CHAP. VI.

1:Mahawanso, ch. lxxvi. pp. 298, 299, UPHAM'sTrans. The circumstance is exceedingly curious of coins of Prakrama, "identical" with those found at Dambedenia, in Ceylon, having also been discovered at Dipaldinia, on the opposite continent; and it goes far to confirm the accuracy of theMahawansoas to the same king having coined money in both places. Those found in the latter locality form part of the Mackenzie Collection, and have been figured in theAsiat. Researches, xvii. 597, and afterwards by Mr. PRINSEP in theJourn. of the Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, vi. 301. See also a notice of Ceylon coins, in theJourn. As. Soc. Beng.iv. 673, vi. 218; CASIE CHITTY, in theJourn. of the Ceylon Asiat. Soc.,1847, p. 9, has given an account of a hoard of copper coins found at Calpentyn in 1839; and Mr. Justice STARKE, in the same journal, p. 149, has given aresuméof the information generally possessed as to the ancient coins of the island. PRINSEP's paper onCeylon Coinswill be found in vol. i. of the recent reprint of hisEssays on Indian Antiquities, p. 419. Lond. 1858.

HOOK MONEY.HOOK MONEY.

HOOK MONEY.

Hook-money.—No ancient silver coin has yet been found, but specimens are frequently brought to light of theridis, pieces of twisted silver wire, which from their being sometimes bent with a considerable curve have been called "Fish-hook money." These are occasionally impressed with a legend, and for a time the belief obtained that they were a variety of ring-money peculiar to Ceylon.[1] Of late this error has beencorrected; the letters where they occur have been shown to be not Singhalese or Sanskrit, but Persian, and the tokens themselves have been proved to belong to Laristan on the Persian Gulf, from the chief emporium of which, Gambroon, they were brought to Ceylon in the course of Indian commerce; chiefly by the Portuguese, who are stated by VAN CARDAEN to have introduced them in great quantities into Cochin and the ports of Malabar.[2] There they were circulated so freely that an edict of Prakrama enumerates theridiamongst the coins in which the taxes were assessed on land.[3]

1: This error may be traced to the French commentator on RIBEYRO'sHistory of Ceylon, who describes the fish-hook money in use in the kingdom of Kandy, whilst the Portuguese held the low country, as so simple in its form that every man might make it for himself: "Le Roy de Candy avoit aussi permis á ses peuples de se servir d'unemonnoyeque chacun peut fabriquer."—Ch. x. p. 81.2: "Les larins sont tout-à-fait commodes et nécessaires dans les Indes, surtout pour acheter du poivre à Cochin, où l'on en fait grand état."—Voyage aux Indes Orientales.Amsterdam, A.D. 1716, vol. vi. p. 626.3: Rock-inscription at Dambool, A.D. 1200. TheRajavalimentions theridisas in circulation in Ceylon at the period of the arrival of the Portuguese, A.D. 1505.—P. 278.

2: "Les larins sont tout-à-fait commodes et nécessaires dans les Indes, surtout pour acheter du poivre à Cochin, où l'on en fait grand état."—Voyage aux Indes Orientales.Amsterdam, A.D. 1716, vol. vi. p. 626.

3: Rock-inscription at Dambool, A.D. 1200. TheRajavalimentions theridisas in circulation in Ceylon at the period of the arrival of the Portuguese, A.D. 1505.—P. 278.

In India they are calledlarins, and money in imitation of them, struck by the princes of Bijapur and by Sivaji, the founder of the Mahrattas, was in circulation in the Dekkan as late as the seventeenth century.[1]

1: Prof. WILSON'SRemarks on Fish-hook Money, Numism. Chronic.1854, p. 181.

It has already been shown[1] that the natives of Ceylon received their earliest instruction in engineering from the Brahmans, who attached themselves to the followers of Wijayo and his immediate successors.[2] But whilst astonished at the vastness of conception observable in the works executed at this early period, we are equally struck by the extreme simplicity of the means employed by their designers for carrying their plans into execution; and the absence of all ingenious expedients for husbanding or effectively applying manual labour. The earth which forms their prodigious embankments was carried in baskets[3] by the labourers, in the same primitive fashion which prevails to the present day. Stones were detached in the quarry by the slow and laborious process of wedging, of which they still exhibit the traces; and those intended for prominent positions were carefully dressed with iron tools. For moving them no mechanical contrivances were resorted to[4], and it can only have been by animal power, aided by ropes and rollers, that vastblocks like the great tablet at Pollanarrua were dragged to their required positions.[5]

1: SeeVol. I. Part IV. chap. ii. p. 430.2: King Pandukábhaya, B.C. 437, "built a residence for the Brahman Jótiyo, the chief engineer."—Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 66.3:Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 144.4: The only instance of mechanism applied in aid of human labour is referred to in a passage of theMahawanso, which alludes to a decree for "raising the water of the Abhaya tank by means of machinery," in order to pour it over a dagoba during the solemnisation of a festival, B.C. 20.—Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 211;Rajaratnacari, p. 51.5: No document is better calculated to Impress the reader with a due appreciation of the indomitable perseverance of the Singhalese in works of engineering than the able report of Messrs. ADAMS, CHURCHILL, and BAILEY, on the greatCanal from Ellahara to Gantalawa, appended to the Ceylon Calendar for 1857.

1: SeeVol. I. Part IV. chap. ii. p. 430.

2: King Pandukábhaya, B.C. 437, "built a residence for the Brahman Jótiyo, the chief engineer."—Mahawanso, ch. x. p. 66.

3:Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 144.

4: The only instance of mechanism applied in aid of human labour is referred to in a passage of theMahawanso, which alludes to a decree for "raising the water of the Abhaya tank by means of machinery," in order to pour it over a dagoba during the solemnisation of a festival, B.C. 20.—Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 211;Rajaratnacari, p. 51.

5: No document is better calculated to Impress the reader with a due appreciation of the indomitable perseverance of the Singhalese in works of engineering than the able report of Messrs. ADAMS, CHURCHILL, and BAILEY, on the greatCanal from Ellahara to Gantalawa, appended to the Ceylon Calendar for 1857.

Fortifications.—Of military engineering the Singhalese had a very slight knowledge. Walled towns and fortifications are frequently spoken of, but the ascertained difficulty of raising, squaring, or carrying stones, points to the inference which is justified by the expressions of the ancient chronicles, that the walls they allude to, must have been earthworks[1], and that the strength of their fortified places consisted in their inaccessibility. The first recorded attempt at fortification was made by the Malabars in the second century before Christ for the defence of Wijitta-poora, which is described as having been secured by walls, a fosse, and a gate.[2] Elala about the same period built "thirty-two bulwarks" at Anarajapoora[3]; and Dutugaimunu, in commencing to besiege him in the city, followed his example, by throwing up a "fortification in an open plain," at a spot well provided with wood and water.[4]

1: Makalantissa, who reigned B.C. 41, "built a rampart seven cubits high, and dug a ditch round the capital."—Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210.2:Rajavali, p. 212;Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 151.3:Rajavali, p. 187.4:Rajavali, p. 216;Mahawansoch. xxv. p. 152.

1: Makalantissa, who reigned B.C. 41, "built a rampart seven cubits high, and dug a ditch round the capital."—Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 210.

2:Rajavali, p. 212;Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 151.

3:Rajavali, p. 187.

4:Rajavali, p. 216;Mahawansoch. xxv. p. 152.

At a later time, the Malabars, when in possession of the northern portion of the island, formed a chain of strong "forts" from the eastern to the western coast, and the Singhalese, in imitation of them, occupied similar positions. The most striking example of mediæval fortification which still survives, is the imperishable rock of Sigiri, north-east of Dambool, to which the infamous Kassyapa retired with his treasures, after the assassination of his father, King Dhatu Sena, A.D. 459; when having cleared its vicinity, and surroundedit by a rampart, the figures of lions with which he decorated it, obtained for it the name of Sihagiri, the "Lion-rock." But the real defences of Sigiri were its precipitous cliffs, and its naturally scarped walls, which it was not necessary to strengthen by any artificial structures.

Their rocky hills, and the almost impenetrable forests which enveloped them, were in every age the chief security of the Singhalese; and so late as the 12th century, the inscription engraved on the rock at Dambool, in describing the strength of the national defences under the King Kirti Nissanga, enumerates them as "strongholds in the midst of forests, and those upon steep hills, and the fastnesses surrounded by water."[1]

1: TURNOUR'SEpitome and Appendix, p. 95.

Thorn-gates.—The device, retained down to the period of the capture of Kandy by the British, when the passes into the hill country were defended by thick plantations of formidable thorny trees, appears to have prevailed in the earliest times. The protection of Mahelo, a town assailed by Dutugaimunu, B.C. 162, consisting in its being "surrounded on all sides with the thornydadambocreeper, within which was a triple line of fortifications."[1]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 153. When Albuquerque attacked Malacca in A.D. 1511, the chief who defended the place "covered the streets with poisoned thorns, to gore the Portuguese coming in" FARIA Y SOUZA, vol. i. p. 180. VALENTYN, in speaking of the dominions of the King of Kandy during the Dutch occupation of the Low Country, describes the density of the forests, "which not only serve to divide the earldoms one from another, but, above all, tend to the fortification of the country, on which account no one dare, on pain of death, to thin or root out a tree, more than to permit a passage for one man at a time, it being impossible to pass through the rest thereof."—VALENTYN,Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, &c., ch. i. p. 22. KNOX gives a curious account of these "thorn-gates." (Part ii. ch. vi. p. 45.)

Bridges.—As to bridges, Ceylon had none till the end of the 13th century[1], and Turnour conjectures that even then they were only formed of timber, like the Pons Sublidus at Rome. At a later period stonepillars were used in pairs, on which beams or slabs were horizontally rested, in order to form a roadway [2], in the same manner that Herodotus describes the most ancient bridge on record, which was constructed by Queen Nitocris, at Babylon; the planks being laid during the day and lifted again at night, for the security of the city.[3] The principle of the arch appears never to have been employed in bridge building. Ferries, and the taxes on crossing by them, are alluded to down to a very late period amongst other sources of revenue.[4]

1: TURNOUR'SEpitomeandNotes, p. 72. Major Forbes says, however, there is reason to believe that the remains of stone piers across the Kalawa-oya, on the line between Kornegalle and Anarajapoora, are the ruins of the bridge erected by King Maha Sen, A.D. 301.2:Mahawanso, ch. lxxxv. UPHAM'S translation, pp. 340,349;Rajaratnacari, pp. 104, 131. The bridge on the Wanny hereafter described (see vol. ii p. 474) was thus constructed.3: Herodotus, i. 186.4:Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. pp. 136, 138, ch. xxv. p. 150;Rajaratnacari, p. 112.

