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FIG. 87. Pillars at Wāhalkada, Jētavana Dāgaba.

To face p. 310.

COLLEGE LIBRARY

tenacious clay. No relic-chamber was discovered.1 A later excavation made by Mr. Bell showed the foundations to be 26 feet deep, in brickwork, underneath which was concrete. This was at the periphery.2

THE LANKARĀMA DAGABA

In addition to the Abhaya-giri it is recorded in the Mahāvansa (i, p. 132) that King Waṭṭa-Gāmiņi also built a dagaba to the north of the Ruwanwaeli' on an eminent place [that is, eminence] which was named Sila-Sobbha-Kandaka.' The only other dagaba of any importance, now termed the Lankārāma dāgaba, to the north-west of the Ruwanwaeli dāgaba, appears to be the work in question. It seems to have been held in less estimation than the other great structures of the kind, and if it is again mentioned in the histories the monastery at which it was erected was known as the Manisōma wihāra, or Sōmārāma, which the same king is stated to have built. (Mah., i, P. 131).

We find the Maṇisōma wihāra mentioned with the Thūpārāma, Miriswaeți, and Dakkhiņa monasteries, this connection. indicating that all were at Anuradhapura. Kaniṭṭha-Tissa is said to have constructed an 'edifice' over the Manisōma dāgaba (Mah., i, p. 143), and Meghavanṇābhaya I (254-267 A.D.) made some repairs at this 'edifice.'

The length and width of the bricks used in the dome of the Lankārāma dāgaba shows that they are pre-Christian, notwithstanding their reduced thickness. Their length is 17.37 inches, the width is 8-94 inches, and the thickness is 2.62 inches; Bt. is 23.4, and the volume becomes 407 cubic inches.

It is possible that the original shape of this dāgaba differed from that of nearly all the other early dagabas in Ceylon, but resembled some early Indian works. In its present state the dome is a segment of a hemisphere 38 feet wide at the point where it leaves the upper cylinder of the three on which it rests, above which it rises 15 feet to the tee. This cylinder, 4

1 Manual of the North-central Province, by R. W. Ievers, 1899, p. 238.

2 Annual Report for 1894, p. 2.

feet high, is no wider than the dome, and thus does not form a ledge round it as in the other early works, but is in reality a continuation of the dome, with a vertical side. Of the other two cylinders the lowest one is 44 feet 2 inches in diameter and 3 feet 8 inches high, and the middle one 40 feet wide and 4 feet 1 inch high.

The tee was 9 feet 8 inches square without the plinth, and like the others was probably originally faced with post-and-rail work, although in an illustration taken from a photograph, in Fergusson's History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, published in 1876 (p. 194), it is shown with only two pilasters. at each side of the face and a circular sun emblem in the centre. If its width then was the same as when Mr. Smither measured it in 1877 its total height was some 8 feet. It is not known if the spire had a chatta. As the dagaba is only twice mentioned after its erection the omission of the historians to refer to such a terminal cannot be taken to prove that it had not this usual ornament, which was also a magical protection from evil. The height of the dāgaba was found by Mr. Smither to be 33 feet 7 inches; he thought it may have been more than 50 feet when complete.

Like the Thūpārāma dāgaba and the Ambatthala dāgaba at Mihintale, this work is surrounded by disengaged thin graceful monolithic pillars, with separate ornamental capitals. While the Thūpārāma dāgaba had four rows of them that at the Lankārāma had only three. The inner row consisted of 20, square at the lower part and octagonal above, each 16 feet 8 inches high; the middle row had 28 similar pillars, 16 feet 11 inches high, their tops being on a level with those of the inner line, on account of a drop in the flooring; and the outer row 40 octagonal pillars, 12 feet 5 inches high. All measure from 11 to 12 inches across, and they have a general resemblance to those at the Thūpārāma, but they have no tenons at the top. The animals carved on the capitals are horned lions in the inner row, sitting lions in the middle one, and dwarfs in the outer row, some of them playing flutes while others dance.

Although Mr. Smither knew of only the three above

mentioned structures surrounded by stone pillars, there may be a few others in Ceylon, but they are undoubtedly rare. It is possible that some may have had wooden pillars.

THE DAKUNU DĀGABA

There was only one other monastery in Anuradhapura at which a dagaba of considerable size was built at an early date. This was the Dakuņu or Dakkhiņa wihāra, whose dāgaba lay at the southern extremity of a curved north and south line passing from the Abhaya-giri, at the northern end, by the Thūpārāma, and Ruwanwaeli dagabas. Until Mr. Bell's excavations disclosed its real character it was merely a high tumulus-like mound completely overgrown with bushes and trees, and popularly supposed to mark the grave of the Tamil king Elāra, who was killed by Duṭṭha-Gāmiņi at the capture of the city; although the Mahāvansa (i, p. 99) says clearly enough that he was cremated and a tomb was built over his ashes at the spot where he fell ' near the southern gate of the city,' the position of which has been already pointed out.

The account of the construction of the monastery is contained in the following words (Mah., i, p. 132), 'Of the eight warriors [chiefs of Waṭṭa-Gāmiņi] the one named Uttiya built to the southward of the town the wihara called Dakkhiņa wihāra.' This statement is repeated in the Dipavansa (p. 210); and it will be observed that the erection of the dăgaba is not alluded to; but this does not prove that it was not built then, as these two histories similarly do not record the building of the much more important Jētavana dāgaba.

Kaniṭṭha-Tissa (165-193 A.D.) is stated (Mah., i, p. 143) to have constructed a covering for this dagaba; but in the Dipavansa he is said to have built the dāgaba. There is thus an element of doubt as to the exact age of the structure, which one would rather expect to have been erected when the wihāra was established.

The other references to it are found in the Mahāvansa. King Võhāraka-Tissa (215-237 A.D.) is recorded to have caused the

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