Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c34.2

c34.2

P. 9. *‘Bird-shaped houses.’* According to a footnote on p. 2 of the Appendix of a Petition to H.M. Edward VII., printed in 1905, and signed by the Mahānāyakas of Malvatte and Asgirya, and other priests, on behalf of the Saṅgha, against the Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance then before the Legislative Council, one of the dwellings permitted to a priest is an *adhyoga*, which is stated to be a ‘house covered with a roof resembling the wings of a *gurulu*’ (*guruḷa*, mythical bird). The roof which, so far as I know, now best answers such a description, is that of the porch at Laṅkātilaka. Perhaps such roofs, raised above the walls, tiled as if with feathers, and having a double slope, may not unnaturally be likened to the wings of a great bird. I conceive that the idea of such an injunction must have been to prevent priests from living in ordinary dwelling houses, which had thatched roofs.