2:Mahawanso, ch. lxxxv. UPHAM'S translation, pp. 340,349;Rajaratnacari, pp. 104, 131. The bridge on the Wanny hereafter described (see vol. ii p. 474) was thus constructed.

3: Herodotus, i. 186.

4:Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. pp. 136, 138, ch. xxv. p. 150;Rajaratnacari, p. 112.

In forming the bunds of their reservoirs and of the stone dams which they drew across the rivers that were to supply them with water, they were accustomed, with incredible toil, infinitely increased by the imperfection of tools and implements, to work a raised moulding in front of the blocks of stone, so that each course was retained in position, not alone by its own weight, but by the difficulty of forcing it forward by pressure from behind.

The conduits by which the accumulated waters were distributed, required to be constructed under the bed of the lake, so that the egress should be certain and equal[1], as long as any water remained in the tank. To effect this, they were cut in many instances through solid granite; and their ruins present singular illustrations of determined perseverance, undeterred by the most discouraging difficulties, and unrelieved by the slightest appliance of ingenuity to diminish the toil of excavation.

1: The Lake of Albano presents an example of a conduit or "emissary" of this peculiar construction to draw off the water. It is upwards of 6000 feet in length. A similar emissary serves a like purpose at Lake Nemi.

It cannot but exalt our opinion of a people, to find that, under disadvantages so signal, they were capable of forming such a work as the Kalaweva tank, between Anarajapoora and Dambool, which TURNOUR justly says, is the greatest of the ancient works in Ceylon. This enormous reservoir was forty miles in circumference, with an embankment twelve miles in extent, and the spill-water, ineffectual for the purpose designed, is "one of the most stupendous monuments of misapplied human labour."[1]

1: TURNOUR'SMahawanso, Index, p. xi. This stupendous work was constructed A.D. 459.Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 256.

When to such inherent deficiencies were added the alarms of frequent invasion and all the evils of almost incessant occupation by a foreign enemy, it is only surprising that the Singhalese preserved so long the degree of expertness in engineering to which they had originally attained. No people in any age or country had so great practice and experience in the construction of works for irrigation; and so far had the renown of their excellence in this branch reached, that in the eighth century, the king of Kashmir, Djaya-pida, "sent to Ceylon for engineers to form a lake."[1] But after the reign of Prakrama I., the decline was palpable and progressive. No great works, either of ornament or utility, no temples nor inland lakes, were constructed by his successors; and it is remarkable, that even during his own reign, artificers were brought from the coast of India to repair the monuments of Anarajapoora.[2] The last great work attempted for irrigation was probably the Giant's Tank, north-east of Aripo; but so muchhad practical science declined, that after an enormous expenditure of labour in damming up the Moeselley river, whose waters were to have been diverted to the lake, it was discovered that the levels were unsuitable, and the work was abandoned in despair.[3]

1: A.D. 745.Rajataringini, b. iv. sl. 502, 505.2:Mahawanso, UPHAM'S transl., ch. lxxv. p. 294. This passage in theMahawansomight seem to imply that it was as an act of retribution that Malabars, by whom the monuments had been injured, were compelled to restore them. But in ch. lxxvii. it is stated that they were brought from India for this purpose, because it "had been found impracticable by other kings to renew and repair them."—P. 305.3: For an account of the present condition of the Giant's Tank, see Vol. II. Part x. ch. ii.

1: A.D. 745.Rajataringini, b. iv. sl. 502, 505.

2:Mahawanso, UPHAM'S transl., ch. lxxv. p. 294. This passage in theMahawansomight seem to imply that it was as an act of retribution that Malabars, by whom the monuments had been injured, were compelled to restore them. But in ch. lxxvii. it is stated that they were brought from India for this purpose, because it "had been found impracticable by other kings to renew and repair them."—P. 305.

3: For an account of the present condition of the Giant's Tank, see Vol. II. Part x. ch. ii.

The talents of the civil engineer were likewise employed in providing for the health and comfort of their towns and theDipawanso, a chronicle earlier in point of date than theMahawanso, relates that Wasabha, who reigned between A.D. 66 and 110, constructed a tunnel ("um-maggo") for the purpose of supplying Anarajapoora with water.[1]

1:Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng.vol. vii. p. 933.

MUSIC.—The science and practice of the fine arts were never very highly developed amongst a people whose domestic refinement became arrested at a very early stage; and whose efforts in that direction were almost wholly confined to the exaltation of the national faith, and the embellishment of its temples and monuments.

Their knowledge of music was derived from the Hindus, by whom its study was regarded as of equal importance with that of medicine and astronomy; and hence amongst the early Singhalese, along with the other "eighteen sciences,"[1] music was taught as an essential part of the education of a prince.[2]

1: This fact is curious, seeing that at the present day the cultivation of music belongs to one of the lowest castes in Ceylon.2:Mahawanso, ch. lxiv.; UPHAM'S version, p. 256. An ingenious paper onSinghalese Music, by Mr. Louis Nell, is printed in theJourn.of the Ceylon branch of theRoy. Asiat. Soc.for 1856-8; p. 200.

1: This fact is curious, seeing that at the present day the cultivation of music belongs to one of the lowest castes in Ceylon.

2:Mahawanso, ch. lxiv.; UPHAM'S version, p. 256. An ingenious paper onSinghalese Music, by Mr. Louis Nell, is printed in theJourn.of the Ceylon branch of theRoy. Asiat. Soc.for 1856-8; p. 200.

But unlike the soft melodies of Hindustan, whose characteristic is their gentle and soothing effect, the music of the Singhalese appears to have consisted of sound rather than of harmony; modulation and expression having been at all times subordinate to volume and metrical effect.

