Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c7.94

c7.94

Each official had a special banner proper to his district, of which some particulars are given above; further details are given by Bell, loc. cit. The flags were made of cotton, dye-painted, perhaps made in Jaffna, or it may be by Tamils in Kandy; some still may be found amongst the stores of the dēvāles. During the last five days, called the *Maha Perahera* or *Ran-dōli-perahera*, the procession passed through the main thoroughfare of the town also. On these occasions the streets were “made clean, and on both sides along the Streets Poles stuck up with Flags and Pennons hanging at the tops of them, and adorned with boughs and branches of Coker-Nut-trees hanging like Fringes, and lighted Lamps all along on both sides of the Streets, both by day and night” (Knox, p. 79). This part of the *perahera* was extremely magnificent. The palanquins (*ran-dōli*) of the divinities appeared in the procession, each with its golden vessel and sword, and following the elephants bearing the weapons of the gods; and they were attended not only by the women of the temple but by the court ladies and wives and daughters of the chiefs. “Next after the Gods and their Attendance,” says Knox, “go some Thousands of Ladies and Gentlewomen, such as are the best sort of the Inhabitants of the Land, arrayed in the bravest manner that their Ability can afford, and so go hand in hand three in a row: at which time all the Beauties on Zelone in their Bravery do go to attend upon their Gods in their progress about the City.”* The chiefs also vied with one another in the splendour of their costume and the number of their attendants; the king himself took part, joining the evening procession during the last five days, being drawn in a golden chariot drawn by eight horses. All the elephants and attendants available were present in full glory. In Kandy the tooth-relic of Buddha was carried in procession with the insignia of the four deities; this custom is said to have been introduced by Kīrti Śrī Rāja Simha, to conciliate the Siamese Buddhist priests who came over to restore the priestly order, and objected to this purely Hindu festival; but tooth-relic and other processions existed long before Kīrti Śrī’s time.