Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c7.2

c7.2

THE first chapter of this book is intended to provide an historical background for the mental picture of the Sinhalese people which will be formed in the reader’s mind. In the present chapter will be found a more detailed account of the constitution of the Kandyan kingdom, and of the social economy of the Kandyans in the 18th century. Sinhalese craftsmanship flourished exceedingly in the Kandyan districts up to the very end of that century and even later, and almost the whole extent of its decline coincides with the succeeding period of foreign rule and resulting decay of the social organism; hence the importance of considering the social conditions of the 18th century, if we are rightly to understand the craftsman and his art. If the present chapter should appear at all superfluous, it should be remembered that the object of this book is not merely to figure specimens of the work of Sinhalese craftsmen, but to provide, if it be possible, some faint picture of a land and a time of which, even as of Mediæval Europe, it could be said ‘that in those times there was no such thing as a piece of handicraft being ugly’; and this faint picture would be fainter still if we should speak only of the craftsman’s handiwork and forget the man himself and his outlook upon life.