Reverberating instruments were their earliest inventions for musical purposes, and those most frequently alluded to in their chronicles are drums, resembling the tom-toms used in the temples to the present day. The same variety of form prevailed then as now, andtheRajavalirelates, in speaking of the army of Dutugaimunu, that in its march, the "rattling of the sixty-four kinds of drums made a noise resembling thunder breaking on the rock from behind which the sun rises."[1] The band of Devenipiatissa, B.C. 307, was called thetalawachara, from the multitude of drums[2]: chank-shells contributed to swell the din, both in warfare[3] and in religious worship[4]; choristers added their voices[5]; and the triumph of effect consisted in "the united crash of every description, vocal as well as instrumental"[6] Although "a full band" is explained in theMahawansoto imply a combination of "all descriptions of musicians," no flutes or wind instruments are particularised, and the incidental mention of a harp only occurs in the reign of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 161.[7] JOINVILLE says, that certain musical principles were acknowledged in Ceylon at an early period, and that pieces are to be seen in some of the old Palibooks in regular notation; the gamut, which was termedsepta souere, consisting of seven notes, and expressed not by signs, but in letters equivalent to their pronunciation,sa, ri, ga, me, qa, de, ni.[8] At the present day, harmony is still superseded by sound, the singing of the Singhalese being a nasal whine, not unlike that of the Arabs. Flutes, almost insusceptible of modulation, chanks, which give forth a piercing scream, and the overpowering roll of tom-toms, constitute the music of the temples; and all day long the women of a family will sit round a species of timbrel, calledrabani, and produce from it the most monotonous, but to their ear, most agreeable noises, by drumming with the fingers.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AND MODERN SINGHALESE TOM-TOM BEATERS.ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ANDMODERN SINGHALESE TOM-TOM BEATERS.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ANDMODERN SINGHALESE TOM-TOM BEATERS.

1:Rajavali, pp. 217, 219. At the present day, there are four or five varieties of drums in use:—the tom-tom ortam-a-tom, properly so-called, which consists of two cylinders placed side by side, and is beaten with two sticks;—thedaelle, a single cylinder struck with a stick at one end, and with the hand at the other,—theoudaelle, which is held in the left hand, and struck with the right;—and theberri, which is suspended from the beater's neck, and struck with both hands, one at each end, precisely as a similar instrument is shown in some of the Egyptian monuments.2:Mahawanso, ch. xvii, p. 104.3: B.C. 161.Mahawanso, ch. xxv, p. 154.4: B.C. 20.Rajavali, p. 51.5:Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 157.6:Mahawanso, ch. xxvi. 186.7:Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 180. The following passage in UPHAM'S translation of theMahawanso, ch. lxxii. vol. i. p. 274, would convey the idea that the Æolian harp was meant, or some arrangement of strings calculated to elicit similar sounds:—"The king Prakrama built a palace at the city of Pollanarrua; and the stone works were carved in the shape of flowers and creeping plants,with golden networks which gave harmonious sounds as if they were moved by the air."8: JOINVILLE,Asiat. Researches, vol. vii. p. 488.

2:Mahawanso, ch. xvii, p. 104.

3: B.C. 161.Mahawanso, ch. xxv, p. 154.

4: B.C. 20.Rajavali, p. 51.

5:Mahawanso, ch. xxv. p. 157.

6:Mahawanso, ch. xxvi. 186.

7:Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 180. The following passage in UPHAM'S translation of theMahawanso, ch. lxxii. vol. i. p. 274, would convey the idea that the Æolian harp was meant, or some arrangement of strings calculated to elicit similar sounds:—"The king Prakrama built a palace at the city of Pollanarrua; and the stone works were carved in the shape of flowers and creeping plants,with golden networks which gave harmonious sounds as if they were moved by the air."

8: JOINVILLE,Asiat. Researches, vol. vii. p. 488.

Painting.—Painting, whether historical or imaginative, is only mentioned in connection with the decoration of temples, and no examples survive of sufficient antiquity to exhibit the actual state of the art at any remote period. But enough is known of the trammels imposed upon all art, to show that from the earliest times, imagination and invention were prohibited by the priesthood; and although execution and facility may have varied at different eras, design and composition were stationary and unalterable.

Like the priesthood of Egypt, those of Ceylon regulated the mode of delineating the effigies of their divine teacher, by a rigid formulary, with which they combined corresponding directions for the drawing of the human figure in connection with sacred subjects. In the relics of Egyptian painting and sculpture, we find "that the same formal outline, the same attitudes and postures of the body, the same conventional modes of representing the different parts, were adhered to at the latest, as at the earliest periods. No improvements were admitted; no attempts to copy nature or to give an air of action to the limbs. Certain rules and certainmodels had been established by law, and the faulty conceptions of early times were copied and perpetuated by every succeeding artist."[1]

1: SIR GARDNER WILKINSON'SAncient Egyptians, vol. iii. ch. x. p. 87, 264.

The same observations apply, almost in the same terms, to the paintings of the Singhalese. The historical delineations of the exploits of Gotama Buddha and of his disciples and attendants, which at the present day cover the walls of the temples and wiharas, follow, with rigid minuteness, pre-existing illustrations of the sacred narratives. They appear to have been copied, with a devout adherence to colour, costume, and detail, from designs which from time immemorial have represented the same subjects; and emaciated ascetics, distorted devotees, beatified simpletons, and malefactors in torment are depicted with a painful fidelity, akin to modern pre-Raphaelitism.

