A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c14.s4.3

c14.s4.3

The marvellous citadel at that place, perched upon the summit of an isolated, tower-shaped hill, 600 feet high, and rising abruptly from the plain, was constructed as an impregnable refuge by the parricide king, Kāsyapa I, who reigned from A. D. 479 to 497. The rock-cut galleries leading to the tyrant’s aerie having crumbled away in the course of ages, the summit had become inaccessible save to occasional adventurous cragsmen. The work of excavation, repair, and restoration undertaken in 1895 by the Government of Ceylon was carried on systematically under the capable guidance of Mr. H. C. P. Bell, Archaeological Commissioner, until its completion some ten years later, as recorded in Sessional Paper XX of 1909. The paintings, with which alone we are now concerned, have been secured by wire nettings and other devices in such a way that ‘they can be examined closely, without difficulty, and in perfect safety; from one end of the caves to the other they are for ever secure from further damage’. The story of the operations, as related in Mr. Bell’s *Reports*, terminating with the document cited above, is a most interesting record of successful wrestling with formidable engineering difficulties, and of the completion of a well-devised plan, without parsimony and without extravagance.