FEUDAL CRAFTSMEN

Twenty mul-acari, or blacksmiths, a certain number of whom, varying according to the exigency of the service, attended constantly in Kandy, and erecting workshops near the Disava's house, executed all kinds of common ironwork, for which the metal was furnished them.

Eight blacksmiths without regular service lands such as the foregoing held. These blacksmiths had to appear before the Disava at New Year with a knife and scissors each, and were liable to be called on for work in any time of emergency.

Ten Disava acari, who worked for the Disāva only.

Twenty-two potters, in two divisions, under the orders of officers of the same caste appointed by the Disava. The two divisions undertook turns of duty of one month each in rotation with the potters of other districts, the turns recurring once in ten months. When at home in their own district, they had only to furnish earthenware for the Disāva, for the rest-houses, and for the king or ambassadors if they came to the district.

The following may serve as actual examples of individual craftsmen's tenure :

A goldsmith holding half an acre and owing service to the Gadalādeniya Dēvāle (temple) in Ceylon, had to supply a silver ring for the "festival tree," and repair the golden insignia for use at the

IN CEYLON.

perahera (annual festival and procession); put up and decorate booths on the same occasion; supply a measure of oil for the Kārti festival; and give annually to the two lay officers of the temple, two silver rings each. These services were commutable for Rs. 7.35 (nearly 10s.).

A blacksmith held land of the same extent, his services (commutable for Rs. 5.85) were to give iron utensils for the temple kitchen; work as a blacksmith; clean the palanquin and cressets for the perahera; nail laths; annually present a pair of scissors and an arecanut-slicer; clean the temple yard, and put up and decorate a booth; give a measure of oil for the Kārti festival; and at each of the four annual festivals to present the lay officers with an arecanut-slicer each.

It must be understood that materials (such as iron, charcoal, etc., for the smith, gold for the goldsmith, pigments for the painter), and food (and lodging) were in all such cases provided by the proprietor for the tenant when working away from home, whether at court, at the manor house, or at the temple.

The following is an example of a potter's tenure : A tenant of the Talgahagoda Vihāra (Buddhist temple) held 4 acres of land. His services (commutable for Rs. 10.35) were to give at New Year one piece of pottery; for the ceremony of sprinkling

ROYAL BUILDERS

milk, two pots; one yoke load of pottery on the 15th of the month of Bat; 63 Kārti lamps on the 15th of the month of Il; four pots and four dishes on the 15th of Durutta for the New Rice (Harvest Home) festival; 50 dishes once a year for the monastery; two vases and two jugs to each of the two vihāras; and to tile the two vihāras (when necessary).

For the most part, of course, there was no wage payment of the state craftsmen, for they were otherwise provided for under the admirable land system I have referred to; but in the case of the many religious buildings undertaken by the Sinhalese kings, it was otherwise, as the king in these cases always desired to remunerate the craftsmen himself directly, in order that the meritorious work might be his very own, and not anybody else's. Thus also we read of the builder King Duttha Gāmanī, in the second century B. C., that when setting about the building of a great monastery called the Brazen Palace, that

"The generous Rāja, at the very beginning of the undertaking, laid down eight hundred thousand pieces of money at each of the four gates, and announced that on this occasion it was unfitting to exact unpaid labour; setting, therefore, a value on the work performed, he paid in money."

IN CEYLON.

Nearly all the later kings were builders, too, and it was in the building of Buddhist temples that the State craftsmen were chiefly occupied when the requirements of the court and the armoury had been met. And on all these occasions the craftsmen were liberally and specially rewarded. I wish I could give some adequate idea of the passion for religious building which possessed the Sinhalese kings, and of the way in which this stimulated the production of works of art and craft. Perhaps I shall best do this by quoting from a typical temple charter. At Degaldoruva, in the eighteenth century, the king's younger brother had a cave temple enlarged, and he "caused stone walls to be put up and doors and windows to be set with keys and bars, and an image of Buddha of twelve cubits in length to be made in a reclining posture, and six other images in a sitting posture to be placed at the head and feet of the image, and also caused twenty-four Buddha's images to be depicted on the ceiling and on the walls within and without, and other workmanship and paintings to be made thereon and upon the stone pillars, the roof of the front court to be put up with beams and rafters, and covered with tiles, and on the cross walls thereof a representation of hell and heaven. . and having furnished the

temple with curtains, ceiling cloths, umbrellas, flags, drums, oboes, etc.

His Majesty

ROYAL BUILDERS.

ordered the ceremony of painting the eyes to be performed, and His Majesty also furnished all the necessaries thereto, and having granted much riches in clothes, money and other things to the artificers, the painters and the stone-cutters, His Majesty received merit and was filled with ecstacy."

One other extract is quoted from a sannasa or charter [Gangārāma Vihāra, Kandy]:

"Kirti Sri Rāja Simha

caused a vihāra to be made containing stone walls of thirteen cubits in length, seven in breadth, and eleven in height, surrounded by stone pillars, and above a roof with rafters covered with tiles. Within the walls a stone image of nine cubits in height was made, its robes beautified with painting of vermilion, its different members covered with leaves of gold, painted about with the five colours, and completed after the enshrinement of bodily relics. . In the year of Saka, 1674 (A.D. 1752), of the month Poson, and on Monday, the eighth day of the increase of the moon, under the constellation Hata, eyes were affixed to the image, accompanied with great solemnity, rejoicings and excessive offerings, and the craftsmen were satisfied by appropriate gifts."*

*A. C. Lawrie, "Gazetteer of the Central Province," p. 817 (with verbal alterations).