Owing to this discouragement of invention, one series of pictures is so servile an imitation of another, that design has never improved in Ceylon; one scene is but the facsimile of a previous one, and each may almost be regarded as an exponent of the state of the art at any preceding period.[1]

1: The Egyptians and Singhalese were not, however, the only authorities who overwhelmed invention by ecclesiastical conventionalism. The early artists of Greece were not at liberty to follow the bent of their own genius, or to depart from established regulations in representing the figures of the gods. In the middle ages, the influence of the churches, both of Rome and Byzantium, was productive of a similar result; and although the Latins early emancipated themselves, the painters of the Greek church, to the present hour, labour under the identical trammels which crippled art at Constantinople a thousand years ago. M. DIDRON, who visited the churches and monasteries of Greece in 1839, makes the remark that "ni le temps ni le lieu ne font rien à l'art Grec: au XVIIIe siècle, le peintre Moréote continue et calque le peintre Vénétien du Xe, le peintre Athonite du Ve ou VIe. Le costume des personnages est partout et en tout temps le même, non-seulement pour la forme, mais pour la couleur, mais pour le dessin, mais jusque pour le nombre et l'épaisseur des plis. On ne saurait pousser plus loin l'exactitude traditionnelle, l'esclavage du passé."(Manuel d' Iconographie Chrétienne Grecque et Latin, p. ix.) The explanation of this fact is striking. Mount Athos is the grand manufactory of pictures for the Greek churches throughout the world; and M. DIDRON found the artists producing, with the servility and almost the rapidity of machinery, endless facsimiles of pictures in rigid conformity with a recognised code of instructions drawn up under ecclesiastical authority and entitled [Greek: Ermêneia tês Zographikês], "The Guide for Painting," a literal translation of which he has published. This very curious manuscript contains minute directions for the figures, costume, and attitude of the sacred characters, and for the preparation of many hundreds of historical subjects required for the decoration of churches. The artist, when solicited by M. Didron to sell "cette bible de son art," naively refused, on the simple ground that "s'il se dépouillait de ce livre, il ne pourrait plus rien faire; en perdaut son Guide, il perdait son art, il perdait ses yeux et ses mains" (ib. p. xxiii.). It was not till the fifteenth century that the painters of Italy shook themselves free of the authority of the Latin church in matters of art. The second council of Nice arrogates to the Roman church the authority in such matters still retained by the Greek; "non est imaginum structura pictorum inventio sed ecclesiæ catholicæ probata legislatio et traditio." In Spain, the sacro-pictorial law, under the title ofPictor Christianus, was promulgated, in 1730, by Fray Juan de Ayala, a monk of the order of Mercy; and such subjects are discussed as the shape of the true cross; whether one or two angels should sit on the stone by the sepulchre? and whether the Devil should be drawn with horns and a tail? In the National Gallery of London there is a painting of the Holy Family by Benozzo Gozzoli, and Sir Charles L. Eastlake has permitted me to see a contract between the painter and his employer A.D. 1461, in which every figure is literally "made to order," its attitude bespoke, and its place in the composition distinctly agreed for. One clause, however, contemplates progress, and binds the painter to make the piece his chef-d'oeuvre—"che detta dipentura exceda ogni buona dipintura infino aqui facto per detto Benozzo."

Hence even the most modern embellishments in the temples have an air of remote antiquity. The colours are tempered with gum; and but for their inferiority in drawing the human figure, as compared with the Egyptians, and their defiance of the laws of perspective, their inharmonious tints, coupled with the whiteness of the ground-work, would remind one of similar peculiarities in the paintings in the Thebaid, and the caves of Beni Hassan.

Fa Hian describes in the fourth century precisely the same series of subjects and designs which are delineated in the temples of the present day, and taken from the transformation of Buddha. With hundreds of these, he says, painted in appropriate colours and executed in imitation of life, the king caused both sides of the road to be decorated on the occasion of religious processions.[1]

1:Foe Koue Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 335.

Amongst the most renowned of the Singhalese masters, was the King Detu Tissa, A.D. 330, "a skilful carver, who executed many arduous undertakings in painting, and taught it to his subjects. He modelled a statue of Buddha so exquisitely that he seemed to have been inspired; and for it he made an altar, and gilt an edifice inlaid with ivory."[1] Among the presents sent by the King of Ceylon (A.D. 459) to the Emperor of China, theTsih foo yuen kwei, a chronicle compiled by imperial command, particularises a picture of Buddha.[2] The colours employed in decorating their temples are mixed intempera, as were those used in the ancient paintings in Egypt; the claim of the Singhalese to the priority of invention in the mixture of colours with oil, is adverted to elsewhere.[3]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 242.2: B. li. p. 7.3: See the chapter on the Fine Arts,Vol. I. p. 490.

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxxvii. p. 242.

2: B. li. p. 7.

3: See the chapter on the Fine Arts,Vol. I. p. 490.

