CHAPTER IV

LANKARAMA DISTRICT: A WORLD OF MONKS

STARTING from Thuparama, a long road runs northward and finally bifurcates, one branch going to Jetawanarama and the other to Lankarama and neighbourhood. This is appropriately named the Y Road. The first part of it is not interesting; it is lined by plantain plantations and the only ruin is a small Hindu temple about half-way up on the west.

By the western branch Lankarama is soon reached. This small dilapidated dagaba is surrounded by tall slender pillars much like those of Thuparama, but only in three circles. They vary from 12 feet to 16 feet 8 inches in height. If they are examined, they will be seen to be all carved in one block, capital and column hewn together. A line of decoration runs round the head of the shaft, in the form of a looped and tasselled design, falling to a depth of 6 or 8 inches, and varying a little so as to become in some cases exactly like a fleur-de-lys. Above this rise the capitals showing bands of jovial little dwarfs or quaint lions. Palms and a temple-tree spring from the platform, finding root-hold between the granite blocks, and though destructive of the stonework, they certainly add to the picture as a picture.

"The dagaba, one of the Eight Sacred sites, has for years been allowed to remain in a dilapidated state, completely ruined on the north side where it has collapsed, without any effort on the part of the Buddhists to restore it, though such restoration would involve little expense and no technical difficulty" (1910-11 Report).

The real name of the dagaba is not known, but its sanctity and the fact that it so closely resembles Thuparama lead to the conclusion that it is one of the older buildings of the city.

All around, in its neighbourhood, are the remains of monasteries, besides several headless sedent Buddhas. A very little way beyond Lankarama, on the other side of the road, are many ruins well worth examining. The road curves a little, and just beyond the curve crosses a deep channel known in Cingalese as an ela, which is dry. At this point it is advisable, if driving, to leave any vehicle and send it on to wait at the junction of the Y Road and Outer Circular Road, and then on foot to plunge across the intervening strip of woodland.

Facing the road, plainly in view, are the remains of a large vihara, with well-preserved moulded platform, and a distinguishing mark in two immense upright stone slabs which flank the entrance. Here, what Mr. Bell has aptly described as the "five-of-cards" pattern common to so many of these monasteries may very readily be discerned. It is composed of a central temple or shrine in the middle of an open space, with four small shrines in the corners. The central shrine is usually a pilimagé, or image-house, and

the four smaller ones may be defined as chapels. These are all enclosed by the inner wall of the monastery, and outside lie the piriven, or monks' cells, more or less in number according to the size of the monastery; sometimes there is also a pansala, or refectory, and almost invariably a tank for water supply, with possibly small pokuna for use as rock-hewn baths or cisterns. There may also be in some monasteries a dagaba, and very often a "street," or what was once a covered verandah leading up to a porch. Here and there special distinctive features are found, such as, in this case, these curious upright slabs of stone, which are not quite like anything found elsewhere.

Facing this vihara, a little to the left and behind it, is a low hummock of rock, on the top of which are several incised drawings, a man fighting, an elephant, and some diagrams that look like geometrical illustrations, but may be maps (see p. 120). About an equal distance north of the vihara is a great mound or lump of earth built partly up with brick. This is not a dagaba.

"As there are no further clues to fix the object this commanding building served, it can only be surmised that it was the Priory or Chief Pansala for one or both monasteries, or possibly a House of Meditation common to the whole Sangharama in these western quarters." (1911-12 Report.)

At the back of it, behind another outcrop of rock, is a deeply cut bath with a little dressing

room.

To wander through these woods in the early morning, hearing the deep throaty song of birds and the soft coo of the wood pigeon is pleasant enough. The undergrowth is so cleared as to make walking easy, and the ground is softened by the thick leaves of a little plant resembling wood anemone. The curious rock hummocks add mystery to the scene, suggesting witches and gnomes and dwarfs; the innumerable ruins and bits of carving gleaming in the sunlight or flecked by shadow carry the mind back into the romance of history. Troops of monkeys disturbed in feeding glide up tree-trunks like wraiths. You turn, thinking they are all gone, but there are always a few more vanishing into space! Away to the west are two great tanks, of the pattern generally found in the vicinity of any large monastery. Many outlying ruins claim attention, and in the midst is the straight "street," or alley, a characteristic feature of many of the monasteries, with the entrance porch still standing, facing the Outer Circular Road. Parallel with this alley lies the chief rock hummock, like the back of a stranded whale. It is called Gal-gé, "stone-house," for beneath its shadow, uncountable years ago, a solitary monk lived. Just outside the doorway of the hermit's cave in the west side, when I saw it, great bushes of the cassia alata were in flower. The picture lacked no touch to perfect it. The royal orange-red blossoms crowned the feathery fronds, rearing themselves against the black rock. The door-posts and lintel stand square beneath the curve of the overhanging rock, and an immense tree with its roots tightly

clamped to the bare surface of the granite, throws down a deep shade. A cursory glance shows that the little apartment was once provided with a facing wall on each side of the door and was divided into three cells. Clear of the plants, a rock-cut bath or cistern, not twenty yards away, shows whence the necessary supply of water was drawn.

It is impossible to imagine anything more peaceful and remote than this little cell nestling in the shadow of the rocks. These rock dwellings seem to have exercised a great fascination on the monkish mind; all over they are found, the best specimens in this neighbourhood being here, and at Vessagiriya three miles southward, where there is an almost exactly similar lintel (see p. 126). Gal-gé "is the longest and most northerly of these rock hummocks, very similar in shape, and of little width, which all rise sharply and stretch out as part of that ridge outcrop, the line of which (continued intermittently north and for miles southward) may be followed through Basawakkulam Tank and the Mirisaveti rocks." (1911-12 Report.)

Passing round the end of Gal-gé, and continuing beside a small portico to the road, we see that its outer wall is decorated by a frieze of elephants in relief, somewhat in the same style as that encompassing the platform at Ruanweli. Just behind it is a small vihara, of which the chief point to notice is that the guard-stones have a carved canopy like that at the Elephant Stables, and Nakha vehera (pp. 96, 110).

At the junction of the Y Road and Outer Circular Road are twin ponds, called the Tammet