Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c31.19

c31.19

*Later motifs* Few decorative motifs are of later origin. The elaboration of simple motifs must always have continued; but most of them, such as the continuous branch, were already developed at Barāhat,* and awaited only such an extension of their use as is illustrated in the progression from a simple border, to a design covering a large space as in Fig. 52. One definitely Buddhist decorative motif is the *bo*-leaf, and the form of triangle derived from it (see p. 106, above). Apparently post-Aśokan must be most of the patterns used for filling space, or rather most of the ways of so using patterns; thus the ‘continuous branch,’ well known at Barāhat, was afterwards used in carefully constructed patterns covering large areas as in Fig. 52 and Pl. XV. When or where such methods of design originated it would be hard to say. From such constructed patterns to patterns based on an invisible framework (*parsemé*) the transition must have been easy.