Sculpture.—In style Singhalese sculpture was even more conventional and less imaginative than their painting; since the subjects to which it was confined were almost exclusively statues of Buddha[1], and its efforts were mere repetitions of the three orthodox attitudes of the great archetype—sitting, as when in deep meditation, under the sacred Bo-tree;standing, as when exhorting his multitudinous disciples; andreclining, in the enjoyment of the everlasting repose of "nirwana." In each and all of these the details are identical; the length of the ears, the proportions of the arms, fingers, and toes; the colour of the eyes, and the curls of the hair[2] being repeated with wearisome iteration. To suchan extent were these multiplied, and with an adherence so rigid to the same recognised models, that theRajavaliventures to ascribe to one king the erection of "seventy-two thousand statues of Buddha," an obvious error[3], but indicative, nevertheless, that the real amount must have been prodigious, in order to obtain credence for the exaggeration. Many other sovereigns are extolled in the national annals, who rendered their reigns illustrious by the multiplicity of statues which they placed in the temples. It was doubtless from this incessant study of one and the same figure, that the artists of Ceylon attained to a facility and superiority in producing statues of Buddha, that rendered them famous throughout the countries of Asia, in which his religion prevailed. The early historians of China speak in raptures of works of this kind, obtained from Singhalese sculptors in the fourth and fifth centuries; they were eagerly sought after by all the surrounding nations; and one peculiarity in their execution consisted in so treating the features, that "on standing at about ten paces distant they appeared truly brilliant, but the lineaments gradually disappeared on a nearer approach."[4]

1: Mention is made of a figure of an elephant (Rajavali, p. 242), and of a horse (Mahawanso, ch. xxxix. TURNOUR'S manuscript translation), and a carved bull as amongst the ruins of Anarajapoora.2: M. ABEL REMUSAT has devoted a section of hisMelanges Asiatiques, 1825; vol. i. p. 100, to combating the conjecture of Sir W. JONES in his third Dissertation on the Hindus, drawn from the curled or rather the woolly hair represented in his statues, that Buddha drew his descent from an African origin. (Works, vol. i. p, 12.) Another ground for Sir. W. JONES'S conjecture was thelarge earswhich are usually characteristic of the statues of Buddha. But it is curious that one of the peculiar features ascribed to the Singhalese by the early Greek writers was the possession of pendulous ears, possibly occasioned by their heavy ear-rings.3:Rajavali, p. 255. Most of these were built of terra-cotta and cement covered with chunam, preparatory to being painted. Seep. 478.4:Wei shoo, a "History of the Wei Tartar Dynasty," written A.D. 590. B. cxiv. p. 9.

1: Mention is made of a figure of an elephant (Rajavali, p. 242), and of a horse (Mahawanso, ch. xxxix. TURNOUR'S manuscript translation), and a carved bull as amongst the ruins of Anarajapoora.

2: M. ABEL REMUSAT has devoted a section of hisMelanges Asiatiques, 1825; vol. i. p. 100, to combating the conjecture of Sir W. JONES in his third Dissertation on the Hindus, drawn from the curled or rather the woolly hair represented in his statues, that Buddha drew his descent from an African origin. (Works, vol. i. p, 12.) Another ground for Sir. W. JONES'S conjecture was thelarge earswhich are usually characteristic of the statues of Buddha. But it is curious that one of the peculiar features ascribed to the Singhalese by the early Greek writers was the possession of pendulous ears, possibly occasioned by their heavy ear-rings.

3:Rajavali, p. 255. Most of these were built of terra-cotta and cement covered with chunam, preparatory to being painted. Seep. 478.

4:Wei shoo, a "History of the Wei Tartar Dynasty," written A.D. 590. B. cxiv. p. 9.

The labours of the sculptor and painter were combined in producing these images of Buddha, which are always coloured in imitation of life, each tint of his complexion and hair being in religious conformity with divine authority, and the ceremony of "painting of the eyes,"[1] is always observed by the devout Buddhists as a solemn festival.

1:Mahawanso, ch. lxxii.; UPHAM'S version, vol. i. p. 275.

Many of the works which were thus executed were either golden[1] or gilt, with brilliants inserted in theeyes, and the draperies enriched with jewels.[2] Fa Hian in the fourth century, speaks of a figure of Buddha upwards of twenty-three feet in height, formed out of blue jasper, and set with precious stones, that sparkled with singular splendour, and which bore in its right hand a pearl of priceless value.[3] This may possibly have been the statue of which theMahawansospeaks in like terms of admiration: "the eye formed by a jewel from the royal head-dress, each curl of the hair by a sapphire, and the lock in the centre of the forehead by threads of gold."[4]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxx. pp. 180, 182;Rajaratnacari, pp. 47, 48;Rajavali, p. 237.2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 258.3: "Parmi toutes les choses précieuses qu'on y voit, il y a une image de jaspe bleu haute de deuxtchang: tout son corps est formé des sept choses précieuses; elle est étincellante de splendeur et plus majestueuse qu'on ne saurait l'exprimer. Dans la main droite elle tient une perle d'un prix inestimable."—Foe Koue Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 333.4: A.D. 459.Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 258. Another statue of gold, with the features and members appropriately coloured in gems, is spoken of in the second century B.C. (Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 180.)

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxx. pp. 180, 182;Rajaratnacari, pp. 47, 48;Rajavali, p. 237.

2:Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 258.

3: "Parmi toutes les choses précieuses qu'on y voit, il y a une image de jaspe bleu haute de deuxtchang: tout son corps est formé des sept choses précieuses; elle est étincellante de splendeur et plus majestueuse qu'on ne saurait l'exprimer. Dans la main droite elle tient une perle d'un prix inestimable."—Foe Koue Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 333.

4: A.D. 459.Mahawanso, ch. xxxviii. p. 258. Another statue of gold, with the features and members appropriately coloured in gems, is spoken of in the second century B.C. (Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 180.)

