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

CEYLON
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301. Polonnaruwa, Parakrama Bahu
quality in all the later work at Polonnaruwa,
probably the result of a conscious effort to
revive what was then considered the great
period of Buddhism and its art.
Of similar nobility and magnitude is the
colossal figure of a Buddhist king, sometimes
identified as a portrait of Parakrama Bahu himself,
that is carved from a large boulder overlooking
the waters of Lake Topawewa [301].
This representation of a bearded sovereign
holding a yoke as emblem of the king's burden is
one of the finest pieces of sculpture in Ceylon. It
combines a feeling for volume and weightiness
comparable to the great yakshas of the Maurya
Period; and with them it shares a feeling for
pent-up inner energy realized in the swelling
convex planes of the construction of the body.
At the same time the image is animated by the
seemingly momentary- lifting of the head and
by the slight contrapposto; in this respect, and