Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c31.26

c31.26

The fifth century Sigiri paintings have already been referred to. They are almost certainly the work of Indian craftsmen. They were probably related to an indigenous school of painting, much as the building in stone, and the fine weaving, were related to the indigenous style of building in wood, and home-spun weaving; that is to say they were exotic products of an art, never permanently naturalised in Ceylon. They are in every respect different from modern Kandyan painting, which there is good reason to regard as the lineal descendant of an early formal style similar in feeling to that of the Jātaka sculptures at Barāhat. Into such a line of descent the Sigiri paintings would nowhere fit.