Ivory also and sandal-wood[1], as well as copper and bronze, served as materials for statues; but granite was the substance most generally selected, except in the rare instances where the temple and the statue together were hewn out of the living rock, on which occasions gneiss was most generally selected. Such are the statues at Pollanarrua, at Mihintala, and at the Aukana Wihara, near Wijittapoora. A still more common expedient, which is employed to the present time, was to form the figures of Buddha with pieces of burnt clay joined together by cement; and coated with highly polished chunam, in order to prepare the surface for the painter. In this manner were most probably produced the "seventy-two thousand statues" ascribed to Mihindo V.

1:Rajaratnacari, p. 72.

Figures of elephants were similarly formed at an early period.[1] An image of Buddha so composed in the 12th century, is still standing at Pollanarrua[2], and everytemple has one or more effigies, either sedent, erect, or recumbent, carefully modelled in cemented clay, and coloured after life.

1: A.D. 432.Rajaratnacari, p. 74.2: Possibly the "standing figure of Buddha" mentioned in theRajavali, p. 253.

1: A.D. 432.Rajaratnacari, p. 74.

2: Possibly the "standing figure of Buddha" mentioned in theRajavali, p. 253.

Architecture.—In Ceylon, as in Egypt, Assyria, and India, the ruins which survive to attest the character of ancient architecture are exclusively sacred, with the exception of occasional traces of the residences of theocratic royalty; but everything has perished which could have afforded an idea of the dwellings and domestic architecture of the people. The cause of this is to be traced in the perishable nature of the sun-dried clay, of which the walls of the latter were composed. Added to this, in Ceylon there were the pride of rank and the pretensions of the priesthood, which, whilst they led to lavish expenditure of the wealth of the kingdom upon palaces and monuments, and the employment of stone in the erection of temples[1] and monasteries, forbade the people to construct their dwellings of any other material than sun-baked earth.[2] This practice continued to the latest period; and nothing struck the British army of occupation with more surprise on entering the city of Kandy, after its capture in 1815, than to find the palaces and temples alone constructed of stone, whilst the streets and private houses were formed of mud and thatch.

1:Rajaratnacari, pp. 78, 79.2:Rajavali, p. 222.

1:Rajaratnacari, pp. 78, 79.

2:Rajavali, p. 222.

Though stone is abundant in Ceylon, it was but sparingly used in the ancient buildings. Squared stones[1] were occasionally employed, but large slabs seldom occur, except in the foundations of dagobas. The vast quantity of material required for such structures, the cost of quarrying and carriage, and the want of mechanical aids to raise ponderous blocks into position, naturally led to the substitution of bricks for the upper portion of the superstructure.

1:Rajavali, p. 210; VALENTYN,Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, ch. iii. p. 45.

There is evidence to show that wedges were employedin detaching the blocks in the quarry, and the amount of labour devoted to the preparation of those in which strength, irrespective of ornament, was essential, is shown in the remains of the sixteen hundred undressed pillars[1] which supported the Brazen Palace at Anarajapoora, and in the eighteen hundred stone steps, many of them exceeding ten feet in length, which led from the base of the mountain to the very summit of Mihintala. A single piece of granite lies at Anarajapoora hollowed into an "elephant trough," with ornamental pilasters, which measures ten feet in length by six wide and two deep; and amongst the ruins of Pollanarrua a still more remarkable slab, twenty-five feet in length by six broad and two feet thick, bears an inscription of the twelfth century, which records that it was brought from a distance of more than thirty miles.

1: TheRajavalistates that these rough pillars were originally covered with copper, p. 222.

COLUMN AT ANARAJAPOORA.COLUMN ATANARAJAPOORA.

COLUMN ATANARAJAPOORA.

The majority of the columns at Anarajapoora are of dressed stone, octangular and of extremely graceful proportions. They were used in profusion to form circular colonnades around the principal dagobas, and the vast numbers which still remain upright, are one of the peculiar characteristics of the place, and justify the expression of Knox, when, speaking of similar groups elsewhere, he calls them a "world of hewn stone pillars."[1]

1: Knox,Relation, vol. v. pt. iv. ch. ii. p. 165.

Allusions in theMahawansoshow that extreme care was taken in the preparation of bricks for the dagobas.[1] Major SKINNER, whose official duties as engineer to the government have rendered him familiar with all parts of Ceylon, assures me that the bricks inevery ruin he has seen, including the dagobas at Anarajapoora, Bintenne, and Pollanarrua, have been fired with so much skill that exposure through successive centuries has but slightly affected their sharpness and consistency.

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxviii. p. 165; ch. xxix. p. 169, &c.

The sand for mortar was "pounded, sifted, and ground on a grinding-stone;"[1] the "cloud-coloured stones,"[2] used to form the immediate receptacle in which a sacred relic was enclosed, were said to have been imported from India; and the "nawanita" clay, in which these were imbedded, was believed to have been brought from the mythical Anotattho lake in the Himalayas.[3]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 175.2: The "cloud-coloured stone" may possibly have been marble, but no traces of marble have been found in the ruins. Diodorus, in describing some of the monuments of Egypt alludes to a "party-coloured" stone, [Greek: lithon poikilon], which likewise remains without identification.—Diodorus, l. i. c. lvii.3:Mahawanso, ch. xxix. p. 169; ch. xxx. p. 179.

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 175.

2: The "cloud-coloured stone" may possibly have been marble, but no traces of marble have been found in the ruins. Diodorus, in describing some of the monuments of Egypt alludes to a "party-coloured" stone, [Greek: lithon poikilon], which likewise remains without identification.—Diodorus, l. i. c. lvii.

