CHAPTER VIII

VIJAYARAMA-A JUNGLE SOLITUDE

THERE are an increasing number of people who, in reaction from the intense "drive" of modern life and inventions, prefer to strike out, even if ever so little, toward the solitudes. One such solitude, in a small way, may be attained by an excursion to the outlying monastery of Vijayarama. A guide must be taken, as the way is not altogether easy to find, and involves a fair amount of walking.

Choice of routes is abundant, but it is well to start by the Sacred Road and go on by its continuation, the Green Path Road, so as to pick up one or two objects, not yet visited, by the

way.

About half a mile up this road a vista has been cut through the trees to the right, to enable any one to see the ruined mass called Burrows' Brick Building, which has evoked interest altogether disproportionate to its size, because it is built on the same lines as the Royal Palace at Polonnaruwa, though it is much smaller. It is difficult, indeed, for an amateur to make anything of the shapeless pile, overgrown, distorted, and clamped together by the sinuous roots of the trees which have fastened themselves upon it. If they were cut away now the whole of the brick-work would

probably collapse. As it is, it stands in the quiet glade, a monument telling an imperfect story not yet fully deciphered. But it is at all events quite different from anything yet discovered at Anuradhapura. As I stood there, looking at it, my mind ran back to the account of King Dutugemunu in his palace : "While seated on the throne, which was covered with drapery of exquisite value and softness, in the state apartments, lighted up with aromatic oils, and perfumed with every variety of incense, and spread with the richest carpets, attended by musicians and choristers decked; this monarch was pondering over his exalted royal state, and calling to his recollection the sacrifice of countless lives he had occasioned; and peace of mind was denied him."

Near by me a spider, of a kind I had never seen before, had spun an enormous web of a curious shape. It glittered iridescent in the sun, which pierced through the foliage in a lightning shaft. The insect itself was not so large as a two-anna bit. He had a canoe-shaped excrescence at right angles across his back. This was striped black and white and the body beneath was speckled with yellow. Like the monarch, he sat in the midst of his gorgeous palace, though the lives that he had sacrificed did not trouble him! Today or to-morrow he would be no more, swept away with the result of his labour, and though the king had a rather longer lease, yet he too, musing in the midst of his embroideries, had been swept away, leaving only a problematical tree-grown pile to suggest the whereabouts of his palace.

On the subject of this palace Mr. Bell says:

"Everything points to its definite location within the area now lying between the Y Road and Outer Circular Road on the east, or, broadly, between Jetawanarama, Abhaygiri and Thuparama Groups of the Palace itself, unless it be the massive brick structure once storied, still standing-no traces remain above ground and Tamil invaders have left not a stone standing." (1893 Report.)

Mr. Burrows, who had the best opportunity for judging, as he saw it before it became so dilapidated, thinks that the present building may have been erected by King Nissanka Malla on his visit to Anuradhapura at the end of the twelfth century; he judges thus because of its striking resemblance to the palace still standing at Polonnaruwa sometimes attributed to that monarch. It may have been so, and yet on this same site may have stood an earlier palace of the kings of the line of Wijaya. For it is probable that if once used as a royal site, such a tradition would be preserved through the ages and no meaner buildings allowed to encroach on the king's reservation. Major Forbes quotes from an "ancient native account," the name of which he does not give :

"The palace [at Anuradhapura] has immense ranges of building, some of two, others of three storeys in height; and its subterranean apartments are of great extent."

Beyond this to-day we cannot get, the mystery remains a mystery lightened only by vague shafts of conjecture.