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

CEYLON
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in spite of its great scale and weight, it has something
of the feeling of the bronzes of the Chola
Period - the suggestion of a moment of
suspended animation, and the communication
of the idea that the figure may at any moment
stir into action.
Perhaps the most notable group of later
architectural monuments is associated with
the reign of Nissanka Malla (i 198-1207); this is
the collection of temples and viharas in the
so-called Great Quadrangle, in what at one time
must have been the centre of the capital [302].
Only a few can be selected for analysis, but they
are among the most beautiful and satisfyingly
proportioned buildings in the entire Indian
world. In the extreme north-east corner of this
precinct is the pyramidal shrine, perhaps
originally a stupa, known as the Sat Mahal
Pasada [303]. Its shape conforms to what in the
sastras would be designated as a Meru temple,
with the seven successive storeys of the terraced
structure representing the imagined hieratic
configuration of the world mountain. Actually,
the building is much closer in style to many
of the pre-Angkorean shrines of Cambodia and
the San Mahapon at Lamp'un in Siam 23 than
any structure known in India proper. It may
well be that this temple was put up expressly for
the benefit of the Cambodian mercenaries of the
Singhalese kings, so that its unique elevation
could" be explained as an intentional imitation of
one of the more familiar Khmer types.
Nearby is the Tooth Relic Temple, misnamed
'Hata-da-ge' 24 [304]. This structure is
built entirely of finely cut and fitted blocks of
ashlar masonry. It rests on an encircling
podium ornamented with panels of seated lions.
The walls proper are left bare, except for two
rectangular areas on the facade enclosed in a
sunken relief pattern of harhsa and containing
inscriptions incised into the face of the wall.
The effect produced by these large areas of wall
surface, relieved only by the most delicate surface
ornament, is not unlike that produced by
304. Polonnaruwa, 'Hata-da-ge'