3:Mahawanso, ch. xxix. p. 169; ch. xxx. p. 179.

Dagobas.—The process of building the Ruanwellé dagoba is thus minutely described in theMahawanso: "That the structure might endure for ages, a foundation was excavated to the depth of one hundred cubits, and the round stones were trampled by enormous elephants, whose feet were protected by leather cases. Over this the monarch spread the sacred clay, and on it laid the bricks, and over them a coating of astringent cement, above this a layer of sand-stones, and on all a plate of iron. Over this was a large pholika (crystallised stone), then a plate of brass, eight inches thick, embedded in a cement made of the gum of the wood-apple tree, diluted in the water of the small red coco-nut."[1]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxix. p. 169; ch. xxx. p. 178. The internal structure of the Sanchi tope at Bilsah in Central India presents the arrangement here described,the bricks being laid in mud, but externally it is faced with dressed stone.

The shape of these huge mounds of masonry was originally hemispherical, being that best calculated to prevent the growth of grass or other weeds on objects sosacred. Dutugaimumi, according to theMahawanso, when about to build the Ruanwellé dagoba, consulted a mason as to the most suitable form, who, "filling a golden dish with water, and taking some in the palm of his hand, caused a bubble in the form of a coral bead to rise on the surface; and he replied to the king, 'In this form will I construct it.'"[1]

1:Mahawanso, ch. xxx. p. 175. This legend as to the origin of the semicircular form of the dagoba is at variance with the conjecture of Major FORBES, that these vast structures were merely an advance on the mounds of earth similar to the barrow of Halyattes, which in the progress of the constructive arts, came to be converted into brickwork.—Eleven Years in Ceylon, v. i. p. 222.

Two dagobas at Anarajapoora, the Abay-a-giri and Jeyta-wana-rama, still retain their original outline,—the Ruanwellé, from age and decay, has partly lost it,—and the Thupa-ramaya is flattened on the top as if suddenly brought to a close, and the Lanka-ramaya is shaped like a bell.

Monasteries and Wiharas.—According to the annals of Ceylon the construction of dwellings for the devotees of Buddha preceded the erection of temples for his worship. Originally the anchorite selected a cave or some shelter in the forest as his place of repose or meditation.[1] In theRajavaliDevenipiatissa is said to have "caused caverns to be cut in the solid rock at the sacred place of Mihintala;"[2] and these are the earliest residences for the higher orders of the priesthood in Ceylon, of which a record has been preserved. A less costly substitute was found in the erection of detached huts of the rudest construction, in winch may be traced the embryo of the Buddhist monastery; and the king Walagambahu was the first, B.C. 89, to gather these scattered residences into groups and "build wiharas in unbroken ranges, conceiving that thus their repairs would be more easily effected."[3]

1:Mahawansoc. xxx. p. 174.2:Rajavali, p. 184.3:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii. p. 207.

1:Mahawansoc. xxx. p. 174.

2:Rajavali, p. 184.

3:Mahawanso, ch. xxxiii. p. 207.

Simplicity and retirement were at all times the characteristics of these retreats, which rarely aspired to architectural display; and the only recorded instance of extravagance in this particular was the "Brazen Palace" at Anarajapoora, with its sixteen hundred columns; an edifice which, though nominally a dwelling for the priesthood, appears to have been in reality a vast suite of halls for their assemblies and festivals, and a sanctuary for the safe custody of their jewels and treasure.[1]

1:Mahawanso, ch, xxvii. p. 103. Like the "nine-storied" pagodas of China, the palace of "the Lowa Maya Paya" was originallynine storiesin height, and Fergusson, from the analogy of Buddhist buildings in other countries, supposes that these diminished in succession as the building arose, till the outline of the whole assumed the form of a pyramid.(Handbook of Architecture, b. i. ch. iii. p. 44.) In this he is undoubtedly correct, and a building still existing, though in ruins, at Pollanarrua, and known as theSat-mal-pasado, or the"seven-storied palace," probably built by Prakrama, about the year 1170, serves to support his conjecture. See a description of it, part x. ch. i, vol. ii.

Allusions are occasionally made to other edifices more or less fantastic in their design and structure, such as "an apartment built on a single pillar,"[1] a "house of an octangular form," built in the 12th century[2], and another of an "oval," shape[3], erected by Prakrama I.

1: B.C. 504,Mahawanso, ch. ix, p. 56; ch. lxxii. UPHAM'S version, p. 274.2:Rajaratnacari, p. 105.3:Mahawanso, ch. lxxii, UPHAM'S version, p. 274.

1: B.C. 504,Mahawanso, ch. ix, p. 56; ch. lxxii. UPHAM'S version, p. 274.

2:Rajaratnacari, p. 105.

3:Mahawanso, ch. lxxii, UPHAM'S version, p. 274.

Palaces.—The royal residences as they were first constructed, must have consisted of very few chambers, since mention is made in theMahawansoof the earliest, which contained "many apartments," having been built by Pandukábhaya, B.C. 437.[1] But within two centuries afterwards, Dutugaimunu conceived the magnificent idea of the Loha Pasada, with its quadrangle one hundred cubits square, and a thousand dormitories with ornamental windows.[2] This palace was in its turn surpassed by the castle of Prakrama I. at Pollanarrua, which, according to theMahawanso, "was seven stories high, consisting of five thousand rooms, linedwith hundreds of stone columns, and outer halls of an oval shape, with large and small gates, staircases, and glittering walls."[3]

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