Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c6.52

c6.52

In A.D. 1701 Śrī Vīra Parākrama Narēndra Simha became king in Kandy; he is chiefly remembered as the Kuṇḍasalē King,’ for he “formed a suburb named Kuṇḍasalē, nigh unto the chief city, in the large coconut grove . . . he performed daily meritorious works, such as almsgiving and the like, and caused books to be written also. And as he saw that the temple of the Tooth-relic that his father had built at the great city (Kandy) was decaying, he heart moved within him, and he caused a fair two-storied building (the present Daḷadā Māligāva, restored by Kīrti Śrī, Pl. VIII), to be built, the doors whereof were ornamented with exquisite workmanship of divers kinds, and the plaster work shone with exceeding brightness like a hill of silver; and the roof thereof was ornamented; and on the walls of its two enclosures he had painted with exquisite art the thirty-two jātakas, viz., the Vidura Jātaka, the Guttila and Ummaga Jātakas . . . and the Vessantara Jātaka.” No trace of these paintings survives. He also “raised for himself a monument of glory by building a wall enclosing the great bō-tree, the cētiya, and the Nāṭa dēvāle that stood in the middle of the city—a wall of stone, thick, high, and shining with plaster work, like unto a beautiful string of pearls adorning the neck of the city that was like a fair woman” * (Mahāvaṃsa, Chap. XCVII). This wall around the great maḷuva opposite the māligāva still remains, and is not less beautiful than described, though now unplastered and still worse, sadly cut into by the English church, the police courts, and a private house. One wonders by what right, if any, these were built on temple land. All of these buildings are painful eyesores (not least the church) and it would be a worthy deed for some rich Buddhist to buy out the intruders’ rights and restore the wall to its former beauty and perfection.