A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c12.s1.38

c12.s1.38

Recent investigation has proved that the celebrated Dhamēkh *stūpa* at Sārnāth is of Gupta age, and that Cunningham was about right long ago when he referred the building to the sixth century.¹ The intricate scroll-work on the western face is one of the most successful examples of the decoration of a large wall surface to be found in India. The pattern is essentially identical with that called *tiringi talai* in Ceylon, where the design is used by the artistic craftsmen in the native drawing schools as a test of a pupil's power in the freehand execution of curves, and is also applied with suitable modifications to a variety of decorative objects, that is to say, that although the circular *tiringi talai* as a whole is not used for ornamental purposes, its motives, or component parts, are. The artist who traced the wonderfully complex spirals on the western stone facing of the Dhamēkh *stūpa* must have undergone prolonged and rigorous training on the Ceylonese lines. The different pattern on the south-eastern side is equally excellent. Plate XXXVII exhibits the two Dhamēkh designs with the *tiringi talai* for comparison.