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

J8i
311. Bronze Sundaramurtiswami from Polonnaruwa.
Colombo, Museum
Tamil country, it reveals the same wonderful
ecstatic radiance and is animated by the same
suggestion of complete balance and imminent
movement that characterizes the great examples
of Hindu metal images in South India.
With the final
conquest of Polonnaruwa by
the Tamils in the thirteenth century Singhalese
art fell on evil days; scarcely a monument
worthy of serious consideration survives from
the various later capitals, including the final
stronghold at Kandy. Some of the old architectural
forms and a debased sculptural technique
do survive, and so, in a state of
considerable degeneration, does the tradition of