Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c7.65

c7.65

Together with this simplicity of life and general absence of luxury went a well-considered love of beautiful dress, affording a remarkable contrast to the modern tendency to combine every sort of personal luxury with gloomy European costume in its extremest forms. There could hardly be imagined a more beautiful sight than a Kandyan lady (Pl. II.) wearing her embroidered bodice covered with a *sāri* of old Indian brocade, bare-footed, and covered with delicate tinkling chains and pendants, rings and bracelets, of which profusion one feels that nothing could be spared. The full dress of chiefs (Pl. III.) is equally striking, but less beautiful.