The Tham Vessantara-jAtaka - Khamkoo

oyal father had fallen into decay. The two-storied temple was roofed with a graceful
roof. The king even made thirty-two JAtaka stories, including VJ, depicted in coloured
painting on the two walls of the courtyard. 35 It is said that the number 32 corresponds
with the 32 auspicious marks of the Buddha described in the Lakkhana-sutta of the
DIgha-nikAya and further with the 32 kinds of food offered to the Sacred Relic daily at
the temple of the tooth-relic in Kandy. 36 Except at Dambulla, where the fight between
DuTThagAminI and Elara had been painted, almost all mural paintings have been
confined either to events associated with the Buddha or to the JAtaka stories. 37 The VJ
mural painting was displayed on the facing walls of the verandah of the Naga
Vimanaya. Within the VihAra are sedent Buddha images and two standing images
facing each other, on the sidewalls within, all painted in sober colours. 38
The favourite subject of painting of all Kandyan artists is the JAtakas, which
supply also the major themes for this particular group of murals from the Tivanga
vestibule. 39 Paranavitana states that “The subjects painted by Kandyan artists have
much in common with those of earlier masters. The representations of JAtaka stories
were as popular then as at any other epoch in the history of Buddhism.” 40
The VJ was a theme which almost every sponsor desired to be painted on the
walls of new shrines. 41 A section of a detailed illustration of the Vessantara- jAtaka is
popular in all Kandyan painting. The Degaldoruva murals are considered to be the
35
CuLLavaMsa, pp. 39-44.
36
Seneviratna, The Temple of The Sacred tooth Relic, pp. 81-82.
37
Nanayakhara, The Temple of Kelaniya, p. 105.
38
Lloyd Weerekoon, Raja MahA VihAra of Kandy, p. 73.
39 Gunasinghe, An album of Buddhist paintings from Sri Lanka, pp. 9-11. See also Chutiwongs,
Prematileke & Paintings of Sri Lanka, GaNgArAma, Intro. p. 35.
40
Ceylon Paintings from Temple, Shrine and Rock, p. 28.
41
Ibid.
52