The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

372 CEYLON AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
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farther nostril clearly defined. 22 Another interesting
technical aspect is the manner in
which the individual brush-strokes, as in the
painting of the breasts, make a surface pattern
and at the same time reinforce the form.
As has already been noted, the continued
raids by the Tamils of South India finally
forced the abandonment of Anuradhapura in
the eighth century. From 781 to 1290 the capital
& L was located at Polonnaruwa. The ruins are
situated on the beautiful Lake Topawewa in
the deep jungles of north-eastern Ceylon ; there,
rock-cut Parinirvana image nearly fifty feet in
length; the style, as seen particularly in the
rendering of drapery folds in a series of parallel
ridges with the characteristic billow at the lower
hem, is simply an enormous enlargement of the
standing Buddha images of Anuradhapura,
here, for the purposes of a Nirvana image,
placed in a recumbent position. More unusual
and of great impressiveness is the standing
figure of Buddha or Ananda, nearly twenty-five
feet high, carved from the rock next to the head
of the Nirvana Buddha. The figure has very
300. Polonnaruwa, Gal Vihara, Parinirvana image
o^
at certain seasons, one can still see growing at
the water's edge the enormous red lotuses,
originally planted a millennium ago. The great
period of artistic activity at this site coincides
with the reign of Parakrama Bahu I (1164-97),
the last notable monarch of the Singhalese
dynasty.
One of the principal sculptural dedications of
this period is the group of images at the Gal
Vihara [300]. The most impressive is a colossal
much the same feeling of grandeur, through the
massive plastic realization of the form that
characterizes the Buddha statues of the earlier
period; the representation of Sakyamuni, his
arms folded, one leg slightly bent at the knee,
has an extraordinary feeling of serenity and
strength, qualities which, as we have already
seen, are always notably present in the Singhalese
sculptor's realization of the peace of
Enlightenment. There is a certain archaistic