Every alternate warp thread passes through a loop. The separation of alternate threads to form the shed, is effected by the movement of two wooden rods, placed on the far side of the tripod; of these rods one (*uttara-pata* or *konṭaliya*) rests on the warp, the other (*pannam-baṭe*) passes between alternate threads of it. Relative movement of these rods raises and separates alternate threads on the near side of the heddles. The warp is carried on two rods, *koṭṭa kūra* and *andina kaṇḍa*. The first of these, on the left in Pl. IV., is tied to a stouter rod (*heḍa kaṇḍa*), and this is fastened to sticks firmly driven into the ground. At the other end, the *andina kaṇḍa* is tightly strained by two cords (*kaḍu-pā-lanu*) attached to two posts (*kalāl-kaṇu*) in the ground. The heddles are supported by a tripod arrangement of sticks (*tun-pā kolle*), which is shifted along as the work progresses.
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The warp is laid (*dig-gahanava* or *heḍa lanava*) in two operations. The spun thread (*nal*) is first unwound from the spindle, then broken, and passed through the heddles and through the teeth of the sleay or reed; the short ends left projecting through the teeth are tied temporarily to avoid slipping out. The remainder of the warp is then laid to the required length, and the threads broken off and joined on to the short ends projecting through the heddles.
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When the weaving is finished the projecting ends of fibre at each end of the mat are turned up over a thread drawn tight along the edge (like a piping cord) and knotted each one to it by another thread which catches up each projecting end in a slip knot, forming a neat binding.
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∗ Called *heḍa liya* in the song quoted on p. 246.
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Mat weaving and dyeing
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Fig. 142. Mal-gaha (‘flower-tree’) pattern of Dumbara mat.
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The niyanda fibre is dyed red, yellow, and black as follows: the red colour is obtained by boiling the fibre with patangi (Caesalpinia sappan) wood, korakaha (Memecylon umbellatum) leaves and (?) gingelly oil or seeds; the yellow from a decoction of veni-vel (Coscinium fenestratum); the black with the help of gall nuts, aralu and bulu (Terminalia chebula and T. beleria). The dye fades considerably in a year or two. The Kinnarayō make also whips, fly-whisks, brooms and other objects of niyanda fibre. It is a material the use of which is confined to the Kinnarayō and Roḍiyō.
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Perfectly plain mats are called pannam kalāla; those decorated with birds, as is usually done, are kurullu kalāla; those with a variety of patterns are veḍa kalāla or veḍa peḍuru. The following names of patterns are in use, the first five being illustrated on Pl. XXXIV.: toran-petta, ratvatte-alaṅkaraya, tārāva, tani-veḷ iruva, depota-lanuva, tārakā-petta, pannam-petta, tunpota lanuva, del-geṭa-lanuva, mal-gaha (Fig. 142), etc.; also animals, as birds, deer, cobras, elephants.
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A Kinnara song relating to mat weaving is given in the Appendix to this chapter.