DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27191#0263
Chap. VIII.
CEYLON.
227
When Fah Hian, for instance, visited the island in A.D. 412-413,
he describes an accompaniment to the procession of the Tooth
relic as follows : “ The king next causes to be placed on both
sides of the road representations of the 500 bodily forms which
the Bodhisattwa assumed during his successive births”—the
jatakas in fact. “These figures,” he adds, “are all beautifully
painted in divers colours, and have a very life-like appear-
ance.” 1 It was not that they could not sculpture in stone, for,
as we shall presently see, some of their carvings are of great
delicacy and cleverness of execution, but they seem to have
preferred colour to the more permanent forms of representa-
tion. Early figures of the Buddha are comparatively few:
possibly they were destroyed by the Tamil invaders; still the
excavations of the last thirty years have brought to light
quite a considerable number of various ages. On the embank-
ments of many tanks there are slabs carved with five or seven
headed serpents, which may be of any age, and at the foot of
every important flight of steps there are two dwarpals or door-
keepers with this strange appendage, and attached to each of
the chapels of the Abhayagiri dagaba are figures of a great
Naga. These may be regarded as an evidence of the early
prevalence of the worship of serpents in the island.
Another peculiarity of the Ceylonese monuments is their
situation in the two capitals of the island, for, it will have
been observed, none of the remains of Buddhist architecture
described in the previous chapters are found in the great
capital cities of the Empire. They are detached monuments,
spared by accident in some distant corner of the land, or
rock - cut examples found in remote and secluded valleys.
The Buddhist Palibothra has entirely perished—so has Nravasti
and Vahrali; and it is with difficulty we can identify Kapila-
vastu, Kusinara, and other famous cities, whose magnificent
monasteries and stupas are described by the Chinese travellers
in the 5th or 7th century of our era. In a great measure
this may be owing to their having been built of brick and
wood ; and, in that climate, vegetation is singularly destructive
of the first, and insects and decay of the second. But much
is also due to the country having been densely peopled ever
since the disappearance of the Buddhists. It may also be
remarked that the people inhabiting the plains of Bengal
since the extinction of Buddhism were either followers of the
Brahmanical or Muhammadan religions—both inimical to them,
or, at least, having no respect for their remains.
1 Beal, ‘Buddhist Pilgrims,’ p. 157; or * Buddhist Records,’ vol. i., introd. pp.
lxxv., Ixxvi.
CEYLON.
227
When Fah Hian, for instance, visited the island in A.D. 412-413,
he describes an accompaniment to the procession of the Tooth
relic as follows : “ The king next causes to be placed on both
sides of the road representations of the 500 bodily forms which
the Bodhisattwa assumed during his successive births”—the
jatakas in fact. “These figures,” he adds, “are all beautifully
painted in divers colours, and have a very life-like appear-
ance.” 1 It was not that they could not sculpture in stone, for,
as we shall presently see, some of their carvings are of great
delicacy and cleverness of execution, but they seem to have
preferred colour to the more permanent forms of representa-
tion. Early figures of the Buddha are comparatively few:
possibly they were destroyed by the Tamil invaders; still the
excavations of the last thirty years have brought to light
quite a considerable number of various ages. On the embank-
ments of many tanks there are slabs carved with five or seven
headed serpents, which may be of any age, and at the foot of
every important flight of steps there are two dwarpals or door-
keepers with this strange appendage, and attached to each of
the chapels of the Abhayagiri dagaba are figures of a great
Naga. These may be regarded as an evidence of the early
prevalence of the worship of serpents in the island.
Another peculiarity of the Ceylonese monuments is their
situation in the two capitals of the island, for, it will have
been observed, none of the remains of Buddhist architecture
described in the previous chapters are found in the great
capital cities of the Empire. They are detached monuments,
spared by accident in some distant corner of the land, or
rock - cut examples found in remote and secluded valleys.
The Buddhist Palibothra has entirely perished—so has Nravasti
and Vahrali; and it is with difficulty we can identify Kapila-
vastu, Kusinara, and other famous cities, whose magnificent
monasteries and stupas are described by the Chinese travellers
in the 5th or 7th century of our era. In a great measure
this may be owing to their having been built of brick and
wood ; and, in that climate, vegetation is singularly destructive
of the first, and insects and decay of the second. But much
is also due to the country having been densely peopled ever
since the disappearance of the Buddhists. It may also be
remarked that the people inhabiting the plains of Bengal
since the extinction of Buddhism were either followers of the
Brahmanical or Muhammadan religions—both inimical to them,
or, at least, having no respect for their remains.
1 Beal, ‘Buddhist Pilgrims,’ p. 157; or * Buddhist Records,’ vol. i., introd. pp.
lxxv., Ixxvi.