A visitor to Sri Lanka will not fail to be struck by the remains of an ancient and remarkable civilisation, some aspects of which are described here,by H. A. J. Hulugalle
(February 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The powerful influence exercised by the Buddhist religion over Sri Lanka is particularly clear in what remains of the former capitals, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa. Anuradhapura was originally a village in which Anuradha, one of the followers of Vijaya, the traditional first king of Sri Lanka, lived. Three generations later, Pandukabhaya, who succeeded to the throne, made Anuradhapura his capital in 437 BC, and laid the foundations of a beautiful and large city. The Sri Maha Bodhi at Anuradhapura is the oldest documented tree in the world. It is at least 2,300 years old and is a sapling of the original Bodhi tree in India under which the Buddha attained Enlightenment.
The art of the sculptor during this period was best represented in the carved guardstones and moonstones adorning the flights of steps of monastic buildings. There are six fine examples of moonstones at Anuradhapura, each carved in rock with a conventionalised half lotus in the centre, enclosed by concentric bands (below). As these bands proceed outwards, they are decorated respectively with processions of lions, horses, elephants and bulls, all racing each other, within an outer band of stylised flames. The various elements of the design are skilfully integrated into an effective whole. The motifs which constitute the design are symbolic.
Across the road from the Sri Maha Bodhi are the remains of the Brazen Palace built by King Dutugemunu (161-137 BC). Of this there now remain only the 1,600 monolithic pillars which originally supported a splendid superstructure, the roof of which had bronze tiles. The nine-storeyed building, covering an area of some 50,000 square feet, had 1,000 rooms for monks and other apartments.
Leonard Cottrell, the well-known writer on archaeological subjects, says that the old monuments at Anuradhapura were begun at a time contemporary with the conquests of Alexander the Great, and continued throughout the period of the Roman Empire. ‘Yet even the greatest architectural achievements of the Roman emperors’, he says, ‘cannot compare in size with the finest works of the Sinhalese kings who were their contemporaries. The palaces they built would have made Diocletian’s palace seem a poor thing by comparison; their great dagabas, were sometimes over 300 feet high, and can be compared with the pyramids of Egypt. Their hydraulic engineering has no parallel save in the 19th and 20th centuries; for example the lake at Minneriya, created in the 3rd century AD by Mahasena, had a circumference of twenty miles, and the masonry and earthwork dams which were made to divert the waters of the stream which fills it extend for 80 miles; their average height is 80 feet.’
There is no spot in Sri Lanka that appeals so much to the imagination as Sigiriya. The steep, solitary hill, in the midst of the great central forest, had at its foot a terraced city and on the summit a palace and citadel reached by a brick-built gallery founded on grooves cut in the rock. In design and construction Sigiriya, built in the 5th century AD, was a great engineering feat which compels admiration even today. The oldest and best-preserved examples of Sinhalese painting belonging to this period are to be found on the western face of the Sigiriya rock (above). The figures now preserved are but a small fraction of the magnificent spectacle of many hundreds which once adorned the whole face of the rock.
In later years, Polonnaruwa became the capital of the country. It became famous after King Parakrama Bahu the Great, one of the most renowned and successful kings of the island, succeeded to the throne in AD 1153. The king fortified and enlarged Polonnaruwa, and adorned the city with numerous palaces and pleasure gardens. The most impressive sculptures at Polonnaruwa are the colossal Buddha images carved on the face of a granite boulder at the site now called the Gal Vihare. Of the four images, the recumbent Buddha (right) measures 46 feet from head to foot, and there is also a standing figure 23 feet tall.
In AD 1215 the island was invaded by Magha of Kalinga in North India, who plundered sacred places and destroyed Buddhist books. While he was ruling in Polonnaruwa, a Sinhalese prince named Vijaya Bahu succeeded in expelling the foreigners from a large part of the country. He made his capital at Dambadeniya in the Kurunegala district. From then onwards, the capital of the island moved from place to place Dambadeniya, Yapahuwa, Kurunegala, Gampola, Kotte, Sitawaka, and finally Kandy.
King Parakrama Bahu IV (1412-1467) made his capital at Kotte, now a suburb of Colombo. The first Portuguese appeared on the coasts of Ceylon in 1505 when the Sinhalese rulers were residing at Kotte. The Portuguese were followed by the Dutch and the Dutch in turn by the British. The Kandyan kingdom survived until 1815 when it was overrun by the British.
H. A. J. Hulugalle was the Editor-in-Chief of the Ceylon Daily News, the leading English newspaper in Sri Lanka, and was appointed Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Italy in 1954. This article is excerpted from his book Ceylon Yesterday - Sri Lanka Today (Sture Forlaget AB, Sweden, 1976)
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