A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s2.101

c9.s2.101

The highly decorated stelae at the entrances to chapels connected with the great *dāgabas* are characteristic of Ceylonese art. The examples chosen from the Abhayagiri *dāgaba* at Anurādhapura may be assigned with considerable probability to the time of King Gajabāhu I, in the second century of the Christian era, but it is possible that they may be later, or even earlier. The floral patterns differ widely from those used in the mediaeval stelae of Polonnāruwa. The devices springing from vases (Plate XX, Fig. C) recall many examples of the same motive in Alexandrian and Indian art.