Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c6.67.1

c6.67.1

Into the details of a century of British rule we need not enter. At the beginning of the Kandyan Sinhalese were still an independent and self-contained community, with a culture and art which had for all an equal appeal, and a state religion which was also the religion of the people. Now however, the old spirit has departed, and though the unspoilt villager is still a man worth knowing well, the ‘educated’ classes are sadly degenerate and de-nationalised. Impoverished by the change from a society based on personal relations to one based on the exchange of coin and free trade in land, the aristocracy are unable, even if willing, to support the old traditions; nor, breaking with these, have they in any adequate way acquired the culture of the west. By many, the old life and old culture are despised, and all interest in the country and its past is dead. The priesthood suffers also from lack of the vigorous support of the kings;