Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c34.37

c34.37

P. 164. *Colours.* Clough gives: *pas-peheya*=the five primitive colours, white, black, blue or green, yellow and red. P. 164. *Archæological value of old paintings.* This is well illustrated by Général L. de Beylié’s use of those at Aluvihāra and Dambulla in his investigation of ancient architecture (L’Architecture Hindoue en Extreme Orient,’ Paris, 1907, pp. 373-378). While, however, it is true that early forms of architecture are preserved in these traditional paintings, it is decidedly misleading to describe them as ‘of the first century before Christ’; it is only true that they ‘sont biens la répétition des anciennes fresques.’ P. 178. *Ajaṇṭa and Sigiriya.* Mr. Vincent Smith (Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908, II., 121) suggests that the Ajaṇṭa painters were Persians. But he seems to have been unaware of the existence of similar paintings in Ceylon. P. 186. *Dice.* Clough gives ‘*pāsaka*, dice, particularly the long sort used in playing *chaupai*.’ The game of *chaupai* (=*pacisi*) has been so long forgotten, that though I have seen many game-cloths and dice of Sinhalese make, I have not found any Sinhalese acquainted with the game, or the name of it. The game is commonly played by Tamils; indeed, all the chief games of this kind, *olinda keliya*, *nerinci* (a form of ‘noughts and crosses’ or ‘nine men’s morris’), the cheetah and fourteen dogs, etc., are essentially Indian games, and not of local origin. —*Ivory.* In 1908 the Colombo Museum also acquired a ‘ceremonial ivory shuttle,’ ornamented with lac, and said to have been granted as a *sannasa* or Royal Warrant to a family of weavers. A warrant so given as a token, is properly called *keṭa sakshiya* (or *sakkiya*); the word *sannasa* implies writing. There is also in my own collection a lac-ornamented ivory spindle. Another object is an ivory toy, consisting of a disc very deeply furrowed round the edge; such toys are said to have been played with on a piece of string by the Kandyan ladies. I have also a similar toy in copper and silver. At the Pērādeṇiya Exhibition in 1906 there was exhibited a beautiful ‘model’ of the Daḷadā Māligāva, made in ivory, with a brazen roof. The ‘model’ represented a typical structural vihāra, and not the Māligāva in any detail. It is said to have been presented to Veva Indasara Terunnānse, incumbent of the Hittettia Vihāra at Mātara by Kirti Śrī Rāja Simha in 1755 A.D. as a reward for a versified panegyric on the king’s rule. P. 194. *Knives of steel.* Probably in most cases only the edge of a cutting instrument was of steel, the remainder of iron. This is implied in a well-known Sinhalese proverb: ‘Like the rustic who got his knife by imposing on the blacksmith’—referring to a countryman who went to a blacksmith to get a knife made, and gave him only the iron for it, keeping back the steel, thinking by that means to cheat the smith, but actually cheating only himself. Other proverbs connected with smithing, etc., are: ‘To get the hand burnt in spite of possessing pincers.’ ‘The dog that has been brought up in a blacksmith’s shop is not afraid even of thunder.’ ‘Like the silversmith’s father beating his son for undertaking an urgent work.’ Subjection to petticoat government is as bad as standing behind an adze.’ ‘The iron style of a man who is too lazy to write is heavier than the staff of King Gaja Bāhu’ (a great iron rod). ‘The adze which straightens timber is itself not straight.’ P. 231. *Pottery proverbs.* Another well-known proverb, taken from a Buddhist *sūtra*, is: ‘As all earthen vessels made by the potter break at last, so is the life of man.’