[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Architecture and art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art) › [Mediaeval Sinhalese Art](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.coomaraswamy-1908) › c9.2 # Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c9.2 Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c9.2 - **Language:** English ### [c9.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.coomaraswamy-1908.c9.2) A MORE particular account of the \*Ācāri\*, \*Navandannō\*, or caste or guild of artificers proper, will be necessary. The subdivisions of the caste, according to Valentyn, are eleven in number, viz., \*acāri\*, blacksmiths; \*baḍallu\*, silversmiths; \*vaḍuvō\*, carpenters; \*liyana vaḍuvō\*, turners; \*riḍikeṭayankārayō\*, damasceners; \*eṭatkeṭayankārayō\*, ivory carvers and cabinet makers; \*galvaḍuvō\*, stone cutters; \*ratne endra karayō\* (?), jewellers; \*īvaḍuvō\*, arrow makers (lac workers); \*sittaru\*, painters; \*lokuruvō\*, founders. But Valentyn’s divisions are rather a list of names given to men who follow particular branches of their craft, than actual caste divisions. The \*Janavamsa\* merely distinguishes two principal divisions of the caste, viz., (1) \*kamburō\*, \*navandanno\* or \*acāri\*, divided into \*lokuruvō\*, workers in copper, bronze and brass; \*sittaru\*, painters; and \*svarṇakārayō\*, goldsmiths; and including also turners and blacksmiths: and, (2) \*vaḍuvō\*, carpenters, blacksmiths and masons, including housebuilders, agricultural implement makers (who are also mentioned in the first section) and arrow makers (\*īvaḍuvō\*, including all lac workers). The existence of a confusion between the two classes is admitted, and appears to have been inevitable as the work of the two to some extent overlapped. It seems likely that the \*kamburō\* (also spoken of in the \*Janavamsa\* as \*Kammāra Brahmans\*) were strictly speaking the imported \*kammālar\* workmen from the coast, who did fine work as goldsmiths, painters, etc., and that the \*vaḍuvō\* were the indigenous artificers accustomed only to the ordinary work of building, tool making, etc. Just in the same way there were two groups of weavers, the \*beravāyō\* who made country cloth (home-spun, so to say) and the ‘chalias’ (\*salagamayō\*) who were brought over from South India to make fine and gold-woven cloths. Confusion also results from the use of terms in a particular as well as in a general sense. At the present day two main divisions, corresponding in the main with those of the \*Janavamsa\* form the only real caste division. Those in the higher division (architects, painters, gold and silversmiths, brass repoussers, ivory and wood carvers) called \*galladdō\*, do not eat or intermarry with those in the lower division, called \*vaḍuvō\* (ordinary carpenters and turners of wood and ivory, blacksmiths, damasceners, stone carvers and lac workers). The term \*vaḍuva\* now has the general meaning of ‘carpenter,’ and would hardly be used in speaking of a blacksmith, still less of a goldsmith, but is used in the \*Mayamataya\* in the sense of ‘architect,’ and together with \*sittaruva\*, ‘painter,’ refers to men of the superior division. The tailors and embroiderers (\*hannali\*) and leather workers (\*hommarayō\*), potters (\*baḍahelayō\*), weavers of country cloth (\*beravāyō\*), mat-makers (\*kinnarayō\*), and makers of whips, cords, and preparers of hides (\*roḍiyō\*) were of other and inferior caste. These last are only incidentally referred to in the present chapter. - [Previous: c9.1](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.coomaraswamy-1908.c9.1) - [Next: c9.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.coomaraswamy-1908.c9.3) - [Up: c9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.coomaraswamy-1908.c9) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.coomaraswamy-1908.c9.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.art.coomaraswamy-1908.c9.2) · Pramāṇa