Mediaeval Sinhalese Art c9.5.3

c9.5.3

when to these are added those of the other districts and also the special workers belonging to the Four Workshops now to be described, it will be seen that the Royal and public requirements were well provided for. The best of the higher craftsmen (gold and silversmiths, painters and ivory carvers, etc.) working immediately for the King formed a close, largely hereditary, corporation of craftsmen called the Paṭṭal-hatara (Four Workshops); these men worked only for the King, unless by his express permission (though, of course, their sons or pupils might do otherwise); they were liable to be continually engaged in Kandy, while the Koṭṭal-badda men were divided into relays, serving by turns in Kandy for periods of two months. The Koṭṭal-badda men in each district were under a foreman (mul-acāriya) belonging to the Paṭṭal-hatara. Four other foremen, one from each paṭṭala, were in constant attendance at the palace.* Originally there seems to have been only one paṭṭala called the Ābharaṇa (regalia) paṭṭala, but this was afterwards divided into an Ābharaṇa paṭṭala, or jewellery workshop, an Oṭunna paṭṭala, or crown workshop, a Rankaḍu paṭṭala, or golden sword workshop (armoury), and a Simhasana lion throne) paṭṭala, the last including particularly painters and ivory carvers. But the craftsmen seem to have passed from one paṭṭala to another, according to the work entrusted to them.