Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c3.1

c3.1

THIS book is a record of the work and the life of the craftsman in a feudal society not unlike that of Early Mediæval Europe. It deals, not with a period of great attainment in fine art, but with a beautiful and dignified scheme of peasant decoration, based upon the traditions of Indian art and craft. Sinhalese art is essentially Indian, but possesses this especial interest, that it is in many ways of an earlier character, and more truly Hindu—though Buddhist in intention,—than any Indian art surviving on the mainland so late as the beginning of the nineteenth century. The minor arts, and the painting, are such as we might expect to have been associated with the culture of Aśoka’s time, and the builders of Barāhat.