Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c34.26

c34.26

P. 119. *Plaster.* For other old recipes see Brihad Samhita, II., Ch, X. Bennett (‘Ceylon and its Capabilities,’ p. 338) states that the white stucco used in Ceylon and Southern India is a mixture of fine sand, shell lime, green coco-nut water and coarse sugar or jaggery; he states truly that ‘when laid on by experienced plasterers, it displays the polish and appearance of marble.’ The material now used, often a mere whitewash, is generally mixed with a greater or less proportion of Reckitt’s blue, entirely destroying the value of milky whiteness.