A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c9.s2.128

c9.s2.128

The subject is a man curled up in the attitude technically described as 'kingly ease' (*mahārāja līla*), with his left hand resting on the seat, and his right hand extended over the raised knee, holding the halter of a horse, the head of which appears on the rock, but is not included in the photograph. The man's head, covered with thick hair, is partly turned towards the proper left and averted from the horse, which he seems to ignore. The expression is that of calm and abstracted but not unconscious dignity, while the difficult pose is modelled with consummate skill and yet with perfect simplicity. The work may be of early date, perhaps the close of the fifth century, when the parricide king, Kāsyapa I, the builder of Sīgiriya, is recorded to have made many images at Isurumuniya, in the vain attempt to cleanse his soul from the guilt of the murder of his father.¹