Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c6.76

c6.76

Government support of an institution like the Kandy Art Association§ however excellent in its degree, is totally inadequate to save the arts and crafts of the country from gradual decay; from that only the people themselves can ultimately save them. But the responsibility of Government (as the inheritors of the great traditions of the Sinhalese kings) to support the culture and arts of the land is none the less real. The hereditary skill and taste of the caste craftsmen might be preserved for the future generations, if the Government gave directly to craftsmen even a quarter of the support given by the later Sinhalese kings; which might be done in many ways, but especially by the employment of craftsmen in all lesser building operations, placing the whole design and execution in their hands (subject to the nature of actual requirements) and not in that of engineers, untrained in art, least of all in Sinhalese art, and also by the commissioning of more elaborate works of art than those now undertaken, and the purchase of these without regard to the possibility or otherwise of immediate re-sale.