Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c6.62

c6.62

‡ The people were very dependent on the royal patronage, looking to the king for support in all religious and social undertakings. During the succeeding century this sympathetic patronage was lacking, and a secular and alien government, whose main business was that of the policeman, ignored indigenous culture and social life. The hope of the future, if it is permitted to hope, lies in a stimulation of that capacity for united action which was shown by the village communities in so many aspects of the common life of the people, as well as on special occasions, similar to that here spoken of, when villagers united to endow a temple or to build an ambalam on their own account. This stimulation can only result from a development of the people’s intelligence through the medium of their own national culture, invigorated by contact with the re-awakened life of India, the mother-land. The king days are over; the days of the people have yet to come.