Ruanweli. It was built by Parakrama's second queen between 1154-86 (see p. 243). It is mentioned as the great golden stupa " because it was topped by a golden " umbrella." The circumference at the base is 555 feet; the original height was 180 feet. In 1885 the first effort was made to clear out the trees which were tearing to pieces the brickwork, and in 1905-6 the effort was repeated and carried further. The work of eradication proved very heavy, and was attended with no little risk. Some of the roots were as thick as a man's thigh, while the high walls of brickwork outlining some of the shrines or chapels were too insecure to permit of strong blows with full-sized axes. The pinnacle on its square base at the top has been preserved, and shows up above the jungle from miles off, appearing from the far end of the great tank in surprising fashion. Vegetation has now once again clothed the dagaba, but will not be allowed to attain dangerous dimensions.

To the north lies an immense field or open space showing the former extent of the attached monastery, and at the end towers the imposing mass of the ruined temple of Jetawanarama. The principal ruin, Baddha-sima-prasada, the "House of the Elder," is a fine building with four stair-entrances furnished with moonstones, the design of which runs mainly on the same lines as that described at the Wata-dagé; but there is an exception, for on that at the southern entrance is an additional belt, representing lions, which appears within the line of geese, or hansas. This seems to be the only exception to the recognised fashion

in Polonnaruwa. The building itself rose from a basement of unusual size, and the outer walls were pierced by lancet-shaped windows. The pillars remaining are plain. The interior walls show signs of having been coloured in panels. At the north-east corner of the terrace were three splendid wells, or cisterns, affording a capital water storage.

"He [Parakrama Bahu] caused a stately house of three storeys to be built for the Elder there, with halls of exceeding great beauty and many rooms of great splendour, and adorned with a roof of pinnacles."

Even in its ruin it still retains the quality of stateliness. The imposing red mass of Jetawanarama overlooks this great space of ruins which suggests a battlefield. The temple is 170 feet long, and, seen from the east, where the whole length of the aisle, up to the stupendous headless figure of Buddha at the end, can be seen in a vista, it suggests one of the venerable roofless abbeys of England.

Jetawanarama seems to have been a generic name for monasteries, and it is odd that it should here and there, as in this case and at Anuradhapura, have become attached to one particular building. An inscription on a slab at the front entrance calls it "Lanka-tilaka," which brings to memory the lines in the Mahawansa : "He [Parakrama] made there the standing image of Buddha of the full size, which was delightsome to behold, and called it Lanka-tilaka."

The Mahawansa also records: "He built the great vihara called Jetavana as if he displayed before men's eyes the magnificence of Jetavana [Buddha's

chief residence]." The temple was thoroughly restored by Wijaya Bahu IV (A.D. 1275). It is supposed to have been built originally on the model of that designed by Buddha himself at Kapilavastu, hence the reference above. The main entrance is reached by broad sets of steps, of three each, separated from each other by an intervening space. Each set has its own guardian stones. The risers of the steps are carved with ganas, but the guard-stones themselves show warders with only seven hoods, which seem to have been the height of fashion here, while at Anuradhapura nothing short of a nine-hooded guardian would be considered dignified in so important a position. Peculiarly interesting are the outer faces of the balustrades, with the huge form of the grotesque lion and the figure of a guard beside him (see p. 224).

When this important ruin was first tackled by the Survey authorities it was in a terrible state, and the interior was filled almost to the tops of the walls with the rubbish which had fallen and the vegetation which had sprung from it. Small wonder that the harassed commissioner in his diary records "the débris seems illimitable"!

The mighty statue of Buddha which occupies the west wall of the shrine, including its pedestal, once reached 44 feet 10 inches, being thereby the tallest statue in Ceylon. It is now headless, but the illustrations in Major Forbes's book (1828) and Sir E. J. Tennent's Ceylon (1860) show a head and face. The feet and ankles were also broken, but have been repaired. The tall octagonal towers which flank the entrance are imposing

even in their ruin. On the southern one is still to be seen a vivacious figure in relief, considerably larger than life.

Of the three similar temples at Polonnaruwa, Thuparama, and Demala, this is the largest.

Just opposite the entrance is a particularly attractive little pavilion, or Mandapaya, in the shape of a raised platform adorned with many pillars. "It stands for one of the most perfect pieces of open lithic structure, extant in Ceylon, so far as regards moulded stereobate and surfacecarved columns."

North of Jetawanarama and close to it is Kiri dagaba, the sister dagaba to Rankot, though much smaller, indeed about half the size in circumference. Kiri means milk-white and the name was given because at one time the whole surface was covered with chunam, which gleamed like marble. Kiri dagaba follows the same lines as Rankot, having altars at the four cardinal points and being surmounted by the same kind of superstructure, though in this case the pinnacle is truncated, being broken at the top. A path trending north and a little west from Kiri dagaba leads to one of the most remarkable sights in Polonnaruwa. This is the Gal-vihara, with its rock-cut statues, famous throughout the Buddhist world.

"This rock-hewn shrine, strictly, Kalugal Vihara or the Black Rock (granite) temple, stands unrivalled as in its special features the most impressive antiquity par excellence to be seen in the island of Ceylon, and possibly not rivalled throughout the continent of India." (1907 Report.)

We come suddenly out in full face of these dark silent figures, so still and yet so strong in their forceful impression, that they tend to startle by the repressed vitality they contain. A gently sloping bulge or outcrop of rock, similar to that from which they are hewn, rises opposite to them; mounting this we have an extended view. There is the colossal figure of Buddha himself, lying prone, the smaller but upright figure of Ananda his disciple at his head, and further to the left, beneath the overhanging roof of its rockcut shrine, the seated figure of Buddha on a pedestal or throne. It is the two first that compel attention and impress no less by their solemnity than their size. The prostrate Buddha measures over 44 feet. This is large for Ceylon, but a mere nothing compared with the gigantic figures of Burma, the largest of which attain to over 100 feet. The wonder is rather why the Cingalese should have so rarely made a statue of Buddha in this attitude, and have contented themselves within such narrow limits. Possibly questions of cost had something to do with it.

Sir George Scott says:1

The popular division of the gautamas is into the classes of standing, sitting and lying. This is somewhat crude, but it is perpetuated by a curious notion that though a man may present all three kinds of images, he must do so in a special order; the standing first, then the sitting and last the lying down."

His remarks of course refer to the custom in

1 The Burman: His Life and Notions, by Shway Yoe. (Mac millan, 1896.)