Page images
PDF
EPUB

The most interesting of all the caves is to be found in the third or most southerly group of rocks. It is spacious, and the lintel and doorposts still stand in position, resembling those left at the Gal-gé. The heaps of bricks, worn and tumbled, on each side, show where the outer wall stood. That it is now tenanted by innumerable bats at least one sense testifies.

The inscription shows it to have been the "Cave of Kuma, son of the Chief Tisa." This is cut at a higher level than the entrance, and is found above a sort of fault or shaft on one side, down which air and a feeble glint of light may have reached the occupant.

Vessagiriya is one of the last of the great monasteries to be excavated completely. In the Report of the Archæological Survey published in 1914 we read a full account of it, and gather the extent of its power in the days when its grounds reached up to Isurumuniya and the bund of Tissa-Wewa.

CHAPTER VII

PAVILION, PALACE, OR MONASTERY?

LYING west of Anuradhapura is a galaxy of buildings of supreme interest whose use and design have puzzled the most experienced heads; they are likely to remain an insoluble problem unless fresh evidence is forthcoming.

There are no less than fourteen similar groups of buildings so far excavated, strung out along the Outer Circular Road and the Arripu Road, which cuts it as the arrow bisects the bow. These are built on a plan differing entirely from the usual five-of-cards type of monastery so often exemplified. The characters which distinguish them reappear in all, and the differences are in minor points. One marked similarity is that they are all built, apparently of set purpose, on rocky sites, and the rock, wherever possible, is worked into the building, allowed for, and adapted. The plan of all is of two buildings, or platforms, an outer and an inner, built with geometrical exactitude and linked by a stone of such dimensions and so ponderous that the wonder is how it was ever placed where it is. This crosses a chasm, or moat, which surrounds the inner building, but its weight precluded its having been anything in

the nature of a drawbridge, for in some instances it amounts to over thirty tons.

The outer building is entered by a porch, and gives no evidence of ever having had any pillars, whereas the inner one in every case has been plentifully supplied with pillars, many of which, as stumps or complete, remain.

The "bridge stone has a short flight of steps ascending to it on both sides, and the threshold of the inner building is paved by a large flat stone, in which the grooves cut for the door-sockets are conspicuous. All the buildings are distinguished by a notable plainness; with one or two small exceptions, noted hereafter, there is nothing in the nature of ornament to be found on them.

There are outbuildings in various positions fitted into the general plan as the character of the ground allows; they generally surround the twin central block, and in some cases the remains of an ambulatory or covered walk can be traced as well.

The drive along the Outer Circular Road is an easy one. The first group of ruins passed is not of very great interest; by far the best specimens are to be seen near the junction of the Arippu and Outer Circular Roads or in the former. It is therefore advisable to turn at once down the leafy arch of this deserted route, and explore the Blocks numbered A and B by the Survey. Block A is of particular interest, for here in February, 1913, under the superintendence of Mr. Perera, of the Archæological Survey, there were excavated by the coolies two tiny gold images of the sedent Buddha one of solid bronze coated with gold,

[graphic][merged small][merged small]
[graphic][merged small][merged small]
« PreviousContinue »